Bro, if you had read my blog, I have a table there which clearly shows the interest rates for OCBC Smart Savers Account.

Having said that, OCBC do have another savings account which also pays 2.5% and above (if deposit RM1 and above) called Starter Savings Account (so you guys better not use SSA for Smarts Savers Account) BUT only pays interest rate of 0.5% if one does not deposit a single sen.

This post has been edited by Gen-X: Aug 29 2012, 10:50 PM

Oh, I forgot to inform you guys, I was told UOB increasing their FD Promo rate next month, let's see how accurate my source is.

CIMB got offer until end of the year, please refer Post#1 whereas UOB's current offer ends today.

Having said that, if you got lots of money, you can always go nego the rate with CIMB Branch Manager.

Bro, if you deposit RM1K in 1st September, you start earning 3% for that 1K unless you got a better account that pays you more than 3% (of course cannot fight with the savings if you deposit into your OD account).


Bro, actually OCBC got a better interest rate Savings Account for IQ customers but you and me not qualified for it, haha.

Actually I came across the Starter Savings Account while doing research for my upcoming article on Best Savings Account in Malaysia, to be published next week.

This post has been edited by Gen-X: Aug 30 2012, 12:09 PM

Thanks for the update, the OCBC 3 months, 9 months and Combo Plan all got significant drop compared to this month. Not very good, because then UOB can adopt their current rates for next month and still be competitive. If you recall, UOB had to revised their rate in the 2nd week on August in to be competitive with OCBC & HLB rates in order to attract deposits.

Based on the latest growth report, I don't think there will be any change to the interest rate when BNM committee meets next month.

OD jobless good sign or bad sign?
IQ is an internet account targeted at young executives. It used to offer the IQ credit card with pretty good benefits. Unemployed people are not eligible for IQ but businessman like you I suppose can. ronnie did sign up for IQ if not mistaken.

I just updated my Latest Fixed Deposit Promotion Page for September with new comments and even gave steps for how NEW OCBC Premier Banking customers can combine promos to get minimum 4.27% interest rate for 3 months.

As for OCBC Combo plan itself, where they have lowered the interest rate to 4%, the effective interest rate when taking into consideration of the 20% required to be deposited into a NEW Smart Savers Account, the OCBC Combo plan is still better than HLB 3 FD months promo at 3.95%.

Why I say the OCBC Combo is better than HLB is because

1. HLB promo is limited to RM10K - interest rate 3.95%
2. Need to deposit RM1K or 10% of FD amount into Savings Account (unless you have Junior Savings Account, HLB Savings Accounts interest rates are miserable). You may argue you can go withdraw it the next day and deposit it elsewhere but won't that be a waste of time for RM1K?
3. Assuming item 2 is not applicable, unless you have a HLB current account, you be charged RM5.15 for HLB Banker's cheque. So with RM10K and less this RM5.15 fee, your effective interest rate works out to be 3.74%.

For Priority Customer, where the HLB 3 Months FD Promo requires minimum RM50K, then it may be better than OCBC Combo (also, it only cost them RM0.15 for Banker's Cheque).

This post has been edited by Gen-X: Sep 1 2012, 12:08 AM

Latest UOB FD Promo - 3.75% for 12 months.

would you go for the free gift CASA option and earn less

For those of you who prefer Free Gift, Alliance Bank is offering Samsung S III, but if one was to deposit the amount required into FD (even at Board Rate) instead of CASA, after the earmarked period, he/she will earn extra money equivalent to almost 7 Free Samsung S III

And for those who have AMBank Account, you get to win Gold Bar when you deposit into AmBank Islamic products.

The AmBank AmAdvance Investment Account-i is expected to pay 3.45% for 6 months tenure. Offer good till end October 2012. Every RM10,000 incremental deposit in Term Deposit account (including AmAdvance Investment Account-i) is entitled to receive five (5) entries for the Gold Contest.

This post has been edited by Gen-X: Sep 2 2012, 11:50 AM

Bro, you post the promo and then you ask about T&C Anyway, the minimum placement amount is stated in Post#1 for most Promos.


The first month you will enjoy 3% interest for the Smart Savers Account because you need to deposit minimum RM2K.

For the 2nd and 3rd month, you only get 3% if you deposit RM1K each month.

If you deposit RM0-RM49.99 you'll get 2.5%. And if you deposit RM50 to RM999.99, you will earn 2.85%.

So, once again, here are your options for the 2nd and 3rd month:

Deposit nothing and you'll get 2.5% for the month.
Deposit RM50 and you'll get 2.85% for that particular month you did deposit RM50 up to RM999.99
Deposit RM1K and above, you'll enjoy 3% for the month you did the deposit.

And if you do any withdrawal, the interest rate for the month drops to 0.5%

However, since you going for the Combo Plan, you are not allowed to withdraw the 20% for 90 days. So you can just assume you'll get minimum 2.5% or like me deposit RM50 and get 2.85% for the 20%

Bro, you make it so complicated lah. The Smart Savers interest rate has nothing to do with the Promo but based on it's own Terms and Conditions. Why you never read my blog, I did point out how the Smart Savers Interest Rate works.

Answer is (taken from your post) -

just need to deposit minimum RM 1K each month (for 2nd and 3rd month) in order to get full 3% in saving .. Regardless the FD placement amount.

And if you sign up for the Combo in September, of course you need to go deposit in October and November. That's what it means by Monthly Deposit lah. IF lazy to go still earn minimum 2.5% Unless you want to park some money ( more than RM1K into the Smart Saver Account) to earn 3%, then only worthwhile to do deposit. For my case, I go add RM50 when I drop by to pay my OCBC Titanium MasterCard bill.

Say take example you go for the Combo Plan in September, deposit RM20K in 4% 3 Months FD and RM4K into Smart Savers. So the difference between 3% and 2.5% is 0.5% for the Smart Savers interest rate (for October and November). So with difference of 0.5% for RM4K, that's only difference of RM1.67 per month lah, don't waste your time going to OCBC just to deposit RM1K if it is inconvenient.

This post has been edited by Gen-X: Sep 2 2012, 07:00 PM

Yah, Smart Saver Interest Rate up to 3% is one of the highest interest rate you can find for Savings Account (not Savings Plan).

I just published my latest article The Best and Highest Savings Account in Malaysia for Adult, Children, Parents and Grandpas too. Hope can be some use to you guys and give you more options on where to park your money for short term besides FD

Bro, I am honored to get a compliment from you, my sifu

However, I don't think I want to go revise my table because when I did it, I specifically only wanted to list out SA that pays 2% above. Less than 2%, there are many. Moreover, many current accounts also pays close to 2% and above.

And like I said, you my sifu, you already open a MBB SA with the option of FREE annual fee for the ATM Card way before I was even aware there was one

reaching 52%? It's 54% currently according to this article.

Gold perhaps CIMB got offer, 4% FD same amount when you "buy" their gold (no idea if it is cheaper than UOB in terms of buying and the diff when selling).

Yah, that is what I am being charged but gsc reported and reconfirm UOB only charge him RM0.15.

Yah, back in April 2012, I did a table for AUD Currency Time Deposit Interest Rate offered by UOB, RHB and OCBC where we can get between 3.4% to 4.6% Today, none of them are offering above 4% and OCBC is offering less than 3% except for one or two specific months tenure.

And the moment we convert to AUD for Foreign Currency Deposit, we are already losing money because of the bank's exchange rate.

Between May and July 2012, AUD strengthen close to 9%, and compared to the high in July, it's down about 4% today. And if you read the news, many analyst expect AUD to drop further. Now, it makes me think twice if I should go for AUD Time Deposit with our local banks (my daughter going to Australia next year for undergraduate course). Maybe if it goes below 3.1 to RM, would then go deposit some.

*Edited*
I just came across Maybank Master Foreign Currency Account Campaign for AUD/NZD/GBP/EUR where it pays 4.85% for AUD 6 Months. The Promo started back in July and ends on 10 September 2012.

This post has been edited by Gen-X: Sep 4 2012, 08:18 PM

Thanks for the tip.

Thanks Bro, but like you mentioned in your DCA Thread, timing is important too.

Actually, for years my RHB RM has been asking me to invest in their Multi Currency Account whenever I go buy USD Bank Draft for my son where he will request special rate from HQ. And he kept telling me how much he made for his client. But, I didn't bother to go learn about it as profit is not guaranteed.

And I did go open a Foreign Currency Deposit Account with UOB in June, but AUD was strengthening back then so did not bother to go deposit a single sen. If AUD drops below 3.1, maybe I will go deposit into that account.

I was in Australia for almost the entire month of May and used my MBB VI for all my expenses and when considering the 5X TP, the "effective" conversion rate was even lower than the spot rate And opened a few Australia Savings Account for their FREE Debit Cards and one of them was with Citibank. And at that time, AUD was less than 3.1 to RM, I did try out Citibank Global Transfer versus Cash Withdrawal with my Malaysia issued Citibank Debit Card and the Citibank Global Fund Transfer conversion rate was better.

Bro, you have to go calculate if the extra money you earn from higher interest with OCBC Savings Account justify your time and cost.

Now, I started off my article stating that many now use Savings Account instead of Current Account to pay bills or need some place to park money temporary. If you don't need either of these, just go deposit your money in 1 month FD (or maybe 2 Months where minimum starts at RM500) with any bank and earn about the same or even more.

And thanks for the SCB eSaver info, the interest rate pretty good. Will add it next time I go revise my table.

Bro I posted how one can benefit with the 5% and Combo in Fixed Deposit Page. And if you go open OCBC Premier Account, check if any of your relative has it as they can earn Free Cash Voucher for Introducing you to OCBC Premier Banking or just say I introduce you, hahaha.

This post has been edited by Gen-X: Sep 5 2012, 10:15 PM

I read an article today in SG Financial Times, with interest rate near zero in Europe and banks charging fee for depositing cash, interest is actually negative and funds manager are looking into how to pass this negative interest rate to their clients.

As for OCBC PB cash voucher, can I suppose, as long as it is not joint name with you. Check with your RM lah.

For a single kid, I not sure if the system allows it (the higher interest rate capped at RM50K).

What I mentioned in my article was - I would go to another branch and open another Junior Account for my own use. However, I failed to mention specifically in the article that I only opened 1 extra Junior Account for my own use (basically for the Junior FD and note - I did mentioned extra Account and not extra Accounts); and in the other branch, I still have 3 kids under 18, so would deposit into the other 2 kids' account if necessary but seldom lah (up to another RM100K to earn higher interest rate).

This post has been edited by Gen-X: Sep 5 2012, 11:33 PM

magika & gsc, you guys really patient in spoon feeding smsbusiness2u. He has been asking about OCBC for the past 2 months and up to today it's like he still got no clues and asking what has been discussed over and over again about OCBC Premier account 5% See below, he first asked the the 3 Products thingy on July 24 and again the same question on September 6



And when one forumer asked a question, smsbusiness2u told him to go to the branch



To me, it looks like smsbusiness2u is still after post counts and just spamming. If one really intends to open an OCBC Premier Account for the last 2 months, he/she would have visited OCBC PB and obtain the necessary info; and more importantly, read the posts in this thread instead of asking what have been posted and needing to be spoon fed the same info.

And you guys may want to, read this thread - post#32, and see why I have awarded smsbusiness2u the titled of "LYN Forum's Need To Spoon Fed King, hahahaha

Maybe Penang got too many "rich" people, haha. I guess it's not a standard offer, magika did mention he was only rewarded with RM50 cash voucher.

This post has been edited by Gen-X: Sep 6 2012, 03:11 PM

Not only that, both have in the past had copied my contents from my blog(s) and posting them word for word at LYN and taking credit for it

However MNet do sometimes post useful information or question that are worth thinking about; whereas smsbusiness2u would ask question and more questions or copy other people's work or link and paste them only.

to ALL:

Kuwait Finance House has extended their KFH International Commodity Murabahah Deposit-i Deposit Promotion until end of 2012.

Customer with a minimum of 10 grams in KFH Gold Account-i are entitled to enjoy the KFH International Commodity Murabahah Deposit-i (“ICM”) special campaign rate of 4% and non Gold Account holders are eligible for 3.85%

The minimum placement amount is RM20,000 in a single receipt for either 6, 12 or 24 months tenure.



Also please note, I made a mistake earlier about HLB Priority Banking Fixed Deposit Promo tenures at my FD Page, it should be read as 6 Months and 12 Months FD at 3.5% and 3.65% respectively. Not 3 and 6 months.

This post has been edited by Gen-X: Sep 8 2012, 10:11 AM

Another account to open with SCB. I kind of dislike to go to SCB because it's hard to find a parking near my branch. However, the effective interest not too bad for the Step Up FD.

This post has been edited by Gen-X: Sep 10 2012, 10:39 AM

Bro, firstly I would like to thank you for your offer on the eSaver Plus image.

As for the free gift, the gold art was offered to new customers like early this year. That time I had the option to choose the passport holder too. Recently my friend received a overnight travel bag with OCBC Premier Banking words printed on it for opening a new Premier Account.

As for the cash voucher, too bad my Gen-X nickname is not recorded in OCBC system, so I guess I have to take a miss on your kind offer. So anyone here want to reveal their personal details to BoomChaCha for the cash voucher?

However, I am surprised that the RM said the gift was from her own pocket. You may verify this with the Manager or the cashier there just to see if that is really the case. I will check on my side next time I introduce another person. And more surprisingly she said not to inform anyone when she did confirm they are offering Parkson vouchers (??). Thank you for reporting this.

All RM (Relationship Manager) and Personal Bankers (also known as Personal Financial Consultant) in most commercial and foreign banks have monthly quotas to meet. That is why she said to tell her when you depositing money instead of going straight to the tellers. But good for the tellers, because in some banks they also have monthly quota to achieve!

This post has been edited by Gen-X: Sep 11 2012, 08:37 AM

Bro, don't simply spread rumour...

But I know you did mentioned before you nego with the Assistant Branch Manager at BR and got 0.05% right?

If shy get nothing... must be kiasu, that's the FDMCGC's motto