Malaysian publishers are a pitiful lot. (Publishers here refer to website and blog owners who have advertisements on their sites.) If you accept payment via PayPal, you have to find alternative means to withdraw your money. If you accept payment by cheque, its not worth the while if the amount is small.

I’ve heard about the absorbitant bank charges for processing overseas cheques but being “sakai” and never ever been paid a US dollar cheque before, I had to try it out for myself.

And so, for my first ReviewMe post, I chose to receive the payment by cheque. My cheque of USD30 arrived about 2 weeks ago.

I took it to the bank to bank it and ask the bank teller what the charges were like. He told me overseas bank will charge US15 for processing while the local bank charges RM25.

*calculate calculate* I then joked with him on whether I had to end up paying the bank for banking in my cheque to which he gave me a broad smile and said “Tak apa. Ada baki. Ada baki.” Then he told me that the cheque will take about a month to clear and gave me another smile and said “So you will receive your money next year!”

Ouch! What an expensive lesson. You go do your own math to see whats left of my USD30. I asked at another bank and was told that the overseas bank fees will be around USD15-USD20 while the local bank will charge minimum of RM50 for processing. Clearance takes about 6-7 weeks. Now if I had used that bank, I really would have ended up needing to fork out some extra money to pay the bank for that transaction!

So Mr MG is smirking in the background and asking me “You say you work so hard for what? Wasting time only. Got more trouble than earnings.”

Hmmm… just you wait my dear. Just you wait. I’ll show you yet!


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