Lower Credit Card Interest Rates from March 31, 2009 onwards

Early last year, Bank Negara introduced the new tiered interest rate structure for credit card which was implemented from 1st July 2008.

Barely 9 months into the new structure, Malaysian banks are lowering the interest rate again in order to encourage more good repayment habits among the credit card holders. The interest rates is going to be reduced between 0.5% to 1.5%.

Interest rate for Tier 1 (all the 12 consecutive months of prompt payment in the past 12 months) would be reduced by 1.5% from 15% per annum to 13.5%.

Interest rate for Tier 2 (10 or 11 months of prompt payment in the past 12 months) will now be reduced by 1% from 17% to 16% per annum.

Lastly, interest rate for Tier 3 (less than 10 months of prompt payment in the last 12 months) will have only 0.5% reduction from the current 18% to 17.5%.

Source: TheStar

The new interest rates structure will be benefiting those who pay promptly every month (Tier 1) as compared to those in Tier 3.

Besides, the late payment charges will also be reduced from the present RM10 to RM5. However, there is no changes on the 20 days interest-free on partial payments.