Topic
#consumer rights
5 articles
Money Taken From Your Bank Account Without Consent? When Malaysian Banks Must Refund You (2026)
Since 1 October 2024, Bank Negara's SEFT policy has set out when a bank must absorb a fraud loss on a transaction you never made, how fast it must answer you, and when it must lend you up to RM5,000 while it investigates. Here is how it works, what it does not cover, and where to go if the bank says no.
Scammed in Malaysia? Call 997 First: The Call Is Now Your Police Report, and the Hours After a Transfer Decide What Comes Back
If money has just left your account to a scammer, the single most useful thing you can do is call 997. The National Scam Response Centre has run 24 hours a day under the Royal Malaysia Police since September 2025, and the call itself is treated as your police report. Speed decides the outcome: one victim who called eight hours late got back RM170,000 of more than RM800,000, and of the RM542 million Malaysians reported losing in 2025, only RM6.7 million had been returned. Here is the order of steps, the fake NSRC call to hang up on, and how to check an account before you pay.
Car Loans in Malaysia 2026: The Early Settlement Rebate Is Gone, and a 3% Car Loan Is Really 5.5%
The Hire-Purchase (Amendment) Act 2026 came into force on 1 June 2026 and quietly deleted the two things every Malaysian thought they understood about a car loan. The flat rate is gone, replaced by an effective interest rate on a reducing balance. And the statutory early settlement rebate is gone with it, which sounds like a loss and is not. Bank Negara Malaysia's own consumer guide works the arithmetic: borrow RM100,000 over nine years at a flat 3% a year and you pay RM1,175.93 a month and RM27,000 in interest, exactly the same as a loan quoted at an effective 5.5%. The catch is timing. Providers have until 31 March 2027 to switch their systems, so a loan signed today may still be an old one, and the only way to know is to ask.
Tribunal Tuntutan Pengguna 2026: Claim Up to RM50,000 for RM5, With No Lawyer in the Room
A shop keeps your deposit. A contractor takes the money and never finishes. A phone comes back from repair worse than it went in. Most Malaysians write it off, because the alternative sounds like hiring a lawyer. It is not. The Tribunal for Consumer Claims Malaysia, set up in 1999 under the Consumer Protection Act, hears claims of up to RM50,000 for a filing fee of RM5, registers the claim the same day it is filed, aims to hear and settle it within 60 days of the first hearing, and hands down the award on the hearing day itself. Lawyers are not allowed to represent either side. The award counts as an order of the Magistrates' Court, and ignoring it for 14 days is a criminal offence. Here is how it works, and the list of disputes it cannot touch.
Delayed, Bumped or Missing a Bag: What Malaysian Air Passenger Rules Actually Give You in 2026
The year-end school break runs from 4 or 5 December to 31 December 2026, so the airports fill up again and the same questions come back every year. Two hours late and you are owed meals, calls and internet. Five hours late and you are owed a hotel if you have to stay the night, or the full ticket price back in the way you paid, within 30 days. A bag that goes missing is covered to 1,288 Special Drawing Rights, which is about RM7,120 at Bank Negara's published rate. One thing has changed and most guides have not caught up: the agency you complain to is no longer MAVCOM. Its old website does not even resolve any more.