Standard Chartered Bank will introduce some changes to its PrivilegeSaver savings account. The main tweaks involves the distribution of bonus interest, as there are now caps on the amount you can earn interest.

Previously, account holders could earn up to 6% p.a. on the monthly average balance (MAB), as long as certain conditions were fulfilled, which makes it one of the best high-interest savings accounts in Malaysia. Effective 1 February 2020, there are now certain caps on the amount of MAB you can earn bonus interest on.

This sounds a bit confusing, so we’ve laid the changes out in a table below. The main mechanics of the Privilege$aver account remain unchanged: you can still get up to 6% p.a. in interest once you fulfil the Save, Spend, and Invest/Insure requirements. The base interest rate remains the same at 0.5% p.a. and the bonus interest rates for fulfilling each requirement in a month are also unchanged.

Bonus Category	Requirement	Bonus Rate	Previous Cap (MAB)	New Cap (MAB)
Save	Single deposit of min RM3,000 in fresh funds	2.0%p.a.	None	None
Spend	Min spend of RM1,000 on Standard Chartered credit cards	1.5%p.a.	None	RM100,000
Invest/Insure	Purchase of regular monthly investment or insurance (min RM1,000)	2.0%p.a.	None	– RM20,000 for purchase value of min  RM1,000/month – RM100,000 for in purchase value of min RM6,000/month

*MAB = Monthly average balance

To sum up, those who fulfil the credit card Spend requirement will now get bonus interest credited on up to RM100,000 of their MAB, where previously it would apply to the whole of their MAB.

The same mechanics apply to Invest/Insure: your qualifying purchase will allow you to receive an additional 2.0% p.a. on up to RM20,000 of your MAB with your investment or insurance amount is a minimum of RM1,000 a month. But, if you spend more than RM6,000 a month on investment or insurance, the bonus interest will apply on up to RM100,000 of your account balance.

These changes are more likely to affect those who have a higher account balance in their Privilege$aver. The Save requirement remains unaffected, whereas only those who have more than RM100,000 in their bank accounts will see the effects of the interest cap for Spend. The category that will see the biggest impact is Invest/Insure, due to the lower cap of RM20,000 and the steep requirements needed to push that cap to RM100,000.

The revision to the Standard Chartered Privilege$aver will kick in on 1 February 2020. Standard Chartered has extended the Privilege$aver up until 31 January 2021 (it was set to expire at the end of this month), so it’s likely that we’ll see these terms in place for the next year at least.

(Source: Standard Chartered)

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• Standard Chartered
• Standard Chartered Privilege$aver