No levy for transferring CPF investment funds

dragg SG

extracted this from the straits times forum.

I REFER to the letter by Mr Tan Cher Seng, 'Why transfer small sums?' (ST, Oct 20). We wish to clarify that agent banks do not charge members for the transfer of monies from CPF Investment Accounts with agent banks back to their CPF Ordinary Accounts (OA).

Monies are automatically transferred from CPF Investment Accounts back to OA at the end of a month if the members have not made any investment transactions for two consecutive months so that they can benefit from higher CPF interest.

The charges of $4.20 and $6.30 mentioned by Mr Tan were actually quarterly service charges by the agent banks. Mr Tan may wish to contact his agent bank if he needs clarification on the quarterly service charges.

dragg SG

they do not charge for transfers but charge for servicing.

isnt it playing with words?

sohguanh SG

they do not charge for transfers but charge for servicing.
isnt it playing with words?

So when using CPF money to do investment need to factor in these charges and other miscellaneous charges. Me test water on one unit fund and now is earning but not much after factor in those charges. Anyway those money are 'spare' to me so I am willing to face the loss. Maybe a few years later really shoot up then I sell Mr. Green

dragg SG

extracted from straits times forum.

Why does DBS Bank hold CPF funds for two months after shares sale?

I recently sold some shares which I had bought with my CPF funds. One month after the transaction, I realised that the proceeds of the sale were not refunded into my CPF account.

I called the brokerage house which said that it had refunded the money into my CPF investment account with DBS Bank the next day.

When I checked with DBS Bank, it said the bank normally holds the funds for two months by default before transferring the money back to the person's CPF account.

What's the rationale for DBS Bank's action? Are there a lot of complexities involved in doing the transfer within one to three days? Is this part of its revenue management to use these funds for short-term investments? Are the other banks also taking the same amount of time?

DBS Bank also advised that I could go to the bank or automated teller machine to transfer the money back to my CPF account if I wanted it earlier.

However, this facility is not available through its internet banking facility. Why does DBS Bank make it inconvenient for me to transfer my money back to my CPF account?

Are there any security issues which make this transaction more risky than the payments and transfers that I already make online through its website?

Jefrey Gomez

dragg SG

extracted from straits times forum.

HDB flat sale: Why does CPF refund take 14 days?

The sale completion of my HDB flat took place on 23 September 2005.

Part of the proceeds went to redeem my mortgage loan with the bank while a part was to be refunded to my CPF account, with the balance paid to me by a cashier's order.

I deposited the cashier's order on the day of completion and the sum was credited to my bank account on Sept 24.

My mortgage loan with the bank was discharged on Sept 23, as confirmed by the bank. What surprised me was that my CPF account was not credited with the refund. A check with the CPF Board drew the reply that it had not received the refund from the HDB.

After several emails that were not replied to, followed by numerous telephone calls to the HDB, I finally got the answer that the HDB took seven working days to make the refund.

Incidentally, CPF Board also said it needed seven working days to process the refund. So all in all, the CPF refund takes 14 working days. We are talking about thousands of dollars free-floating for almost an entire month.

Are the systems in these organisations that inefficient in processing the transactions? I don't think it is fair to CPF members.

Goh Xun Yu (Ms)

dragg SG

extracted from ST forums.

DBS holds CPF funds for two months after shares sale for customers' convenience

We refer to the letter 'Why does DBS hold CPF funds for two months after shares sale?' by Mr Jefrey Gomez (ST Online Forum Oct 2 Cool .

The transfer of active funds only after two months is actually done to allow CPF Investment Scheme customers the convenience of using these funds for other investment purchases during this period.

Under CPF Board's operating policies, the credit balance will then be transferred automatically from a customer's CPFIS account to his CPF Ordinary Account if there are no purchases during the two-month period (ie. during the month of the last sale transaction and the following month).

However, should you wish to initiate the fund transfer earlier than the CPF Board-stipulated two-month period, you could authorise the transfer through our phone banking service at 1800-111-1111.

This requires you to log in to the phone banking service via your phone banking PIN. Alternatively, you can also send us a letter, visit a bank branch or any of our 780 ATMs islandwide.