2017 Mobile Banking App Review: RHBNow By RHB Bank

Just a decade ago, we are still running to bank branches and ATMs to complete our daily finance activities such as cheque deposit and fund transfer. Today, 73.1% of Malaysians are using internet banking and this prompted the banks to go one step further by introducing mobile banking apps.

CompareHero.my 2017 Mobile Banking Apps Awards

To date, 11 banks in Malaysia have their own mobile banking apps for its customers and they continue to bring new features and improvements in order to impress users like you and me. But just how happy are you with the mobile banking app you are using now? Features, layout, safety concerns and accessibility are important for a mobile banking app to serve a customer.

CompareHero.my has conducted its first Mobile Banking Apps Awards in Malaysia. Known as the CompareHero.my 2017 Mobile Banking Apps Awards, today we are happy to announce the winners.

CompareHero.my has reviewed all 11 mobile banking apps in Malaysia for the CompareHero.my 2017 Mobile Banking Apps Awards.

Read our review on each bank’s app here:

• Citibank MY
• Maybank
• CIMB Clicks
• Standard Chartered Mobile Banking (Malaysia)
• Hong Leong Connect
• AmOnline
• HSBC Mobile Banking
• OCBC Malaysia Mobile Banking
• PB engage
• Bank Islam i-Info

Overall RHB Bank Mobile Banking App Review

Overall position: 6 / 11

Overall Score: 3/5

Check out the summary below to know more about the app, read user reviews and our thoughts.

RHB Bank Mobile Banking App Screenshots:

Overview of Features:

• Pay your bills
• Transfer funds
• Reload your prepaid mobile
• Check your account balances
• RHB Pay Anyone™ - a feature that allows you to transfer Funds to anyone via Facebook, email or mobile no.
• Exchange messages
• Receive push notifications
• Exclusive privileges

CompareHero.my Review of RHB Mobile Banking App

1. Layout/Design (Score: 3.25/5)

• Improved interface and layout, yet the app looks outdated

2. Functionality (Score: 3/5)

• Pay Anyone is a good feature that allows instant transfers
• However, it only allows transfers to favourite accounts

3. Security (Score: 3/5)

• Does not provide biometric fingerprint log-in

4. User-Experience (Score: 2.75/5)

• The app crashes frequently
• Not available on tablets
• Icons and layout can be made simpler to improve navigation

User Reviews

scholarazwa.me ★★★★

“It's a good app, but compared to the new apps from other banks like Maybank, CIMB and Citibank, this RHB app lacks a few modern features. It does not have fingerprint sensor for login and authentication and there's no in-app TAC generation feature.”

Rix Fairy ★★★★★

“Easy fund transfer in seconds! Online shopping, pay bills, online prepaid, and manage other bank account anytime, anywhere!”

Matthew Wilson ★★★

“Can use on my Samsung phone but not on my Samsung Tab A 10.1.”

Kean Boon Tan ★

“Can't do transfer and favorite is redundant. Lots of thinking and improvement needed.”

RHB Bank Mobile Banking App Overall Remarks:

RHB has done a pretty decent job with its wide range of features to conduct daily banking activities. However, RHBNow still does not incorporate fingerprint log-in, which is behind its competitors such as Maybank and CIMB.

We love that the app has all features at a glance in a single menu, however, font size can be larger for increased visibility, so users can tap their preferred functions faster and easier.

On top of that, we want to give credit to the developers for adding another layer of security by introducing the tie-in system of device and account, which is helpful to minimise the exposure of risk towards account fraud and theft case.

For those who are already using this app, do not forget to check out the Lifestyle Privileges function to get exclusive offers and promotions from RHB!

Not forgetting RHB Pay Anyone, the new feature allows a user to send money to almost everyone over Facebook, mobile or email. This is great especially for those who travel overseas or deal with foreign transactions. Nonetheless, we remain neutral considering it is still a relatively new feature, so we’re taking the wait-and-see approach before getting too excited.

Scoring Methodology

These apps were scored based on:

• CompareHero.my aesthetical experts (for layout, functionality and security)
• Objective list of what constitutes a 1,2,3,4 and 5 rating (for layout, functionality and security)
• Writer’s evaluation (for layout, functionality and security)
• Apple and Android reviews (for user experience)

1. Layout and Design

A higher score of 4-5 meant the app had a simple yet effective design that added to its user’s experience. The app’s layout should also captivates user’s attention while not being too confusing at the same time.

A score of 3 is given to the apps that have adequate layout design. However, there are still some rooms for improvement such as updates for the latest user interface (UI) and perhaps more exciting colors or graphics.

Apps that received a score of 1-2 meant that the layout was not updated, or it was not on par with the other apps you see in store. Most of them required some updating in terms of color choice, fonts, menu layout and also visibility.

2. Functionality

A higher score of 4-5 was given to mobile banking apps that have more than 8 features and were one step ahead of the rest, such as exclusive promotions, in store payment, manage global accounts and card-less withdrawal at ATM machines.

A moderate score of 3 was given to mobile banking apps that have more than 5 features including balance check, fund transfer, bill payment, prepaid reload and credit card management.

A lower score of 1-2 was given to mobile banking apps that provided (or failed to provide) basic or average financing functions as mentioned above.

3. Security

We tested the security features based on a consumer’s perspective to determine the level of safety for a user while using the app.

We graded the apps based on:

• Security layers
• Biometric login availability
• Easiness to reset password and username
• Escalation of fraud or theft via the app

A high score of 4-5 was given to the apps that have incorporated biometric login system, provide adequate security action plans, and also fast responsiveness to resolve customers’ issue in fraud or identity theft.

A moderate score of 3 was given to the apps that have adequate security system and biometric login system. However, it may needs to up its game in terms of prevention and educational efforts.

A low score of 1-2 was given to those that do not have login system or insufficient security steps to ensure the safe usage of the apps by the users.

4. User-Friendliness

A high score of 3-5 was given to those that had earned high favourability from the users based on the apps’ transition, responsiveness, practicality and also banks’ efforts to resolve users’ issues.

A low score of 1-2 was given to the apps that did not meet the average users’ demand and was filled with technological bugs like malfunctions, errors, and bad transitions.

So far, we noticed that almost half of the banks have at least updated or replaced their mobile banking apps to a newer one in the past six months, with better features and functions for the consumers.

About RHB Bank Malaysia

Being the fourth largest fully integrated financial services group in Malaysia, RHB Banking Group has presence in ten countries including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar, Hong Kong (with a representative office in China), Vietnam and Lao PDR.

Learn more about the financial products offered by RHB Bank Malaysia here:

RHB Bank Credit Cards

RHB Bank Personal Loans

The group offers retail banking, business banking, transaction banking, treasury & global markets, Islamic banking and insurance. Currently, RHB’s reach out to its customers with 210 branches in Malaysia with 196 RHB conventional bank branches and 14 RHB Islamic branches, over 2,300 self-service terminals and 19 branches overseas.