We have seen a few revamp from some of the banks such as the recent policy update by UOB One account effective 1st August 2018. Being a financial savvy adult becomes complicated nowadays, with the abundance of many deposit accounts out there such as the CIMB FastSaver Account and BOC SmartSaver Account at your discretion to earn higher interests.
Honestly, I have not been the most updated on the subject and hence was late in switching my deposit accounts to one with a higher interest. In fact, it is almost 6 months late since the revamp of the DBS Multiplier Account. Better late than never?
I have peers who are also hesitant to switch to better accounts due to the hassle involved such as informing the HR to amend the salary crediting account and the need of moving large sums of money to a new account.
As we know, different deposit accounts suit different spending habits to yield each of us an optimal annual interest.
Before I go into why I choose DBS Multiplier and UOB One, below are the factors/expenses which led to my decisions.
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Credit card spend (usually less than $500)
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3 bills to pay (Debit GIRO Transactions)
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Crediting of salary (over $2000)
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Investments: Brokerage transactions executed almost month to month
After comparisons made between some deposit accounts and credit cards, I decided to choose UOB One and DBS Multiplier. In expense, OCBC 360 will be sacrificed soonest. Let me share with you why they are a good fit in my scenario and some of which may also be applicable to inform you on how you can take advantage of the accounts' criteria (especially on the investments portion).
DBS Multiplier Account
-Multi-Currency Account (MCA)
-Higher Interest Rates for up to first $50,000 balance
-Fall Below Fee applicable for balances under $3000
To earn juicer interests, DBS Multiplier requires you to credit your salary (mandatory) along with any one of the other 4 categories to further stack your interest returns. The great thing is that there is no minimum imposed on salary crediting amount OR credit card spend to limit us from earning higher interest. In addition, different types of currencies in your Multiplier Account are also eligible to earn you interests.
As shown below, you will be entitled for the interests even if your salary are credited into other DBS/POSB deposit accounts (than the Multiplier account itself). This was confirmed further with the sales at the DBS branch.
Do read up on the
T&C for more details.
In my opinion, DBS has the most complete product bundle currently in terms of credit card, saving accounts and investments. It will be a bonus if you are taking DBS house loan OR are insured under any of their Manulife products.
As seen in the above calculator, I can earn around 2.2% interest per annum by:
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Crediting my salary.
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Making any transaction with my POSB Everyday credit card ($1/month is also eligible). I plan to use this card as my EZ Link, since transport cost is inevitable for work.
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Executing “Buy” transactions on stocks using DBS Vickers.
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Credit of dividends into my DBS saving accounts.
To investors out there who trade foreign stocks, I am going to explain why using DBS Vickers will be very beneficial to your wallet. Here is why!
• Since the Multiplier account is able to contain 12 different foreign currencies, your money in other type of currencies (eg. USD or GBP) will no longer need to be stuck in your trading account balance doing nothing. They will be transferred to your MCA account automatically without the need of self withdrawal (if account linkage is done).
*Update: Foreign currencies are not eligible to the higher interests.
• By using MCA, you can convert your SGD into other currencies at the banks’ rate (which is more attractive compared to a non multi-currency account). Furthermore, you can hold on to them and exchange them back to SGD when it is deemed more attractive.
• You will earn interests from your "Buy" transactions and dividends received, as explained earlier.
• As an introduction to non DBS Vickers users, "Cash Upfront" payment provides us heavily discounted brokerage fee when we purchase shares by paying cash upfront to the bank. This used to be only limited for SG stocks. Fortunately, they are now applicable to foreign stocks after you link your MCA account to the Vickers trading account.
I really like the whole Mutiplier package and it strongly favors me in earning higher interests while taking advantage of more savings from investments.
UOB One Account
-Higher Interest Rates up to the first $75,000
-Fall Below Fee applicable for balances under $500
There is an ongoing new accounts promotion from 16 July to 31 August 2018. Every new UOB account member will get $100 if the account is applied online. You will also need to deposit $5,300 into your Fresh Funds and SMS the bank to register for this promotion. Terms and conditions apply.
Since I am already holding UOB One credit card, there is no harm of having a deposit account to capitalize on rebates from forecasted wedding and travel expenses. Due to my low frequencies of hitting high credit spends, I decided to charge my monthly Prudential payments to this card to push the monthly spending above $500. (to be explained below)
There are two sections in this account in order to maximize the interest returns.
First is the almost mandatory credit card spend of $500 or more. One must note that UOB One account interests are issued month to month while UOB One card requires you to spend $500 or more
for 3 consecutive months to get good rebates. On the second part, you can choose between salary credit OR 3 Debit GIRO transactions. Since my salary credit is already used on DBS Multiplier, I shall perform my 3 bill payments under UOB One account instead.
To avoid the fall below fee, only a minimum balance of $500 is required (which differs significantly from the $3000 requirement in OCBC 360 and DBS Multiplier).
So give it a though, which packages out there suit you most?
Feel free to throw your questions if you have any doubts on the two accounts mentioned.
With all these said, the many different interest account packages are making Singapore Saving Bonds (SSB) much less attractive nowadays, especially for people with lesser net worth. Just my opinion.
