Hong Leong Doubling Interest Rates Promotion

Hong Leong Doubling Interest Rates Promotion
Valid Until 30 June 2016



Hong Leong Bank recently introduced the Doubling Interest Rates Promotion for its Current Account / Savings Account (CASA). In order to benefit from this promotion, your average balance for the current month must be higher than the average balance of the previous month.

To be eligible for the Bonus Interest, the Participants must show positive Monthly Account Growth by increasing the DAB in their Participating Accounts in four (4) consecutive months from the month of Successful Registration, failing which, the Bonus Interest Rate will reset to start from Participating Month 1 i.e. 0.5% p.a. for an Incremental Accounts Balance of up to RM2,500, followed by Participating Month 2 at 1% p.a. for an Incremental Accounts Balance of up to RM5,000 and so on, until the end of the four (4)-month period from the month of Successful Registration.

More info on the promotion


DAB = Sum of daily end day balances in each Participating Month
                     Number of days in each Participating Month

Monthly Account Growth = DAB of current Participating Month – DAB of previous Participating Month

The baseline to calculate Incremental Account Balance for each Participating Month is the last day closing balance in the Participating Account one (1) month prior to the month of Successful Registration.

E.g. 1
An existing customer successfully registers with HLB on 16 March 2016. The baseline is closing balance of RM5,000 on 29 February 2016.

E.g. 2
A new customer successfully registers with HLB on 16 March 2016. The baseline is closing balance of RM0 on 29 February 2016.


Incremental Account Balance (IAB) = DAB - Baseline

Only Incremental Account Balance (IAB) up to a maximum of RM2,500 per Participating Month will be eligible for the Bonus Interest i.e. no bonus interest will thereafter be rewarded for any Incremental Account Balance exceeding RM2,500.

Full Terms & Conditions


Maximizing the interest from the promotion

Out of all the CASAs offered by Hong Leong Bank, one of the accounts with the highest interest rate is Hong Leong Pay & Save Account. Read my earlier post here if you are not familiar with this account.
   
I will show you how to maximize the interest from the promotion with the interest from Pay & Save account. In order to fully maximize the interest you can get from the promotion, you will need to deposit RM2,500 monthly in the beginning of each month and ensure the IAB is RM2,500 for the 1st month, RM5,000 for the 2nd month, RM7,500 for the 3rd month & RM10,000 for the final month. 

In order to get 2.35% interest from Pay & Save account, you need to perform 15x e-Payments in a month. You can achieve it by doing online IBG transfer (FOC this year) to your account with another bank & transfer it back on the same day using IBG/IBFT from the other bank (charges vary depending on the bank). That way, your balance for the day remains the same. Do take note of the IBG cut-off time though.

The table below shows the total interest rate of Pay & Save account combined with the promotion's bonus rate.

It would be easier for new-to-bank customers to calculate the IAB as their baseline would be 0 if they open the new account & participate in the promotion in the same month. For them, IAB = DAB. They just need to deposit RM2,500 every month for four months in the beginning of the month and leave the money there untouched. If they do not use their account for anything else other than to transfer the money out & back in on the same day to get the maximum e-Xtra interest, they would get 2.85% interest for the 1st month, 3.35% for the 2nd month etc.

For existing customers, it would be more tricky. They need to identify the baseline first. Then deposit RM2,500 extra on top of the baseline every month for four months in the beginning of the month and leave the money there untouched. Everything else is the same as new-to-bank customers. Instead of the whole amount getting the interest above, only the IAB gets the 2.85% for 1st month, 3.35% for 2nd month etc.

Of course, it is not necessary to deposit the money in the beginning of every month & leave the money there untouched. You can do it anytime in the month but then the amount you deposit must be more than RM2,500 to get the maximum interest since the DAB would be lower if you deposit the money later in the month. You can perform other transactions as well but then you would have to calculate the DAB yourself to determine how much money you need to deposit into the account. You can even swipe your debit card 5 times to get extra 0.6% interest for your Pay & Save account if you don't find it too troublesome. If you do that, you will get 6.65% interest for the final month.

You don't have to do everything above to benefit from the promotion, it's up to you to decide how much you are willing to do to get higher interest rate. You can keep it simple and still earn some extra interest just by topping up your account with fresh funds or you can do just a few transactions more to earn more interest. Or you can go all the way to maximize every sen out of it if you don't mind the complexity & hassle involved. Just remember to register through SMS first.   



Coming soon

If you do not find this promotion confusing & troublesome, stay tuned for the next post where I will show you how to combine this with Maybank's GIA-i to earn more than 4.5% p.a. effective interest rate for 4 months which is better than any FD promotions out there.

Update:
The next post is ready. Click here to read how to earn more than 4.5% p.a. effective interest rate.