yeaps....he also got me thinking for ONE WHOLE day...haha.
yeaps i was also thinking that CITI's rates abit off rite now compared to others...especially when the blr is also higher than others. Do u have any other full flexi loans to intro? I am open to other loans too if it meets my preferences.

Thanks for your feedback

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Added on January 25, 2008, 10:12 pmnola..u only save on interest but also depending on which type of loan u took. The bank will not pay u interest.

This post has been edited by mIssfROGY: Jan 25 2008, 10:12 PM

Sorry, can't help you there. I've stopped "shopping".

But anyway, rates published and rates actually offered are usually different. It all depends on how big is the loan and how well the sales fight your case.
In this case, Citi is more rigid towards this type of offer.

Good luck.

This post has been edited by b00n: Jan 26 2008, 07:34 PM

thanks alott Yeha i guess....hopefully they offer me soemthing i cannot resist la

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/615060

Citibank is good because:
1. Real flexi homeloan with daily rest, you get checkbook but make sure they are tied together (it's not automatically done)
2. Loan up to RM500k will entitle you to the CitiGold status (privileges, better rates, services, platinum CC)
3. Their online banking services is good (prompt and almost realtime status update)
4. Bill payment, easy. Fund transfer, fees only RM0.50 per transaction. Compared to Maybank which charge RM2-RM4 per transaction.
5. They will not look at your other commitments at other banks for their approval consideration, so you have a clean slate with them. (maybe it's not a good thing smile.gif)

Citibank is NOT good because:
1. Their BLR is higher than the rest, 6.80% compared to 6.75%. Make sure you know this!
2. Hassle to bank in the monthly payment.
3. Longer lock-in period and higher penalty for early redemption.
4. WORST OF ALL...explanation below

I scouted around some time ago and since then I've used Citibank as benchmark; anything better than them is good, and vice versa.

From there currently there are many comparably featured home loan, and so far the one that I like is Stanchart.

Why? It has all the benefits of Citibank (never tried their online banking before though), and the following compared to Citibank's cons:
1. BLR is same as other banks (Except Citi of course)
2. Hassle still the same (not many branches)
3. Shorter lock-in period and lower penalty
4. This needs an example, as below:
5. All in one account (loan, checking etc), automatically

Scenario:
Assuming you have RM200k loan, and the monthly payment is RM1400. Say it's RM1100 for the interest and RM300 for principle. Imagine you put in extra payment, making the total for a particular month RM2000. This effectively reduce the principle by RM600, so the interest will be calculated based on the reduced principle (make sure the flexiloan you get is on principle reducing basis, not interest reducing basis). Still with me so far? Good.

Now, let's assume you put in the whole RM200k in. And I know many ppl do this (they park their money to reduce the principle while waiting for good investment opportunities). What is the effective interest payment? zero? actually it is smile.gif. But what I want to highlight is, for Citibank, they will keep deducting RM1400 from the excess fund, although all will go towards principle. While for Stanchart, they only deduct RM300 monthly. So for Citi, you get your tenure shortened, but fund depleting faster. For Stanchart, they keep the 30 years tenure, so you have more cash.

Good or bad, it depends on the person. For me, it's definitely bad as I want to have cash ready wen I want it, and not at an alarmingly fast-reducing pace.

The examples are for the 2 banks. I have homeloans with mostly foreign banks, so a lot of the quirks which were not mentioned in the loan doc (or vaguely so) will surface later on, and it's usually to the bank's advantage.

meejawa, I guess your priorities and mine are different, I prefer Citibank because it's a fixed deduction, it's something I can plan for today, next month or 10 years down the road.

I haven't really seen the lock-in period for Citibank to be any different from other banks though, both my loans with Citibank and Stanchart have 5-year lock in periods. Can't remember the penalty amounts.

However does anyone else find it very annoying that it'll still take one business day for Citibank to credit their credit card accounts even if you transfer it through online banking?

Yup, different priorities

For the lock in period and penalty, it's negotiable. This is something I didn't know earlier. When I mentioned to my other friends, they didn't either. With this knowledge I've managed to get a better deal for my loan. (Everything in HL is negotiable, especially if the agent is not directly from bank, i.e. agency outside)

For online banking, when I transfer via internet to clear my Citibank CC, it takes effect immediately.

ya i do find it annoying about the one business day later.
recently i cashed in cash thru the deposit machine and it ate my money without notice, no receipt or watever so. So i called up Citi and made my report. They were quite efficient and all....thing i dont like is, when they finally fixed my problem, the bank-in date was FEW DAYS later, they use the date they fix the problem and not the date when i bank in?!! I was like WTH?!! No biggie problem la coz mine was a small amount...but it does makes alot of differences if the amount is big when the interest charges are like charged on a daily basis! Its not very ethical for the bank rite to do this...i mean, if it was a biggie amount, i would wana call up and ask them to fix the date and all....i mean all the trouble?! They shd have follow the correct date instead of creating this problem in the 1st place.

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Added on January 29, 2008, 4:18 pmReally u can do that?!! U r taking loan from Heong Leong issit?

Hmm..i transfer thru online too....maybe issit becoz u do it before the cut hours they stated?

This post has been edited by mIssfROGY: Jan 29 2008, 04:18 PM

HL as in Housing Loan.

Citibank HomeLoan, Citibank CreditCard, Citibank Online transfer from HL acc to CC acc (with the excess payment).

Ahaha....wat was i THINKING

The thing is I believe that we don't have a strong enough consumer protection agency and the banks simply take advantage of it. If we had more consumer protection then maybe we'll get better services and not too many charges from the banks.

I don't agree that it doesn't make a difference that the amount is small, if could just be a few RM per customer but when they have a few thousand customers the total adds up for the bank.

ya true also. Its at our disadvantage. Their cash machines proly breaksdown every now and then...worse if they make this a everyday event...and nobody do anything about it because its a small amount....Hmm...i think its time i pick up the call and make a biggie fuss about it

If CTB offers me a BLR-1.5) for whole tenure for a below 300k refinance loan,
with flexibility of withdrawing and putting in money without prior notice and,
need to open an initial RM200 loan account. Is this package worth thinking of?
Is there anything about citibank should i be aware of?

Ambank offer flexi loan with monthly fee RM5, B-1.5% whole tenure for 70k loan..
do u still think that CTB offer good rate?

Actually you should ask yourself whether you need a flexi loan in the first place. You have to pay for the monthly fees as well. If you are getting fixed income and the chances of having prepayment is slim, you can get better rates with conventional home loan.

Hmmm..sounds like CTB's deal still good....

You don't get interest paid by Banks into your Overdraft Account.. I think..

You can open up an Islamic current account to earn some interest for your surplus fund. Now a day, you can use internet to do fund transfers ( some people say it is not safe, but I find it is ok )

packages do have their pro and con and is up to consumers on which one is more suitable for them. E.g. for those who are not considering to put extra money other than the monthly installment then it is better to take conventional plan. for those who are planning (and willing) to put some extra money for their housing loan then can consider flexi.

well, flexi also have 2 types - some is 'real' flexi (like alliance, stanchart etc) and some 'half' flexi, e.g. maybank, ocbc etc. not much difference, only whether they give you current account or not (with monthly charges but less hassle to withdraw money.)
what i have mentioned is very brief actually, there's a lot more details into each plan. so decide on your method on handling house loan, then consider which plan is suitable for you

ya also best way to compare is to go to the respective banks' morgage department (or agent), ask about their plan, give them your loan details (e.g. amount, tenure etc) and tell them to print a chart for you. you will see how much you need to pay monthly paid for interest as well.

btw i read in the first page that someone mentioned that paying more for StanChart loan will have the monthly repayment reduced, but i think the monthly repayment is the same just the interest is reduced.

I happed to talk to few businessmen that are citibank customers and they do have some complaints especially on payment issue,

1) As businessmen, they depend a lot from collections of payments from their customers to run the cash flow. It is very common in Malaysia that post cheques are used by customers. Sometimes , there is a delay of 1 week or so. Therefore, they may pay Citibank late by 1 week. However, Citibank has a habit of keep calling them one day after due date to ask for payment.

2) Citibank does not operate with many branches, that also cause them the difficulty to pay. These " China man " usually do not operate with internet account.

3) Some citibank home loan that comes in the form of OD, supposing the interest is only RM 800 a month. The borrower still need to pay the interest every month, even though the borrower had banked in RM 20,000 a month ago, and well within limit. Otherwise, the loan may become NPL after a few months.


For the above reasons, they switch loans elsewhere.

Correct me if I am wrong bcos the information comes from my clients.

This post has been edited by SKY 1809: Feb 17 2008, 05:32 PM

Sorry, that's for Citibank's flexi home loan. Stanchart will reduce your monthly payment by the amount of interest you're not paying. I have loans with both banks.

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Added on February 17, 2008, 11:00 pmI have to say that I haven't had this issue before, but I've been late only once


This post has been edited by tishaban: Feb 17 2008, 11:00 PM