Talking

I use the online banking services for many many years because I know that Maybank provides the most flexible online functions up to date.Now Maybank claims that it has developed the mobile portal which will bring more convenience to its existing customers.

Steps to log on the service on mobile devices are quite simple:

Some services could be done by the mobile portal:

• Account Summary
  • Balance Inquiry (Savings, Current, Credit/Debit Card)
  • M2U History, Recent Transaction, Today’s Transactions, Transaction History (Deposit, Credit/Debit Card)
• Funds Transfer
  • To Own Accounts
  • To Registered 3rd Party Accounts
  • To Registered Interbank GIRO
• Payments
  • Registered Bill Payment
  • Card Payment (Own)
  • Card Payment (Registered 3rd Party Accounts)
• View Rates
  • View Forex & Deposit Rates

Well,the service is still under beta stage and so the facilities are quite limited.I think it could be enhanced once it goes through more tests and gets more feedbacks.I wonder which bank will be the next one that will introduce mobile portal to be closer to an e-world.

All are starting from my fresh story.I’m a Maybank user for more than 7 years because I like Maybank2U-the online banking service very much.Thus,I normally save all my funds in my Maybank account and withdraw from ATMs when I need some cash.

Today I just past through Amcorp Mall and found that I only left very few money in my wallet.So I went to the nearest Ambank ATM to withdraw some cash.The terrible thing was there.I inserted my Maybank card into the ATM and followed all instructions as normal.The card returned as well as the receipt,but no cash out.

I stayed there for 5 minutes and yet nothing came out.I decided to go back home first to check the balance of my account online.It was bad that the amount had been credited from my account.Instantly I called to Maybank 24-hour customer service to report this incident.However,the phone was caught after I enjoyed waiting for 20 minutes.This is not the worst.After I got my report number,the staff told me that the fund will only be transferred to my account after 2-4 weeks until the investigation being done.

Oops,I feel I’m so lucky that I didn’t withdraw a big amount at that time.Otherwise,I have to eat bread during this month perhaps.I doubt that as what I know,banks check on the balance every day and furthermore a lot of work in the banks have been electronically.That means all information should be in real time.Why do I need to wait for that long to get my money back?

From this case,I realize that Malaysian local banks don’t know what the efficiency is yet.I’m so surprised!

If you are a credit card holder,I don’t think you will feel so strange on 0% interest.Actually a lot of banks take 0% interest as a big title for their promotions to encourage the existing customers to spend.Recently I got a similar ‘great’ deal from local H Bank introducing in the latest brochure.

In the brochure,it says I’m eligible to make cash advance within the available credit limit of the credit card with 0% interest.Read until this point,I had already raised up my questions:if 0% of interest,what will the bank earn?So I read carefully word for word and found this note:5% cash advance fee will be charged and the 0% interest rate is just for 6 months.

To some simple calculations,we just transfer 5% cash advance fee into annual interest rate,which will be 10%.Please don’t forget that 0% interest is only valid for the half year and after that period,the normal interest rate for credit balance will be charged.Thus,if people take this advantage to get some money,but unable to pay it up within 6 months,he will be charged more than 10% at the end.In fact,a few personal loan interest rates that banks offering are better than this.

Banks always play such tricks to bluff us,so we have to be smart enough to not let it work.

TO BE A SMART CONSUMER!

Currently I’m planning to buy a property as my first home with my fiancée.In order to know more about purchasing a property,I talked to some bankers,lawyers,agents and property investors who have professional knowledge and experience.I feel that the reintroduced 5% RPGT(Real Property Gains Tax) actually helps the buyers who want to get the property in this year.

1.what is RPG?

The RPG is the gain between purchasing cost and selling price of the same property.

For example,Mr. A bought an apartment X at RM80,000 in 2000.In 2010,he wants to dispose the apartment at RM120,000.The different is the RPG which is RM40,000(RM120,000-80,000).

2.What is RPGT?

Simplified it,RPGT is the tax charged based on RPG.In Budget 2010,the Malaysian government proposed to reimpose 5% RPGT irrespective of the year when the property is disposed and it would be effective from January 1st,2010.Of course,some exemptions are provided by the government:

*Disposal of a residential property once in a lifetime.
*Transfer as gifts between parent and child, husband and wife, grandparent and grandchild; (No exemption for transfer between sibling) and 
*Exemption of RM10,000 or 10% of the chargeable gain, whichever is greater, for each disposal of a property by an individual.

Continue with my previous example,

1.If it’s the first time,for Mr. A,to dispose a residential property,the RPG will be exempted to charge that 5%.

2.If Mr. A is not making sale on the property,but transferring the title to his wife or child or grandchild,no RPGT will be charged.

3.If Mr.A is not fulfilling the above 2 points,he has to pay for RPGT.However,some amount will be exempted.The details are as below:

The chargeable RPG is RM40,000 as per calculated,so 10% of the chargeable gain will be RM4,000(10% * RM40,000).As the exemption could be the greater of RM10,000 or 10% of the chargeable gain.Thus,in this case,the amount of RPG exempted for RPGT will be RM10,000 and the rest of RPG(RM30,000) will be charged for the RPGT at 5%,which is RM1,500.

That means after contributing the RPGT to the government,Mr. A could only get a profit of RM38,500(RM40,000-RM1,500) in 2010 by selling the apartment at RM120,000.

On the other words,if Mr. A could dispose the apartment at RM118,500 before 2010,he still can get the same profit.

Therefore,provided that Mr. A is really willing to get some targeted profit(saying RM38,500),he definitely will agree to price the property at RM118,500 in 2009.If going to 2010,he will have to increase the price to RM120,000 in order to achieve the expected profit.

That’s why I think to buy a property before 2010 is a very good choice because we’re able to persuade the seller to set a better price for a win-win situation.Now I just wish the seller who may meet in the near future knows RPGT too.

Kiva is a non-profit organization which had made possible $100 million in microloans between individual lenders and entrepreneurs all around the world.I joined the organization in September last year and lent $25 to Ven Much,a rice farmer in Phnom Penh, Cambodia,who wanted to add rice stock and raise pigs for extra profit by applying the loan.She lent sum up to $1,200.00 and repays for 20 months.

Till now,she always repays following the schedule and had paid up 61% of total loan.I feel happy that I just offered a bit contributions,but giving her a chance to improve her living quality.

From the list,you can see that I’m the only Asian lender in the project that I joined.That’s not what I’m willing to see because it seems the rich men in Asia haven’t been ready to feed back to the society where they grew up.I hope the rich could care for the poor all the time to achieve a wonderful unity in the near future which has less sadness and enmity,more happiness and forgiveness.

Join Kiva today,you know you’re going to a right way.