Thanks for the news. The Bank Rakyat Chinese New Year promo start Monday 23 Jan to Thur 23 Feb 2017 for minimum 10k fresh fund, 4.08% 12 months.
Monthly interest OK.

Fresh funds is the jargon used for money that goes into the bank from other banks (not branches of the same bank) i.e inject funds from outside.
Premature uplifting/withdrawal of existing FD or use of cash already kept in other accounts in any branch of the same bank for the purpose of taking advantage of a FD promo is not considered fresh funds. The idea is to collect more money from other places/sources into the bank, not recycle the money already inside the bank.

FD promos usually state (new) fresh funds required but this is subject to various interpretations by different banks and branches/staff. Some will just require a top-up depending on size involved. You need to speak to the bank people whether a particular case can be considered, and this may also depend on your relationship with the bank.

If you transfer funds into your current or savings account (CASA) cheaply by IBG or IBFT either in one lump sum, or staggered over a few days by ATM or internet banking due to daily limit on the large amount transferred, the externally sourced funds considered as received some 5 to 7 days ago can be considered as fresh funds. But this is a hazy area due to interpretation of working days and holidays and when the transaction considered in the receiving bank. There are limits to various types of transfers depending on your sending bank and all promised timings should be taken with a huge pinch of salt to avoid any unfortunate upsets. Normally you cannot transfer funds into a FD account by IBG, IBFT or Rentas.

The Hong Leong eFD promo ensures that only fresh funds from a different bank is used in the FPX payment using the connection thru the CASA account.

Bank cheques and personal cheques need to be issued by other bank to be considered fresh fund.

Some people try to overcome this fresh fund requirement by transferring out fund to another bank and then write a personal cheque or get a bank cheque or do a Rentas, IBG or IBFT transfer possibly of the same or different amount. For the bank, there is some risk that once the money is transferred out, the money may end up somewhere else with better rate or split up for diversification.

This post has been edited by Deal Hunter: Jan 18 2017, 07:35 PM

Monthly interest creditted ONLY for depositors who know what they are doing. Otherwise NO.

Some people do not get it because they are not aware of it or how to get it. These people assume it is automatic, but it is a mistake. You have to do and check to ensure something extra in the application form otherwise the normal default is to not give at all as for normal cases.

The normal way is to get the interest at the end on maturity.

For Bank Rakyat, need to place minimum 5k and 6 months at least to get monthly interest payment to your savings account. This is not automatic. You need to specify this and fill in the account number otherwise treated like normal FD and paid at the end.

In the case of joint FD, if the interest is put into a sole account of one of the joint FD holders, the other holders may need to sign some agreement to do so and a fee may be charged.

You also need to watch out and get it right for the eFD when filling in the application details. As I understand at present stage, there is no way to handle the electronic version of the above agreement.

If you do not update or check your account regularly, the old figures may disappear and lumped together after some time. This may confuse some depositors especially those who are not familiar with how to calculate the monthly interests of their FDs. Detailed statement can be subject to fees depending on bank practice.

This post has been edited by Deal Hunter: Jan 18 2017, 08:20 PM

Affin Combo promos were discussed in forum quite some time ago and already stopped after reaching fund size but advert not removed. I was told at Affin today that the new promo is 3.75% for periods between 13 to 60 months.

As of today, CIMB promo rates for 1 month dropped from 3.25% to 3.2%. 3 months dropped from 3.85% to 3.8%. 6 months maintained at 3.45%. 12 months maintained at 3.4%. All at minimum 10 k until further notice.

As on 10 January 2017, Ambank newest promo was 9 months at 4% but for big minimum 500k a placement until further notice. Islamic FD.

Sorry to disappoint you. There is no compounding at all when interest is given each month. It is never added to the original principal but given away for you to use - no longer have anything to do with the FD.

This is totally different from a savings account like say Maybank Premier Mudarabah Account (PMA), where the sum of the interests for each closing day balance is creditted to the final balance each calendar month in the same account. If you do not make any transactions that affect the end of day balances and the rate does not change, a compound formula can be used.

Usually the old uncles and aunties like monthly interest as they prefer to get their interest monthly for use instead of waiting a long time for the interest on maturity. They do not get anything more $$.

Pro FD investors like to put in larger principals to get large interest per month. Or alternate strategy is to spread out among various competitive promo FDs. The monthly interest is scraped together and used as as contribution to other principal for other new and separate FD. This invest the interest strategy is used to adjust their cash flow to take advantage of fluctuations in the promo FD rates at various times. Properly executed, the gain is more than normal FD interest.

Some passive FD investors will leave the monthly interests in their savings account to earn a little more extra savings interest (not compounded FD interest). Besides the FD account by itself, those wishing to have monthly interest need to have/open a Savings or Current Account as well for the bank to credit out the monthly FD interest. However, do not make the mistake in assuming that the Savings Account will always give interest in your case.

To overcome the above problem, some may make use of IBG to transfer to another savings account in another bank. This sweeping is advisable if the bank pay little or NO savings account interest for low balances (read the small print and conditions for poor interest paying structure for the specific savings account) Some banks annual fees and losses from minimum savings balance and opening requirements may be more than any gain. The interest should be swept to some savings accounts that pay far higher interest.The correct choice depends on your particular circumstances and this may change from time to time.

If you do not know what you are getting into, you may lose due to other costs or earn less than you imagine.

This post has been edited by Deal Hunter: Jan 20 2017, 09:49 AM

You have to wait till Monday 23 January for it to start.

People are usually more familiar and may talk about interest added-on at maturity and automatically renew with the bigger amount as principal for the following FD. Sometimes the FD interest is maintained for some time for normal board rates FD.
At present, the 1 month normal FD board rate as reported in the first page of this forum thread is between 2.7% to 3.05% per annum.

To know the effective return for comparison, a rough approximation is to calculate the final amount (all interests+original principal placed) and then minus the original principal to get the computed interests.
For your example, if Principal P =10,000
Rate R per annum = 4 %
Amount A = P x ( 1 + R/1200) ^ 12 = 10.407415
Compound Interest CI = A - P = 407.415
Effective Rate = 100 x CI/P = 4.07415 %
versus the 4%.

Different banks have different ways of calculating but the most important fact is that compound interest calculation is NOT USED actually. Basically need to understand why all interests are on daily basis in case the depositor uplifts prematurely and penalties and the uplift date come into play. How FD interests differ as differently calculated by different banks have been written about in various posts in the past in former versions of this forum thread.

Using the above rough method, the highest you can get is 3.093 % and 2.73366 % for R= 3.05 % and R= 2.7 % respectively.

None of these makes financial sense when compared against offered FD promo rates.

This post has been edited by Deal Hunter: Jan 20 2017, 01:32 PM

If say HABIS , NO MORE, or NO PROMO say the ISLAMIC one at Maybank. (NOT CONVENTIONAL FD). FD New Year Promo 5 Jan to 31 Jan 2017. 2.7 billion size, minimum 10k. Step-up. Still running when visited Maybank on 19 Jan.

This post has been edited by Deal Hunter: Jan 20 2017, 01:23 PM

At visit to CIMB on 19 January 2017, CIMB promo rates already changed from previous promo rate. 1 month dropped from 3.25% to 3.2%. 3 months dropped from 3.85% to 3.8%. 6 months maintained at 3.45%. 12 months maintained at 3.4%. All at minimum 10 k until further notice.
Staff did not mention 4% @ 3 months. So is it expired promo, special, nego or very new promo? Pls ask Coolstore for details.

Impressed that you seek advice and managed to save 10k in one year. As to the question of best bank FDs for now - this depends how long you are willing to stay put, your age and health risks, and how you budget your future cash flow. When considering the best, it is also good to understand exactly what you would consider as bad and why in a bank FD and operation wise. Balance is essential and finding/knowing the negative side and how to avoid/overcome them is the most important thing about managing FD. Start by eliminating the most atrocious banks and deals which may be attractively presented to overcome the hidden costs or misguidance.

The physical location of the particular bank branch itself and the presence of the other competitive banks nearby may be important for survey comparison, last minute confirmation of changes, negotiation and convenience of bank cheque and cash transfers within a short time. This depends whether there are such banking areas in your town. Some people remain stuck at one bank because of original mistakes in choice of bank branch location as they feel too much trouble to move for some gain.

If you already can transfer money thru an ATM card, internet banking or thru smartphone app from your existing bank account, you can chose to open a bank account first, and then transfer the money in thru IBG (11 sen) or IBFT (53 sen).

If you do not wish to open a bank account besides the FD account, you need to bring cash, personal cheque (RM 0.53 deducted from acct) or bank cheque (fee depends on particular bank - but at least RM 2.53).

However, you must open a bank account if you wish to take advantage of the following:-
1) Payment of interest monthly, principal or final amount into your bank account from your FD account.
2) Keeping track of your money in your bank account with setting up of internet banking service or thru app instead of regular visits to update passbook.
3) Transferring out money to other bank account (my Bank Rakyat branch stopped issue of bank cheques and only do OTC bank transfers - free for oldies) on your own as you find the ideal FD promo choice later.

To save annual fees, some people opt for basic savings account. However, some people pick savings that have high interest rates and monthly rests. Choice depends how you intend to manage your cashflow and how you want to use the bank account.

This post has been edited by Deal Hunter: Jan 22 2017, 07:07 PM

Yes

It is your hard earned money, so it is your right to decide in your circumstances. Personally, I don't bother about the PIDM so much. Some banks have reputation problems - dubious investments/losses/expansions that reflect on over ambitions, or poor customer business services, or doing dubious activities - the kind of management quality and influence that we would rather not see or hear about in a bank.

In the case of Bank Rakyat, their FD product Term Deposit-i is Islamic compliant. As a cooperative bank, all depositors will be protected by the Malaysian government under the Ministry of Finance instead of PIDM. It is up to you to view this as being better or worse than PIDM but there are a lot of co-ops that would be affected if Bank Rakyat or Agro Bank are not backed up by the government. In the case of Bank Rakyat TD-i, the bank guarantees to pay a final amount which is the sum of the principal and dividend (interest) at the maturity date printed on the FD cert.

Promo rates usually are at 10 k nowadays altho much higher minimums have also start showing up. For longer terms, the Bank Rakyat normal board rate of 4.3% for 5 years is competitive. The minimum amount is only RM 500 per FD placement. But to enjoy monthly payment of interest into your Bank Rakyat savings account, the minimum amount is RM 5,000 per FD certificate.

The usual promos are usually around 12 months, with some as short as 1 month and going up to a 24 months. The promo rates altho better than most board rates for these short terms are only around 3.2% to 4% with Hong Leong tempting eFD at 4% (with possible high of 4.18%) for 8 months with a minimum of 10k and monthly payment of interest.

In my view, with only 10k, the best deal presently is the Hong Leong eFD promo which needs to be done thru FPX payment. Please read up the unique procedure at the Hong Leong bank website - I did not explain how this works in my earlier replies. In the case of the lock-up for Maybank 12 months, you may like it if you can accept the step-up structure uneven cash-flow and threat of changing the rate if OPR changes.

If you can meet the conditions you may wish to consider OCBC 360 savings as an alternative to FD.
Depending on your circumstances, you may find extra contributions or voluntary contributions to EPF as another alternative.
Unit Trusts investments are much more complicated and can be rather shaky.

This post has been edited by Deal Hunter: Jan 23 2017, 03:46 AM

The Alliance promo of minimum 50k at 4.05% for 1 year with monthly interest payment is not for everybody.
Only for those 40 years and above for sole FD, or joint FD where 1st name is 40 years and above.
Some are not qualified.

Depends on your cashflow and strategy plan. You can either spread it out to arrange to get the best deal each month, or you can get stuck at one place. Do you mean withdraw the principal 500k meaning either 1 month tenor FD. Or do you mean 12 month tenor with monthly payment of interest? Or simply full flexibility to withdraw anytime without penalty?
For bigger sums than the normal promo, I prefer to nego with the smaller banks to get better rates - MBSB or Affin, but definitely not the big ones (banyak rugi).

Haiyah, you MUST ASK and check also even after asking when they give you the cert - you can change if it is wrong. Otherwise the bank staff will sure do normal automatic without monthly payment same like go foodplace and automatic cook normal style with the chilli even if you ordered no chilli.

Make sure open and get banking account number right besides the FD account number. Look for number 51 in bottom left of the FD cert. Minimum at least 5k for 6 months last time condition. Not everybody got 5k or bank account, so used to normal no monthly interest payment business with most depositors.

This post has been edited by Deal Hunter: Jan 23 2017, 11:46 PM

I had some FD certs with Alliance previously when their rates were competitive till 2016 . Their service staff were informative, accurate, excellent and speedy and I had no problem at all with them so far. I can be considered a satisfied customer especially with their method of monthly interest payment. I can't really vouch for all branches or the bank in general as I only show up at 2 branches, or how things are at present. Keep toes and fingers crossed, and best of luck for the New Year.

This post has been edited by Deal Hunter: Jan 25 2017, 01:35 PM

For both personal and bank cheques there are some places/banks that have to come back to collect FD cert after clearing. My Bank Rakyat branch also like this (it is not the only bank like this). Good thing is Bank Rakyat keep the effective date of the FD as the day you place the cheque.

Sometimes, when I am certain that I will place at Bank Rakyat, I transfer the money into the Bank Rakyat savings account from other banks to pay for the FD, so that no need to go another day to collect. Still considered fresh funds for a few days.

If you try many places, you will find many unexpected and different ways of doing things if you pay attention to how the details and operation affect the depositor.



This post has been edited by Deal Hunter: Jan 26 2017, 11:17 AM

[quote=TSOM,Jan 26 2017, 01:57 PM]
I see that mostly are 12 months for 4% promotion, any short term FD promotion like 1 to 6 months??

[/quote
Few promos now.

CIMB all with 10k minimum
1 mth 3.2%
3 mth 3.8%
6 mth 3.45%
12 mth 3.4%

HongLeong all with 10k minimum
6 mth 3.8%
12 mth 3.8%

8 mth 4% maybe 4.18% if target reached etc by FPX only, with mthly interest

Public Bank all with 10k minimum TD-i
6mth step-up from 3.38% to 4.68% effective 3.88%
12 mth step-up from 3.8% for 6 mth and 4.1% last 6 mth effective 3.95%

Alliance with minimum 50k FDGold promo for 40 years plus depositor.
12 mth 4.05% with mthly interest.

Bank Rakyat with 10k minimum TD-i
12 mth 4.08% with mthly interest and lucky draw per 10k, end 23 Feb 2017

MBSB with minimum 100k
12 mth 4.10% (Feb-Apr 2017)

This post has been edited by Deal Hunter: Jan 26 2017, 04:36 PM