A very common question is that which bank I should put my money for fixed deposit in Malaysia. The fact is that for whichever banks that you put your money in the fixed deposit, it is almost the same. Therefore, I would say that the bank that most convenient to you, you should choose that bank to put your money in the fixed deposit.
To get to latest updated fixed deposit (FD) rate in bank, you can either walk-in to the bank directly or you go directly to their official bank website. I don’t put the direct fixed deposit rate links here because they always change the links from time to time (no idea why they do this - *sign*). You can click through their website to get the most updated latest FD rate.
[Updated:31 Jan 2009]
Summary of fixed deposit rates for each bank for 12 Months FD Rate % :
Local Banks
Affin Bank - 2.50%
Alliance Bank - 3.00%
AmBank - 3.00%
CIMB Bank - 2.60%
EON Bank - 3.00%
Hong Leong Bank - 3.00%
Maybank - 3.00%
Public Bank - 3.00%
RHB Bank - 2.60%
Foreign Bank
CitiBank - 3.00%
HSBC Bank - 3.00%
OCBC Bank - 3.00%
Standard Chartered Bank -3.00%
UOB - 3.00%
[Updated: 03 Feb 2013] Sorry, I don't think the list above is no longer up to date. For latest fixed deposit and especially if you would like to see the trend, you can refer to this link here.
Although most of banks offer almost the same interest rate for fixed deposit, there are few exceptions which are Affin Bank, CIMB Bank and RHB Bank offer less than 3.0%. Apparently these are all local banks. I personally for local bank, I prefer Public Bank and for Foreign Bank, I prefer HSBC Bank. These are the 2 most effective banks in Malaysia in my opinion.
Btw, if your personal inflation rate is higher than 3%, would you still want to put your money in FD? Nope, you don't. For your emergency cash, then probably it is a good idea to put into FD. Stocks or unit trust is probably the thing that we should invest during this bad economy situation.
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Saturday, January 31, 2009
Latest Fixed Deposit (FD) Rate in Malaysia – Which bank should I choose?
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Maintaining EPF 11% contribution is not a Must!
As you probably have already known starting from Jan 2009, EPF contribution by default will be 8% unless you fill-up the EPF Form 17A (i.e. election to contribute in excess of the statutory rate). A lot of speculation around saying that you will end up pay more tax to government but this is not entire true! This is my recent conversation with a friend who thinks I’m stupid…
X Friend: I have changed to maintain 11% on my EPF contribution. Have you changed it yet?[Updated on 30 Jan 2009]
Me: Hmm… no. I don’t.
X Friend: Why are you so stupid? If you don’t change it, it means you pay more taxes to government. The government is really X#$%^X?@ (as usual how people like to complain the government).
Me: The maximum EPF amount that we can deduct from our income is RM 6000 together with the life insurance. My EPF and life insurance have already exceeded way more than RM 6000, so I won’t pay more taxes whether I contribute 11% or 8%. I believe yours most likely will also exceed RM 6000 since you also buy life insurance if I'm not mistaken.
X Friend: Are you sure or not? As what I have read, they don’t mention about this RM 6000 limitation. They even said the higher you earn, the more taxes you pay?
Me: Yes, they don’t. People don’t like to tell a complete story and most of the time we have to figure out by ourselves. Furthermore the main purpose of those stories is to shoot the government and not to educate us. It seems like quite successful from your respond. Hahah… :D In fact the higher you earn, it may not affect you.
We have to analyze by our own whether we should go for 11% or 8% not. EPF provides the options to us to make our own choice. In fact if you want to contribute more than 11% (I haven’t really verified this personally but I believe it is true), it is still okay. For example, if you want to maximize your EPF deduction to RM 6000 in order to pay minimum taxes, you can play around with the % contribution (This is one of the tax saving tips in my previous post too).
X Friend: Okay, I will go back and check whether I have already exceeded RM 6000.
Me: Also if you think EPF is a good investment, then let’s go for it to contribute 11% or more but you can’t say that you pay less taxes especially your EPF deduction + Life Insurance have exceeded RM 6000.
Only 22% of Malaysian have chosen to maintain their contribution rate at 11% as at Dec 31. Source: Berita Harian
In conclusion, don’t follow what majority think is correct and make sure you know exactly what you’re doing. Changing your contribution to 11% is NOT a MUST and make sure also you’re changing for the RIGHT PURPOSE. We shouldn’t ever invest or make decision based on the wrong purpose that will be a very dangerous things to do. So, should you change your contribution to 11%? Make your own decision!
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