OK just went all in to put 18 months in Bank Islam 4.4% just now. To be honest I am really impress with how Bank Islam has grown for the customer service portion. Previously many years back I wanted to go BI to open the 7 steps or whatever account FD, they even need to check with HQ since deposit amount bigger than rm200k or something like that. Opening account tedious blah blah, so in the end I never open.

Fast forward, now opening an account is fast and even the whole FD process is like less than 30 mins. They even waive the debit card costs plus annual fee because I insisted on the BSA (BNM insisted no charge). I am so impressed with Bank Islam that I am considering buying their share, if they don't bankrupt then either they go up in value chain or get eaten up.

Ok today I went Cxxx to rentas the money, took 30mins for the money to arrive BI. Went BI as I said the whole process less than 30mins. It helps there's no customer then. That's the problem with a lot of Islamic banks, they are good. But not many walk in customers. Good for customers like me.

Now according to the lady, Bank Islam is unlikely to revise the rate anytime soon since it is the best at the moment. They might still revise, so don't bet on it. The key is this promotion requires "fresh fund", and if you withdraw your FD within 14 days it is still considered fresh fund. If above 14 days then they need to check with HQ. But of course you will lose your interest in those days you deposit. So in a way good, if next week they revise the rate I will go change the FD just lose the number of days I put in earlier. Earlier I mention I had two FDs I put one month thinking someone might up the game with the Nov OPR rate increase. I lost the bet and lost quite a good amount of money.... shame.

Also this branch in JB I go to (bukit Indah) accepts personal cheque effective on that day too. Banker cheque personal cheque this branch don't care. But subject to clearance meaning you will get your FD cert a few days after cheque clears. They gave me a free gift too. A golf net... looks expensive even though I don't play golf.

I think these Islamic banks really up their game, so sometimes I wonder why we bother to go PB or Cimb or Maybank to queue like xxxx and the service not there too.

Thanks for reading. I am so far a Happy BI customer. Oh one more thing, I calculated the interest rate. I think BI goes by the number of days, not like some banks go simple way of calculation. I get less than a straight 18 months interest. And you get physical FD cert and you need the cert to take out the money. If you lose the cert can replace at counter costs rm10.