https://themalaysianreserve.com/2018/08/24/...-says-rhb-bank/No credit card cancellations on SST re-implementation, says RHB BankIn light of this, concerns over consumers cancelling their credit card due to the increase in cost have increased
By FARA AISYAH / Pic By MUHD AMIN NAHARUL
RHB Bank Bhd reports no credit card cancellations ahead of the re-implementation of the Sales and Services Tax (SST), which will take effect on Sept 1, 2018.
The SST, which was imposed on credit or charge cards, was removed when the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was implemented in 2015.
In light of this, concerns over consumers cancelling their credit card due to the increase in cost have increased.
“Some of the customers feel they might need to hold more than one card, some even have more than two cards. That is because some banks’ product propositions are different than the others and the value propositions they got from the different banks may offset the SST the government is charging,” said RHB acting head of group retail banking Nazri Othman.
“The answer differs from one person to another, some of them may continue using credit cards, some may reduce the number of cards they have,” he told reporters at the official launch of iMoney CreditScore in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Under the previous SST, the yearly service tax for each principal credit and charge card was RM50, and RM25 for each supplementary card.
Under the newly revised SST, however, each type of credit and charge card will be charged with RM25 upon renewal of the card, which is less compared to the old service tax model.
According to Nazri, banks started charging credit card holders with SST soon after the government first introduced it in the 90s.
“But then again, there are also programmes where bank can take to basically offset the SST charges including bonus points redemption and cashbacks that customers collect,” he added.
RHB has also collaborated with Intelligent Money Sdn Bhd (iMoney) to introduce RHB Easy-Pinjaman Ekpres, which offers the conditional approval feature that allows customers to apply for personal financing online via the iMoney website.
The leading fintech platform launched iMoney CreditScore yesterday, the first free user-friendly tool for Malaysians to check their credit score and understand their financial health.
More than 10,000 Malaysians have successfully obtained their free CreditScore and report since the launch of the beta version last year, out of which only 27% have a strong score.
iMoney co-founder and ED Lee Ching Wei said 67% of Malaysians do not check their credit reports.
“By providing the tool for free, we hope to lower the number to 50% by the end of this year.
“While an annual medical check-up is the norm among Malaysians, our goal is to encourage Malaysians to also do the same for their financial health. With iMoney CreditScore, consumers can now assess if they are on track to achieve their financial goals,” Lee said.
iMoney CreditScore is powered by a leading credit reporting agency RAM Credit Information Sdn Bhd.
Customers will be able to obtain the results of the application the next day via short message service.
This post has been edited by kuci_mayong: Aug 24 2018, 11:58 AM