OCBC Inflation Buster Promotion

OCBC is offering you a savings solution to combat inflation with its "OCBC Inflation Buster Promotion" FD promotion, from 1st April until 31st July 2014. The promotion is open to individual customers only.

OCBC Head Start Promotion

OCBC launched a new FD promotion, the "OCBC Head Start Promotion", from 1st December 2013 until 31st March 2014. The promotion consists of 4 products and is open to individual customers.

The promotion details are summarized in the table below:

No	Product	FD Tenure	Interest Rate	Eligibility
1	Deposit Deal	3-month 12-month	3.10% p.a. 3.30% p.a.	Min RM 10000 placement and max RM 1 million deposit.
2	Investment Deal	3-month	4.00% p.a.	Purchase any one or more of the selected OCBC Investment products.
3	Savings Deal	3-month	4.28% p.a.	Min RM 10000 placement and max RM 1 million deposit, with equivalent amount place in CASA and earmarked for 3 months.
4	Premier Bank Deal	3-month	5.50% p.a.	Premier Banking customer with 3 Product Holding where 1 of the products must be non-deposit product.

The OCBC Head Start Promotion is not as good as the previous Mega Save Promotion. Overall, the interest rate offered is lower. For Savings Deal, the FD placement amount must be equivalent to the CASA earmarked amount, which makes the promotion even less attractive.

OCBC World MasterCard

I received a letter from OCBC a few days back, explaining on the reasons why they are making changes on the OCBC Titanium Card. I was quite surprised to receive this letter from OCBC as there was no paper notification on the changes previously.

I'm quite agree with what was mentioned in the opening. Credit Cards offered in Malaysia have several common characteristics:

1. Big rebate % but only limited to 2 - 3 specific categories e.g. Petrol, Groceries and Utilities. On other spend, the rebates and rewards are typically much lower than 1%.
2. Rebates earned are usually capped at RM 30 - RM 50 per month.
3. Rebates are applicable only at specific merchants or only on specific days.
4. Rebates are only awarded upon a minimum spend or number of swipes.

According to OCBC, these are the reasons why they offer the 1% rebate with absolutely no cap on OCBC Titanium Card. Based on Mastercard's Processed Data for the past 12 months, OCBC analyzed and concluded that Malaysians charge 75% on everything else while only 25% on Petrol, Utilities, Groceries and Restaurants.

In the end of the letter, OCBC also offers current Titanium Cardholders an option to upgrade to OCBC World MasterCard. First year annual fee will be waived and RM 50 rebate will be given if you choose to upgrade. The promotion is valid until 31st January 2014.

The main features of OCBC World MasterCard are as below:

1. 1.2% rebate on all retail spend with no cap, no minimum swipes and spend.
2. Free personal accident insurance coverage (up to RM 2 million) when you charge your full airfare to your World MasterCard.
3. 2X free access per calendar year to the KLIA Plaza Premium Lounge.

I would recommend current Titanium Cardholders to upgrade and enjoy 1.2% rebate. Cardholders should then consider whether to continue holding the card or not before reaching one year. This is because the annual fee for subsequent year is RM 388 per annum, which is very high.

OCBC Titanium Card Features Revision

OCBC had recently made an important announcement to revise its Credit Card features. The revision will be effective beginning from 29th November 2013.  There will be no more 5% rebate on dining, groceries, utility bills and petrol for OCBC Titanium Card.

Instead, OCBC Titanium Card holders can get 1% rebate on total retail spending with no limit. Besides, OCBC Titanium Card will be free for life and thus no more minimum 12 swipes per year requirement for annual fee waiver.

This is really a bad news to all OCBC Titanium Card holders especially those who just got approved. While continue getting 5% rebate until 28th November 2013, many of us will wonder which cards could be the replacement for OCBC Titanium Card?

My suggestion is to get Maybankard Dual, UOB One Card or Hong Leong Wise Credit Card depend on your spending pattern. Of course, we do hope that there will be another new card to be launched by other banks with similar features like the current OCBC Titanium Card.

OCBC Mega Save 2 Promotion

OCBC Mega Save Promotion is ended in September but OCBC Mega Save 2 Promotion is back again until 31st October 2013!

The promotion details are summarized in the table below with the previous rates striked out:

No	Product	FD Tenure	Interest Rate	Eligibility
1	Save Together Deal (Joint)	13-month	3.70% p.a. 3.55% p.a.	Min RM 10000 placement and max RM 500000 deposit.
2	Save Solo Deal	12-month	3.40% p.a. 3.30% p.a.	Min RM 10000 placement and max RM 1000000 deposit.
3	Investment Deal	3-month	4.00% p.a.	Purchase any one or more of the selected OCBC Investment products.
4	Savings Deal	3-month	4.50% p.a. 4.20% p.a..	Min RM 10000 placement and max RM 1000000 deposit, with 50% of equivalent amount place in CASA.
5	Premier Bank Deal	3-month	5.50% p.a.	Premier Banking customer with 3 Product Holding where 1 of the products must be non-deposit Wealth product.

The same promotion on foreign currency time deposits where eligible customers can enjoy additional 5.00% p.a. interest rate for 1-month tenure for the selected currencies as below:

Currency	Prevailing Board Rates (27th May 2013) (9th Sep 2013)	Promotional Rates (Additional 5.00% p.a.)
Australia Dollar (AUD)	2.25% p.a. 2.10% p.a.	7.25% p.a. 7.10% p.a.
New Zealand Dollar (NZD)	1.84% p.a. 2.08% p.a.	6.84% p.a. 7.08% p.a.
British Pound (GBP)	0.14% p.a. 0.00% p.a.	5.14% p.a. 5.00% p.a.
Singapore Dollar (SGD)	0.09% p.a. 0.19% p.a.	5.09% p.a. 5.19% p.a.
United States Dollar (USD)	0.00% p.a.	5.00% p.a.
Chinese Yuan (CNY)	0.50% p.a.	5.50% p.a.
Canadian Dollar (CAD)	0.12% p.a. 0.13% p.a.	5.12% p.a. 5.13% p.a.
Japanese Yen (JPY)	0.02% p.a. 0.13% p.a.	5.02% p.a. 5.13% p.a.
Euro Currency (EUR)	0.00% p.a.	5.00% p.a.

The Mega Save 2 Promotion is exactly the same as the previous promotion but with lower interest rates.

OCBC Mega Save Promotion

OCBC has launched another series of FD promotion, the Mega Save Promotion, from 1st July until 30th September 2013. The promotion consists of 6 products and is open to individual customers.

The promotion details are summarized in the table below:

No	Product	FD Tenure	Interest Rate	Eligibility
1	Save Together Deal (Joint)	13-month	3.70% p.a.	Min RM 10000 placement and max RM 500000 deposit.
2	Save Solo Deal	12-month	3.40% p.a.	Min RM 10000 placement and max RM 1000000 deposit.
3	Investment Deal	3-month	4.00% p.a.	Purchase any one or more of the selected OCBC Investment products.
4	Savings Deal	3-month	4.50% p.a.	Min RM 10000 placement and max RM 1000000 deposit, with 50% of equivalent amount place in CASA.
5	Premier Bank Deal	3-month	5.50% p.a.	Premier Banking customer with 3 Product Holding where 1 of the products must be non-deposit Wealth product.

There's another promotion on foreign currency time deposits. Eligible customers can enjoy additional 5.00% p.a. interest rate for 1-month tenure for the selected currencies as below:

Currency	Prevailing Board Rates (27th May 2013)	Promotional Rates (Additional 5.00% p.a.)
Australia Dollar (AUD)	2.25% p.a.	7.25% p.a.
New Zealand Dollar (NZD)	1.84% p.a.	6.84% p.a.
British Pound (GBP)	0.14% p.a.	5.14% p.a.
Singapore Dollar (SGD)	0.09% p.a.	5.09% p.a.
United States Dollar (USD)	0.00% p.a.	5.00% p.a.
Chinese Yuan (CNY)	0.50% p.a.	5.50% p.a.
Canadian Dollar (CAD)	0.12% p.a.	5.12% p.a.
Japanese Yen (JPY)	0.02% p.a.	5.02% p.a.
Euro Currency (EUR)	0.00% p.a.	5.00% p.a.

The Mega Save Promotion is almost similar to the previous promotion with the add on of foreign currency time deposits product. The only difference is that the minimum deposit amount is increased from RM 5000 to RM 10000.

OCBC Share for More FD Promotion

OCBC is currently having its Share for More Promotion until 30th June 2013. The campaign consists of 3 FD promotions and 1 investment promotion.

The promotions in the campaign are as below table:

No	Product	FD Tenure	Interest Rate	Eligibility
1	Joint Account FD promotion	3-month	3.55% p.a.	Min RM 5000 deposit and max RM 1 million
		12-month	3.70% p.a.
2	Solo Account FD promotion	3-month 12-month	3.40% p.a.	Min RM 5000 deposit and max RM 1 million
3	Savings promotion	3-month	4.50% p.a.	Min RM 5000 deposit, with 50% of equivalent amount place in CASA
4	Premier 3-month FD promotion	3-month	5.50% p.a.	Premier Banking customer with 3 Product Holding where 1 of the products must be non-deposit Wealth product.

The Joint Account FD offers the highest interest rate among the promotions with up to 3.70% p.a., one of the highest in market currently.