HL bank is 12 months FD, people with significant cash may not temp park there as premature withdrawal will end up lower interest rate

The junior account rate is the same as one month deposit rate. Thus the 20% saving account is not fixed at 2.9% if HL bank decides to drop its deposit rate across the board after promotion or if there is change in bank Negara announcement on overnight rate over the next 4 months.

EPF has this self-contribution program and the limit is RM 60k for this year and need to fill up form 61A.

Last year there was no limit. On dec 31 2012, I deposited with my personal cheque and it was being captured as Dec contribution.
The EPF counter girl did mention RM60k limit per year but didnt mention RM5k limit per month.

Based on RM5k limit per month, it means a person
Start deposit in Jan and continue contribute every month, can contribute till RM60k.
Start deposit in Feb and continue contribute every month, can contribute till RM55k
Start deposit in Mar and continue contribute every month, can contribute till RM50k
......
Start deposit in Dec can only contribute up to RM 5k only. Then what is the logic of RM60k limit?

This post has been edited by gsc: Jan 25 2013, 11:43 PM

For those 55 and above, it is just like anther bank FD.

May be different bank different system. Public bank accept more than RM 5k cheque. Employer needs to contribute to employee portion and those with many employees with high salary sure easily hit more than RM5k. Their cheque is more than RM5k. Or unless self contribution falls under different payment scheme with a limit of RM5k

Minimum amount? Is this the premier account?

Year Rate
2000 6.00

2001. 5.00

2002. 4.25

2003. 4.50

2004. 4.75

2005 5. 00

2006. 5.15

2007. 5.80

2008. 4.50

2009. 5.65

2010. 5.80

2011. 6.00

Usually the announcement is made in March or April, if the GE is after the announcement, may be we will get a good rate for the election sweet

This post has been edited by gsc: Jan 27 2013, 03:09 AM

Comparison has to be made against the bank FD. During 1983...1995...bank FD is 6 to 7 %. In short generally they always declare slightly higher than bank FD

For those 55 and above, it is equivalent to bank FD unless government changes the rule on withdrawal

Banker cheque paid to your name, just like normal cheque.
Not sure about May bank, some banks have a limit on amount to be withdrawn from non home branch

This post has been edited by gsc: Jan 30 2013, 12:54 PM

Was thinking opening FD account at HL bank yesterday but the service was very poor. Long waiting time. Changed my mind and went over to Ocbc.

Attached is ocbc promo.



Attached thumbnail(s)

SS account 0.5% if you withdraw from the account. If you top up RM 50, interest rate is 2.75%

Closed the account? Does this mean you will entitle to 2.9% rate for new opening of bonus saver. My money has been rolled and kept there since 2013, thinking of taking out but I plan to open bonus saver account next week to "renew" my FD which is going to mature.

Let us know if ocbc allow reopen SS after closing it, thank you.....want to follow the same step.

Most banks do not need opening of saving account for opening up of FD account. But bank promotes good interest rate provided some portions of the fund is kept in saving account. Ocbc, HL bank are typical example....

In order to maximise interest on saving acccount,
For Ocbc, smart saver is a better choice
For HL, junior saving is a better choice

Of course you can have a choice of not opening up saving account by taking up their non promotional rate (board rate) FD or islamic FD

This post has been edited by gsc: Feb 3 2013, 10:07 PM

Certain HL bank branches in the mall open over the weekend on certain weekend. Certain Am bank branches also open on weekend and sunday.

Deleted

This post has been edited by gsc: Feb 3 2013, 10:11 PM

The same branch sure wont allow you close the SS and reopen. Not sure can you do that in other branches. Let us know if you can because my FD will be matured on 5 Feb.

On your planned approach, your money in SS will be entitled to 0.5% interest only because you have withdrawn money in Feb.

Getting a banker cheque from matured FD costs you nothing but together with Money from SS will cost you RM2.15.

An alternative is opening FD in HL since the interest is almost the same except for the tenure period.

Going back to Ocbc means your SS account have to be untouched or you are willing to lose out 2.9% -0.5%=2.4% interest on your SS for Feb month only. For march and april you will enjoy 2.9% rate.

I was thinking of withdrawing from my SS account as the amount is growing bigger and bigger. As long as I can get better than 2.9% rate elsewhere, the interest loss is minimized.

No withdrawal from SS means the matured fund there is having 2.9% rate when you can possibly earn as high 3.9-4% elsewhere.
Withdrawal means you new portion of SS is getting a miserable amount of 0.5% for that particular month only. The average interest you get is 2.1% with RM1k deposit in each month.

If the amount in SS is huge it is worth just withdrew it and put it somewhere else.

For your case you can make the following calculation and compare.

Withdrawal from SS
16k - 10.7k in FD and 5.3k in SS.
Calculate the interest earn for FD and SS based on 1st month 0.5 and subsequent month 2.9%.

No withdrawal from SS
10k- 6.7k in FD and 3.3k in SS
Calculate the interest earn for FD and SS based on full rate. Added on previous 4k in SS.

Compare these two. Above is a rough estimate without taking into RM 1k deposit in march and april.

When the fund in SS is huge such as RM50k it may make sense to withdraw and deposit elsewhere.

This post has been edited by gsc: Feb 3 2013, 10:50 PM

Can you please share how did you do it specifically? Tq
FD rate is fixed and there is nothing much need to maintain. The only way is closed SS and reopen?

Asked my RM it seems that it is possible to close and open again SS. But I think very soon the bank will come with some rules to close the hole