Convertible car seat for infant and young toddler

Car seat is necessary for you to carry your child in your car, and the child is not yet tall enough to use the seat belt of the car. It will provide protection to the child in case of collision.

I bought a convertible car seat for my son and has been using it since he was more than 1 month old until now (2 years+). I think it can still be used until he reaches 3 years old. The convertible car seat can be rear-facing as well as front-facing.




Here are some common senses about car seat that I would like to share with you:

• If your car has air-bag for front passenger, the car seat should be installed at the back seat and never be installed next to the driver. This is because the air bag might hurt or suffocate the child. It is even more dangerous if the car seat is in rear-facing position, imagine what will happen when the air bag blown out.
• The child should be rear-facing at least until he/she is 1 year old and also his/her weight has already exceeded 20 pounds (9.1 kg). This is because the neck bone of infant is still very soft and easy to break. With the child lying down securely, the rear-facing car seat will provide support and protection to the head and neck of the child in case of collision.
• Switch to front-facing when the legs are too long for rear-facing position.
• Consider a convertible car seat which can be rear-facing as well as front-facing, so that it can be used for a longer period (until 3-4 years old).
• You should change the car seat to booster seat for older toddler, until he/she can use the car seat belt without the booster seat, which is when the shoulder belt can rest against his/her chest and not the neck or higher position.

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Making good use of flexible home loan with online banking

I notice nowadays quite a lot of people are financing their house with flexible home loan. However, from their sharing with me during some chit-chat session, I noticed that not many are making good use of the flexibility provided by their home loan, and they treat it just like a traditional mortgage loan.

In my opinion, if you have a flexible home loan, you should:

• Put in extra money (excess payment) into your account to reduce interest charges
• Make use of your excess payment when needed

If you never put in excess payment into your account, perhaps you don't need a flexible home loan, and should opt for a traditional home loan package in the very beginning. In general, it is easier for you to fight for relatively lower interest rate by not having the flexibility provided in a flexible home loan.

If you very seldom make use of your excess payment in your account, perhaps you just need a semi-flexible home loan.

Here is my sharing on how I use my Citibank FlexiHome loan.

I have 2 types of account with Citibank: the FlexiHome loan, and credit card. I applied for an ATM card for my FlexiHome loan account, which cost me a one time application fee of RM8 only. I haven't used the ATM card in any bank teller machine yet, but that card is very important, because I need it to create a consolidated Citibank Online internet banking account.

Once the online banking is created, I am able to see the account information for both my FlexiHome loan as well as my credit card accounts. I can always check for the balance and transaction details of both the accounts even before I receive their monthly statement from Citibank.

This is particularly useful in monitoring how much interest I've been charged daily for my home loan. Citibank Online shows me 2 key figures of my FlexiHome loan account:

• Amount I owe the bank, which is calculated as the outstanding loan minus excess payment in the account. This figure will slightly increase daily, because the account has a daily rest interest calculation scheme. This is interesting, because from here I can monitor closely how my interested is charged by the bank, and how much is charged for each day.


• Amount available for withdrawal, which is the excess payment. This figure will not change until the next installment due date, where the installment will be paid directly from here.

Of course, if I put in money into the account, it will be added to the amount available for withdrawal, and will also affect the daily interest amount charged thereafter to be lesser.

On the other hand, by using the online banking, I can pay off some of my utility bills, including the accessment of my house, with my credit card from my computer at home. I can even get double Rewards Points by paying the house accessment with this credit card.

Every month when I get my salary, I wrote a cheque to myself and bank in to my Citibank FlexiHome loan account. The cheque amount will have some excess payment for my savings, as I know that my home loan interest is higher than fixed deposit interest, so it is a better idea to put the money in the loan account to reduce more interest, than to put in deposit account to earn the very tiny interest. In addition, fixed deposit does not provide the flexibility to take out the money at anytime without any lost in interest calculation.

When the due date of the credit card payment comes, I just need to login to Citibank Online and make a transfer from my FlexiHome loan account to my credit card account. My credit card will then be paid in the next business day. This transfer between my own accounts with Citibank is free of charge. Isn't this a good idea of making use of the flexibility provided by the FlexiHome loan account to pay the credit card bill without hassle, by using the online facility?


When I make a new share investment which requires me to bank in money into my trading account, I can also make an external transfer from my FlexiHome loan account to my share trading account using the same online facility too.

To summarize, I use my FlexiHome loan as my main savings account, as I can save loan interest with any excess payment I made, and the saving in loan interest is higher than fixed deposit interest. FlexiHome loan allows me to take out any amount of excess payment available at anytime, which makes it an even better place for main savings purpose. I also use my credit card to pay utility bills and earn Rewards Points, and use the savings (excess payment) in my FlexiHome loan account to pay for that credit card bill.

If you also have a flexible home loan with any bank, you're welcomed to share your experience on making good use of the flexibility of your home loan account too.

You might also be interested to read about my other article on "What to look for in a flexible home loan?".