Was told by Affin you don't have to deposit the one million ringgit all at one go in order to enjoy the 3.7% promo rate. Their normal savings rates, depending on the type of account, increase and decrease according to amount of balance you have in your account - http://www.affinbank.com.my/rates/ratesislamic.htm. Now they are offering +0.33% to their normal rates.

For example, if you open a savings account now with RM100,000 you wil get 2.85% + 0.33 = 3.18% pa from 5 Feb to 31 Mar provided you did not withdraw anything from the account during that period. However, since this is a savings account you are allowed to withdraw any amount anytime you like. Let's say you decide to withdraw RM1000 tomorrow. The balance in your account will drop to RM99,000 and you will get 2.80%+0.33%=3.13% pa from 6Feb to 31 Mar. So, you will have earned the 3.18% for only one day.

Conversely, if tomorrow you decide that you want to deposit another Rm900,000 into your account, which means your balance is now RM1 million, you will get 3.38%+0.33%=3.71%pa from 6Feb to 31 Mar provided,again, you did not withdraw any amount from the account until 1 Apr.

Thus, depending on how much you withdraw and deposit, your interest rate will flactuate according to the amount of your balance at the end of each day. Bear in mind that interest is calculated on daily rest.

I am familiar with Affin because I have an account with them and their service, at least in my branch, is superb. They put the other banks RM to shame. Even though I am not a PB customer, they constantly update me via phone on my account status and even give me a shopping voucher, dairies and umbrellas and even a CNY hamper without my asking for them! Their staff are so accessible and best of all, their CASA account earns relatively high interest and is a very flexible and convenient place for me to park my money while waiting for the music to start again in musical chair game

The Affin Bank example I gave is based on the Affin GOLD-i which is available those who are 50yrs and above.

Glad that you find it helpful and I have not confused you further.

Ya, we can treat Affin's current promo as an FD promo if we want go fully benefit from the additional interst rate. But the beauty Affin's promo is that it is a promo for Savings and CASA accounts. We are not penalised if we withdraw from the account should a better promo from other banks becomes available at any time!

The Affin promo actually started on 1st Jan. So, in effect it is like a 3 months promo. if you are looking at a 3 mths FD and not the flexibility of having your funds not being tied up to the terms and conditions of conventional FD, then the OCBC promo is about the best around. Of course, the restrictions of the Smart Savers is a bit of a bummer but it is still tolerable

The Affin account, even without the promo, is good if you need your money for some short-term projects and you do not know exactly when or how much is needed. I treat it as a revolving account and I don't normally park extremely large amount in it unless there is a need. That's why I am impressed with Affin Bank - even when I have RM5000 balance ( which is most of the time) in the account, they still provide me full service with a smile.

Sorry, assumed you were aware that the promo does require a minimum of 20k to open the CASA account and in the case of existing customers, a top-up of the same amount in fresh funds is required. I had no problem overcoming the fresh fund requirement by withdrawing 20k in cash and then immediately deposited the same amount back into the account. I am not so sure if we need to top-up 20k every month during the promo period. If that is so (will check with the friendly staff at Affin tomorrow) I will most certainly do the same trick again.

Guess I got lucky this time. I have had my fair share of bad service from other more reputable banks.

For those who do not wish to deposit 20k, Affin's non-promo rate for their CASA account is still quite attractive considering that they are paying 2.816% pa (Affin Gold-i) for minimum deposit of RM5000.01 which is almost the one month FD rate of some other banks. Remember this is a CASA account which allows you to have a check book with no restrictions on withdrawals before maturity or what-have-you.

I was slapped with the RM10 stamp duty too. Brought it up to the branch manager and they refunded me

Again, I was told by my branch that the Affin Gold-i is the only account that is not subject to the tiered rate, meaning I will earn the interest on the full sum. Thus, if I have 50k balance in my account, the 2.816% is applied to the whole 50k and not RM44,999.99. I have not really verified this by calculating the interest I have earned. My account is rather active with a lot of in and out in any given month so the task is not so easy and I am no accountant or banker. So, a word of warning to all who wish to deal with Affin, please do your own due diligence and don't take my word here as gospel truth.

If you have children below 18, RHB's Junior Savers will earn you 3%pa for savings of up to RM100,000 and now they are having a campaign that allows the amount to go up to RM500,000 http://www.rhb.com.my/Whats_New/deposits/J...n/#.URJ8YmthiSN. It is a good alternative to OCBC Smart Savers but only if you have young kids for you open up a trust account.

Ya, it's confirmed by my branch that no monthly top-up needed, just need to maintain min of RM20k right through to 31 March to earn the .33%pa bonus interest. They also confirmed that the Affin Gold CASA is the only acct that is not subject to tiered interest rates. Thus, Affin Gold customers will earn the scaled interest rates on the full sum of their deposits. http://www.affinbank.com.my/banking/condeposit/affingold.htm