2009-05-23

CIMB Credit Card Installment Plan

I decided to buy myself a smartphone, for work and for leisure; but since I don’t have any budget for this (har har..), I went searching around for installment plans.

Basically all the shops selling the phone only offered installment plans for credit cards by either maybank or hsbc. I asked if CIMB offered any installment plans, but the shops asked me to call CIMB credit card center to request for the installment plans; which i did.

As maybank and hsbc charges a one time service charge of 5% and 7% depending on either 12months or 24months installment, CIMB had a different plan - purchases above rm1,000 is charged a one time 3% for 10months installment and purchases above rm3,000 is 5% for 20months installment. Quite a good deal for me compared to the ones offered by maybank or hsbc.

There is one twist though, the installment plan is not pre-approved, it is subject to approval from the bank.

So this is how it works - you have to make the purchase first. Then after 3 workings days, give a call to CIMB credit card center; the number is at the back of your credit card. Tell the helpline staff that you wish to request for installment plan. The staff shall check your transaction (which is why you need to wait for 3 working days before you call to make sure the transaction is entered into their system) and verify the transaction which you would like to apply for the installment, upon your confirmation the staff will then submit your application into the system and that's about it for your part.

If your application is succesful, the installment plan shall be reflected in your next credit card statement. If unsuccessful, the helpline staff should call you to inform you about it. This is the not-so-good part; if unsuccessful, your transaction is considered a normal transaction and required to be paid in full before the due date stated in the credit card statement, failing which you will be charged the normal 18% per annum interest.

For this particular reason, i had prepared a simple excel calculation sheet just to calculate the amount needed to be paid if based on the normal interest rate and us paying a certain amount each month. You can get it HERE (it is made optimized for my smartphone excel's quicksheet usage).
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For the calculation, i based on buying the phone at a price of rm1,000. So according to CIMB installment plan, there is a one time charge of 3% which is rm30, thereafter monthly installment of rm100. So for the excel sheet, i just based on paying monthly rm100 to compare the differences. Have a look at the spreadsheet to see the differences.

By the way, you should call your CIMB credit card center to verify the above procedure and to check if it is still available. If i'm not mistaken it is called “CIMB i-Pay Plan”
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12 comments:

Eimiza Faisha Azmi said...

thanx for sharing this info. izzit the CIMB credit card Installment Plan still valid now? i was planning to buy a LCD tv.. :P

AttaHun said...

yes sir it is still valid. check the brochures that come with your credit card statement, they renew the valid period every time. :)

Eimiza Faisha Azmi said...

i manage to call cimb cardcenter yesterday (so hard to get to the customer servise person nowadayas - i dunno why)

here are the latest one time charge interest rate:

10month = 2%
20month = 4%
30month = 5%

30month installment only available for rm3k above.

AttaHun said...

bro thanks for the valuable info. guess this should be the latest. i did another installment just 1 month back and was charged 3%.

Anonymous said...

WHY ITS SOOOOO HARD TO GET TO TALK WITH CIMB CUSTMER SERVICE OFFICER LIKE THEY ARE KING LAR....

Eimiza Faisha Azmi said...

@AttaHun: 3% is for how many month?

@Anonymous: last time I using online contact form, asking about i-plan again, they call me back within 24 hours.

Go to http://www.cimbbank.com.my, click "Contact Us" link or you can click here:
http://www.cimbbank.com.my/index.php?tpl=contactus&tpt=cimb_bank

AttaHun said...

was charged 3% for the 10 month plan..nothing much though..

jojo said...

@maxcma

this plan available to all CIMB credit card holder or DirectAccess only? cuz cant find brochure for CIMB but DirectAccess.. CIMB-PETRONAS card also can use?

AttaHun said...

jojo, its for all CIMB cards including Directaccess (Which is under CIMB also). I have both CIMB and Directaccess cards and both i have used this i-pay plan.. but just check with the service center to be sure and just in case they may have changed their policy or something..

Eimiza Faisha Azmi said...

@jojo: last time i use the CIMB-Petronas Card to make the installment.

Serene said...

Hi, the infogivenisvery useful i was just wondering if it apply to the iPhone purchase as this transaction include the adv pymt

AttaHun said...

what do u mean by adv payment..this i-pay plan is only for the card transaction; meaning if iphone is rm3000 and you pay cash rm1000 and use credit card rm2000, you can apply installment under i-pay plan for the rm2000 transaction, just as long as it is more than rm1000 which is a minimum value..