(Last update: 17 April 2024)

It’s no secret that all of us would love for our savings to earn more money over time. Fixed deposits aren’t as liquid as savings accounts in the event you need immediate cash, but savings accounts basically give no interest these days… right?

As it turns out, there are several savings accounts in Malaysia that offer high interest rates – some up to 6% p.a.! Of course, there are certain conditions that need to be met to “unlock” the high interest, but there are also some savings accounts that easily offer more than several times the interest of a basic savings account.

Here are some of the best high interest savings accounts in Malaysia.

UOB One Account

Interest rate: Tiered, up to 6.00% p.a.

UOB has the One Account that allows you to earn up to 6.00% p.a. interest if you’re willing to take some additional steps to earn bonus interest, which raises the base rate from 0.10% p.a..

The maximum interest rate of 6.00% p.a. is unlocked if your account has a balance of between RM50,000 and RM100,000, and you carry out two selected transactions – chosen from any of the following six tasks:

• Open a UOB One account (introductory bonus interest for new customers, applicable for six months only)
• Credit a minimum of RM2,000 salary into your UOB One account every month
• Spend a monthly minimum of RM500 with your UOB debit or credit card (combined spending)
• Pay 3 bills online (minimum RM50 each bill) via mobile or online banking every month
• Make 3 direct debit payments (minimum RM50 each payment) every month
• Deposit a minimum of RM2,000 into your account in a single transaction each month (via Interbank GIRO, DuitNow, or Instant Transfer) every month

Meanwhile, if your account balance is less than RM50,000, you can earn a maximum of 2.00% p.a. by carrying out any of the two transactions that you prefer. To further maximise the rewards that you can earn, consider spending on UOB credit cards such as the UOB ONE card, which earns you cashback for petrol, dining, and grocery expenses!

Interestingly, the UOB One Account stops offering bonus interest when your account balance exceeds RM100,000, although its base rate hikes up from 0.10% p.a. to 2.00% p.a.. The effective interest rate that you can earn when you reach this range of account balance also decreases; for instance, if you maintained an account balance of RM125,000, you will only get an effective interest rate of 3.60% p.a. (as compared to 4.00% p.a. if you had a balance of RM50,000 to RM100,000).

Standard Chartered Privilege$aver

Interest rate: Tiered, up to 4.15% p.a.

The Standard Chartered Privilege$aver savings account also offers a high interest rate of 4.15% on your funds, provided you fulfil certain conditions to earn bonus interest rates. In total, there are four bonuses that you can tap into to increase the interest from the base 0.05% p.a., namely Deposit Bonus, Credit & Debit Card Bonus, and Invest Bonus.

First, you need to deposit at least RM3,000 in fresh funds every month to unlock an additional 0.70% p.a. Deposit Bonus interest. On top of that, you can earn a total of 1.40% p.a. for Credit and Debit Card Bonus interest when you use your credit and debit cards: 0.70% p.a. when you spend at least RM1,000 with your Standard Chartered credit and debit card, respectively. Next, unlock another 2% p.a. Invest Bonus interest for up to three months by investing a minimum of RM40,000 in unit trust.

Do note that the Standard Chartered Privilege$aver account has set a cap on the amount of interest that can be earned via the bonus categories. For each category, bonus interest will be credited on up to RM100,000 of your monthly average balance (MAB).

At 4.15% p.a., you’ll be earning a pretty good chunk of interest each month. A good way to hit the Deposit requirement for a 0.70% p.a. interest is to use this account as your salary deposit account – you just need to inform your HR department for this. It’s also not a stretch to spend with StanChart’s credit and debit cards. For credit cards, in particular, the Simply Cash and Smart credit cards yield cashback as you spend.

For context, the Standard Chartered Privilege$aver account previously offered the highest interest rate on savings accounts, with up to 6.15% p.a. interest to be earned as there was also an additional Loyalty Bonus (with 2% p.a.) when you increase your average balance in your account by at least RM3,000 every month. This bonus category was, however, removed when the bank revised its terms and conditions for the new term, spanning from 1 February 2024 to 31 January 2025.

Hong Leong Bank Pay&Save Account

Interest rate: Tiered, up to 4.15% p.a.

The Hong Leong Bank Pay&Save is yet another savings account that requires you to carry out certain activities each month in order to qualify for interest. However, while most of these other accounts do offer a minimal base rate, the Pay&Save’s interest rates are wholly dependent on four required actions.

Pay&Save offers a Savings Interest of 2.25% p.a. if you deposit RM2,000 in one sum monthly into your account, 0.50% p.a. e-Xtra Interest for a minimum spend of RM500 on online payments for eligible payments (bills, loans, and credit cards), and 0.50% p.a. Debit Card Interest when you spend at least RM500 in retail transactions using your Hong Leong debit card.

Finally, there is an extra step that can earn you up to another 0.90% p.a. interest, but this is only applicable if you trade in shares. The 0.90% p.a. tier is available when you trade a monthly amount of more than RM100,000. If the amount of share traded is lower than that, you’ll be earning a bonus interest of between 0.30% to 0.70% p.a. instead.

If you are considering getting the Pay&Save account, do make sure that you’re familiar with the terms and conditions beforehand. For example, you can only be eligible for the Savings Interest when you deposit RM2,000 for three months consecutively. Moreover, the e-Xtra Interest and Debit Card Interest are each capped at RM30 per month. Similar to the conditions set by several other high-interest savings accounts, there are also interest earning caps on amount balances of up to a maximum of RM100,000.

In addition to its high interest rates, the Pay&Save account had also been upgraded with a multi-currency feature back in 2020, allowing accountholders to send money and spend in 12 foreign currencies. These include the Singapore dollar, Australian dollar,  New Zealand dollar, Japanese yen, and euro – among others. In fact, HLB says that the Pay&Save is the “only local bank account that comes with 12 foreign currencies.”

The Pay&Save account also has a Syariah-compliant equivalent in the form of Pay&Save Account-i.

Rize Commodity Murabahah Savings Account-i

Profit rate: 3.8% p.a.

We should probably mention straight off the bat that the Rize Commodity Murabahah Savings Account-i (referred to as well as the Rize Savings Account-i) is provided by Rize, a fully digital bank powered by Al-Rajhi Bank launched at the end of 2022 – which means all of its services are available only online (although you can probably walk in to Al-Rajhi Bank to ask for assistance). So this means that if you prefer traditional banking, Rize Savings Account-i may not be for you.

Rize has refreshed its special deposit rate campaign where you can earn 4% p.a. profit rate on any amount deposited into your Rize Savings Account-i – with no other requirements, conditions or tiers. This makes it a great choice for those without the huge funds to meet minimum balance requirements or those who don’t fancy having to fulfil monthly spend or deposit requirements to qualify for higher interest.

That said, note that this campaign is for a limited time only, and will end on 30 June 2024, so best to hurry if you’re interested in tapping into this ongoing campaign! The Rize Savings Account-i is Syariah-compliant.

OCBC 360

Interest rate: Tiered, up to 3.25% p.a. (promotional up to 5.00% p.a.)

Like the StanChart Privilege$aver, RHB Smart Account, and the Hong Leong Bank Pay&Save, the OCBC 360 account offers bonus interest when you perform certain transactions with your OCBC online banking account as well as OCBC credit or debit cards. The base interest is set at 0.10% p.a., but the three additional transactions (Deposit, Pay, and Spend) yield a bonus interest of 1.05% p.a. each, thereby offering up to 3.25% p.a. altogether.

First, you simply need to deposit a minimum of RM500 every month into the OCBC 360 account to earn a 1.05% p.a. bonus interest. An additional 1.05% p.a. will be given when you pay at least three bills with your OCBC online banking facility in a month. This includes credit card bills, loans, as well as JomPay bill payments! Finally, a further 1.05% p.a. interest will be credited when you spend at least RM500 on your OCBC credit or debit card, bringing the total interest to 3.25% p.a. for that month.

Looking at the conditions, it actually isn’t too difficult to hit the 3.25% p.a. interest. Enabling JomPay bill payments makes it easy to hit the three transactions required. You can also earn additional cashback for that RM500 spend for credit/debit cards via the OCBC 365 credit card, which offers 1% cashback for the first RM1,000 charged. Just note that multiple bill payments to the same biller in a single month will count as one transaction for the OCBC 360 account. Moreover, the 3.25% p.a. interest is only applicable on the first RM100,000 of your balance.

For new customers, there is actually an ongoing campaign where you can up the interest rate to 5% p.a.. This campaign will let you earn 2.80% p.a. Deposit bonus interest instead of the usual 1.05% p.a. if you deposit at least RM3,000 every month for the first two months upon account opening (as you can see in the image below). Note that this campaign will run only until 30 June 2024.

OCBC also has a Syariah-compliant variant with the same benefits, known as the OCBC Al-Amin 360, with a similar profit rate.

UOB Stash

Interest rate: Tiered, up to 3.20% p.a.

The UOB Stash is a more straightforward savings account that offers bonus interest when you maintain or increase your account balance every month, bringing its total interest up from a base rate of 0.05% p.a.. Its highest 3.20% p.a. interest tier is unlocked when your total account balance is above RM100,000.

Note, though, that UOB Stash stops offering bonus interest when your account balance exceeds RM200,000; you will only earn an increased base rate of 1.60% p.a.. As a result, UOB Stash’s best rate of 3.20% p.a. is applicable only when your account balance ranges between RM100,000 to RM200,000. If your account balance goes beyond RM200,000, the effective interest rate (EIR) will begin to decrease. For instance, if you have RM250,000 in your account, you only earn an EIR of 2.22% p.a. instead of the 2.38% p.a. applicable for account balances between RM100,000 to RM200,000.

Alliance SavePlus Account

Interest rate: Tiered, up to 3.00% p.a.

If you’re looking to “park” a large sum of cash and earn the most interest with the least hassle, the Alliance SavePlus account is one of the top choices. The only requirement to unlock the 3.00% p.a. interest is to maintain your account balance at above RM500,000. If your account balance is less than this required threshold, then your savings rate will range between 0% p.a. to 2.85% p.a..

Even though it is technically classified as a current account, there really isn’t that much difference between the Alliance SavePlus account and other savings accounts in this list. Plus, if you maintain an account balance of above RM10,000 every month, you will also enjoy perks like waivers for unlimited MEPS withdrawals and your debit card annual fee.

RHB Smart Account/-i

Interest rate: Tiered, up to 2.85%

RHB Smart Account works very similarly to Standard Chartered Privilege$aver as you’ll need to carry out several transactions to increase the interest from the base 0.05% p.a. – which you get by maintaining a minimum account balance of RM1,000 – to a maximum 2.85% p.a.. This can be done via four categories of such transactions, namely Save, Pay, Spend, and Invest.

Under the Save category, you can earn a bonus interest rate of 1.80% p.a. when you deposit RM2,000 in fresh funds into your Smart Account each month. Note that you must fulfil this category if you wish to qualify for the payouts of other bonus categories. If you do, then you can earn another 0.5% p.a. under the Pay category by paying a minimum of three bills monthly via RHB’s mobile banking app or website, and a separate 0.5% p.a. for the Spend category by spending a minimum of RM1,000 monthly with your credit or debit card.

Lastly, earn an extra 1% p.a. when you invest a minimum of RM1,000 monthly with selected RHB investment products (bonus payout to be based on 1% of your net investment amount). These include products such as non-EPF investment, private retirement schemes (PRS), and unit trust funds. Do also be aware that the bonus interest earned under these categories will only be applicable to your account balance of up to RM100,000.

That said, RHB Bank is currently running a year-long promotion campaign for its Smart Account/-i for 2024, where the usual 2.85% p.a. interest can actually be bumped up significantly to a maximum of 5.35% p.a.! The mechanics to earn the bonus interest remain relatively similar under this campaign, as you’ll still need to perform selected banking transactions and invest in certain products, but there are some new conditions introduced. For instance, there is a new category that will earn you 2% p.a. bonus interest if you credit your salary into your Smart Account (minimum RM5,000) via RHB’s Joy@Work portal (for three months).

Additionally, some of the transaction categories will offer different percentage of bonus interest under this campaign, tiered according to the amount that you transact or invest. As an example, you may earn a promotional bonus interest of 0.75% p.a. under the Pay category (instead of the usual 0.50% p.a.) if you pay 3 bills via RHB’s mobile app or banking website, but if this is increased to 9 bills, then you’ll get 1.50% p.a. bonus interest instead.

Affin Invikta Account/-i

Interest rate: Tiered, up to 2.50% p.a.

The Affin Invikta Account is another fairly straightforward savings account that lets you earn a preferential interest rate of 2.50% p.a. – but the catch is that you need to maintain your account balance between RM250,000 to RM3,999,999.99. So if you find the requirements for Alliance SavePlus account at RM500,000 too steep, this could be another option for you. Meanwhile, if your balance falls below RM250,000, you will earn an interest rate of between 0% to 1.85%. Account balances of RM4 million and above, on the other hand, will earn you an interest of 2.25% p.a..

Do note that the Affin Invikta Account is by invitation only as it is part of a premium banking service and membership that was rolled out by Affin Bank back in 2021, along with several other perks. To become an Affin Invikta member, you’ll need to meet one of several criteria, namely having assets under management (AUM) of RM200,000 and more, a monthly salary income of RM15,000, a mortgage loan of RM800,000 with Affin Bank, or a hire purchase loan of RM200,000 with Affin Bank.

AmBank eFlex/-i

Profit rate: Tiered, up to 2.40% p.a.

The AmBank eFlex is another account that lets you earn bonus interest to increase the base rate just by maintaining your balance account above a certain threshold. The eFlex account starts out by giving you a base rate of 0.5% p.a. interest for your balance account of any amount. However, if you are able to maintain your balance at a just a minimum of RM20,000, then the interest on your daily end-of-day balance will be topped up to the prevailing three-month FD/TD-i rate of 2.40%.

Note that you can only apply for the AmBank eFlex account via the AmOnline Mobile app as it is an online-exclusive product.

Final notes

All savings account listed here are insured by PIDM for up to RM250,000, which means that in the event the bank goes bankrupt, your savings account with that bank is insured and can be claimed up to RM250,000.

In addition, there are a few other savings accounts with competitive interest rates that are not listed here. We omitted these as the requirements to unlock those rates are complicated – the ones mentioned here are straight forward, and the requirements are clearly spelled out. There are also some that are by-invitation only. That said, if you do find a savings account with better rates than those listed here, let us know!

You can also check out our Best Fixed Deposits and FD alternatives – both updated regularly – for more ways to save money as well!

• TAGS:
• Al-Rajhi Bank
• Alliance Bank
• Alliance SavePlus
• AmBank
• AmBank eFlex
• Bank Negara Malaysia
• FRANK Account
• FRANK By OCBC
• Hong Leong Bank
• Hong Leong Bank Pay&Save
• Longform
• MBSB Bank
• MBSB Cash Rich Savings Account-i
• OCBC 360
• OCBC Bank
• OCBC nuon Account
• RHB Bank
• RHB Bonus Saver
• RHB Smart Account
• Rize
• Rize Savings Account-i
• Standard Chartered Bank
• Standard Chartered Privilege$aver
• UOB Bank
• UOB One Account
• UOB Stash