Which Malaysian Debit Card Should I Choose?

Nowadays, bringing a lot of cash can be quite dangerous. You'll never know when you'll get robbed or you dropped your wallet somewhere and the best part, if you are a serial spender, you can't track where your money goes. That is why credit card is invented to make it more convenient for you to pay without bringing a lot of cash money. The downside of having a credit card is, you can somehow spend more than what you can afford. This is one of the reasons I heard on the news recently that there are more than 80 thousand people in Malaysia who are declared as bankrupt. Most of them are young people such as me.

Being in my current financial situation, I am not eligible to apply for a credit card. My confirmed yearly income is less than RM18,000. It’s somehow hurtful to see such low income I have. I heard that living in Kuala Lumpur, if your income is less than RM1,500 per month (RM18,000 per year), you are considered “Poor”. Anyway, I’m trying my best to earn money from other source of income or would be considering changing to another job.

I love the online world, it is fast paced, easy for me and I’m online most of the time. Having a credit card would be useful for me such as, verifying my PayPal account and doing online transactions for online shopping and online related stuff. Since I cannot apply for a credit card, there is another way of doing it, Debit Cards. A few years back, Malaysian banks doesn’t really emphasize on this product, now they do and we should take advantage of what is available for us today.

Alright, I have 4 debit cards available to choose from. Every one of them is cool however I would prefer the best debit card that suit my geographical location and where am I going to spend it. Here we go:

BCB MasterCard Electronic

I have a savings account on BCB (now it's called CIMB Bank) and I use that account to withdraw my salary. The company I work has an account on CIMB Bank. There's a mini branch just down my office and there is also a branch nearby my house. This debit card one is on top of my list now since it gives me a lot of convenience. Here's more info about this debit card.

Ambank NexG Prepaid MasterCard

This MasterCard prepaid was launch earlier this year by AmBank. The building where my office is located is owned by AmBank Group. So, there is a AmBank branch just downstairs. The card is also available at 7 Eleven but what I don't like is the high fees they charge. Here's more info about this debit card.

Public Bank Visa Electron

This is the only Visa debit card I found. I once had a BSN Visa Electron but I've never used it before. It is actually almost the same whether Visa or MasterCard but MasterCard because of it's branding strategies look far more superior than Visa. Maybe I'll apply for one when I have excess cash on my hand. Here's more info about this debit card.

AffinBank Debit MasterCard

This debit card was launched last week. It has Touch n Go facilities with it. I have a Touch n Go card which I use frequently so this debit card would be useful. However, I have to open up an account with Affin Bank first before I can apply for one. AffinBank has a branch located nearby my house but I have to cross the road to get there. BCB (CIMB Bank) branch is just the opposite of it. Well, I prefer to not to cross the road here in Kuala Lumpur. The traffic here is crazy. Here's more info about this debit card.

My decision now is to go for BCB (CIMB) Prepaid MasterCard. I'll update you on the process I had to go and details stuff when I get my hands on the card. If you can read Malay, SmartUsaha.com has an interesting post about obtaining a debit Mastercard Electronic.

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