Topic
#personal finance
3 articles
Buy Now Pay Later in Malaysia 2026: Why 1.5% Can Mean 12%, and Why BNPL Is Now Regulated
Two of Malaysia's biggest buy now pay later services quote the same headline number, 1.5 per cent, and it means two different things. On PayLater by Grab that 1.5 per cent is charged on each instalment and calculated on the whole transaction, so an eight-instalment plan costs 12 per cent of what you bought. On SPayLater it is 1.5 per cent a month. Both charge a flat RM10 when you miss a payment. SPayLater's page still says BNPL is not regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia, and that line is now badly out of date: the Consumer Credit Act 2025 came into force on 1 March 2026 and BNPL providers must be licensed by the Suruhanjaya Kredit Pengguna. Its Conduct Standards also prohibit the flat-rate pricing that produces the 12 per cent. We read all three providers' pages and the regulator's own instruments on 8 September 2026.
Six New Tax Reliefs Started Counting on 1 January 2026, and You Claim Them in 2027
The relief list you use for the return you file this year is the year of assessment 2025 list, and nothing on it has changed. Six other reliefs took effect on 1 January 2026 and are being earned right now, on receipts most households are throwing away. They are claimed in the return filed in 2027. These are not proposals: they were enacted as the Finance Act 2025 (Act 874), gazetted on 31 December 2025, and we read them off the statute rather than off the Budget appendices. Childcare is the biggest change: a single permanent RM3,000, plus a new limb covering a care centre registered under the Care Centres Act 1993 for a child up to 12 - though the RM3,000 is per taxpayer, not per child. Relief for early intervention for children with learning disabilities rises from RM6,000 to RM10,000 and now fills the whole medical band. Life insurance relief extends to children, on a four-limb statutory definition. Vaccination relief widens to any vaccine registered with the NPRA. Home CCTV and food waste grinders join the RM2,500 environmental pot. And for Visit Malaysia Year 2026 only, entrance fees to tourist attractions are worth up to RM1,000 - but unlike the 2020-2022 version, hotel stays and tour packages are out. Verified against Act 874 and LHDN's own relief tables on 4 September 2026.
EPF Akaun Fleksibel 2026: The RM50 Withdrawal, and the Dividend Rule That Decides What It Costs
Akaun Fleksibel is the one EPF account you can withdraw from at any age below 55, with no documents and no reason given, from RM50 upwards. What the EPF publishes and almost nobody reads is how the dividend behind it is calculated. Contributions credited during a month only start earning on the last day of that month. Withdrawals stop earning on the day they leave. At the 6.15 per cent rate declared for 2025, taking RM1,000 out in early January and not replacing it costs roughly RM61 of dividend for the year, while the same withdrawal on 1 December costs about RM5.