i was offered loan with PBB and SCB.

when i read PBB's clause, they really "kiasi" put in a lot of clause to protect themself, and i feel very uncomfortable although i was offered BLR - 2.3% for entire tenure. my PBB banker told me, if you think that your bank has "unfairly" raised the interest, and you feel that you are "cheated" you can bring this case to Bank Negara who will "fight" on your behalf. anyway, I signed up with them

for SCB it's totally different, i felt very comfortable with the clause, cause don't have all these "variation clause" but i didn't choose their Flexi loan becoz of i don't need the Flexibility to withdraw. for normal people like me who don't do business, flexi is very "harmful". for me if i put in money to settle the loan, i prefer the money to sit in there rather than take in an out, coz i still have to settle the loan no matter what. not to mention i have to pay RM200 setup fees and RM10 monthly maintenance fee, which i could put back in the loan to lower my interest

you think you can save 0.2% by going with non-ZEC, but get ZEC is better, in the end is cheaper or no difference coz all the legal fees will cost you about 3% of the total loan cost. without non-ZEC you have to fork out 3% upfront, for me i cannot find the money to pay upfront.

beware of some banks who will finance your legal fees, which means, they will add in the legal fees into your loan, but that means they get to earn more money.. i.e. loan RM200k, legal fee = RM6k, so they loan you RM206k, and you have to pay the interest for this amount. if this is the case, why not you go for ZEC, where your loan is only RM200k still, but the difference in interest is 0.2%.

you can actually shop around and go direct to banks instead of getting some agent to do it for you.. this way you know you can evaluate and get the best deal, although it is more troublesome.. but i think if u eliminate a middleman, things are much more easier to follow up by going direct.


@yunalesca yeah RM10/month means nothing to you and me, but it means a lot to some ppl, why not use it for charity than benefit the bank!

haha.. i used RM0 to save >RM10

anyway, flexi loan or term loan.. if loan amount is RM100k, still have to service RM100k of loan.. nowadays got banks with term loan that does something like flexi loan.. (reduce interest if you put in more money, just a little more hassle to take out the money). for flexi, if i keep on put in and take money out frequently.. also don't really help to shorten the tenure much. for me, i think if i borrow money.. better to make constant payment and extra payment to shorten the tenure.. coz a loan is still a loan.

This post has been edited by kayx: May 21 2009, 12:03 PM

actually its not the loan that charge you RM10/month, but because your Flexi loan is tied to a current account, so you are "forced" to pay to maintain that account.
banks actually get to earn a lot through promoting flexi loan because they can "cross sell" their other products.

banks tell you the advantage of flexi loan, they don't lie and it's true what they say, but in actual... will you require to constantly take out money and put it in again? and although u get the flexibility to withdraw your money, if you do it often enough, the savings becomes minimal and the interest you pay still more of less the same. other than that, they also hope you will also take advantage of their overdraft, and they get to earn more again. so flexi-loan is really suitable for businessman, instead of poor man like me

some of us have the right approach and thinking when it comes to business.. i.e. safe harbor between personal asset and business risk, diversify your investment.. etc.. but then we still keep reading news of people falling into scams, owe ah long money cannot pay then kena harass.. people should know better, but then sometimes either people forget, or forced out of desperation.. and like the articles show.. act out of mindless irrational greed..

i don't condemn banks or the type of packages they sell.. but then.. everyone should never bite of more than they can chew.. somethings are like a knife.. used properly it will help you.. used wrongly.. it can hurt or killl you..

@onnying88 - correct me if i'm wrong but i thought that semi-term loan and flexi loan do daily rest calculation of your interest, so your interest is dependent on the amount owed to the bank at the time of calculation am i right? which means if i borrow RM200k from bank.. lets say monthly installment is RM1200/month.. but assume i pay RM1500/month and never take out any money at all.. my loan period will shorten right.. so the loan shorten loan period is still the reduced by the same amount no matter if i take term/semi-term/flexi loan right?

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Added on May 21, 2009, 6:01 pmi never managed to compare flexi and term from a single bank... don't ever recall any banks i contacted offer both.. fyi, i shopped around with SCB, HLB, PBB, Alliance, and OCBC

but what i was offered - SCB flexi higher (BLR-2.1) than PBB semi-term (BLR-2.2) for ZEC package.



This post has been edited by kayx: May 21 2009, 06:01 PM

for refinancing, do you have to pay penalty to CIMB if u switch?
when u switch to Maybank, is it zero entry cost, meaning the legal fees and valuation fee all covered by maybank?
these are some of the thing you should consider.

as for lower interest, especially for new house loan, the rate of disbursement also matter, no use if give a slightly lower rate but the disbursement slow end up paying penalty fee. then should also consider the customer service also (rarely we will encounter/require this unless got problem with the loan), who will pass you around the internal department until you also pengsan.. affin, eon bank gives very low rate but my friend in banking tells me their customer service not very good.

u said earlier ur loan from cimb.. why u change from cimb to cimb? then some more have to pay penalty fee? cannot ask cimb (ur current loan provider) to reduce the BLR for you? you can do that you know.. less hassle.

maybank absorb ur penalty? so good? but are they really absorbing your penalty or they add into your total loan amount?

what i did was i did a calculation for both scenario.
get a good mortage calculator from the net, normally in excel format. i got one from here http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/arm-calculator.html
to compute different scenarios, 3.6% or 3.85% in your case.. to find out the total payment i paid in 30 years. add in some MRTA or penalty fee and see which is more worth it..