seriously, i doubt our economy is improving.. no way

But what if you need to withdraw money?
Now I also in the same boat on this situation, too many cards in my wallet.

You are speculating? Nobody can tell, except for the banks them self. As they need certain reserve before releasing a loan.
If they can't release loans, they can't make money. So as long as economy condition does not really improves, we can still enjoy high FD rates

When economy goods, as inflation will spike, and loan demand is high ---> Interest rate higher, just like what is happening in US, interest rate raised.
When economy no good, inflation died down, loan demand is low --> central bank often resort to lower interest rate to boost consumption to revive the economy.

If Malaysia GDP growth drops below 4%, the likelyhood of interest rate cut is there.

The recent of higher FD promo has a lot to do deposit growth slower than loan pace, as recently financial market situation has led to plenty of funds outflowing since second half of 2015, but the outflow seems slowing down a lot lately.

While if loan demand slow down, there is no urgency for banks to chase after deposit already.
That's why we see banks starting offering higher rate for shorter tenure one.

thank you very muchie for all replies on FD vs Foreign current account. I think the best is still go for MYR FD and change the hard cash at money charger , to reduce the cost involved.

Hope everyone huat huat this year and continuously!

sorry another question, if I were to go for HLB recent FD promotion, 4.5% p.a for 6 months but I do not have any bank account with HLB, do I need to open one? or can just open the FD will do?

thanks again!

in my case, yes you need to open another saving account.
fee is rm15 iinm, with a debit card.

Yes, BNM will definately resort to lowering interest rates to boost local consumption to review the economy. But the issue is, how much can local consumption go around? The country's economy cant just demand on local consumption. This is only a short term effort by BNM which will not help much once there is not enough money to go around locally.

Outflowing of funds slowing down because there are not much to 'outflow' anymore. Market is bad. Everybody needs to have money to run their business, pay their debts etc. Foreigners especially O&G sectors have long left the country and withdrawn their funds in Malaysia back to their own country.

I dont agree loan demand will slow down. Malaysians, majority of them like to be in debt. Every persons needs a loan. Even for a handphone which costs a few hundred ringgit, they prefer to get an installment plan for it. But the issues lies in the willingness of the Banks to give out loans. NPL is at all time high, more and more people are sued for bankruptcy everyday. Borrrowers are saddled with many loans and bad credit records all contribute to banks being very stringent in giving out loans.

I normally use IBG to transfer n my HLB saving acc come with passbook. My HLB debit card nvr use before for past few years since account opening until I cancelled it few week back.

went over this morning.. according to them can cancel only after 6 months .....

I would like to ask since we are in HLB topic here. The 4.5% only for 6-mth? What happen after that? Will 4.5% remain or they will lower the rate?

It will back to board rate, around 3.1%

we have many banks to choose, no worries haha..

okay thanks!

thanks for the details.

coupled with recent drop of SRR, means bankers now got more fund liquidity for lending out loan, right?

and shady economy growth prospect is really dampen ppl desires to spend more, seen every where now. even some long time operating phone kiosk in crowded shopping mall close down out of sudden recently ...

better lock in a high interest rate fd for 12 mths. i wouldn't have put fd in hlb for 6 mth if knew bsn got 12mth 4.5%...

Of course lower rates la. Why should they give you 4.5% when they can give you only 3.x%? Banks hope that you will forget to uplift hence you will continue at 3.x% and they will earn about 1% from you.

This applies to all banks.

u can cancel anytime before 6 months time but need to pay some penalty if im not mistaken

lol .. tricky part huh?

What I see now is :
people get sued bankruptcies are higher than last year.
Inflation rate are higher due to GST despite economy no good.
Laid off and man slaughtering by companies are increasing over the months.

Moved funds from Maybank to HLB Sri Petaling. Had to wait 2 hrs for Banker's Cheque at Maybank coz so many withdrawals. On top of that, their Conventional FD promotion all over.

HLB extended their 4.5% 6 mths promotion to first week February.

Banker's cheque no fun
Last week I withdraw big sum from Maybank, all in cash
After few days another round, since extended