My Shiny New Visa Cards

After Paypal okayed the withdrawal of funds to Malaysian Visa Credit and Debit Cards, I applied for 2 cards : Hong Leong’s Visa Credit Card and Public Bank’s Visa Electron Debit Card. Since these two cards will be for the sole purpose of withdrawing funds from Paypal, I chose to apply only for the basic and not gold cards.

So Why Public Bank’s Visa Electron Debit Card?
After some Googling, I narrowed down my search to 2 local banks - Public Bank and Al Rajhi Bank. Since Public Bank is nearest bank that offers a Debit Card I figured I might as well apply for it. I heard a lot about Al Rajhi’s Debit Card, but there are 3 reasons why I opted NOT to go with AlRajhi.

• First, they require Debit Card holders to open a savings account. Although the process would have only taken a couple of minutes, I decided not to go with AlRajhi for my next reason.
• Second, I read a couple of bloggers encountered problems withdrawing their funds to their Al Rajhi Debit Card. I’m sure it was minor technicalities, but at that time, there wasn’t any update as to the problem being solved.
• With all due respect to Al Rajhi Bank and all my Muslim friends, I remember a heated discussion some time back in an online forum (I cannot remember which) where people were expounding on their theories about why Paypal refused to allow withdrawals to Malaysian banks. We discussed the possibility that the “political and religious ideology” of affected countries was a major factor. Now, I don’t know if this has any truth in it, but I figured that I’d rather play safe and go with a Malaysian Bank with a solid reputation than one with a “middle eastern” sounding name. In the event “something” happens and Paypal decides to restrict withdrawal to certain cards, I want to have a card from a “safe” bank. If that sounds like I’m a chicken, then yeah… I like to play it safe, especially when it comes to MY money!

The Long Wait For My Visa Electron PIN
Hong Leong’s Visa card arrived 2 weeks after application since I already hold their Mastercard. But the Visa Electron application process was a real pain. I’ve heard a lot about how slow Public Bank is and I must say that I now agree. It took a total of 29 days from application to receiving my Visa Electron and in the process, while checking on the status of my application, their call center staff left me with a very bad impression of their standards of service & quality control. But what the heck… I have my Visa Debit Card now, ready for action!

Now On To MORE Money Making
Paypal’s decision to allow funds withdrawal has opened up a flood of opportunities for me. I gather all Malaysians who make money online feel the same. My Visa Electrom PIN only arrived today and I have yet to use the card to verify it works. I have a couple hundred dollars stuck in Paypal from last months earnings, and I’m expecting 3 more payments early December, so I’ll probably only make my first ever Paypal funds withdrawal after I get back from our short trip to Genting Highlands this weekend.

I’m am soooooo excited.

I love Paypal…

… and I love my shiny new Visa Cards. I think I’ll sleep with them under my pillow tonight… so I can take touch and smell them first thing in the morning!

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