HL Bank (Hong Leong) iSavings Account promo

[sgreview]

Shall start this tread for discussion and sharing of HL Bank new iSavings account promo, currently 1.98%p.a. till 30 Apr 2020.

https://www.hlbank.com.sg/en/person...tent=sem_brand_2&utm_term=personalbankaccount

Sharing this link with some discussions as this seemed to be the hottest promo this month, perhaps time for its own tread :
https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/money-mind-210/lastest-s$-deposit-updates-part-3-a-5575909.html

Feel free to start sharing your personal experience with HL Bank here!

 

[BBCWatcher]

The 1.98% interest rate is only valid through April 30, 2020. Rates are not guaranteed, and there is a S$30 early account closure fee if you close the account within 6 months of opening.

Let's suppose you place S$100,000 in this account (over the SDIC protection limit of S$75,000, please note) today and then withdraw it on April 30, 2020, when the promotional interest rate expires. You get about 12 weeks of interest, which equates to about $457. Deduct $30 for the early closure penalty, and that's $427. That equates to about 1.85%.

How about a $50,000 placement today? That'll generate about $228 of interest, or $198 net after the $30 penalty. That's equivalent to about 1.72% p.a. interest.

This offer is not too bad if you happen to need a place to park fairly substantial funds through the end of April. However, for a minimum $10,000 placement a 3 month fixed deposit at CIMB is likely to work better, with a 1.70% p.a. interest rate currently.

 

[sgreview]

The 1.98% interest rate is only valid through April 30, 2020. Rates are not guaranteed, and there is a S$30 early account closure fee if you close the account within 6 months of opening.

Let's suppose you place S$100,000 in this account (over the SDIC protection limit of S$75,000, please note) today and then withdraw it on April 30, 2020, when the promotional interest rate expires. You get about 12 weeks of interest, which equates to about $457. Deduct $30 for the early closure penalty, and that's $427. That equates to about 1.85%.

How about a $50,000 placement today? That'll generate about $228 of interest, or $198 net after the $30 penalty. That's equivalent to about 1.72% p.a. interest.

This offer is not too bad if you happen to need a place to park fairly substantial funds through the end of April. However, for a minimum $10,000 placement a 3 month fixed deposit at CIMB is likely to work better, with a 1.70% p.a. interest rate currently.

Thank you and agree with your analysis.

But just to share my view: HL Bank seemed to want a share of pie in this short term CASA game, playing alongside similar products like MB iSAVvy, SCB esaver, HSBC Step Up etc, so we may be seeing more promo after this round ends. As of now, their rules are not as clear as the abovementioned banks. So join only if u are familar with the game and is flexible and can change as and when according to what u need and what is avaliable in the market.

It is true that u will have to do your math carefully esp if u are placing 50k or lesser, but as this is a saving account, HL Bank T&C is to keep 1k min to avoid the fall below fee, so depends on individuals, u may not have to pay $30 just to close after 3 months if it make sense to u, furthermore, as mentioned, the staff I spoken to seem to be saying that there may be more promo after Apr, so shall see how it turns out. Lastly, their prevailing interest (without any promo) is still higher than all local banks, so IMHO, leaving the min amount to keep the account active is still feasible.

 

[sgreview]

Here to share a summary of my experience with HL Bank thus far, so far so good, quite impressive with their service as they were polite and prompt to follow up!

My Timeline:
Applied iSavings Account via website on Tue 4 Feb evening.
Received call to verify on Wed 5 Feb morning.
Received account number on Thurs 6 Feb afternoon.
Transferred (FAST) funds in the same day and clarified over phone.
Awaiting for IB token (3-7 working days)

Some important points to note:
1. Some people will get their account opened the instant they applied and thus can choose to activate Internet Banking (HL Bank Connect) immediately.
2. Others will have to wait up to 3 working days and will NOT have access to IB until physical token is received via mail.
3. IB token will be sent automatically, don't need to do anything after u applied
4. The fast transfer daily limit is 50k and the limit is for the day the fund is transfer out (Kind of low, hope they can increase this soon!).
5. Waiver of monthly service fees for February, March and April 2020 (got clarification from the manager and they also just update this in their website)
6. Have to keep min 1k after Apr 2020 to avoid the fall below fee of $10 per month.
7. Fees and Charges apply for over-the-counter transactions (make sense, it's an INTERNET banking account afterall)
8. S$30 early account closure fee, if the account is closed within 6 months of opening

Hope this helps.

 

[dork32]

The 1.98% interest rate is only valid through April 30, 2020. Rates are not guaranteed, and there is a S$30 early account closure fee if you close the account within 6 months of opening.

Let's suppose you place S$100,000 in this account (over the SDIC protection limit of S$75,000, please note) today and then withdraw it on April 30, 2020, when the promotional interest rate expires. You get about 12 weeks of interest, which equates to about $457. Deduct $30 for the early closure penalty, and that's $427. That equates to about 1.85%.

How about a $50,000 placement today? That'll generate about $228 of interest, or $198 net after the $30 penalty. That's equivalent to about 1.72% p.a. interest.

This offer is not too bad if you happen to need a place to park fairly substantial funds through the end of April. However, for a minimum $10,000 placement a 3 month fixed deposit at CIMB is likely to work better, with a 1.70% p.a. interest rate currently.

why do you have to close the account after 12 weeks? can you put withdraw everything and leave the min sum there for another 3 months before you close it

 

[BBCWatcher]

why do you have to close the account after 12 weeks? can you put withdraw everything and leave the min sum there for another 3 months before you close it

That's another option. However, I'm just going by their "Fees & Charges" that they list on their Web site, and they indicate there's a $10,000 (not $1,000) minimum balance required to avoid a $10/month fall below fee. (The $1,000 figure is the minimum initial deposit required within 30 days, and they waive the fall below fee during the promotion period.) If their own posted information is correct, then you could be better off accepting the $30 early account closure fee and heading elsewhere on April 30, 2020. It depends on whether the interest rate is at least decent enough past that date, which is certainly not a given, so I made the reasonable assumption you'll want to bail on April 30, 2020 -- or at least you ought to evaluate the offer that way.

 

[sgreview]

That's another option. However, I'm just going by their "Fees & Charges" that they list on their Web site, and they indicate there's a $10,000 (not $1,000) minimum balance required to avoid a $10/month fall below fee. (The $1,000 figure is the minimum initial deposit required within 30 days, and they waive the fall below fee during the promotion period.) If their own posted information is correct, then you could be better off accepting the $30 early account closure fee and heading elsewhere on April 30, 2020. It depends on whether the interest rate is at least decent enough past that date, which is certainly not a given, so I made the reasonable assumption you'll want to bail on April 30, 2020 -- or at least you ought to evaluate the offer that way.

With all due respect, u are wrong, u may have overlooked an important point which was what happened to me initially too, until I was corrected when speaking to their manager. So once more, as mentioned in my reply in post #3, HL Bank iSavings Account is a SAVINGS account and the min amount to keep is 1k only. What @BBCWatcher was referring to is min for CURRENT account which is 10k.

I have done my own DD. If taking steps like speaking to their manager and 3 staff, and reading the same "Fees and Charges" document on the website is not as accurate as what u said, I rest my case.

https://www.hlbank.com.sg/content/d...ndCharges/standard-fees-and-charges_fixed.pdf

For those who are interested to clarify whose version is accurate, please refer to abv link, look for "Savings Account" at the bottom of Pg 2, not top of the page as that is for "Current Account". If still not convinced, feel free to call and clarify yourself. Better to be sure yourself.

P/s: I am not promoting this bank or account, I am simply sharing my personal experience as quite a number of peoplehave been asking and sharing in another "general deposit" tread, so thought that it may be better for people to consolidate their discussion in this new tread. So ya, to each his own. Do your own research and analysis. Cheers~

 

[BBCWatcher]

So once more, as mentioned in my reply in post #3, HL Bank iSavings Account is a SAVINGS account and the min amount to keep is 1k only. What @BBCWatcher was referring to is min for CURRENT account which is 10k.

OK, that's obviously better. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[testingabc]

I noticed about this HL iSavings first on the 1st feb and post onto the Money Mind sticky thread. Personally I will keep my funds on Maybank iSavvy and see the rates on 1st March before making a decision cause iSavvy float is $500 while this is $1000. Furthermore the daily FAST limit for iSavvy is $200K while HL is $50K. Will keep at Maybank iSavvy/iSavvy-i unless the rates drop a lot on March.

 

[iduncheckmail]

I will be extremely surprised if MBS don’t revise rates down next month

 

[luvpraline]

if the account is 0 after april, how are they going to charge the fall below fee?

 

[yiron]

if the account is 0 after april, how are they going to charge the fall below fee?

Technically they can't, unless they have a hard block like Maybank that prevents you from withdrawing everything.

 

[yongsaver]

wow. this HLB thingly also got a thread of its own.

BBCwatcher calculation seems low at $457 for the 3 months.

If one goes by days which I think is what banks normally use:
Feb, March and April got 90 days altogether. 90/365 x 1.98% x 100,000 = $488 dollars.

That said, for me, interest is not a big factor as i am transferring from HSBC EGA (2%) to put into HLB. Its more to reduce concentration risk at HSBC.

 

[yiron]

wow. this HLB thingly also got a thread of its own.

BBCwatcher calculation seems low at $457 for the 3 months.

If one goes by days which I think is what banks normally use:
Feb, March and April got 90 days altogether. 90/365 x 1.98% x 100,000 = $488 dollars.

That said, for me, interest is not a big factor as i am transferring from HSBC EGA (2%) to put into HLB. Its more to reduce concentration risk at HSBC.

Makes sense, given that any amount excess of $100k at HSBC Step Up earns only 2%, which is not much higher than HLB 1.98%. HLB has some other fringe benefits like lucky draw and travel insurance as well...

 

[BBCWatcher]

If one goes by days which I think is what banks normally use:
Feb, March and April got 90 days altogether. 90/365 x 1.98% x 100,000 = $488 dollars.

Yes, and if we could get in a time machine it'd be January, 2020, again. It's now February 9th as I write this. It also takes a business day or two to get the account opened.

 

[yongsaver]

Yes, and if we could get in a time machine it'd be January, 2020, again. It's now February 9th as I write this. It also takes a business day or two to get the account opened.

Yes bro. My example only consider the full interest for the promo cycle assuming someone open acc on 1st and transfer on 1st. For HLB, instant acc opening is technically possible although i dont know whether got people transfer money in without internet banking set up.

 

[iduncheckmail]

Yes bro. My example only consider the full interest for the promo cycle assuming someone open acc on 1st and transfer on 1st. For HLB, instant acc opening is technically possible although i dont know whether got people transfer money in without internet banking set up.

It’s 5mins account opened (with internet banking SMS OTP). Wait few days for hardware token

 

[yongsaver]

It’s 5mins account opened (with internet banking SMS OTP). Wait few days for hardware token

yep. slightly longer than cooking instant noodles.

 

[happiee]

Unfortunately i din get the privilege of instant setup. Could be related to employment as most of the questions revolve that when they called. Its worrying that we don't get any notification on the incoming transfer. Hopefully it works fine as I did my transfers on sat. That's another trade off compared to other banks who have 24/7 CS.

I am confused about the waiver of MONTHLY SERVICE FEE till April. What exactly is that? I only heard of fall below fee but how does this monthly service fee works? What happens after April?

 

[iduncheckmail]

yep. slightly longer than cooking instant noodles.

hahaha, actually may be faster than cup noodle. Maybe only about the time you take to boil water .....