Business

Friday June 19, 2009

Maybank’s Amex Gold offers lowest annual interest rate


KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) is offering the lowest interest rate for credit cards in the country at 9% per year with the launch of the American Express Gold card yesterday.

Before this, Affin Bank offered the lowest credit-card interest rate in the market at 9.9% per year.

Senior executive vice-president and consumer banking head Lim Hong Tat said the bank was targeting about 150,000 new card-holders to sign up for the card within 12 months, adding to its existing 1.5 million card-holders.

Lim Hong Tat (left) shaking hand with Kula Kulendran after launching the American Express Gold credit card

“We will continue with our efforts to offer the best products to customers,” he said at the launch of the card, a partnership between the bank and American Express, yesterday.

“The introduction of the new card is significant, given the challenging economic environment where customers are seeking greater value proposition from their financial service providers,” he added.

Lim also said the new card offered a special introductory of zero finance charge to card members until end-December.

“However, to enjoy the 9% interest rate offered by this card, card-holders need to make prompt payments.

“They’ll be charged 16% interest rate per year if they missed the minimum payment of one or two months within a 12-month cycle and 17.5% for those who missed their minimum payment more than two times within the period,” he said.

He added that the most important thing for customers to remember was to be disciplined when using credit cards.

Lim also said Maybank’s current non-performing loans rate was still under control at below 2% compared with the prevailing industry rate of 2.4%.

American Express Int Inc Japan, Asia-Pacific/Australia senior vice-president and head of global network services, Kula Kulendran, said the product was in line with the call by Bank Negara to lower interest rate charges for credit cards.

The new card offers members a lifetime annual fee waiver apart from giving five times membership reward points for every ringgit charged on groceries, petrol and at selected bookstores.

Applicants need a minimum annual income of RM36,000.


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