MoneySoSpecial.com » Hong Leong Bank

Your Credit Card Safe Enough To Prevent Internet Fraud?

kenson — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:01:08 +0000

To make online shopping safer, it is advise to make sure you have an extra level of authentication. The ‘extra’ level, is a password that you will have to enter after entering your credit/debit card details while making online payments.

This new technology is called Verified by Visa (for Visa card) or MasterCard SecureCode (for MasterCard).

Verified by Visa (VbV) is an online service designed to make Internet transactions safer by authenticating a cardholder’s identity at the time of purchase. Verified by Visa software installed at a merchant website activates the cardholder interface during the authentication process.

The goal of Verified by Visa is to create a level of consumer trust and confidence in online shopping similar to that in the physical shopping environment. It is designed to improve both cardholder and merchant confidence in Internet purchases as well as reduce disputes and fraudulent activity related to the use of Visa payment cards. As a merchant you can benefit from guaranteed payments and reduced costs associated with the most common types of Internet disputes with Verified by Visa.

Visa official website has provided animated demonstrations show how simple it is for customers to use Verified by Visa:

MasterCard SecureCode is a new service from MasterCard and your card issuer that provides added protection when you buy online. There is no need to get new Mastercard card. You choose your own personal MasterCard SecureCode and it is never shared with any merchant. A private codes means added protection against unauthorized use of your credit or debit card when you shop online. Every time you pay online with your MasterCard card, a box pops up from your card issuer asking you for your personal SecureCode, just like the bank does at the ATM. In seconds, your card issuer confirms it’s you and allows your purchase to be completed.

You can check out the basic demonstration provided in MasterCard official website from the link below.

How It Works Demonstration

Bear in mind that not all banks in Malaysia offering this extra security safeguard a.k.a Verified By Visa & MasterCard SecureCode. Having this extra security feature can safeguard your cards against Internet transaction fraud.

Please do enroll your cards to Verified By Visa or MasterCard SecureCode as soon as possible. Internet transaction can be happened anytime if your card number, name, expiration date and CVV number being exposed. We don’t know when this will happen and this is possible happen, especially those people with quick reading can read and memorize these information within few seconds.

List of bank in Malaysia offering Verified By Visa & MasterCard SecureCode:

(click the name of the bank to visit the bank official page for more information)

Alliance Bank
EON Bank
HSBC
MBF – Visa, MBF – MasterCard
Hong Leong Bank
Public Bank
Bank Islam
CIMB Bank
Maybank (Maybankard Secure Online Shopping (MSOS))
RHB Bank
Direct Access

Don’t forget to check out this site for step by step to activate Verified By Visa & MasterCard SecureCode for most of banks listed above.
http://www.ipay88.com/my/3dsecure.asp

Lastly, make sure you know How To Prevent Credit Card Fraud.

Mortgage Loan for My Dream House from Public Bank

kenson — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:18:53 +0000

Securing a mortgate loan is the most important step in the home-buying process. However, choosing the most suitable mortgate loan can be one of the most stressful and important decisions in a persons life.

So I am going to share my experience in getting housing loan for my dream house, which I posted before in my personal blog, CherasVista.blogspot.com.

Getting loan for my property

One month after paid the booking fees, we finally made the decision to accept the offer from Public Bank. The process of getting housing is not easy task for new buyer like us. We spend quite a lot of times to meet with banker, agent to know more details about the available loan types in market now. We learned numerous of the “new terms” during the proccess such as conventional, semi-flexi and fully flexi, FEC, ZEC, NZEC, lock-in period, penalty, etc…Wow, not easy man.

Below is the offer details that I got from Public Bank, which we think as the best offer we got.

Rates: BLR-2.2 Whole Tenure

Loan Type: Semi flexi, Free Entry Cost (FEC)

Loan Tenure: 30 years

Lock In: 5 years from full release

Penalty: 3% of the balance of facility

Prepayment: Any amount. No notice required

Redraw facility: 2 days written notice

Min 5k & multiple of 1K

RM50 per transaction (heard this can request to waive )

One request per month

Upfront fee: Bancruptcy search (75*2), Site Inspection (100), Stamping (20) = RM270

Advantages:

- Bank wellknown with efficiency (of course efficiency in chasing you to pay installment as well)

- The best rates being offer among HLB, Alliance, OCBC in terms of ZEC package.

- Semi flexi is more suitable for us because we are financial independent and we will equally pay everything for the house. Fully flexi feature might not useful for us because will be harder to maintain for both of us.

- Penalty is lower as it based on the outstanding amount by schedule, compare to other bank which is based on loan amount.

- No monthly maintainance fees to pay.

- Can use the extra money for investment instead of use it as prepayment. As the current housing loan rate(about 4%) is very low and any kind of investment can easily yield better return (>5%).

- If you selling your house in locking period and your house buyer gettting loan from Public bank, your penalty will be waived.

- The prepayment terms is straight forward, any amount will be treat as prepayment and redrawable.

- No need buy MRTA

Disadvantages:

- Have to pay upfront fee – RM270

- Withdrawal need to pay RM50, much more higher than other which normally charge RM10 only.

- Have to walk in to request withdraw money. Very far to go Taman Maluri branch and have to go during working hour too.

- Separate of the payment – Installment have to pay into saving account (or current account) and prepayment have to pay into loan account.

Summary of others offer I got:

Bank: Alliance

Rates: Year 1-5 BLR-2.05, Remaining BLR-2.1

Loan Type: Fully flexi, Free Entry Cost (FEC)

Bank: OCBC

Rates: BLR-2.4 Whole Tenure

Loan Type: Semi flexi, Non Zero Entry Cost (NZEC)

Bank: Hong Leong

Rates: BLR-2.15 Whole Tenure

Loan Type: Fully flexi, Free Entry Cost (FEC)

My thought:

Actually Standard Chartered bank can offer better rate but they declined my application due to SC not the panel bank of Cheras vista 3. I got to know other borrower able to get better rates from public bank, which is BLR-2.3(when we applied and was told will get this rate) even for lower loan amount. I tried to call the banker to ask for appeal but he is not very helpful to fight for better rate. So end up we didn’t do any appeal and just accept the offer. There might be some factor caused us unable to get our desire rate, but we tried our best already and we just accept it. No point getting mad because of extra few hundreds per year.

The most important thing is we got our dream house.

List of Charge Cards Issuers in Malaysia

kenson — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 08:30:46 +0000

List of Charge Cards Issuers in Malaysia:

Bank	Charge Card Endorser
Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank)	American Express
Hong Leong Bank Berhad	American Express
ISynergy Sdn Bhd	Mastercard
Diners Club (Malaysia)	Diners Club
Al-Rajhi Islamic	Visa Electron, Musafir-Hajj (SAR)

For more information about charge card, can visit to the respective bank/card issuer official website.

In summary, charge card could be considered as alternative to credit card if you preferred to settle your debt every month, want to enjoy better rewards and no limit on spending.

Credit Card List in Malaysia

kenson — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:07:59 +0000

Visa & MasterCard are the most popular credit card issuer in Malaysia. There’s no different when using the card for purchase. However, each card issuer offered different promotion and privileges. The promotion and privileges are different for each types of the card as well. So it is good to know which bank offered Visa or MasterCard and the types of the card as well, to fully enjoy the privileges of the card.

This post summarized the list of credit cards available in Malaysia. The table below will showing the list of bank and the types of credit card offered, either class, gold, platinum, Visa Infinite or World MasterCard.

Bank	Visa				Master
	Classic	Gold	Platinum	Infinite	Classic	Gold	Platinum	World
Affin Bank Berhad	Y	Y	-	-	Y	Y	-	-
Alliance Bank Berhad	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	Y	-
AmBank Berhad	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	-	-
Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	-	-
Bank Rakyat	Y	Y	-	-	Y	Y	-	-
Bank Simpanan Nasional	Y	Y	-	-	Y	Y	-	-
CIMB Bank Berhad	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Citibank Berhad	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	-	-	-
EON Bank Berhad	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	Y	-
Hong Leong Bank Berhad	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	Y	-
HSBC Bank	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	-	Y
Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank)	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	Y	-
OCBC Bank Berhad	Y	Y	-	-	Y	Y	Y	-
Public Bank Berhad	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	Y	-
RHB Bank Berhad	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	-
Standard Chartered Bank	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	-
United Overseas Bank Malaysia	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	Y	-
AEON Credit Services (M) Berhad	Y	Y	-	-	Y	-	-	-
MBF Cards Sdn Bhd	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	Y	Y

From the table above, we can know that CIMB bank is the only bank offered the complete set of credit cards for Visa & Master Card, range from the classic card to the highest range of the card, Visa Infinite & World MasterCard.

The following information is deemed correct at the time of posting. Feel free to contact me if there’s any correction to made. Thanks.