got the umbrella yet?snap a pic of it, cant wait to see

how much need to put the FD for umbrella? need to ask the banker then they only give you?

Now i feel my bank so lousy.. u all talk umbrella, hamper, chicken essence, diary and so on.. mine ntg..

I received one SMS from Am Bank:
AMSignature Priority Banking:
Enjoy 4.13% pa (8 months) for min FD/TD of RM 20K.
Promo ends 30/4/15.
T&C at http://www.ambank.com.my/eng/promotions

thanks will take a look

Lucky you. I haven't strike any yet! 

Here's the promo for this month = http://www.ptptn.gov.my/web/guest/promosi-ptptn

Did you strike this one? = http://www.ptptn.gov.my/docs/PemenangCabut...15_20012015.pdf

Umbrella nice or not, can post pic ah? 

Online FD placement is the trend now bro..

But the hindsight of placing fd online is.. no freebies like umbrella la.. book la.. tumbler la..

but the good one is easy fast n quick n convenient

I got a fren went to place FD in taman connaught bank..

End up placing 10k fd, and get a police saman worth rm 100 as a package as well

for me i count la, if the "trip" is worth the effort to make the extra sum of money. if not much difference but too much trouble, then i skip.

I guess the answer is pretty straight forward. It all boils down to how much is the amount.

1) Big amount straight way go make placement.
2) Small amount, just accumulate first.

For cost of travelling, different ppl different cost. Some ppl zero cost because his work place is walking distance to the banks. If you incur travelling cost, just weight the travelling cost with your potential FD daily interest and see which one more heavy.

How u get this?

wow 

Ocbc used to have the promo of additional 5% for one month foreign currency FD. The promo still on when I checked with Ocbc last month. Some banks give good FD rate but poor exchange rate. This is how these banks taking back the free lunch .....you need to compare the FD and exchange rate as a total package

kmarc - so from the above, you can see that going with a bank that offer higher Interest Rate may not be good as their exchange rate may not be favorable to you.

Since you are wanting to deposit in AUD long term (up to 15 years - wonder if that bank still around, hahaha) - my advise to you (from my personal experience):

1.  is go talk to the banks on their requirements and VERY IMPORTANT how much discount they can offer you for FOREX (usually for amount more than RM20K, they can give you better rates).

2. Start monitoring AUD/MYR (Bloomberg is a good place to start MYR/AUD and then go for interactive chart which gives you by the minute, hour, daily and monthly updates and you will then get a feel what DAY of the week and best TIME to exchange AUD with our local banks where they update at least twice a day). For your info, I manage to TT AUD/MYR back in January at 2.79 (with UOB which is the lowest rate I have gotten so far in the last 3 years) - that's 3.49% lower than current conversion rate which is better than any AUD FD rates currently! Point is, convert at low FOREX rate and it will give you more AUD in the long run.

3. Start reading Australia news portal Business Section to get a feel where the exchange rate is heading. Every 2 weeks you will see some comments on statement made by Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

Bro, true you can transfer the money in the future without converting to RM.

Since you are new to AUD thingy, like I said, go monitor.... read news about AUD and see charts.

I can't advise you or anyone on Foreign Currency as to me it is gambling. I don't know the future. I am sure you heard many people who bought USD at 3.8 during the late 90s and was kicking themselves for years, now more than 17 years (ignoring the years our RM was pegged), USD/MYR have yet to reach 3.8!!! Well, it may soon, but if the guy had deposited the money in RM in our FD 17 years ago, today he will have more than two times USD!

If you had deposited money into AUD FD last year or two years ago and the money still in AUD today, you'll be kicking yourself because AUD has depreciated more than 10% or even 20%. Like I said, go see interactive chart.... try to get a feel... your objective and mine are the same, to get as much AUD from our RM. 

I mentioned this before, AUD/MYR went as low as 2.3 back in 2009, but I not so greedy..... I hoping for 2.5 so that I can convert more RM to AUD and go buy property there and it's like getting 20% discount from today's rate. But if it never reaches 2.5 but go back up to 3.3, then too bad for me, hahaha. Like I said, it's gambling.

And you mentioned JUST IN CASE send your children to Australia, what if you sent them elsewhere? 15 years a long time. Maybe then... SGD/MYR is at 1.0 and AUD/MYR at 1.5, like 40 years ago 

Having said the above, I guess many people are converting their RM into other currencies .... and there is no right or wrong but matter of timing only. Oh yes, like I mentioned earlier, which bank gives you the best interest rate plus taking into consideration of the "discount" when converting.

Yah, what you said in the first paragraph is a fact and based on current situation, a smart move.

As for retirement? You got Visa to retire there? If no, you better got tons of money for medical bills for your old age. Got few millions of AUD to invest now, you can easily get a VISA with no age limit. But that may change soon, e.g. Canada just stopped their investment Visa and Singapore couple years back.

I tell you, freaking expensive place for a retiree. There, everything goes up on 1st January of every year. They adjust everything based on inflation rate. Today, I just read the Australia government discussing about raising GST again.

Yes, Australia does have several world's top ranked universities, but depending on what degree one graduates with now, finding a job there is not easy for years to come, their unemployment rate is at record high currently. 15 years time maybe boom again and jobs plentiful.

And in my article A Little Bit Of This and A Little Bit Of That - Volume I, Chapter VIII - I mentioned I was lucky, I had no knowledge where USD/MYR was heading when I sent my son to US in 2009 and AUD/MYR too when I decided to sent my daughter to Melbourne 3 years back. Turned out, luck was on my side and I got to save some RM.
YES, FD interest rates better than Savings Account. FREE money you don't want? hahaha.

kmarc and AVFAN - AUD/MYR went below 2.8 yesterday and getting nearer to 5 year low (2.72). If go below 2.72, then it is getting nearer to my target of 2.5, but then maybe I will turn extremely greedy and hope for 2.3, hahaha.