Best Premier Banking in Malaysia

Premier Banking vs Priority Banking

The article is a work in progress and I’ll be updating it as and when new information becomes available. Thank you everyone that messaged and emailed me with your experiences.

First, let me clarify that premier banking and priority banking aren’t the same. They are miles apart. You need to have RM250K and above to be eligible for premier banking. For priority banking, it is at least RM3 million.

In this article, we will be talking about premier banking primarily because I am only eligible for that and have experience with it. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, we can talk about priority banking. I’ve also spoken to some of my friends as well as readers to collate their experiences here for you to make a decision.

If you’re thinking of upgrading from being a mere standard customer to joining the higher ranks in premier banking, let me start by telling you that premier banking isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

Premier Banking in Malaysia Ranked – The Good and the Bad

The reason I’m writing this article is because I myself am looking to switch away from my current bank – Maybank to one that offers better services. And since I’ll be doing my research on premier banking in Malaysia anyway, I might as well jot everything down here and share this with everyone.

The list below is based on my 1-year long experience with Maybank’s Premier Banking as well as the experiences of my friends and colleagues with other banks as well. The general good and bad are listed here and we will go into each bank’s good and bad later in the article.

No long queues

Let’s start off with the good first. In the day to day running of my businesses, I require weekly (sometimes daily) cash deposits over the counter or through ATMs.

I get to skip ahead of the queue to conduct my usual banking. Oh, and you also get to park in a designated spot for premier banking customers. But this isn’t great because, at my branch, the parking is always occupied.

Better and faster service

With a premier banking card, and at branches where they have premier banking, I’m allowed to head to a specially designated floor to do my banking, deposits, and whatnot there. At some branches, you get coffee and canned drinks while you wait. You get WiFi if you’re lucky.

I’ve also seen some branches where they provide newspaper, a tv that reports on financial news. Some even have PCs for you to do your online banking or stock trading if you choose to.

Better mortgage and loan rates

You’re able to procure slightly better rates when applying for mortgages and hire purchases. As a premier banking customer, you’ll also be afforded a less stringent loan approval process.

A personal relationship manager

I’ve been a premier banking customer with Maybank for about a year now. As a premier banking customer, you’re assigned a personal banker, also known as a relationship manager (RM) that acts as a liaison and caters to your banking needs. Instead of having to head over to the branch directly, you’re able to make certain transactions over the phone.

Your experience as a premier banking customer is highly dependent on the RM that’s assigned to you. Unfortunately for me, I’ve been assigned one that is very pushy and sales oriented and sees fit to constantly bombard me with product offers every other week. And being the nice person that I am, I have to come up with excuses to politely reject his proposals.

The products offered to me have always been unit trusts, packaged products that consist of unit trusts and more unit trusts.

Idle Cash

Now this is the worst part for me. All banks in Malaysia will require you to either have cash/investments or loans with them to be eligible for premier-ship.

Personally, I place my cash in fixed deposits and treat this as my emergency fund. I practice FD Laddering. Yes, you often are able to get slightly better FD rates but still, I don’t like the idea of RM200K or more sitting in the bank generating measly returns.

1. Maybank Premier Banking

1. Service: Good (Sitting area)
2. Parking: Designated spot, no sticker was provided to me, had to show my debit card to prove I’m a customer.
3. Requirement: RM200K AUM
4. Special Credit Card: Didn’t opt for it.
5. RM: Pushy
6. Products and services :
   1. CASA
   2. FD (Mediocre rates)

I’m fortunate enough to be able to be eligible for premier banking. I park the minimum amount in fixed deposits as emergency funds and invest the rest.

The best thing about Maybank’s premier banking for me is actually being able to conduct my banking transactions quickly. What usually takes me 30 mins to an hour can be done in probably 10-15 mins.

Perhaps I got a pretty pushy RM and also it is because I’m well versed in finance and investing that the products offered were of very little interest to me. The only time I put money with my RM is when he offered the bundled ASM product to me where I managed to get some of the coveted fixed priced units. I write about it hERE.

All in all, premier ain’t nothing much to shout about so the next time you see someone walking up the stairs or to the premier banking section, you know that it really isn’t that big of a deal.

2. Alliance Privilege Banking

1. Service: Good
2. Parking: Designated spot, able to park no questions asked.
3. Requirement: RM300K AUM
4. Special Credit Card: Lifetime fee waiver
5. Products and services:
   1. CASA (2.25% for deposits more than 350k)
   2. FD Slightly higher compared to standard board rates.
   3. Dual Currency Investment
   4. Foreign currency retail bonds

This one was provided by one of Alliance’s own RM.

3. AmBank Signature Priority Banking

1. Service: Posh waiting area.
2. Parking: Designated spot, able to park with car sticker, no questions asked. Usable in all AmBank branches.
3. Requirement: RM200K AUM
4. Special Credit Card: No particularly attractive benefits
5. RM: Standard
6. Products and services :
   1. CASA
   2. FD (Slightly higher rates)

Special products: Yet to be discovered.

This one was provided by Mr. T, a fellow reader who wishes to remain anonymous.

4. OCBC Premier Banking

1. Service: Excellent
2. Parking: Designated spot
3. Requirement: RM300K AUM
4. Special Credit Card: Platinum credit cards
5. RM: Pushy, salesman
6. Products and services :
   1. CASA
   2. FD (Mediocre rates)
   3. Bundled UT with FD (FD slightly higher rates but high UT fees)
   4. 24hr loan approval status!

This one was provided by my good friend and fellow financial blogger Siva at sivasathish.com.

5. HSBC Premier

1. Service: Good (Free WIFI, sitting area, financial channel, coffee, tea. Self-service coke, sprite, packet drink.)
2. Parking: Designated spot, able to park with car sticker, no questions asked. Usable in all HSBC branches, 2-hour limit.
3. Requirement: RM200K AUM
4. Special Credit Card: HSBC Premier Master Card (Free access to airport lounge)
5. RM: Professional
6. Products and services :
   1. CASA
   2. FD (mediocre rates)
   3. Dual Currency Investment
   4. Unit Trust (Birthday month 1% sales charges)

• Special products: When you are an HSBC Premier customer, you are automatically a premier customer overseas as well. USA, UK, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, China without having to meet their overseas’ minimum requirements. When you transfer your funds between countries, it is a real-time transaction and does not include service charges. You can get a credit card in that country as well.
• Oversea banking benefit: If you get an HSBC HK bank account. You can trade shares in the HK market (high fees). However, you can apply for HK IPO using margin. E.g. Ant Financial. You can apply for a 90% margin and pay only a 10% investment fund. This will increase your chances to get the IPO share as HK IPO is base on the size of the application to allocate the IPO. For E.g. If the allocation rate is 10% and 1 lot is 100 shares. If you apply for 100 shares, your chance is 10% to get 100 shares. If you apply for 1000 shares, your chances are 100% to get 100 shares. However, to use margin to apply, your address must be HK address.
• You can get a credit card in other areas like HK. You get the credit line of HKD 200K. The bank requires no collateral.

This one was also provided by Mr. T, a fellow reader who wishes to remain anonymous.

6. Standard Chartered Priority

1. Service: Good (Free WIFI, sitting area, financial channel, coffee, tea, hot chocolate
2. Parking: Designated spot, able to park with car sticker, no questions asked. Usable in all SC branches, 2-hour limit.
3. Requirement: RM250K AUM
4. Special Credit Card: Standard Chartered PB Priority VISA Infinite (Free access to airport lounges. Free airport taxi. Hotel dining 50% cashback until 30 Dec 2020. Must maintain AUM of RM250K)
5. RM: Professional
6. Products and services
   1. CASA (Privilege account gives the best current account interest rate – 2.6% T&Cs Apply.)
   2. FD (Mediocre rates)
   3. Dual Currency Investment
   4. Discount on safe deposit boxes

• Special products: When you are an SC Priority customer, you are automatically an SC Priority customer in other countries such as the UK, HK, and Singapore without having to meet their minimum requirements. When you transfer your funds between countries, it is a real-time transaction and with no service charges. You can get a credit card in that country as well.
• Oversea banking benefit: Same as HSBC HK for IPO. Need to go over to HK to open an account. For SC Singapore, no need to go to Singapore to open an account. Can trade world stock (USA, Germany, France, Japan, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Australia). For priority banking customers, 0.2% with no minimum. No custodian charges and no charges to receive dividends.

This one was also provided by Mr. T, a fellow reader who wishes to remain anonymous.

7. UOB Privilege Banking

1. Service: Never been to the branch.
2. Parking: Designated spot, able to park with car sticker, no questions asked. Usable in all UOB branches. Limousine service available to pick up from home to the branch and from the branch to any other place in KL. (Contact RM to apply.)
3. Requirement: RM500K AUM
4. Special Credit Card: No particularly attractive benefits
5. RM: Professional
6. Products and services :
   1. CASA (InvestPro account which gives 1.7% interest p.a. for deposits over RM50K)
   2. FD (Slightly higher rates)
   3. Dual Currency Investment

Special products: Yet to be discovered

This one was also provided by Mr. T, a fellow reader who wishes to remain anonymous.

The Best Premier Banking Service in Malaysia

These are all personal experiences, from different customers, at different branches, with different RMs. Your own experience will very likely be different.

So I won’t do you the injustice of naming the best in Malaysia. BUT, based on everyone’s experiences, I’ll want to go for UOB if I had RM500K. Right now though, I’ll probably give HSBC a try. Will be updating this page with my experiences with them in the near future.

Final Thoughts.

As a final conclusion, premier banking is a nice thing to have. But treat it as a bonus and an extra. Don’t go pooling all your money into your saving accounts and FDs just to meet the required AUM to be eligible. Build up your assets first, and if your emergency funds come up to RM200K and above, opt for premier banking. At the end of the day, you’re parking a huge amount of money with them, earning very little returns when you can for example invest in stocks or bitcoin. Opportunity costs.

Another thing to note is that the banks themselves won’t always offer you premier banking even if you reach their requirements. So take the initiative and ask your bank for it if you’re eligible.

These are all the banks I’m able to write about from first-hand experience as well as from my friend’s and readers’ experiences. I’ll be looking to finish the list and have all the banks in Malaysia listed. Do drop me a comment or email if you’ve got experiences you’d like to share.

Oh, and if you’re thinking of signing up for premier banking, look out for referral and reward programs with said bank. If they have one, drop me an email or comment and I can hook you up with readers who are already clients and you can both enjoy the rewards.

Lastly, a big thank you to everyone who messaged me and shared your experiences. If you have experience with other banks not mentioned here, do drop me an email!