Following Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s announcement last week of providing targeted bank assistance once the current six-month moratorium ends on 30 September, Malaysian banks have begun preparing to offer the required aid to eligible customers.

Accordingly, Hong Leong Bank (HLB) has drawn up a payment relief assistance plan to support their customers who foresee difficulties in restarting their regular payments come October. It will provide payment flexibility according to your current financial situation, such as if you’d lost your source of income or had to take a pay cut.

HLB’s payment relief assistance plan will be provided as follows:

Customers who lost their source of income

You will be given a moratorium extension of three months for all your loans, including term loans that have been converted from your credit card balances. And just like current six-month moratorium, no additional interest/profit will be charged. HLB will also reach out to you to reassess your financial condition before the end three-month extension to determine if you require further aid.

Customers who took a pay cut or faced business cashflow problem

Here’s a breakdown of the aids provided according to the types of loans that you have:

Types of loans	Types of financial aid
Mortgage Property financing-i Business cash loans	Pay only the interest/profit for a period of up to 15 months (until December 2021). Reduce your monthly instalment payments by 25%, 50%, or 75% for six months, commensurate with your pay cut or financial situation. The tenure of your loan will also be adjusted accordingly. Step up your instalment payment for up to 2 years, i.e. pay a lower instalment amount during this period. When the step-up period is over, your monthly instalment will be gradually increased based on the tenure and outstanding balance of your loan.
Hire purchase/Hire purchase-i Personal loan/Personal financing-i ASB financing-i Credit card with relief conversion plan	Reduce your monthly instalment payments by 25%, 50%, or 75% for six months, commensurate with your pay cut or financial situation. The tenure of your loan will also be adjusted accordingly.
Overdraft account Cashline-i account	Convert your overdraft/cashline-i amount to a term loan.

HLB also clarified that unlike customers who are given the 3-month moratorium extension, interest/profit will be charged on the deferred amount for this group of customers who take up the above payment relief plans.

That said, HLB emphasised that the assistance provided are individualised and can be adjusted to suit each customer’s financial situation. The bank will first assess your financial condition, affordability, and account status before coming up with a suitable plan to match your needs.

Customers seeking assistance for credit card repayments

HLB noted that it will continue to offer its credit card customers the option to convert their outstanding balances into a term loan until 31 December 2020. This measure had previously been rolled out together with the ongoing automatic moratorium back in April 2020. You can convert your balances into smaller instalments at the interest rate of 13% p.a. for 36 months.

***

During your application for the payment relief assistance plan, you will be required to declare your current income, employment information, and nature of cashflow impact. As such, you may want to prepare relevant documents in advance, such as your letter of retrenchment or reduction of salary.

In its FAQ, HLB also noted that it will contact the applicants within 5 working days once it has received their applications. Following that, the bank will send you an SMS notification or email to inform you of the status of your application, although HLB did not state how long the process will take. The bank further reminded that the payment relief assistance plan will not impact your Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS) rating, provided your account is less than 90 days in arrears.

Meanwhile, customers who are ready to restart their repayments in October 2020 can resume doing so, although there may be changes to the tenure of your loans to let you clear your deferred instalments or accumulated deferred interest. HLB said that it will notify you of the revised details before 1 October so that you can resume your payments with ease.

To find out more about HLB’s payment relief assistance plan, head on over to its website. Alternatively, if you’re ready to apply for the plan, you can fill in the online form here.

• TAGS:
• Covid-19
• Extended Moratorium
• Hong Leong
• Hong Leong Bank
• Moratorium
• Moratorium FAQs