My wife was recently stung by a RM400 penalty, deducted from our joint account at Southern Bank Berhad. She had written a cheque, dropped it off in the cheque-deposit machine but later realised (on the same day) that it would bounce.

It did, but by RM8 only. On this realisation, she transferred money to this joint account via a cheque from our other SBB account.

Notwithstanding this nor the fact that we have been banking with them for decades (they would have known from the computer records that we had funds in another account) and without even a courtesy call from them to enquire if we had realised our mistake, the bank took the liberty of imposing the RM400 penalty.

The money has since been deducted.

This is a new move, apparently effective since November last year. All current account holders who issue a bounced cheque have to pay a penalty of RM200 and their names are submitted to Bank Negara for blacklisting.

If however, a top-up is made to allow the cheque to clear, the name is not submitted to Bank Negara but RM400 is charged instead!

We are now treated as criminals for an inadvertent cheque error. Did the bank inform us of such a change in their practice, we asked? No, the bank manager of the branch (a Mr Heng, SBB Jalan Burma, Penang) admitted.

They did not undertake to inform clients individually of this change in a letter or in the monthly statements, but he said they did have a poster up on the matter in the bank at the time. Now in this age of automated banking, not many - and certainly not ourselves - pop into a bank regularly to read posters of changes in banking practises.

We appealed but a reply from the bank, signed by a Mr Goh, SBB regional operations manager, made it clear that no refund was forthcoming.

Most people I have told this to were surprised that such a clause for hefty penalty existed. SBB has failed its customers in not informing them of the changes and in high-handedly imposing a fine with no opportunity for the customer to seek redress.

I ask:

Is it within this bank's right to imposed an arbitrary penalty without duly informing those who might be affected?

What has happened to SBB that they seem so customer-unfriendly in not calling their customers when a transaction done is possibly a mistake?

Does Bank Negara know about this practise?

I have called SBB, trying to reach someone to help. All they say is 'Sorry, we cannot discuss this matter over the phone. Please put it in writing'.

The banking public needs to be warned. I am not sure what other banks' practices are.