How to Apply for a Credit Card without Income Document

Since Year 2012, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) had tightened the rules to control the issuance of credit cards. I've shared about the minimum requirement to apply for a credit card previously. According to BNM's guidelines, if you are eligible to apply, you still need to submit income documents such as EPF statement, Form B or pay slips together with the application of new credit card.

However, not all banks impose such stringent requirements. Therefore, if you do not have income documents but still wish to get a credit card, there are 3 methods to do so:

1. Place FD in a particular bank and apply for credit card.
2. Sign up for EPF Skim Simpanan Persaraan 1Malaysia account and deposit RM 480 monthly into the account.
3. Sign up for a particular bank's product such as hire purchase or mortgage loan and request for credit card.

I'll go through the first method which is called FD pledging. There are a few banks that accept FD pledging, Maybank requires minimum RM 3000 FD placement while Hong Leong and AmBank require at least RM 5000 FD deposit. I would certainly recommend Maybank as the minimum FD amount is lower and Maybankard 2 is one of the best cards in the market.

These are the steps to apply for a credit card by pledging FD:

1. Visit the nearest Maybank branch, tell the officer that you would like to pledge FD to apply for credit card. 
2. Once FD placement is done, original FD slip will be kept by the bank, you will be given the photocopy version instead. Make sure that you apply for Maybankard 2 Gold.
3. After 1 week, the branch will call you up to sign for off set letter and pay for RM 10 stamp duty.
4. You should be able to get your credit card 2 weeks from the application date.

Please bear in mind that the credit limit of the card is equivalent to FD placement amount and if you withdraw the FD, you must cancel the card at the same time as well.

Special thanks to forumer komayong and kimo for sharing on the Maybank FD pledging.