DBS Bank Reviews 181

I am writing to raise a serious concern regarding an unauthorized transaction from my DBS Bank account.

I had an outstanding loan with your bank, for which I was in regular communication with your recovery team. During our discussions, we mutually agreed to a one-time settlement amount of Rs. 7,500, and I received an official email from DBS on 27th March 2025, confirming that this amount needed to be paid by 28th March 2025.

Accordingly, I ensured that the settlement amount was available in my account on the said date. However, due to a technical issue on the bank’s end, as informed by your recovery team, the amount was not deducted. Following that, I was told by the concerned representative that a new settlement email would be sent on 7th April 2025. Unfortunately, I did not receive any such communication.

To my surprise and disappointment, on 8th April 2025, a sum of Rs. 25,590 was debited from my account without any prior notice, official communication, or consent. This is more than three times the agreed settlement amount, which is completely unacceptable and deeply distressing.

Please note that such actions reflect a serious breach of trust and banking protocol. I am attaching the following for your reference:
• The official settlement email received on 27th March 2025.
• A screenshot showing the amount maintained in the account as per the settlement agreement.

I request an immediate resolution of this matter and a refund of the excess amount deducted. If this issue is not addressed promptly, I will be compelled to escalate the matter through legal channels, including the Consumer Court.

The atm counted the money wrong, called DBS and they took 18 days to get back with nothing is wrong with the atm. Didn’t get my money back.

**Deceptive Practices and Zero Accountability – Avoid DBS Altitude AMEX!**
After 24 months of loyalty, I canceled my DBS Altitude AMEX Card, ensuring I’d redeemed **all my points** first. Shockingly, DBS charged me **$192.23** for a “5,000-point clawback” I didn’t even know existed.

**Why this is unacceptable**:
🔴 **Hidden clawback traps**: DBS **never disclosed** that canceling the card could retroactively charge me for “phantom points” I never received, used, or was notified about.
🔴 **No proof, no accountability**: They claim these points were credited the same month I canceled, but there was **zero communication** about this “bonus” or its clawback terms.
🔴 **Loyalty punished**: Despite being a long-term customer, DBS refused to reverse the charge, showing **no empathy** for their own lack of transparency.

This isn’t just poor service—it feels **predatory**. Charging customers for invisible points and burying policies in fine print is a deliberate way to exploit trust.

**To potential customers**:
- **Beware of hidden fees**: DBS prioritizes profit over clarity.
- **Document everything**: Assume they’ll side against you, even for *their* oversights.

DBS has lost my trust entirely. **Strongly advise avoiding** this card and any service that treats clients so dishonestly.

DBS bank will treat you like a loan shark after approving your credit card, or loan, or cashline.
Regardless your new customer or been a dbs customer for 20+ yrs.
Go to OCBC, way way better service.

Opened Business account as a breeze. Best Bank of the day. Well done DBS. You are doing a great community service and in building stronger Singapore. Keep going. Thanks, Suresh

There were fradulent charges on my DBS VISA YUU card. Charges were made in Indonesia. I have never been to Indonesia nor have I made any overseas transaction in Indonesia. Fraud dept called me and I blocked my card and changed for a new one. Fraud dept said I must call Customer Service to dispute the transaction. My dispute were unsuccessful and DBS refused to waive the charges. There were a total of 5 transactions totalling about $1562, each amounting to under $500.
Fraudulanet transactions is not new and AMEX and Maybank have waived my fradulant charges. AMEX called me immediately wherease DBS did not alert me immediately. I have never made any purchases in Indonesia for many many years and is very disappointed with DBS for not alerting me and not waive my charges. I have cancelled all my card with DBS. It doesn't make sense to be a regular customer and yet received this kind of lousy service.

I have many issues with DBS but because my home loan is with this bank, I'm stuck with it for a while. First of all is the ibanking phone app. Unlike all the other Singapore banks, its mobile app is super crappy, it's a hit and miss, sometimes 2FA works, sometimes it doesn't. Then the phone banking, many times when you key in the right OTP, it was dismissed as the wrong password. Credit card waiver application is also super painful as when you keyed in the 16-digit credit card number and you are told that its invalid. I have never encountered such nonsense from OUB, OCBC, CIMB or Citibank. The waiting time for phone banking is also unbelievably long. Should have listened to my friend who told me to stay clear of DBS.

The hotline is so stupid. It doesnt accept the correct OTP number, and takes a long time to say certain options such at press 3 for customer service. Sometimes it recognises your bank number as incorrect. Whenever i call the dbs hotline for customer service, i always end up wuth multiple retries, about 5 or more times. I am looking forward to switching banks

1. Dealing with DBS as an American citizen has not been fun. The bank only accepts super high net worth clients and other US citizens do not have the ability to even open investment s accounts.
2. Each time when I log out, we are asked to rate then expereince. I have often noticed, that if I give a 1 star rating, it ask for how they can improve but it soes not allow the deedback to be submitted!! However, if you rate 5 stars, it goes through like a breeze. It appears they don't want to hear negative feedback

This bank doesn't accept to print account summary for visa application if not given a ridicilous amount of money ($30 per month per account).
At the same time, it refuses to cancel mailing to the address all the transaction advises.
So no printing when needed; and forced printing even when begged not to do so.

Also, they force customers to constantly keep $10k in their business account and $3k in their personal one, an amount which doesn't practically bring any interest. So a loss for the customer.

Moreover, its fees are very high, for almost all the operations. Especially so if you deal with a foreign currency like USD.

Cherry on top, its online banking interface is not easy to use and almost always has bugs.

Have been using DBS for 7 years now for both my personal and business banking, and despite all my feedback throughout the years, no change.

Not a good alternative, overall.

Their staff are usually trying to help and often kind, hence my two stars.

terrible, i cannot even create an account on my own with their app as all options for verification does not work. would give 0 stars if i could

I have a Treasures account with DBS (SG). I mainly use its investment account for US stock trading.
In March 2024, I gave an instruction to my RM (RM1) to transfer some of my US stocks in the account to the Direct Registration System (DRS). It is just a safer way to hold financial assets; all stocks in DRS are registered directly under my own name, not a street name.
In mid April 2024, I gave RM1 another instruction for DRS transfer. This time, stocks of 3 companies were involved. Around a month later, I received a notification from the transfer agent, Computershare (Canada). The transfer was successful. However, I spotted something not quite right. A letter "g" has been missing from my name. In other words, my stocks are now registered not under my name. I informed my RM1 at once. We double checked the Transfer of Securities Form I had submitted and there were nothing wrong. My RM1 reassured me her colleagues in the securities department are fixing the problem. She also suggested I contact those companies directly to see if they could correct the spelling error on their sides. I followed her advice and, of the 3 companies, 2 of them were so kind that they rectified the errors within days. Now the only problem is with the third company. In their reply email, they told there were standard procedures for correcting the spelling, but it must be done through the stock broker who had initiated the DRS transfer. And it must be done within two months of the transfer. I immediately forwarded the company's reply email to RM1. Then................. nothing happened. After waiting for four whole months, the missing letter "g" in my name was still missing. I sent both emails and WhatsApp messages to RM1. Guess what? They were all ignored! There were no replies, no follow-ups, no compensations and no nothing. I simply lost contact with RM1.
Still remember the gentleman in the secruities department? I sent him an email in September 2024 telling him of my situation. I also asked him if there were anything I could do on my side. Exactly the same things happened. I was once again ignored. No reply, no nothing! At last, I made a call to DBS' service hotline asking them what on earth was happening. The next day, the gentleman in the securities department, at last, gave me a reply email. However, he mentioned nothing about the DRS transfer. He just informed me I would have a new RM (RM2). Full stop.
The new RM2 called me the next morning. She took a lot of information from me and promised an internal investigation. Then.............., as usual, nothing happened. The missing letter "g" is still missing. The most unthinkable thing happened several days after the phone call. RM2 sent me an email asking me if I knew who the broker was. Gosh! If a bank offers US stock accounts to its clients, it either is a US stoke broker itself or employs a broker in the US to execute its clients' orders. As far as I know, most banks in Asia belong to the latter. DBS knows better who the broker is than I do. Around three weeks ago, RM2 sent me an email. There were just a few lines. The following is what she wrote:

"Quote "
Please refer to the following:
Custodian has contacted their representative at Computershares as the statement is now issued in the claimant's name, Computershare will communicate only with the claimant.
End client to contact Computershare to include the letter "g" in the middle name "XXXX," so that the correct client's name is reflected in the DRS statement.
"Quote Ends"

Perhaps, it is my poor English standard or she was writing in Singlish (I am not a Singaporean). I must admit I don't quite understand what she meant. My guess is she would like me to contact the broker / custodian myself. The problem is I do not know the broker's contact information and DBS never lets me know. Moreover, the broker does not have any of my personal details. There is no way for them to verify my identity even though I coudl come into contact with them. In short, only DBS can contact the broker and instructi them to initiate the rectification procedure. It seems that RM2 still didn't understand why I had forwared the third company's reply email to RM1 at once. Because there were standard procedures through which the broker / custodian could contact Computershare to correct the mistake. I was in no position to instruct the broker / cutodian to do anything, only DBS could. More importantly, there was a time limit of two months. Now, DBS wants me to contact Computershare directly because they missed the deadline. When I asked RM2 to explain. The same things happened. Ignored. No reply, no explanation, no help, no nothing.
I have given up any hopes from DBS. All I want is getting back my stocks. In fact, there is a very simple way. Just initiate another transfer of the stock back to my investment account.

I have been a loyal client of DBS for 10 years, and until recently, I had no issues with the bank. However, when I checked my account to pay my monthly bill, I was shocked to discover that my credit card had been closed, and I was charged the full early repayment amount of $2,500 for all my enrolled installments, not including the loan amount. I have been making timely payments on my credit card for the past seven years with no missed payments.

I am bewildered as to why they suddenly imposed these charges. While I wouldn't mind them closing my account, it should not come at my expense, especially without my consent. I attempted to reach out to them through the contact option on their app, as I live outside of Singapore, but all I receive is the same automated response without a solution. This situation is ridiculous. I miss the days when DBS was the easiest bank to deal with; now, I find them to be the worst, especially considering their poor customer service.

DBS SUCKS. Sharing my 2.5hrs horrible experience at DBS TST Branch on 6th of Nov for cashing -in DBS OWN BANK CHEQUE and cheques had been issued by the SAME BRANCH. They refused me to cash-in their BANK CHEQUE begin with. Clearly they have no leg to support their decisions, after two and half hour shit fight, they are backed off. The history of those three DBS Bank cheques came from remaining balance of DBS on 2019 which are $40,000HKD; 6000RMB and 67USD, for that amount money, they consider I conducted money laundry. I believe DBS was under investigation of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority for money laundry at that time. They noticed my account has been suspended through an email along with attachment of “Guideline on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism (For Authorized Institutions), (Revised October 2018)”. Obviously, my account was used by DBS to make up the members to HK Authority and let them get off the hook. At that day, I have no issue with the staffs at TST branch they’re just doing their job. My horrible experience came from the stupidity of DBS made thing so complicated. DBS is Singapore base the company, An Authoritarian State, therefore the company culture which made staffs have very little power to handle each individual case by their decisions. That is why they have to take 2.5 hrs to get approval. I am not blaming them because they need to keep their job to support their family and pay the mortgages. I do appreciate their help, but I would like to screw the DBS bank big time!!!

Horrible customer service. After calling more than 10 customer service agents in the span of 1 month just to put in a request to change my number I am still unable to change my number linked with my bank account basically locking me out of my bank account due to me not being able to get the OTP. After 2 form submissions and being told that I need to resend the form , by the 5th or so customer agent, again but by mail this time which would take around a week or so since I’m overseas for the time being. It seems to me I have to through more hoops than expected just to change my phone number linked to my bank account.

Non Transparent in mortgage pricing to existing borrowers: I will like to caution borrowers of their mortgage. As a Temasek-linked bank with 28% equity stake in DBS, how DBS coerced their mortgage customers in repricing their mortgage loan. In early Sept, I received a letter my 2 years fixed term loan at 2.75% will expire on 16th Oct 24. It will be charged at 5.1% wef 17th Oct based on 3 months SORA + 1.5%. A repricing team called me on 13th Sept to offer me 3.3% fixed for 2 years. As the US Fed was about to announce rate cut on 18th Sept US time, I enquired about when would the bank reprice their offerings. The officer “R” mentioned 23th Sept. The Fed announced rate cut of not 25 basis point, but instead, a bigger quantum at 50 basis point. On 24th Sept, when I called their mortgage repricing, they offered me 2.88% if I also reprice my other HL & Term Loan 2 which I have the rights for 1x repricing after locking in a 2 years fixed in Nov 23. If I were to reprice only the term loan that is due, they would charge me near peak of 3.3% which is the highest fixed rate before Fed cut. I checked mortgage portals like SingSaver, Redbricks, DBS is offering 2.8% fixed rate for 2 years if a customer refinance with them from other banks. As you all know, the world led by the US, underwent a rate hikes cycle in the past 2 years from near zero to 5.5%. Many borrowers suffered high interest rates in the past 2 years. Now that the tide has started to pivot towards a rate cut cycle, they are trying to exploit on poor mortgagers like us who does not own an investment property to lock in high interest rates over the next 2 years when the interest rate will be dropping this year & next. Thereby, denying us the rights to enjoy lower interest rates over the next two years.

To all mortgagers out there, if you are considering to gear up a term loan, it may be wiser to synchronize your existing housing loan’s lock-in period with the new term loan, especially if the new loan is only a small amount, otherwise, for whatever the reasons you needed the fund, DBS will exploit you to the maximum unreasonably regardless of the market interest rates environment like the experience I have just encountered.

It actually carry themselves in very bad faith with Piyush Gupta departing, & a home grown, first female CEO Ms Tan Su Shan is assuming the helm early next year!

Terrible service from the Relationship Manager! Without going into details, the service is terrible, the APP is terrible and there are so many hidden charges you have to pay for! And after reading comment in Trustpilot, I'm not surprised that the senior management of DBS are blinded. DBS should make honest money and not this way.

After nearly more than 40 years as a customer of DBS, its time to search for a safe, honest, reliable and friendly bank.

Very poor customer service.
Charges for teller to receive deposit and issue receipts.
Do not even have envelope to provide customers to put cash in.
Teller not customer friendly.
Can wait for an hour just to deposit a check or money or get issue addressed.
Central bank location is poorly staffed resulting long wait for customers.

Pathetic bank, beyond words to comment on ,never put anything on mail id, there representative will call you and if you are unable to pick, they will either freeze your account or even close your account
Never experienced such a pathetic bank
Who calls them best, they are worst

DBS is a very bad banking institution wherein my money has been frozen for vague reasons - no due diligence followed at the time of opening the account and after 6 months they are running around for various documents holding on to my money.