Matthiaspeaks

Happy new year to all the readers!

If you had been using OCBC 360 for the past one year, here's an excel table which you can use to calculate the interest earns. Do note that the bank pay interest daily (according to the website on this date), therefore there will be a slight difference in the amount. But the good thing is that you are actually earning slightly more than what is calculated from this excel.

If you are currently employed and still thinking that you do not have much money to put in the bank to earn interest, it's time to rethink and start helping your parents (especially if they are self-employed or retired) to earn some interest with the help of this table.

Start saving today and have a fruitful year ahead!

Link to download table:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/eotv44chfns3lmw/OCBC%20360%202016%20interest%20calculator.xlsx?dl=0

If you are still thinking that banks are giving very low interest (less than 0.05 to 0.1% pa). it's really time to relook into a new saving account to make the best out of your savings.

There are already a few "savings account" out there that gives much higher interest as long as you hit some of their criteria such as depositing your salary into their account.

I guess banks are feeling the pain of losing their regular savers over to the "more savvy saving accounts" and this time round, Maybank had launched something similar known as SaveUp Account.

Since they are a little late than the other banks, in order to make it more attractive, they are offering more criteria for you to meet such as car loan, housing loan and education loan.

But of course, please do your Math properly in order to get the best deal for your money. Do not blindly get those loans just to get those interest!









Picture taken from http://info.maybank2u.com.sg/saveup/index.aspx

Just as I was about to touch on this (since our BTO flat is coming to completion really soon and we are getting the HDB loan), Bank of China (BOC) had dropped a bomb as one of the best options to justify the CPF wipeout has became harder to achieve.

But before we continue, let's refresh our memory on the current CPF interest rate below. Based on the interest, one will need to decide whether if they put their CPF into better use or just use it to pay for new flat. And the easiest choice is simply to justify the wipe out is to ensure that you keep a certain amount of your savings in a place that generates more returns (or interest) than CPF.



And now let's look into BOC's Smart Saver savings account. Basically, this is one of the savings program which is gaining popularity in Singapore (which I believe that had led to the bad news which you will be reading later).

It is a good trend since savers can enjoy higher interest rate by trying to fulfil certain monthly criteria set by the bank such as crediting one's salary, spending a specific minimum amount using the bank's credit cards and paying bills. And for BOC's Smart Saver, you can actually beat CPF's interest rate if you hit their criteria.



However, from this December onward, one will not be able to hit the maximum 3.55% p.a. interest (which is more than the 3.5% p.a. interest which CPF is offering for the first $20 000 in your OA account) that easily anymore unless you are able to bank in a salary of at least $6000 cash and spent $1500 on your BOC credit card bills every month.

This is actually three times of the existing requirement below.



You may find out more about the BOCs Smart Saver revised interest rates in this link.


Since the revised BOC's Smart Saver's interest rates is no longer competitive against CPF and the flat is going to be completed soon, it seems that we will need to decide quickly on whether to use up all the CPF or to keep some in the OA to earn better interest for retirement.


As the banks are getting more and more competitive and are launching similar savings accounts, let's hope that we will be able to find one that is able to match up to CPF's interest with no lock down periods!

But for those couples that still have some time before the BTO's completion date, hope this post helps and good luck!



PS: If anyone has any alternative options to share, feel free to comment!





1st picture taken from: https://www.cpf.gov.sg/members/aboutus/about-us-info/cpf-interest-rates on the date of post

2nd & 3rd pictures taken from: http://www.bankofchina.com/sg/pbservice/pb1/201510/t20151023_5857863.html on the date of post

It is important for one to save and there are many savings accounts out there in Singapore for you to choose from. In the past, foreign banks used to offer higher interest rates than the local banks. But they probably need to do so in order to attract people over to save in their banks since they usually do not have as many ATM machines or branches in Singapore as compared to the local banks.

However, things had changed since April 2014 when the OCBC 360 savings account was launched. Interest rates from local bank had become easy to attain and there is no more concern such as to maintain an incremental balance in the savings account in order to enjoy higher interest rates (it is almost like a fix deposit account).

Although there was a revision in the bonus interest rates for OCBC 360 in May 2015, let's not dwell too much on how good the previous interest were since there is really not much we as consumers can do now. Let's be thankful that OCBC did not totally cut off all the bonus interest for OCBC 360.

For those who had heard about OCBC 360 and thought that it is not suitable for you because you are not working or do not have a salary-based job, please continue to read the post as this account still has it's perks!




As what OCBC say above, yes we can really do more with OCBC 360 savings account and this is especially helpful for someone who is able to achieve criteria 1 and 2, that are fairly easy to hit, if you read the later part of post carefully. Criteria 3 and 4 are optional and not advisable to attain if your current lifestyle and financial plans do not require them. Criteria 5 is an interesting one and particularly useful for self-employed or those who are not working.
 
1. Crediting a salary of minimum $2000 through GIRO into OCBC 360.

 
Earn 1.2% interest per year or 1.2/12 = 0.1% per month on your savings by asking your HR to credit your salary to OCBC 360 of minimum $2000 cash. For high income earners who had hit the $60k cap, you may consider to split the salary credit (min 2k each) and deposit into your family members' or spouse's (self-employed or not working) OCBC 360 accounts. 

There are some companies that are tied down to a specific bank for various reasons and their employees' salaries have to be deposited only to that specific bank. If you are working in such companies and and the HR can't credit your salary to OCBC 360, this savings account might not be the best option for you. But you may consider to achieve Criteria 2, 3 and Criteria 5 to enjoy a 2% interest per year or 0.1666% interest per month by continue reading.

 2. Arrange 3 different bill payments (full or partial) a month using your OCBC 360 account

 

Earn 0.5% interest per year or 0.5/12 = 0.0416% (round down) per month on your savings by paying your bills to different credit cards (exclude JCB and Amex cards that are tied to certain banks) or different companies (such as insurance premiums, telcom bills, LTA fines etc).

For those who do not have 3 different bills to pay for yourself, you may consider to help out with your family's expenses. Therefore it is actually really easy to fulfill this requirement if you had caught the keyword "partial" in this section.

3. Spend $500 a month using any OCBC credit cards (optional) 



Earn 0.5% interest per year or you can divide the interest by 12 months which is 0.5/12 = 0.0416% (round down) per month on your savings. This is optional since not everyone spends so much a month. Do not try to hit this amount just to earn the interest. The maximum interest you are going to get out of it is only 0.0416% x $60 000 (This is the max amount covered for this bonus interest) = $24.96.

OCBC Cashflo Credit Card is an ideal credit card to complement this bonus interest requirement. Split the credit card spendings into 3 months or 6 months installments (depending on where you do your purchases) for your necessary big expenses such as medical bills, overseas holiday, wedding, renovation, furnitures or electrical appliances. While paying the monthly installments, you get to fulfill this criteria of $500. For example, a TV cost $3k and it gets split into 6 months of $500 each. In a way, you need not worry about not hitting the $500 credit card spending for 6 months.

Remember, you are using this card to purchase what you actually need and not what you can't afford!  

4. Getting insurance or investment plans from OCBC (optional)



Earn 1% interest per year or 1/12 = 0.083% (round down) per month on your savings. This is also optional since such plans might not be useful to you and you may be able to find better options for insurance or investment elsewhere. Forcing yourself to take up insurance or investment products that you do not require is going to really costly! 

5. Making sure that you increase your account balance every month (Capped at S$1 Million).


Earn 1% interest per year or 1/12 = 0.083% (round down) per month on your savings difference from the previous month. This is an interesting new bonus interest from OCBC 360 that was launch in May 2015. So the catch is that you need to ensure your previous month's balance in your OCBC 360 is lower than the current month's.And this has to take into account of your average daily balance between the current and previous month. Therefore it is not easy in the sense that you can't simply transfer a large sum of money on the last day of the month. The sum of money has to sit in the bank for the entire month as the bank look at the average daily balance difference.

In the nutshell, so long as top up an OCBC 360 account on the first day of the month and transfer the funds out to on the first day of the next month, you will earn 0.083% (round down) on the top up (capped at $1 Million). If you and your spouse or family members have OCBC 360 accounts, you may want to re-look into how you can earn the difference by making transfers timely between the accounts (to earn this additional 1% interest).  Check out this table:



If your OCBC account has not been a year old, you get to enjoy free waiver of the service fees of $2 when it falls below $3000. So you may even consider transferring out all your savings out and top it back the next month! So the question is where should you transfer this account? It can be your family members' or spouse's OCBC 360 or other banks' incremental accounts (such as CIMB StarSaver (Savings) Account).

The current fix deposit account usually offers an interest rate from 1.3% onwards depending on the amount and also the duration. However, in order to avoid getting your savings "stuck" especially when you need to liquidate your savings for medical fees, school fees, wedding etc, one may want to combine criteria 2 and 5 to earn a 1.5% interest rate per year by planning your funds transfer properly monthly for your OCBC 360 account or your closed ones.

OCBC 360 is therefore actually a savings account which is worth spending some time on to grow your savings more effciently. Open an OCBC 360 account now if you had not done so. If you had been procastinating for a long time, go down to the branch now! OCBC had many branches that are opened on a Sunday!

If you find this useful, do share this with your close ones! They can be working, schooling, self employed, having a commission-based job such as (insurance agent or property agent) or a home maker. It's good for anyone to relook into their own or family members' OCBC 360 accounts now to see how they can make the best out of their savings!


*All images were taken from OCBC 360's official website on the posted date.