On 4 November 2022, 3 working days after OCBC rolled out their new interest rate on their flagship 360 accounts, DBS followed up with an email that the DBS Multiplier has increased from 3.5% to 4.1%. The balance cap amount is also increased to S$100,000
The Multiplier account has always been proportioned by the transaction amount.
below S$2,000
S$2,000 to below S$2,500
S$2,500 to below S$5,000
S$5,000 to below S$15,000
S$15,000 to below S$30,000
Above S$30,000
The next layer of categories to fulfil will be the number of categories. They are known to be:
1. Salary/Dividends/SGFinDex
The Salary portion has to be a GIRO transaction with code “SAL” or “PAY”, which seems pretty strict given that there are increasing numbers of the next generation in the ‘gig economy’
For dividend crediting, these eligible dividend has to be from CDP, DBS Vickers Securities, DBS Online Equity Trading, DBS Unit Trusts, DBS Online Funds Investing and Invest-Saver (Promotion their own eco-system)
Connecting and sharing financial information from SGFinDex to NAV Planner (I would think one needs to do this on a monthly basis
2. Credit Card Spend
For the monthly card spend, it has to be on any DBS credit card and has to be eligible spending. Eligible will be the usual suspects and it will be very much dependent on the MCC codes.
3. Home Loan Installment
Home Loan financing has to be from DBS or POSB (New or Refinancing). The eligible amount will be from the monthly home loan instalment amount.
4. Insurance
Similar to my previous post on insurance and investment in these high-yield accounts. These are usually valid for a limited period and interest rates are always subject to changes. Further, only selected insurance are eligible.
5. Investment
Nothing much to comment on here. This section will be pretty hard for most people to fulfil.
Additional option: The PayLah! Retail Spend. Honestly, don’t seem like a good deal to me.
The ideal interest rate will be between 0.9% to 2,5%. Frankly, nothing much has changed though and I don’t think it is even worth announcing via their communication channels. I feel like there wasn’t even much thought placed into it. I just felt like it isn’t any effort to compete with these changes. With the most recent 0.75 bps increase by the US Feds, this is not anything competitive and not quite worth looking into for now.
The week has been intercepted by headline interest rate hike news and OCBC 360 certainly did take out their competition with a banging headline. As of the 1st of November 2022, the entire suite of the OCBC 260 flagship account will revise its interest rate across the board.
As of their online quote, “The OCBC 360 Account has six bonus interest categories – Salary, Save, Spend, Wealth (Insure), Wealth (Invest) and Grow. By tapping on just three of these categories – Salary, Save and Spend – customers will be able to earn interest of 4.65% p.a. on the first S$100,000 in their bank account.”
Prior to this due to the interest rate environment, the first S$100,000 could get you 1.85% p.a. The biggest update is that for their spending options, you can use the OCBC 365 credit card, OCBC Titanium Rewards credit card, OCBC 90°N Visa card and OCBC 90°N Mastercard.
There are a total of 6 categories:
Salary, Save, Spend, Insure, Invest and Grow.
The basic of the high-yield account is to fulfil the following – Salary, Saving (Keeping the average daily balance by $500 increment monthly) and spending S4500 to the above-mentioned OCBC credit card each month. Quite simply put, by fulfilling these three options, your interest yield is 4.65% p.a. for up to $100,000. (technically 4.64962903% p.a.)
Over 365 days, the interest earned is S$4,649.63
Salary
You need to credit at least S$1,800 of your salary to fulfil the Salary Category. That is if your HR allows that or if you are not employed in another rival or financial institution.
Save
You need to have an incremental S$500 in your monthly balance. However, if this is your transaction account then it might be an issue. But as long as it is an incremental (Average daily balance)
Spend
You need to spend S$500 on selected OCBC credit cards. You can use the OCBC 365 credit card, OCBC Titanium Rewards credit card, OCBC 90°N Visa card and OCBC 90°N Mastercard.
Insure & Invest
Forget about the insurance and Investment portion, there’s probably no way around those.
Grow
For the Grow category, if you have an additional S$100,000 to keep the average daily balance of S$200,000, the first S$100,000 will get an additional 2.40% p.a. while your remaining S$100,000 remain at the 0.05% p.a.
To illustrate, the interest over this S$200,000 will be S$7,099.60 hence the yield for this amount will be 3.55% p.a. (technically 3.54980161% p.a.
To calculate your interest amount, use the link to calculate the expected interest on your saving amount here: Calculate your Interest Amount
Conclusion
This is very interesting indeed. Because competitors will drastically make these changes as well. The interest rate hike might be a good and bad thing. However, take note that these rates are never confirmed or fixed. They follow the current market conditions. By taking on investments or insurance, these interest rates might change fast and furious. Overall, valiant effort and quite good timing as well. In the next few weeks, we might see revisions to compete with this increase in interest rate.
Quick update on the recent spate of changes regarding bank interest rate changes. I decided to take on a review of all the interest rate reviews that I’ve picked up over time. The first of this series will be from Trust Bank. If you did not know, Trust Bank is a digital bank that is in collaboration with Fair Price Group X Standard Chartered Bank Singapore.
All right, if you have not signed up for this Trust Bank Freebie, I think it is still available now. Please do sign up using my referral code “MREC9F7G” at Sign Up here at Trust Bank
a. You will get a $10 fair price voucher that you can use when you visit any Fair Price Supermarket outlet.
b. You will get an additional $25 fair price voucher once you make your first spend on your card (no minimum spending amount) Pretty sweet, I would say.
c. On top of that, you get some perks of free coffee when you go to Kopitiam to name a few.
At a first glance, I didn’t really like the logo and branding. It does feel too corporate and dated but that is my own opinion
Next, I always believed that all new businesses should be revolutionary from traditional ones. I expect no less from digital banks. Instead of making things easy to understand, It seems like it isn’t too simple. I’m a simple person, if I don’t understand, I think most people don’t and will not bother to find out more. I don’t really know how is it like in terms of their sign up but I’m pretty sure it has stagnated.
In any case, Just see it as Bank Account and Link Point Reward for simplicity.
Bank Account
For Bank Accounts, you will get a base of 1.5% for amounts up to SGD 75,000.00 (In any case, they are also SDIC insured for up to the same amount of SGD 75,000.00)
If you spend 5 transactions on your Trust Credit Card Every month, you will get an additional 0.5% for amounts up to SGD 75,000.00 and hence your total interest is 2.0% p.a.
If you are a Union member, the 0.5% is upgraded to 1.0% and hence your total interest is 2.5% p.a.
a. You will save up to 21% (Credit Card) worth in rewards for a total spend of 350 monthly on that card other than at FairPrice Group, which is in summary
2.5% base rate (Earn unlimited savings of 0.5% on FPG groceries^ and 0.22% on all other eligible spend^^. Exclusive for FairPrice members only! Earn an additional 2% on FPG groceries^, capped at 12,000 Link points a year)
This spending on the above-mentioned has to be on FairPrice Group purchases only.
8.5% monthly bonus (Earn 8.5% on FPG spend^^^ when you meet a monthly minimum eligible spend of S$350 outside of FPG, capped at 5,500 Link points)
You need to spend $350 monthly outside of FairPrice Group spending.
8.0% quarterly bonus (Earn 8% on FPG spend^^^ when you meet your monthly minimum eligible spend for 3 consecutive months, capped at 7,500 Link points)
This quarterly requirement has to be fulfilled for 3 consecutive months, otherwise, that is a fit fat 0.
2.0% FairPrice annual member bonus (Earn 2% once a year on FPG groceries^, capped at 12,000 Link points)
Really not too sure if the 12,000 link points cap is inclusive of the link points earned a year or separate. This is why I really dislike complicated rewards programmes.
b. Up to 11% savings (With the debit card) I suppose this is for customers who are ineligible for the credit card. I shall not dwell on this. You can click on the link above to read more. My question is really that if the digital bank is to serve the underserved, then why penalise those who can afford a credit card. Also, if aunties and uncles are the targets, maybe online is not the best way to go for now.
All these may change at the end of 31 December 2022. Note that there is a cap of 12,000 Link points per annum. I don’t really like the cap on rewards. It is just too troublesome.
Pros
What is good is that there isn’t any lock-in period, it works just like a saving account
There aren’t any monthly fees
There isn’t any minimum balance
There isn’t any minimum period to close the account and hence an account closure fee
There’s also no card replacement fee (That’s one good thing)
Cons
Online only, not too sure about the customer service and customer care
Not sure about the service recovery
Not sure about how well they are protected in terms of security and how they manage fraud/compliance-related issues
Not sure what’s the target market.
Conclusion
Overall, it has decent rewards in terms of account-related perks and interest rates. However, I still feel like they can do more to offer a unique selling proposition. I just can’t see their deviation from their own Fair Price Group which is very local in this sense. I’m not too sure what they really want to achieve from this digital bank license.
However if it fits your bill and Fair Price is your go-to supermarket, why not? Also, If you are comfortable with online-only service as well as getting another account to remember that you have. I still think it is a 3 out of 5 stars at this point in time.
Please sign up using my referral code “MREC9F7G” at Sign Up here at Trust Bank. Thank you in advance for keeping the lights running for this blog.
After Tiger Brokers and Moomoo (by Futu), here comes another player in the market named uSMART SG. Who are they? Founded in December 2018, uSMART Group, has headquarters in Singapore, Hong Kong, China and New Zealand. They have a global workforce of 400, with more than half in the product and development teams.
Who They Are
uSMART SG is mainly backed by Hong Kong company – Chow Tai Fook Group. Their main business would be in the jewellery line. This is probably a diversification from their original business. The other investors are also well known: BNP Paribas, UBS, Ping An, Yahoo, Tencent and Alibaba. (which is strange for Tencent since they are also backers of another brokerage firm)
Their mission is to
provide leading smart investment services to global investors, and to maximize investors’ value through monetary, knowledge and positive emotions. (as per on their website)
Fees
I shall not talk alot about fees. There are many different types of structures and market that you can find if you trade.
Promotions & Rewards
Okay, enough of all the blabbering. Once it is on the public domain, the key questions is what are the perks available now? I think that they are still new entrants to this and not many people know about them so the initial perk have been relatively decent.
Once you sign up, the first freebie is a SGD 15 cash voucher will be deposited in the Rewards Center upon account opening (Standard account). To redeem this cash voucher, complete at least three stocks BUY or SELL trades above S$100 within 90 days
The next promotion is either three shares of BITO, which is the ticker for ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF. If cryptocurrency gains traction with the rest of the community and becomes even more mainstream. This ETF would then have the potential for significant capital returns. (NOTE: For this welcome reward voucher, is unlocked by making a first deposit in a SINGLE transfer amounting to at least S$2,000 or its equivalent value. If user picks the BITO share voucher, you will need to maintain SGD2,000 AUM for 30 consecutive days in order to redeem the 3 BITO shares. You can choose the Investment Master Course which is ranked by uSMART as the higher value.
Last point to note: You will need to head to Rewards Center to redeem these rewards or they will expire and you will get nothing from it.
The return on the SGD 2k investment will be around 5%, almost risk free. Take note of the daily average which has to be SGD 2000 and above for the next 30 days. (If you are using them to trade often)
Thank you in advance for funding the activity of this blog and deals. It is just a little affiliate marketing/referral fees that I take. This pays for all the marketing activity, IT related fees and any other miscellaneous payments. Thanks again for keeping the lights running here.
Disclaimer
If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at Referral and Recommendations
The pictures were taken from the uSMART SG website for this article.
Crypto.com (CRO mainnet & https://crypto.com) has been around for some time now. I have not seen any utility crypto company who has delivered what they want to deliver to consumers over the last few years. They are as similar if not the same as any other company with a physical product that works. While I have my concerns, I do feel that they offer a little bit of everything which new users can learn about and existing users can complement with their existing knowledge.
Cryptocurrency
To a certain extent, sometimes just jumping on the bandwagon allows one to commit and understand how the crypto world works. Once you have committed some money, one will take the effort to find out more and discover the traits of the crypto world and what it entails. Crypto is a highly aggressive alternative investment and everyone should be careful. This article just talks more about what I feel so do your own diligence before jumping onto something.
Meanwhile, given that Binance International is going through some regulatory and compliance issues in Singapore. Crypto.com is a good way to explore your options. To explain further about the perks on opening a crypto.com account:
By signing up, you will get SGD 100 and an exclusive NFT. Of course, you would need to be the first 100,o00 users to do so. To find out more read here: Mid-Autumn Crypto.com Promotion
Plus, I’d get my very first NFT “Lion Mooncake”. Curious to know how it looks like!
To maximise your rewards, you can choose to stake SGD $500 CRO so that I can unlock the referral bonus of US$25 (Referral Bonus)
To redeem NFT, you will need to sign up the NFT account that Crypto.com has at Crypto.com NFT Account
How to connect your Crypto.com/NFT and Crypto.com App accounts (Taken from their website):
Enter the email address that’s associated with your Crypto.com App account and send a connection request to your inbox.
Open the authorisation email, click Connect, enter your Crypto.com App passcode, and click Authorise & launch NFT.
If you would like to give Crypto.com a try do remember to use my referral code: 1JIC-91CM
Crypto.com Eco-system
I understand that by now, most would be a little confused with so many accounts. What Crypto.com can do is a lot of stuff. Listing it down and in summary:
a.https://crypto.com – This is their main app which allows you to swap cryptocurrency and also to setup your Metal VISA card. The Visa Card gives you the perks of cashback and using CRO to pay for specific vouchers (Special cashback discounts as well) – [APP only]
b. https://crypto.com/exchange – This is the trading account which allow you to set limits and trade with other pairs that they allow on the exchange (You can treat this as a brokerage account. The perks of opening the exchange account can be found here: Exchange Perks [Website & APP]
c. https://crypto.com/NFT – This is the marketplace for NFTs and also known as non-fungible Token. This is also what many know as digital art. [Website & APP]
d. https://crypto.com/defi-wallet – With the Crypto.com DeFi Wallet (a non-custodial wallet), you can send crypto to anyone around the world at your preferred confirmation speed and the network fee. With this you can also store and earn interest Crypto.com DeFi Wallet is a decentralized wallet, which means you own your private keys. During wallet creation, you will have to write down your recovery phrase which when needed, you will be able to restore your funds. (This is very important)
From here you can have the option to choose among the whitelisted validators for staking and redelegation (change delegation from existing validator to another validator). This will give you additional interest. Read more about it here: Defi-Wallet Earn
Some simple benefits for sign up
1. Supercharger
Other than putting approved coins to earn interest on the APP. You can also join in the syndication on the Exchange or the Supercharger event on the Crypto.com APP itself. You can stake your CRO and treat it as a way to farm for other coins that crypto.com has a promotion or link with. More information can be found here: Supercharger Event.
2. Metal Card Cashback
The Metal Card Cashback works like a credit card cashback account. The only thing that functions differently is that it is a debit card. You will need to pre-load it with cash before transacting with spends. Like any other card, they have to abide by MAS PSA. The card also credits cashback based on the MCC spends. More details can be found here: Cashback eligibility under their CRO cashback rewards program
Not to mention that if you take on the higher tier cards, you can get rebates for Spotify, Netflix and ever prime plus other perks which can be found here at https://crypto.com/sg/cards
3. Additional Promotion and Discounts
More perks and discount will be added over time and the updated ones until 30 Sep 2021 can be found here at User Exclusives and Promotions. If you have any queries, drop me a note and I will try my best to answer your questions. It can be daunting at first but eventually, you will get a hang of it.
Disclaimer
This is not a sponsored post. This is purely my own opinion after using their service and/or products. If you like what you are seeing, do remember to check they out and do your diligence. There is no one size fits all investment strategy. If you would like to give Crypto.com a try do remember to use my referral code: 1JIC-91CM
Now, if what I am sharing does resonates with you, do use my referral codes here at Referral and Recommendations
I like how Singlife uses the community to spread information. It is definitely a cheap way to spend money. It gives me content to publish while it provides Singlife with multiple arms to disseminate information. However, there isn’t any referral scheme with this re-open. Instead, I guess that to stay sustainable, they have to reduce the interest rates for the first S$10k.
I received the email from their Marketing Communications team and it reads:
The Central Banks continue to keep interest rates low, Singlife has introduced a new way to be rewarded for spending and investing, earning up to 2.0% p.a. return on the first S$10,000 through the following campaigns:
The Save, Spend, Earn Campaign and,
The Grow 0.5% p.a. Bonus Return Campaign.
The catch here is up to 2.0% p.a. return. Beginning 1 July 2021, the Singlife Account will offer up to 2.0% p.a. return on the first S$10,000. The base crediting rates will be revised to 1.0% p.a. on the first S$10,000 and 0.5% p.a. return on the next S$90,000, customers will still have the opportunity to enjoy up to 1.0% p.a. bonus return.
So, sustainability of the business is a way forward. I’ll say that the interest rate has been semi-nerfed for valid reasons. On top of that, you can still gain 0.5% more by spending and another 0.5% if you invest with GROW. Personally, I wouldn’t put money with GROW but I will spend to make the interest up to 1.5% for the first S$10k.
Disclaimer
This is not a sponsored post. This is purely my own opinion. If you like what you are seeing, do remember to check they out and do your diligence. There is no one size fits all investment strategy.
If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes here at Referral and Recommendations
In this article, the pictures were taken from websites for illustration only. Stay Safe!
In my earlier posts, I talked about the need for an emergency fund and other than Singlife, which caps the 2.5% p.a. for the first S$10k. No other financial institutions have been able to match this super high interest yield for a pretty risk free approach .(Given that Singlife is under SDIC so the first S$75k is covered and safe) In recent months, we have seen some insurtech or alternative ways to put your money and entice people with relatively decent interest rates for your cash/emergency funds.
Emergency Funds
To recap, your emergency funds should have some level of liquidity so that you can utilise when necessary and not be penalised for doing so. This is by far my personal first rule. It is extremely interesting and exciting to see what might happen to the digital banking sector where there is a mixed bag of consortium lining up to be licensed to offer financial services. It looks like it is going to be something similar to what these insurtech is offering or even more innovation. (e.g. bundled products, higher interest rates or even offering curated financial products, robo-advisors and payment channels) It does seems exciting to see what new innovation these services can offer and retail customers will benefit from this digital drive.
Dash EasyEarn
Dash Easy Earn is a collaborative work between Dash (Singtel payment service) and Easy Earn (Tiq – An Insurance arm of Etiqa and a subsidiary of Maybank)
Let’s go for the Pros first:
a. Flexible no lock-in period hence no penalties for cancelling the plan.
b. First year interest rates stands at 2% p.a. (So this part is locked in and low interest rate environment is set to stay)
c. Relatively low barrier to entry. With S$2k minimally as maintenance amount that you keep, you get the interest accrued on a daily basis.
d. Capital Guaranteed.
e. Interest earned can be transfer to Dash Payment Service with no extra charge and they have a suite of deals and payments which you can use to pay your bills with. There is a $2 cashback for your first Singtel Dash transaction! Sign up with the referral code DASH-RYJKN or tap on this link https://appserver.dash.com.sg:443/mgm?DASH-RYJKN now
f. You can top up anytime to this account.
g. 105% of the account value is the sum assured should something happen to you.
Now for the Cons:
a. You need to download and register for yet another app. This is the Singtel Dash App. I mean, I really hate Singtel but I will not say no to free money.
b. You have to remember to maintain at lease S$2k in the EasyEarn Account.
c. 2% p.a. only applies for the first year and I believe that it will drop to 1.5 % p.a. thereafter. (From the terms and conditions: *Guaranteed 1.5% p.a. + 0.5% p.a. bonus for first policy year, available on a first come, first served basis) – Seems like there is sort of a cap to this.
d. There is a maximum amount to this. Once you have Topped Up to S$20k, that is the cap for every individual account. So there is this element of troublesome to remember and track for a 2% p.a. but if it suits you, then by all means go ahead.
e. Here is the key part to this which you will not hear it from Dash themselves. For any transaction that you transfer out via PayNow back to your own transact or savings account, there is a payment fee of S$0.70 per transaction. This is free if you transfer to Dash payment as described above for Pros point (e).
Seriously
To some, the S$0.01 is money which they refuse to let go of but to others, not so much of a great deal. Don’t be penny wise pound foolish or you will never see the bigger picture. You will not gain anything by spending time and energy on pinching 1 cent. I personally know 8 out of 10 people does it and it annoys the hell out of me. If you have time to pinch 1 cent, I would rather you take that time to find ways to make $10 instead of ruining your own mood, wasting your time and fussing over the small things. I don’t get it and I still don’t today.
The User Interface
Here is how the screen looks like on the Dash EasyEarn App. You can see the Grow Money (New) in the Dash App which you can access and see your funds and interest. Do note that the interest are not accumulative though so it means that whatever you have in excess of S$20k earns no interest.
When you log in to EasyEarn, that is how the app looks like below.
Conclusion
Before I end off, I saw an interesting product which is on similar terms as Dash EasyEarn. They are from Tiq Insurance – meaning GIGANTIA but this works in their own Tiq App. (First year 1% + 1% p.a.) I’m not too sure why they have something similar to Dash EasyEarn. There can be a variety of reason. It could be that they have extra tranche of funds to offer customers or it could be that this is a longevity version of their product as compared to having inflexible Dash systems. I would explore Tiq option as well but let’s see what kind of proposition it makes to consumers.
This is not a sponsored post. This is just a tool and exploration to find out cash solutions, interest rates as well as a market survey. It is never too much to learn and know more about.
This picture image was taken off Singtel Dash and EasyEarn for illustration purpose only.
Crypto.com (MCO) has been around for almost 4 years now. I have not seen any utility crypto company who has delivered what they want to deliver to consumers over the last 4 years. They are as similar if not the same as any other company with a physical product that works.
Crypto.com
My first serious foray into crypto was the MCO card introduced by a friend of my. The great deal initially was a referral fee of USD 50 for both referrer and referee. Then comes the Spotify, Netflix and free airport access (via Lounge key – Not so much now but still it is okay) all these comes in at 100% cash-backed to the card via the utility token (Used to be MCO but now it is swapped into the CRO)
For many users, especially the pioneers or even global users who have been approved in their countries to issued MCO Visa cards (Debit card), it is certainly not what was listed in the white paper but hey, it is a pretty good move in my opinion and while the Wirecard Fiasco is still ongoing, I think it is a win-win for all Crypto.com users. Some users think otherwise but I find that this is an option once more to think bigger profits which a 10x margin might be possible. Of course crypto comes with risks. It is a big risk but it should also return big as well.
The community has been negative for such changes. I guess there is no right and wrong answer to it. I still choose to believe that is moving in the right direction for customers as well as sustainability. So in all that, I will still hold and wait on for more good news on their end. The CRO staked amount has also been adjusted lower which means more good news and more CRO released for usage.
The Swap Value
There’s the alert and actionable items: Action is required before 2 Nov 2020 at 23:59 UTC, or you will lose the functionality currently associated with your MCO. We will not perform the MCO swap on your behalf and the swap will not happen automatically.
Crypto.com will use the following formula based on the volume weighted average price as expressed in United States dollars (“VWAP”)to determine the number of CRO allocated to you that reflects each swapped MCO:
1 MCO = (30-day VWAP of MCO / 30-day VWAP of CRO) x 1 CRO
(30 days between 4 Jul 2020 to 2 Aug 2020, both dates inclusive)
So it will be fixed at 1 MCO = 27.4639 CRO
Crypto.com will offer an Early Swap Bonus in CRO if the MCO swap is performed before 2 Sep 2020 23:59 UTC, based on the following formula and criteria: So Swap early for
1 MCO = 33.1726 CRO
The pros is now that the stake and interest has now increased as CRO terms are on better rates. Development of De-fi is on its way. More flexibility in terms of usage and managing the tokens. Benefits are better now for existing customers.
The cons would be the way they initially managed and wrote on the white paper. This definitely lost some points as well as how MCO was originally the golden boy which has turned obsolete now.
All Benefits remains the same and on the same tier. Not bad I supposed, just that the quantity of CRO is now much more than before. I don’t think that’s a big deal. The whole idea is adoption, more utility and more users. It spells 10x to me more. Just be patient.
This is really a great piece of marketing work from Singlife. Though late into the referral game, this is some good way to get and garner new acquisitions. It is well known that Singaporeans are pretty starved for yields. This insurtech firm is one that I have wrote about recently and it is a good product.
(Updates 1 Nov 2020): I received an email from Singlife communications – As a heads up, Singlife Paid Referral Programme will come to a close on 1 November 2020.
All referees (i.e. people who have been referred) who have successfully in-forced their Singlife Account by 1 Nov 2020 will have up to fifteen business days (i.e. 20 Nov 2020) to order and activate their Singlife Visa Debit Card for both you and your referee to still qualify for the S$10 referral bonus.
You also probably received an email from them on 30 Oct 2020 notifying of the upcoming termination.
As from their excerpt:
“Singlife’s Paid Referral Programme has enjoyed a successful run and will come to a close as of 1 November 2020. Thank you for all your support! Upon the Effective Date of Termination (1 Nov 2020), all referees who have successfully in-forced their Singlife Account(s), by the Effective Date of Termination, will have up to fifteen business days (i.e. by 20 Nov 2020) to order and activate their Singlife Visa Debit Card to qualify for the S$10 bonus.”
Still, the good and bad and them. It is still a decent alternative cash source.
The Good about Singlife
I’ll have one more strong and valid point to date with this referral scheme.
A referral fee of S$10 is deposited in your Singlife account for each friend you invite to Singlife and there are no cap for this. Each friend gets S$10 too so if you find this useful, do use my link to sign up here: https://app.singlife.com/S49MSfXlF8
SDIC covered
Relatively high interest rate for the first $10k
Simple and fuss-free – registration and login all done online
You can also spend normally like what a debit card does, having a functioning physical card.
Transfers are all ifast which is really impressive and same day receipt
Customer service is pretty responsive and quick to reply (Live chat and email)
Some form of insurance is complimentary including retrenchment insurance (It’s not a lot but it is a nice gesture)
Due to the current covid-19 pandemic, we have seen quite a change in the world’s economic situation. Central banks around the world have reduced interest rates to an extremely low level. In finance, or what we call an emergency fund – has to always be liquid. It is well known to keep 3 – 6 months of funds for a rainy day. As for the amount to keep, it really depends on everyone’s personal situation. I would say, it depends on how much you spend and how willing one will be able to adjust to change their lifestyle. Given the current situation, it may be better to keep up to 9 or 12 months of emergency funds. Again, it depends very much on every individual’s finance situation.
Reduction of interest in “High Yield”saving accounts
Recently, we have seen the banks reducing the interest rates of deposit accounts or “high yield” saving accounts. It is only a matter of time when everyone else will reduce that interest amount so it is important to always keep funds liquid. You will never know what happens so it is important to stick to the rules – Keep your liquid funds liquid. A couple of months back, I found an interesting channel to keep some funds for a pretty high yield of 2.5% pa.
Of course, there are plenty of choices out there to choose from but today we shall talk a little more about an “alternative” choice as compared to a bank. Let’s throw Fixed Deposits out of the equation as well as they are close nothing at this point in time.
Singlife
This is Singlife account. The interest of 2.5% p.a. is capped for the first $10,000 that you fund the account and the next $90,000 will be on 1.0% p.a. Any amount more than $100,000 will earn no interests thus this account will be suitable for anyone who wishes to keep a small sum of funds with Singlife and the hassle of having another account.
As indicated on their website, the Singlife Account is an insurance savings plan and it is neither a bank savings account nor fixed deposit. Each person is only entitled to one Singlife Account policy.) Singlife is also known as an Insurance Technology company that is licensed by MAS.
This is a really good channel to keep funds in however just take note that the 2.5% p.a. is not guaranteed and can be changed anytime. I think that this is fair given how flexible the funds can be taken out at will. In a most recent post, the news state that Singlife has raised 100 million funds in new AUM.
Pros
Below are some of the pointers that I felt is compelling enough to sign up for an account as the pros outweighs the cons at this moment and I am going to discuss more about why we should just get an account online:
First, Singlife is an insurance savings plan coupled with insurance and interest features. Fund placed with Singlife will be capital guaranteed so there will not be any hidden fees.
Second, you can earn up up to 2.5% p.a. for the first $10,000 with minimum funding of $500 to start earning this interest amount.
Third, there is insurance benefits – 105% of the account value and retrenchment benefits.
Fourth, the Singlife debit card is complementary and works like a normal debit card.
Fifth, No Lock-In. No contracts. Funds can be withdrawn anytime with no cost and minimum term.
Sixth, application is easy. Works only on an app and you can use SingPass to register easily.
Seven, funds are covered by SDIC so your funds are safe and protected for up to S$75k if there are any bank run on deposits.
In Summary, this can be a good tool for transition of better interest accounts or a medium terms solutions to parking your own funds.
Cons
There are not many bad points out there but to name a few and mainly only due to requirements and how cumbersome it can turn out to be.
First, they are relatively the new boys in town. In terms of branding and knowing who Singlife is needs to be worked on.
Second, since they are an alternative choice, traditional and conservative folks will just monitor or give it a pass
Third, the threshold of up to S$10k for 2.5%p.a. may not be appealing for some folks out there.
Fourth, having yet another digital wallet or account is going to be slightly more cumbersome. Hence this might deter more sign ups.
The other choice is to go to Tiq or Dash Easy Earn. The interest option is slightly lower but you can’t avoid opening yet another account.
Conclusion
The whole idea here is to share what are the different options and alternative available to park your funds. If this works for one person, it might not for the other. There isn’t a one size fits all solution but there are plenty of solutions out there. We just have to dig deeper and find out more about them. Then, we also question about the time spent to research and the effort to track different apps and accounts. It really depends on every individual. To some it might be creating more issues but to others, these solutions may be gems.
I find that these solutions are a good option for the younger group of graduates and those who have just started to find employment. You have to start somewhere so this is one avenue to do so.
This is not a sponsored post and purely my own opinion that I am writing about in my thoughts. If you like what you are seeing, do remember to check they out and do your diligence. Don’t be too fixated with what is the best.
