Mad Gold Rush Deposit Contest By Ambank
Fancy of winning RM80,000 by saving at least RM2,000 a month with a bank? This is what AmBank wants you to do. In its latest efforts to get a larger share in consumer saving, AmBank launched a 3 months deposit campaign dubbed “Mad Gold Rush” contest. The grand price is a 1kg gold bar – at a current price of RM79.00 per gram, that is equivalents to RM79,000 in cash.
While contest like this may be new, the intention behind is not (HSBC has a similar scheme in 2006). Such contest underscores the fact that banks are increasingly viewing personal saving as a golden goose. This makes sense. Malaysia saving rate is one of the highest in the word - 38% of GDP. As of end Nov 2006, total individual deposit (FD & regular saving account) in the commercial banks totaled RM275.3 billion. This number easily dwarfs the RM200 -300 million target set by Ambank on the contest.
How the contest works?
The contest starts from 3rd January and ends at 31st March with monthly and grand prizes. The minimum entry is RM2,000 deposit in either current or saving account, every incremental of RM2,000 in the contest period will entitle a shot at the gold but limits to maximum 5 chances. The contest is opens to both existing or new account holders. Beside the 1kg gold bar, there are also other smaller prizes to be won every month all in the form of gold.
Winning chances
So what is your chance of landing the 1kg gold bar?
The campaign target is RM200 to 300 million worth of deposit. With the minimum RM2,000 per entry, this is equivalents to100,000 to 150,000 potential entries. With that, a simple winning chance can be calculated. Here is a quick glance:
- Winning the 1kg gold bar (1): between 1:100,000 to 1:150,000
- Winning any of the nine 20g gold bar: 1:11,111 to 1:17,000
- Winning any of the one hundred 2.5g gold bar monthly prizes: between 1: 10,000 to 1:15,000
My guess is these chances are still much better than winning the RM3.00 Da Ma Chai
Conclusion
The Mad Rush contest is targeted at those has excess cash or saving. For those wanted to kick-start their saving, the glitter of 1 kg gold may offers a strong incentive to do so. But if you are looking for higher interest rate, you will be disappointed. All deposits will only earned the standard interest rate depend on which type of account you sign up for or are currently using. For higher saving rate, you may just want to look away and stick with FD. In another word, from interest point of view, it is wise to keep your current FD rather than to bet your chance of winning any of the contest prizes.If the glittering is too much to resist, you might want to joint the contest as early as possible to maximize your winning chances - both the monthly and grand prizes. To keep thing into perspective, the contest is essentially a lucky draw.For Ambank, the Mad Gold Rush contest is potentially a very lucrative marketing campaign. Firstly, with the contest is also opens to new customers, and the minimum deposit of RM2,000, it is safe to assume that Ambank is banking that the gold is strong enough pull customers away from other banks. Secondly, since the contest also offered monthly prizes, a ‘rationale’ consumer will join the contest as early as possible with the maximum amount allowed and stay put through out the 3-month contest period. This plays right into Ambank’s hand. Essentially, Ambank is then attracting a large sum of deposits but only paying the regular interest rate, not the FD rate.
This is how. At 3.00% per annum, an FD of RM200 millions for 3 months will cost a total interest of RM1.5 millions. While on the other hand, the total contest costs for Ambank is estimated at RM152,000 (prize money only) plus a standard 1% regulate saving interest, this comes to RM652,000.
Needless to say, everyone see a gold pot at the end of the rainbow.