UPDATE (12.37pm, 31 May): According to the OP, UOB has gotten in touch with him and unfrozen his account as of 5.24pm on 30 May.
We have updated the article to reflect the above.
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A man in Singapore found out that his UOB account had been frozen without his knowledge, affecting his ability to run his online business.
But since 15 May, he has not been able to unfreeze his account.
Even reaching out to his bank’s customer service proved an ordeal, Jeremy Ong told MS News.
Despite assurances from customer service representatives that his account would be unfrozen by 25 May, his account was only unfrozen five days later on 30 May after MS News published this article.
Mr Ong, 44, runs a small online and retail business selling mainly tennis and other sports products.
He told MS News he uses a UOB bank account for business transactions.
But on 15 May, he realised he could not deposit his payments from his Shopee and Lazada accounts to his UOB account, nor could he transfer them out.
On 19 May, he decided to visit a UOB branch, only to be told, to his horror, that the bank account had been frozen since 8 May — about a week before he first found out.
But nobody could tell him why, and it was suggested that he call the corporate banking hotline.
“I tried calling the hotline a few times, and they kept me waiting for as long as 30 minutes, saying they will pass my call to the relevant departments, after which the call was hung up automatically,” he said.
After calling again the next day, the same thing happened. At this point, Mr Ong decided to email the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
Following the email, “immediately magic happened”, and a UOB representative emailed him on Wednesday (24 May), saying they would investigate the matter.
Image courtesy of Mr Ong
The next day, on 25 May, another UOB representative called Mr Ong, stating that his bank account had been frozen due to a “failure to update mailing address”.
They also told him they would help unfreeze the account “in an hour’s time”.
Mr Ong found this strange as he had never changed his registered address.
Despite the apparent promise, when Mr Ong tried to withdraw his funds from the bank account, it failed as it was still frozen.
Image courtesy of Mr Ong
The account remains frozen even at press time.
Mr Ong lamented that nobody from the bank notified him about the account being frozen — he only found out about it almost a week after it was first frozen.
“I had to go chase them and report to higher authorities before actions were taken,” he said.
Until now, the issue hasn’t been rectified yet and has caused daily disruptions to my business.
Mr Ong has had to use other bank accounts to facilitate business transactions. “It taught me a lesson to not just depend on one bank, especially when there are many transactions daily.”
He is also disappointed with UOB’s customer service and “irresponsible way of doing business”.
MS News has reached out to UOB for comment.
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Featured image adapted from CapitaLand and courtesy of Mr Ong.
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