INTRODUCTION

Just go to your Grab App and tap GX Bank for more info.

GX Bank advertised themselves as Malaysia’s First Digital Bank.

It stated that we can earn 3% p.a. daily interest – this is even better that banks’ FD Board Rates!!!

To entice you further, they are offering RM20 Instant FREE Money when you deposit RM100.

The first thing I wanted to know is – is the money in GX Bank protected under PIDM. So I googled and YES it is. Click the link here to PIDM website for list of PIDM Members.

As you can observe from the link above, there is a ** at GX Bank which denotes Licensed digital banks.

Well to me, basically most of the commercial banks are digital banks too as they now force us to install their Mobile Apps in order for us to perform/approve a transaction!!!

Next I wanted to know who owns GX Bank. Initially I thought it was Grab (and we all know lah all these so called eWallets and Car Sharing Apps are losing money – if you did not know then you better go educate yourself). So I googled again and found an article in The Star – Click here to read it.

At the end of the above said The Star article, it is stated:

GXBank is a subsidiary of GXS Bank Pte. Ltd., – the digital bank joint venture between Grab Holdings Limited and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel) – and a consortium of other Malaysian investors, including Kuok Group.

So basically GX Bank is majority owned by foreigners! And if you are a follower of mine, you will know that Foreign banks are the worst where they can change their credit cards’ TnC overnight and they make their Rewards Points System in a manner to con Malaysians into thinking they are getting good returns (examples SCB WorldMiles and previous Citibank where most do not know how to calculate how much they need to spend to earn 1 air mile because there is a double conversion from CardMiles to Air Miles).

GX Bank Debit Card

However, the GX Bank Debit card is straight forward, they claim that you get UNLIMITED 1% cash back – this is good if you are not into Air Miles which will give you better returns.

1% cash back is good, FREE Money plus you also earn 3% p.a. interest on the money parked at GX Bank. AND if we get 1% cash back from Government Transactions AND Topping Up eWallets, then I will award GX Bank Debit Card as the best CARD in Malaysia, haha.

But too bad, the GX Bank Debit Card is just as useless as the HLB Essential Visa Credit Card where we also earn 1% cash back including for Insurance.

Actually, the GX Bank Debit Card is worse than the HLB Essential Visa! Below are the TnC for the GX Bank Debit Card and you will notice that Insurance Payments are also excluded from earning Cash Back!!!

For complete GX Bank Promotions and Rewards, please click here to their website for the mechanism.

TnG eWallet versus GX Bank

Most of you would have TnG eWallet which is similar to GX Bank where we can earn interest from the money parked at Go+ besides paying bills/loans and even getting a Personal Loan (which is a big no no if you are a follower of my blog as you instantly get poorer the moment you sign up for it).

And the best thing about TnG eWallet is we can use Alipay for transactions including in China! If you did not know, Alipay is one of the owners of TnG eWallet. And all of you should know our Visa and MasterCard are kind of useless in China, haha.

So should you sign up with GX Bank?

The answer to the above is YES only if you “hard-up” for RM20 FREE Money and 6 months Grab Unlimited, hahaha.

• you can earn RM20 buta FREE money when you deposit RM100
• you get Grab Unlimited for 6 months

Above Total Value about RM50.

Seriously, if you want RM100 pocket money, just go be a Grab Driver for a day, haha.

So from the above, 1% is kind of pathetic if you are a follower of mine where there are many credit cards that give us better returns.

The Maybank 2 Cards Gold/Platinum AMEX earns us 5% cash back for Petrol, Telco Bills (Water Bills using Lazada App), Dining, Movies, Shopping and even Toll (go top up at Jaya Grocer).

Where AMEX is not accepted, use your Visa or MasterCard. Simple example, use the HLB to earn 1% cash back instead of using the GX Bank Debit Card which deducts from your Savings Account, earning 3% p.a. interest. Get it? IF No, go think and you will then understand why it is stupid to use the GX Bank Debit Card, haha.

And I have reiterated over and over again, there is a major disadvantage using Online Banking because your loved one not only have no access to your funds (as they don’t know your password) and there is no paper trail. This also apples to Digital Banking where your loved ones won’t even know how much money you have in it!

In respect to the above, for substantial amount that you want to park at the bank, best you go place FD over the counter – (1) you have paper trail so your loved ones can go to court and have access to the money after you die, (2) some banks only can uplift FD over the counter if placed FD over the counter and therefore you do not have to worry if someone hack into your Online/Mobile Account and (3) most probably the counter girl will ask you why you withdrawing your FD – so if you are being scammed trying to withdraw the money to give to a scammer – at least this question may highlight to someone you need help or you yourself ask why you doing so.