Recently I needed to pay some fees to some authorities. In Singapore, typically you pay somebody by cash, ATM transfer, online transfer, NETS etc. However there are cases when you need to pay by cheque. It was such a case. But if you are having savings accounts with the banks they are unlikely to give you a cheque book. Cashier’s order (CO) comes handy as an alternative to cheque. Especially, if you want to avoid all the hassles and fees (small though) to open a current account that provides you with a cheque book.
You can either go down to a branch, fill out a form, pay a fee and collect a CO. However some banks like DBS allows you to apply online for a CO. If you do so, you still need to go to a branch (only certain branches – Jurong Point is one of them, you can chose one while applying online) to collect it (last time I did not need to wait in a queue, a front desk lady collected it from inside and gave it to me) but you save the fee. You can also choose the bank to send it to you by post.
When I tried to apply for a CO online I found I can do so for up to SGD 10,000. I needed more. Without finding a way I went down to the branch and was informed that I can do as many as possible. If the payee is the same they would call me and give an aggregate one (I needed a single one). Had they mentioned it here it would have been better.
By this time I became more careful. When I was issuing the COs one by one I was keeping the references manually as there was no report or anything to figure out how many I have issued so far. Well, I could log out and during that time they indeed show all activities I did in that session.
Overall, DBS provides a nice online experience. Especially I like the e-statement that saves paper.
PS. Last time, I bought a CO of S$ 35. However, I could not manage time to collect it. They called me to collect it. When I said I would not require it anymore, they canceled it, free of cost!
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