Mach by Hong Leong Money Box Deposit Account – Current Account with EITHER okay 1.8% p.a. interest OR 5 free IBGs a month
Drawback: can’t have both high interest and free IBGs?! Also, no chequebook facility, so should compare this account with savings accounts (especially since unlike most savings accounts, the Hong Leong Mach Debit Card provided doesn’t link with Dream Jar Savings)

In-credit Interest Rates (with Sky High Savings feature, but then RM1 for any IBG):
<RM1,000: 0% p.a.
RM1,001 – RM10,000: 0.8% p.a.
>RM10,001: 1.8% p.a.
Minimum Deposit: RM50
Introducer Required: No
ATM Card / Debit Card Charge: RM8 / year
ATM / OTC Charge: Free unlimited ATM; RM2 per OTC transaction
MEPS ATM: RM1
IBG: RM1 (first 5x free each month with Free IBG Transfers feature, but then you get 0% in-credit interest)
Account Closing Fees: RM20 if within 6 months of account opening

The Hong Leong Mach Money Box Deposit account is effectively a online savings account with a debit card feature. This is because the Money Box account does not come with a chequebook facility, and OTC transactions are charged at RM2. Assuming you maintain a minimum balance of RM1,000 in the account each month, you can choose 1 of 2 interchangeable benefits every calendar quarter:

a) ‘Free Interbank Giro transfers (IBG)’ - first 5 online transfers are free using Hong Leong Connect (HLB online banking service)

b) ‘Sky High Savings’ – higher rate of savings 0%-1.8% p.a.

On first glance, it the Money Box Deposit account sounds interesting, with free IBGs OR ‘high’ savings interest. Looking again at the lack of cheque services and online-only access, it should really then be compared to a savings account (rather than current account), given that most savings accounts can be linked to debit cards as well. Once you do that, you can see that the rate isn’t table topping, click here for the best Savings Accounts in Malaysia.

The 5 free IBGs are nice to have, but given that there is no chequebook facility, it may not be that MoneySaving for people who pay a lot of 3rd party payees per month, we have compared the Top Current Accounts in Malaysia here which includes accounts with free IBGs (unlimited in some cases).

Don’t forget however, if you seek higher returns on your savings, please look at our out Top FDs or Instant savings account articles. The advantage of this account  is that it comes with a Debit card making it convenient for you make purchases but also giving you the flexibility of an ATM card.

Benefits:

1. Bank which is open 7 days a week and from 10am – 10pm
2. Full online control of account

Drawbacks:

1. No chequebook facility
2. Focused on the Technology literate Generation Y, RM2 per OTC transaction and RM2/month for paper statements (default = e-mail delivery)
3. Interest rates are not market-leading, and free IBGs limited to 5 per month

Mach by Hong Leong bank – Dream Jar Savings account – 2% interest on all balances saved + additional RM2 per RM500 saved (can get effective rates of 2.8-3.3% p.a.!)
Drawback: Cannot link Debit card to Dream Jar, so you can’t withdraw/spend from this higher-interest savings account (unlike most other banks); mandatory Standing Instruction from Money Box Deposit account required

In-credit Interest Rates: 2.00% p.a. (+ RM2 bonus for every RM500 of target acheived, paid at end)
Minimum Deposit: RM50
Bonus Interest limit: RM100

You need to be an existing Money Box Deposit Accountholder and create standing instruction from the Money Box Deposit that transfers money into your Dream Jar every month. For more information on the Money Box Deposit, please click here.

The Dream Jar is essentially a regular savings account that attempts to help you save up for something you’ve always ‘dreamt’ of having. Unfortunately right now, within the HLB online system, your dreams are limited to RM5,000 per jar (you can have 5 jars at any one time), so you can’t really be thinking bigger than RM25,000. Also, your Mach Debit Card isn’t linked to this account, so maybe we can’t really consider it a savings account (online savings account?). Then again, we can’t exactly compare it to Fixed Deposits either because you can take the money out any time by transferring it online (you lose your potential RM2 per RM500 bonus, but you do still get 2.00% p.a. on your daily balances…).

You simply put in the cost of the item, how much money you have right now to fork up as an opening balance and how quick you want to achieve this dream. They calculate for you how much each month you have to transfer into your Dream Jar in order to reach your ‘goal.’ The catch to earn the ‘RM2 per RM500 saved’ reward is that you have to set up a Standing Instruction which shifts money from the Mach Money Box Deposit account into your various Dream Jars, and it has to run consistently over the tenure.

The main features of the account is the 2% p.a. interest rate as well as an additional top up reward of RM2 per RM500 for accomplishing your goal, capped at RM100 reward in total per customer. Doing simple calculations, this adds up to 0.25-1.35% p.a. addition to the rate (higher percentage for shorter goal tenures).

How much is the effective interest rate of the account? It changes depending on tenure and initial amount to be saved, but we’ve done a little research, and you can potentially get a decent rate of 2.80-3.35% p.a. on your balances, including the bonuses given, putting this account at the top end of savings accounts in Malaysia. The trick here is to set short term goals (6 months) so that the value of the bonus reward is higher, and always set amounts rounded at RM500. You can get 2.80% if you save a high value close to the ‘goal’ amount at the start (eg. say initial deposit RM950 and deposit RM9 per month for 6 months to reach a goal of RM1,000), and 3.35% p.a. if you start with RM0 (but if you have the money anyway then be sure to save as much as you can at the start, it makes no sense to have the money sitting somewhere at less than 2.80% p.a).

Mach by Hong Leong Bank FD – Fixed Deposit account with okay-only interest but partial withdrawal facility
Drawback: rates for 1m, 3m, 6m and 12m FD are okay, but better rates to be found, even without considering promotional rates elsewhere

Interest Rates:
1-month: 2.95% p.a.
3-month: 3.00% p.a.
6-month: 3.00% p.a.
9-month: 3.00% p.a.
12-month: 3.25% p.a
Minimum Deposit: RM5,000 for 1-month, RM1,000 for others
Requirements: Money Box Deposit Account holder

Mach by Hong Leong Bank have introduced the Mach FD to their line-up. For the most part it looks like a normal FD account, with rates across the 1-month to 12-month spectrum, the big upsides here are that you can place it online (although you can pretty much do this with most other banks now) any day of the week (but not 24 hours a day, you can’t do it from midnight to 7am), and that you can perform partial withdrawals of RM3,000 without affecting the interest of the non-withdrawn portion for tenures of more than 6 months and deposits of more than RM10,000.

The big downside here is the at-market or just-below-market rates of interest. At the range of 2.95% – 3.25% across the tenures, you are looking at a good 0.3-0.6% p.a. less than the market best. Unless you absolutely need the flexibility of online placements and partial withdrawals without losing interest on the whole sum, you might be better off getting

You need to be an existing Money Box Deposit Accountholder to be able to open a Mach FD Account, so not all existing Hong Leong Bank accountholders.

Benefits:

1. Partial withdrawals allowed without affecting interest of remaining amounts
2. Full online control of account

Drawbacks:

1. Interest rates are not market-leading

UPDATE: Mach are currently (at the time of writing in January 2013) running a promotion on their FD account, offering now market leading rates for 6-12 month deposits! Check it out in our review here.

Mach by Hong Leong Bank MyPal – 0% interest overdraft (but high one time fees!) facility for real emergencies ONLY
Drawback: You need to open a Mach by Hong Leong Money Box Deposit; RM15 per overdraft transaction cost!

Overdraft facility: up to RM200 instant cash from ATM or purchase
cost of borrowing: 0% interest rate but RM15 per transaction fee that dips into your overdraft
Credit period: 3 days otherwise they may cancel facility
Eligibility: Existing Money Box Accountholders, aged 21 and 55 years, possess valid EPF statement and earn minumum RM24,000

MyPal is essentially a convenience line or overdraft facility for when you have insufficient funds to make an ATM withdrawal or purchase, it provides up to RM200 instant cash for that day, after which your MyPal account will be blocked until you repay the amount withdrawn plus the one-off fee. Be very careful as although it is advertised as interest-free, you will be charged a one-time fee of RM15 per transaction! This means if you make 3 transactions in the same day using your Mypal allowance, you would have to pay RM45 (RM15 x 3) even if you withdrew just RM10 each time from an ATM! You are expected to pay back the entire amount plus the charge within 3 days. If you are unable to do so, they may restrict this feature for you going forward, as well as affecting your other accounts with Mach / Hong Leong bank.

To provide a picture of how much this RM15 actually costs yearly assuming they provide you this credit facility for 3 days: Best case scenario is to withdraw RM200, and repay the RM200 + RM15 charge on the 3rd day is more than 600,000% p.a. (yes, 600k!)

Therefore if you really have to use this feature for cash, always take out the maximum RM200 because the charge will be the same regardless of withdrawn amount. Otherwise SaveMoney.my suggests avoiding the use MyPal unless it is really an emergency due to the hidden unfriendly costs for dipping into the overdraft amount. In fact, if you have a credit card (with some credit left), using it would be a better idea than the MyPal!

Mach by Hong Leong Bank – Mach Credit Card – get 0.2%-10% cashback on certain types of spending; with 2x cashback (so 0.4% – 20%) in first 3 months; up to RM400 cashback / month
Drawback: Must pay RM5 quarterly per additional category, low average % cashback on all spending and no reward points, need large spending to get maximum cashback

Cashback: 0.2% general purchases, 1%-10% on specific categories. (2x cashback for the first 3 months if you apply before 17 November)
Paid Out: Monthly
Max cashback: RM33.33 per category per month – RM400 per month (if you subscribe for all 12 cashback categories (RM45 fee per month)
Annual fee: RM160 principal, RM80 supplementary.
Rate: 15-18% p.a. (should not matter if card used properly!)
Card Issuer: Mastercard
Min. income: RM24,000 p.a. (RM2,000 per month)
Service Tax: RM50

The Mach credit card is more or less a exotic Cashback credit card which is offering 2x cashback for 3 months if you sign up before 17th November 2012 which equates to cashback rates of 0.4% – 20% and max monthly cashback of RM800. But is this actually realistic? Read on to find out why this is only possible under fairly severe spending!

From first glance it is a creative way for people to earn cashback depending on what they spend on. What makes this card different from the majority of the cash back credit cards is that the cardholder can decide for himself a package that will entitle him to the most cashback by choosing from a selection of ‘categories’ that suit his spending lifestyle.

Upon applying for the card, you will have to pick one of the above packages, either Social, Trendsetter or Savvy which comes with 3 of their respective categories. The first thing to notice is that Petrol and Utilities are not included spending. You can then apply for each category individually to receive additional cash back on at those merchants but there is a charge of RM5 per quarter per added category, otherwise you will receive a measly 0.2% on all other spending outside of the categories subscribed. Therefore to cover all categories, you have you subscribe for 9 of them, coming in at RM45 every quarter for this credit card, or RM180 per year. This is on top of the RM160 annual charge which brings the cost for the principal in platinum credit card territory at RM340 per year. Even then, the glaring point to notice here is that Petrol and Utilities spending is not included in any category so you will be stuck with 0.2% (0.4% during this bonus period of 3 months) regardless of which category you add.

However this is the most extreme case, so if you know what sort of spender you are or have other credit cards that offer better cashback, do not subscribe for all of the extra categories as they will be a sunk cost. You can change your subscribed categories every quarter using Hong Leong Connect.

Although Mach credit card allows users to maximise their cash back habits, there are better credit card for cash back out there. We are not sure what the Mach credit is supposed to be, because although its available to those earning RM24,000, the fees required to make the card useful is very high, as you have to spend on purchases to break even with the fees paid upfront. In fact, high spending individuals may find this card more attractive as the maximum cashback per month is high at RM400 per month. Lets take a look at the required expenditure with the 2x Bonus for the first 3 months.

From the table, it shows that you would have to spend almost RM20,000 per month to obtain maximum cashback for each category with the Mach Credit Card. Even if you don’t spend that much, assuming you spend in those proportions above, you can expect an overall cashback rate of ~2% on your total spending (~4% in the first 3 months). While this is OK, you could be getting up to 5% on more types of spending, so please do take a look at the best cash back credit cards out there in the market here. The positive with the Mach Credit card in relation to the market is that the cashback limit per month is a high RM400 (RM800 during bonus period), so it’s a reasonable card to consider for big spenders as a 2nd or 3rd cashback credit card to use after they’ve maxed out cashback limits on their higher rate (but lower limit cards).

Mach by Hong Leong Bank Cruise Control – Reducing balance car loan that can be conditionally approved in just 15 minutes. One of the few car loans that calculates interest using variable rate!
Drawback: Rate can very depending on BLR rate. Lower borrowing rates elsewhere even after converting to flat interest rate.

Eligible Person: Malaysian citizens aged from 18 to 70 years old. If an individual is between 18 to 29 years old, an acceptable guarantor is required unless the approving authority is satisfied that the applicant is financially sound/creditworthy

Financing Tenure: Up to 9 Years

Margin of Finance: Up to 90%

Borrowing Rate:
BLR variable rate = 6.6% p.a.* (subject to BLR rate changes) which is approximately 3.5%-3.7% p.a. flat rate

Early Settlement charges: As the interest is calculated daily on a fixed rate, there is no rebate as you don’t have to pay flat interest rates for the entire term. There is a 3% charge for early repayment within 3 years.

The Cruise Control Car Loan (CCCL) is how Mach by Hong Leong Bank will entice you to grab that car that you’ve always wanted by offering you something similar to a flexi home loan or offset mortgage. The difference between CCCL and most other car loans is that Mach offers you flexibility of your loan by way of reducing the balance of your loan by depositing money into something called your Drive Account, the current account linked to your CCCL.The balance in your drive account will offset the interest charges payable on your CCCL, which means a bigger percentage of your monthly installments will be paid to reduce your loan amount, thus reducing the outstanding balance of the CCCL quicker and therefore total interest payable is lower. This is different to most car loans that use a flat interest rate whereby your interest payable is fixed and calculated upfront.

The interest rate is currently 6.6% which is the current BLR rate in Malaysia. This may seem much higher than most car loan borrowing rates. This is because the interest is calculated using a variable rate on the remaining balance of the loan (just like a home loan) whereas most car loans are flat rate. For more information of the difference between fixed (and variable) and flat rates, please visit our loan guide here.

VARIABLE RATE at 6.6% p.a. is approximately 3.5%-3.7% p.a. after converting to FLAT RATE.

Mach claims to offer you the car loan in 15minutes, under certain conditions. You can spread the cost of borrowing up to 9 years but as mentioned earlier, you can reduce this by depositing money into your drive account. You can either visit a branch or click here.

Mach by Hong Leong Bank IOU Personal Loan –  No processing and administrative fees, up to 25% Cashback + potential 25% Bonus cashback if you sign up before 31 October 2012
Drawback: Lower interest rates elsewhere 

Profit rate:

- 12% p.a flat rate

Listed Features

• Financing amount from RM5,000 to RM250,000
• Long payment up to 5 years
• No processing fees
• No guarantor or collateral needed (up to RM50,000)
• Additional Cashback (if you sign up before 31 October 2012)

The I.O.U personal loan also known as the ‘I owe you’ personal loan is suitable for those looking to obtain a personal loan quickly. Mach claims they are able to disperse funds of up to RM50,000 with 5 years duration within 60 minutes with no guarantor or collateral required. However they are able to increase the principal amount to RM250,000 but the process may usually take longer.

The prevailing rate is 12% flat rate which works out effectively to 19% to 23.5% as an effective annual rate depending on the tenure. If you are not sure what the difference is between flat and fixed rates, take a look at our loan interest rate guide here. However Mach is offering an incentive for you to repay your monthly installments on-time for the entire duration of the loan by giving you back 25% of the total interest payable (20% only if you earn less than RM36,000 per annum). Therefore your effective flat is is 9% (10% for those earning less than RM36,000)

Eg. Kimberly earns RM40,000 per annum and wishes to take a personal loan of RM10,000 with a 12% flat interest rate.

Yearly total interest would be RM10,000 x 12% = RM1,200. However she will get 25% cashback off the total interest paid, so RM1,200 x 25% = RM300 cashback. Therefore her yearly total interest paid is RM1,200-RM300 = RM900.

Therefore the yearly effective interest rate is in fact 9% which makes it much more competitive in the personal loan space. This works on a monthly basis after the 6th installment, so from month 7 onwards your repayments will reduce to show this cashback. The catch is if you miss just one payment, the entire cash back will be forfeited.

For early repayment,  Mach are currently offering an additional 25% of the total cashback paid to you by the time you fully repay your loan. As seen in the below table, you have to repay your loan before the prescribed month in order to benefit from this promotion depending on the length of tenure.

Financing Tenure (years)	Prescribed month for Early Settlement
2	14
3	21
4	28
5	36

For example, if you decide to take a 3 year loan and settle it before 21 months, any cashback paid to you at that point, Mach will pay you an additional 25% on top of that.

Although there are no hidden charges, we would like to point out there is the 0.5% stamp duty fee on principal loan amount required to be paid, so if you took out a loan of RM100,000 x 0.5% = RM500 will be charged.

SaveMoney.my suggests anyone who wishes to take a personal loan out, to always only borrow only for the time they need the money rather than taking out a loan for the ‘just-in-case-’ scenarios. What we mean by this is if you need to borrow money for 2 years, don’t take a 5year loan out because it will really cost you to repay a 5 year loan even if you settle it early.

To find out which are the best rates available, please visit out personal loan guide here.