OD...not again

A friend called me up the other day on how to make full use of an OD facility. So, I explained to him a bit of what I know about it (despite my limited experience and knowledge that is).

To make a long story short, he was ready to plunge himself into the OD-ASB world like I did, and perhaps, like some of the people I knew did. Fast forward to earlier today, he called me up and said that his OD application (by pledging his ASB cert) in CIMB has been 'frozen'. He doesn't actually know the reason but he called up Maybank and he gets the same answer. He even mentioned that individual application for OD is not allowed unless you have a company. Or...something like that lah. (I couldn't understand what was he trying to say....heheeh)

To be frank, this is news to me. In fact, I was told about this perhaps about 2 weeks back during my sister's wedding by my friend. I still remember last year, maybe about the same time when I had my application 'frozen' by Maybank due to some instruction from PNB. At that time, I was a wee bit frustrated as I was in the midst of purchasing a property and obviously I needed some cash to pay the deposit. Anyways, after being left in the lurch for about a few weeks, after numerous calls to Maybank, the bank upon the green light from PNB approved my application. Phewwwww...

I really hope that this will be the case for this year. Perhaps, PNB needed some buffer time to sort themselves out. It seems now that everybody is taking advantage of pledging his or her ASB to the bank so that he or she have money to use for one reason or another. Let's pray that this is only temporary.

Anyways, what if, they decided that we can't use ASB as a collateral anymore. What options do we have? Put our money in Fixed Deposits? We know that the return for FD is not that great but still, it's an option kan? For example, if you have RM50k in your ASB, why don't you put RM25k in FD and then apply an OD for 90% of that amount? You win some and you lose some kan? At least, ada lah sikit kan daripada takde langsung.....

Hrmmmmmmm.....For time like these, it's a good time to take a step back and think what options do we have and what can we do about it. Of course, there is an element of frustration if some of us need to use some cash urgently. Like I mentioned above, last year was a testing period for me when they said that they are not accepting anymore OD application. ASB despite whatever being said, is a tool for many of us to use to enhance our financial standings. It is a tool that many of us should be taking advantage at. It is a tool that makes some of us more financially secured.

Again, I hope and pray that this is temporary. If and when they decide to allow such application again, we should learn to be more appreciative of the privileges that some of us have.