I feel sorry for these people who resorted to colluding with merchants to take out money from their credit cards. These are people who could not control their spending. And colluding with these merchants to take out more money from their credit cards means digging bigger holes.Surely there must be a better way to reduce the interest payments without resorting to colluding with these unethical merchants.

First of all, why not choose to utilise the “zero balance transfer” promotion? The cardholder can transfer the outstanding balance of a credit card to another card and pay zero interest for a certain amount of time. I know not every card issuer have this promotion. And usually this promotion is offered as an incentive for new cardholders to sign up.

Next, can try to talk to AKPK. Perhaps they can help work out a repayment plan to pay off the credit card debt. Maybe they could even talk to the card issuer to have some of the charges and interest reduced.

Something strikes me as odd. These people can pay upfront 18% cash to the merchant. Seems to me these people are not cash strap. It seems to me that these people wanted to withdraw cash from their credit cards.

If taking a cash advance from their cards through the bank, they will be charged a 5% cash advance fee plus will start charging 18% interest on the amount outstanding immediately.

Instead, these people are willing to pay the 18% interest upfront to the merchant. And on top of that, another about 4% interest on the installment on the credit card. This clearly is a worse deal than taking out a cash advance directly from the card issuer. Because with the card issuer, the actual amount of dollar interest you pay will reduce as the months go by if you pay your installments monthly. The total amount of interests paid could be less than 18%.

Without analyzing the situation, options and financial impact properly, these people have dug a deeper hole. These merchants have no interest in helping the cardholders lower their interest expense. They are only interested in fattening their wallets.

Savings account should be free, and I’ll tell you how to get one at the end of this post. We are already getting very low savings interest rates. I feel that it is unfair to impose fees on savings account.

When we save our money with the bank, we are actually lending our money to the bank. The bank takes our money and lends it out as housing loans, overdrafts, etc. and makes alot of money via interest.

Imagine the bank earns 3% in mortgage interest, and then pays the savers 0.2% as savings interest. The bank makes 15 times more than the savers. Yes, the banks need to make more to cover its overheads. However, my point is the bank is using our money as working capital to earn even more money and so it is unfair to impose miscellaneous fees on savings accounts.

Today, I have closed my CIMB savings account. Thereby saving me RM8 ATM card fee a year. I have my Maybank savings account for many years now and I have never had to pay any fees on my savings account.

Can you imagine, if the amount of money in your savings account is small, and the interest you earn is little, then the annual RM8 ATM fee will wipe out all the savings interest you have earned in the whole year. And maybe your savings interest is not even enough to cover the ATM fee.

Many banks, when you ask to apply for a savings account, the customer service will recommend that you open XYZ savings account. However, these savings accounts come with all types of fees such as the popular annual ATM fee, and maybe penalties if your account is lower than the minimum balance. What you need to do is ask for “zero fee savings account”.

Here’s my personal experience. I went to HSBC to open a savings account. The customer service introduced a couple of savings accounts to me. But these come with fees. I told the customer service that I don’t want any fees. The customer service explained that all savings account now comes with at least the RM8 ATM annual fees. I insisted that I’d only open a savings account if there’s no fees. The customer service checked and rechecked her computer and finally showed me a savings account without any fees.

Remember, “the customer is always right” and the banks do have no fees savings accounts. It’s just that they don’t recommend these savings accounts outright because these accounts don’t make money for the banks.

CIMB credit card has this promotion on MPH. Every first Sunday of the month, the cardholder will get a 10% rebate for purchases from MPH.

On the first Sunday of June, I made two purchases from MPH. One time at the MPH bookstore and one time at the MPH book fair. When I received my July statement, I saw the rebate for the purchase from the MPH bookstore, but no rebate for the purchase from the MPH bookfair.

From July until September, I made at least 4 calls to the CIMB customer service complaining about this issue. It was decided by CIMB that I was not entitled to the rebate because MPH had used a different merchant terminal instead of the CIMB merchant terminal. I pointed out that the advertised promotion didn’t mention anything about requiring my credit card to be swiped at a CIMB merchant terminal. CIMB admit that it was a mistake but they couldn’t do anything for me. I was advised to talk to MPH directly.

I took my case to MPH. Within less than a week this case have been settled. I was given a RM10 voucher. MPH informed me they will inform CIMB to revise the 10% rebate promo to exclude purchases made at book fairs. The value of the voucher is more than the 10% rebate I would have gotten. So, I am happy at the outcome.

I wonder why couldn’t CIMB liaise with MPH directly? Why make the cardholder liaise with the retailer? What if I had made this purchase from outstation? Does CIMB expect me to go all the way back to the retailer to settle the issue?

I buy about RM1,000 worth of books every year to maximise my tax relief. And they can count on me to continue supporting them. However, this can’t be said of CIMB. I feel that CIMB is overpromising and underdelivering. I am seriously reviewing my relationship as a cardholder with CIMB.

I applaud the Government’s decision to extend the “Alternative International Malaysian Passport” to all Malaysians. This passport costs only RM100 and is valid for 2 years instead of normal passport which costs RM300 for 32 pages or RM600 for 64 pages and valid for 5 years.

I am an infrequent traveler. In fact, the furthest I’ve ever been to is Singapore. A couple of years ago, I had to travel to Singapore to help cover my colleague who was on maternity leave. Ever since then, I’ve not been to Singapore. Well, I may have to travel again if she decides to have another baby.

This move by the Government helps infrequent travelers like me save some money.

Last month, I achieved my first hundred thousand net worth. I also pledged to accumulate my next hundred thousand by the end of 2010, which is about 16 months from now. I’ve listed out my sources of income as a starting guide to see where and how my next hundred thousand will come in.

For the next 16 months, I estimate my income to be as follow:

1. I’d be able to save about RM3,000 a month from my salary (after deducting normal expenses eg. internet, mobile, petrol). In 16 months, I would be able to save RM48,000.
2. Business is bad this year. I don’t expect my bonus to be as high as last year. I’m estimating about RM6,000 bonus, after EPF, taxes etc.
3. I have some side income. Thank God it has started to pick up again. I earn about RM1,400 a month. In 16 months, I would be able to save RM22,400.
4. The dividends from my investments, is estimated to be about RM6,000.
5. I have some uncollected payments from some jobs, valued at RM2,600.

1 to 5 totals to RM85,000. This means a shortfall of RM15,000. What are the opportunities available that could help me narrow the gap and achieve my target?

1. I’m 100% invested in stocks now. My current portfolio value is about RM100,000. Can my portfolio appreciate 15% in the next 16 months? If yes, then the capital appreciation of 15% or RM15,000 will help me achieve my target. However, given that consensus views are that the stock market is already overvalued, I cannot count on further upside in my investment portfolio to cover my shortfall.
2. I have loaned a friend about RM5,000. I have already written this amount off after many unsuccessful attempts to collect the loan. I think now I have to be more persistent to collect this loan and if I am successful, I will be able to cover 33% of my shortfall.
3. Cutting back on my spending. Hmmm, I don’t think I can cut back anymore. I’m already spending very little.
4. Perhaps it’s time to setup a website to advertise my SEO services. If I can get a job every two months, this would add about RM5,000 in 16 months.
5. Join multiple contests and sell off the prizes? You’d be surprise to know that my brother has a friend who is doing this for a living.

Looking at the list above, accumulating my next hundred thousand in the next 16 months is certainly an achievable target. I’m looking forward to this challenge. It’s a nice feeling to watch my net worth grow month by month.