Tag: creditcard

Interest Rate Series (DBS Multiplier) [2.5 out of 5 Burger Patties]

On By RistrettzIn Interest Rate Series, Interest Rates, Personal Finance Series, RandomLeave a comment

As on 4 November 2022

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.

For more information, check the link here: DBS Multiplier Calculator

Conclusion

Nothing worth looking at for now. Till next time.

Interest Rate Series (OCBC 360) [4 out of 5 Burger Patties]

On By RistrettzIn Interest Rate Series, Interest Rates, Personal Finance Series, Promotion, RandomLeave a comment

As on 3 November 2022

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.

CardUp and getting more buck for your money?

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Income, Personal Finance SeriesLeave a comment

Do you randomly try to look up for deals on cashback and miles? I can say that I’m a true blue Singaporean. I will try my best to always look for a good deal without going out of the way and affect my time when searching for such good deals. I’ve used this service CardUp when it first launched and the first transaction was kind of like free since it was on a promotional rate with Citibank cards.

Two years on, I still find it hard to catch on this bandwagon where you actually have to pay a fee to get rewards. But who am I to say anything about if this is a good business model. They must be around here to service a group of customers who want to buy miles or get cashback for some of their payments.

I’m not exactly the kind of guy who spends more to save more but I must say it is a good marketing strategy.

What is CardUp?

From their website: “CardUp is a credit card enablement platform, which enables the payment or collection of big expenses using credit card, in places where cards are not accepted today. Examples of payments include rent, tax, invoices, payroll and more, which are still paid by cash, cheque or bank transfer.

With CardUp, individuals and businesses can now shift these big payments to their existing credit cards. This provides an unparalleled opportunity to earn credit card rewards, access interest-free credit and digitise payments – making big payments rewarding.”

Rewards or Spend more Get More

Even until today, I still find it very difficult to see if this is a reward scheme. Maybe this is a way to get more out of spending more. I stay by my own views about credit card rewards because if you have to spend more to get more. I don’t get it. I’ll say that unless there are monetary benefits to cover the initial or some of the fees that is required, I don’t find it sensible. That said, there are the miles and cashback camp who like to make sure there are benefits for every transaction.

Don’t get me wrong, these are great strategies to get the best bang for your buck. Again, different things is just for different folks. This doesn’t really work for me. Truth be told, I am 50-50 on miles and cashback but don’t agree with paying more for it. Perhaps more selectively, a good deal is something worth paying for but not all situation.

If you really want to get on this, just drop me a note for a referral code.

Disclaimer

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 https://atomic-temporary-178675883.wpcomstaging.com/contact/ for the services.

Able to write and share is my main objective is to create a community. Blogging is what I always wanted to do. Being mentally well and put down content is something I always wanted to do. Trying out new things will definitely bring one’s horizon to a different level.