Hong Leong Bank drops BLR rate to 5.55%

As expected, more Malaysian commercial banks are announcing a lower BLR rates following Bank Negara OPR rate reduction. The new BLR rate for Hong Leong bank will be 5.55% effective from 2 March 2009.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer American Express Credit Card

American Express has launched a new co-branded credit card with Singapore Airlines which allows the card members to accumulate KrisFlyer miles with all purchases made with the credit card. Card members will get 1 KrisFlyer miles for every RM 1 spent. As a promotional award, the first usage of the card will be awarded with 3000 KrisFlyer miles. Annual fee is RM 250 for principal card and RM 125 for supplementary card. For more details, click here.

This card should be suitable for frequent flyers to accumulate KrisFlyer miles. Based on my personal experience with Singapore Airlines, they are one of the best airlines you can get with their superior connectivity, convenience, and good food and entertainment channels So, if you are those who likes to fly, get this card soon!

ABM: Lower Monthly Installment Within Same Tenure

Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM) has announced that all bank customers with loan facilities with Malaysian commercial banks that are pegged to the Base Lending Rate (BLR) will automatically enjoy a lower monthly installment within the same loan tenure. The banks will be notifying the customer on the new lower monthly installments as well as the effective date of the new installment amount.

However, for those who wish to maintain the current monthly installment and hence shorten the loan tenure, you should get in touch with the banks' customer services to obtain further information.

Maybank reduced BLR to 5.55%

I was wrong, and I'm glad I was wrong on this case. My previous post mentioned that the BLR for most commercial banks in Malaysia will most likely to be reduced to 5.65 - 5.7%. Yesterday, Maybank started the ball rolling by reducing their BLR rate to 5.55%. It wasn't the same margin of 0.5% reduction of OPR as announced by Bank Negara, but at least it's much better than my guesstimates.

I would expect most major commercial banks in Malaysia will follow this Maybank taikor, except those smaller banks that might want to squeeze a bit more reduction to 5.5%, based on past BLR reduction precedence.

So, for those who wants to refinance, DO IT NOW!!! Those attrative refinancing rates of up to BLR - 2.4% are NOT going to last forever, since the BLR is at the historical low level now.