BSN SEDAR Saving

This is one saving that I recommend to almost anyone that I come across. The product is SEDAR Saving account by our national bank, Bank Simpanan Nasional. You can open more than one account and it offers basic annum interest rate of 4.5%. Upon completion of 1st year savings, you will earn interest + 15% bonus on interest, that is, total interest for 1st year is 4.5+(0.15*4.5) = 5.175%. Upon completion of 2nd year and subsequent year of savings, you will earn interest + 30% bonus on interest, that is 4.5+(0.30*4.5) = 5.85%.

To earn this kind of interest, you need to keep the account for at least a year and make the same monthly saving. Cancellation of account before completion of a full saving year will only earn you the normal saving interest rate.

The benefit of this kind of saving is that it forces you to make regular monthly savings. What I recommend is that, if you plan to save RM500 per month, split the amount into separate SEDAR accounts, for example, monthly saving of RM150 in two accounts and RM200 in another account. Just in case you need your money, you can cancel one of the active accounts and still earn the higher interest rate from the remaining savings. For more information, please visit http://www.bsn.com.my/1-AccountType.html.

To avoid monthly visit to the bank, you can open a GIRO account and make a standing instruction to automate money transfer from your GIRO to your SEDAR account. After this, all you have to do is to ensure that your GIRO account has sufficient amount for the money transfer.