I was reading Business Times a few days back and came across a ad by Bank of China Singapore offering 3.55% on a savings account and on analysis I find it the best offer in the market as of now.
Salient features of the account:
| Prevailing Savings Interest Rate (SGD) | |
|---|---|
| Below S$5,000 | 0.25% |
| S$5,000 and above | 0.275% |
| S$20,000 and above | 0.35% |
| S$50,000 and above | 0.40% |
Bonus Interest:
On top of prevailing savings interests, you can earn bonus interests on the first S$60,000 of your account balance when you perform any or all of these:
- Earn 1.55% p.a. when you spend at least S$500 across your BOC Credit Cards and/or Debit Cards.
- Earn 1.00% p.a. when your company credits your salary of at least S$2,000 into your BOC MCS Account.
- Earn 0.60% p.a. when you transact 3 bill payments or 1 BOC Mortgage Repayment from your BOC MCS Account.
What I liked about this account was that by just crediting your salary and spending 500$ on a BOC credit or Debit Card you can get additional 2.55% of interest which is more than DBS Multiplier, UOB One and OCBC account.
If someone is a little more savvy they could make GIRO payments through BOC bank and earn additional 0.60% – Payment for StarHub/Singtel, Electricity/Gas are two simple regular Bill payments that everyone would have, add in a third for say school fee, club fee or any other recurring Bill payment and you have your additional 0.60%.
It is very interesting to see the local banks offering better rates on savings accounts as the Central Banks across the world are going into negative interest rate zones. I think that these offers represent the anticipated interest rate increase in Singapore banking system.
Moreover this account from BOC is a multi currency account and I think a must have for anyone looking to earn higher interest on savings.
Aditya Ladia 