Hi, as the nature of my work received salaries in different currencies, I'd like to know if anyone could recommend a good bank to open a multi currency account.

Right now I've read about RHB's MCA and Maybank MCA. Difference between two as far as I can tell with Maybank at least you could transfer monies through M2U while RHB you need to walk in every time.

This post has been edited by nyunyu: Feb 22 2018, 09:30 PM

PayPal can be used to receive payment ?

while waiting for responses......I googled and found some old threads in lyn regarding this almost similar topic....
hope you can get some ideas while you wait for responses....
https://www.google.com/search?q=multi+curre...iw=1920&bih=963

Unless the currency is non convertible or receivable is illegal, why can't receive in either USD, Euro or myr?

I use Citi and Maybank for FCA - have USD with Maybank and USD, EUR with Citi

Afaik you can only transfer USD > RM and vice versus on Maybank but can do TT overseas from Citi

Citi does have higher minimum balance limits vs Maybank though - can’t remeber the exact amounts right now.

My work don't involve paypal.
Thank you. I posted in most of the related thread there before opening this thread. Unfortunately no one shared which bank has the best rate for converting foreign currency to RM.
Not sure what you're saying there but I do get paid in either GBP, EUR, USD mainly.
For my purpose, I don't need to transfer RM to foreign currency but only vice versa. Although seems like the banks only allow fund conversion foreign -> RM by the counter though.


Reason for opening a MCA is that before, my salary was sent in foreign currency and for some reason before it got into my local bank, it was already converted and then sent via RENTAS and I lost some few hundred to few thousands somewhere. So, by having a MCA, the amount of monies won't have any discrepancies and I only need to monitor the exchange rate of the bank before converting the funds to RM if that make any sense.

Maybank FCA should be OK for your needs - receive salary in USD and convert to your RM account when the rate is good

If you’re eligible for Citigold (RM400k on deposit) the exchange rates they offer are slightly better than Maybank. However you can’t do USD > RM account transactions online anymore, they need to be done on the phone.

Maybank no issue to do it online, it’s instant as long as during working hours.

Thank you. So Maybank can do conversion transactions online? Sounds good. I guess I'll go check it out.

Yup, rate is slightly worse than CitiGold but no issue to transfer from USD to RM

Limit is RM50k equivalent per transaction but you can do multiple ones on the same day. FX rate is displayed before you confirm the transfer.

If you receive money through SWIFT transfer into a foreign currency account in the same currency, it's likely that you still won't get the exact same amount sent to you.
This is due to the involvement of the middleman bank in SWIFT transfer. In the worst case, there can be more than one middleman bank. Each middleman bank will take a cut of the amount transferred. This process is not transparent and you will not be informed of it unless you ask the bank for a breakdown of fees after getting your payment.

If your purpose is to convert the foreign currencies into RM when the exchange rate is favorable to you, you might want to consider Borderless Account offered by Transferwise(TW).

Transferwise Borderless Account


With the Borderless account, it is as if you have a local bank account in the US, UK, EU and Australia, in your own name, to receive local payment. The payment received will be kept in the original currencies, i.e. USD, GBP, EUR and AUD. You can convert them into RM anytime you want and initialize the transfer into your RM account. TW will send RM to you through their company bank account with CIMB. The amount received is exactly as expected.

However, I would not advise you to keep your foreign currencies with TW for too long. TW is after all not a bank.

This post has been edited by hyperzz: Mar 7 2018, 04:15 AM

I am looking into this as well. A colleague of mine introduced HSBC's foreign currency account, he said it's flexible enough that he could make a transfer between his USD acc and his myr acc without much charges, hadnt verified that yet.

Since my main account is with pbe, I checked it out a bit and found that they have this service as well. In most cases, it's stated that each debit transaction would incur 4 USD or so, this seems common among foreign currency bank services.

Just want to update regarding this. I opened an Multi Currency Account with RHB bank and while everything was okay and my monies transferred into the account without any hitch, I found that you can only do withdrawal at the branch which you open your account at.

So, pissed at myself for not realizing this beforehand, I went to Maybank and asked if they have the same service and they told me they do. Within 24 hours I got my account activated and never been happier. My monies can be transferred at any time I wish through online banking.

From your previous replies, I sense that because you want to avoid the monetary loss when they send you into local banks due to different currency...let me tell you that regardless the recipient account is same currency with remitted money or no, the end result of getting MYR is still the same.

That is because of intermediary fee and your local bank fee.

Say, your customer sent you USD 1000 and they remitted it using SHA fee. And the current USD//MYR rate is RM4. If give them your MYR account, you will receive $1000 less intermediary bank fee less local bank fee...
Intermediary fee say $30
Local bank fee RM10

So 1000-30 = 970
970*4 minus RM10

If you give them foreign currency account, you will receive usd970 minus local bank fee (Maybank $4 per incoming).. so you get 966....

To compare apple with apple, you convert immediately at the same day you received, so 966*4... U loss some RM..

Hehe

Correct. Previously when receiving my salary into my normal savings/current, there are always monetary loss sometimes up close to RM1K.
So far, after having this setup, I received my monies as per earned and only less the fees when I converted them to MYR. Still, they're less than before.

Use transferwise borderline account.

After reading all of the above suggestions, I would like to recommend one more method. Since you have income from overseas and you need to bank-in this income into an account, you can open a DBS multi-currency account in DBS or in POSBANK Singapore.

The foreign currency salary will drop in very nicely into your account every month.

Then you can TT the currency back to your local Maybank Account without any charges. But of course, you would then be subjected to the foreign currency-to-MYR conversion rate at DBS.

The other small snag is you need to have SGD3k as the minimum daily amt, and if it falls below SGD3k,you will be charged a fall-below fee of SGD7.50.

Perhaps you may need to pay this SGD7.50 until you managed to collect SGD3k.

No need so susah. Just open Transferwise borderless account. Much more sophisticated than DBS. So much for being a digital bank. Can't even beat a UK fintech.

Cheaper, easier to open account, no fees or minimum amount to maintain

Banks are things of the past. If banks can't evolve, they will be obsolete

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Jun 25 2018, 11:30 PM

Sure, sure,... but after what I heard happening to many 'accounts' which suddenly got closed or forced to use Bitcoin in the world,... I would prefer to use DBS-lar,..

Secondly, an account in DBS is not solely for the purpose of funds transfer,... you don't need me to tell you all of the other benefits of having an SG DBS Account,...

Funds Transfer is BUT one of the facilities of a DBS Account.

If you don't have a minimum amt to maintain a DBS Account, why don't you close your DBS Account ? Why always talk abt your DBS Account ? NO money, don't do,... why force yourself and then start talking bad abt DBS and saying Transferwise is good ?

DBS let you open an account and you criticize like this,... close it then,... you are a Malaysian, you are not obligated to support Singapore in any way.

People have a good reason now (for now) to open a DBS Account, give people a chance-lar,... you think so easy to open-ah ???

And who said got fees to TT using a DBS Account ? ....... NO need to say cheaper, say FREE when TT'ing using a DBS Account.

And who said you can't transfer USDs using a DBS Account ?

YOU are under-informed !!!!!!!!!!

YOU laughed at me, I also laugh back at you !!!!

I am very happy to have DBS

Maybe DBS should check ALL Malaysians who don't use their account, and advise for those accounts to be closed. People don't use their accounts because they don't like their accounts,... people like Ramjade.

Perhaps it will be more efficient for DBS to open accounts only for Malaysians who really have a need to use their account, rather than doing a total block against all Malaysians without a work permit or study permit.