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.
By now, many of you would have known that the SSB for November hit an all-time high from all the blog posts. However, only those of you who know know. Those who don’t, have no idea at all. In this period of the internet world, word of mouth can actually be less efficient.
Year 1 (3.26%) vs 10 Year Avg (3.47%) for the tranche of SBNOV22 GX22110A
Indeed, that is pretty sweet but someone else’s gain is someone else’s loss. The mortgage rate for floating homeowners might be a shitty time to come. I’m not sure but perhaps there may be some level of concerns in the Singapore private markets soon? Especially for those who rode a tight line to take to upgrade and stretch out their finances. That’s a discussion for another article.
Meanwhile, what is probably better than the SSB, is the Singapore Treasury bonds. The ones that come in every two weeks will be the 6 monthly Treasury bond if you do not wish to lock in the rates for 10 years. (It doesn’t mean SSB will be illiquid. It just means the rate will stay constant for 10 years)
Treasury bills – 6 months for the previous tranch was offered for SGD 4.6 billion,
With the internet, news and services get rolled out pretty at a light speed. Recently, the blog community and several other channels (likely paid/sponsored) has seen a new service in town. It isn’t your usual savings or investment account but instead a Goldback account. At at current, it looks really simple at this point in time. I’m not sure what they have in store for future development. (https://onelink.to/hugosave)
Hugo Save or Wealthcare
Savings are made made simpler through the Hugo Save App. How this works is through Roundups – every transaction on the Hugo Platinum Visa Debit Card is rounded up to the nearest dollar. This weekly Roundup savings are then automatically invested into real physical gold via the Hugo Gold Vault.
There are also other options such as:
1. Micro Investments – Grab Invest (Nothing Fancy but also nothing exciting). These have no lock-ins.
2. Micro Insurance – SNACK by Income. They offer small insurance benefits that build up over time. They can be a good source of insurance coverage for freelancers or folks who just came to employment.
3. With Hugo, they focus on savings and what more can they do to provide it as a platform to save eventually rounded into Gold.
a. You sign up with your details here at Hugo: https://www.hugosave.com/, click on the download button.
b. Fill and submit your details. I believe they have a pretty quick turnaround. Meanwhile, you will need a photo of your NRIC and selfie as a check.
c. Within the next business day, you should have your account setup and proceed into the app to get your physical card. This portion takes about 2 weeks minimally to obtain the physical card and start spending.
Each account is provided with an account number and a DBS Swift Code which is safeguarded within DBS Bank. You can load money via FAST to your account at Hugo
c. You can then explore to create moneypots (Savings) and if you spend on your card, there will be a round up function which will complete your micro savings into what they call Goldback.
Features
There are several features on the app:
You can add money pots to create saving goals. (for example – different kid, PS5, new gadget) Take note though that there will not be any interest earned.
Separately, there is a Gold Vault which you can:
regularly invest in by setting a monthly date and amount to put into Gold
Ad-hoc invest into the Gold account.
The Gold account in the Gold Vault is physical gold allocated against your investments. They are stored in an accredited London Bullion Market Association vault and insured by Lloyds of London.
Some Partnership links
It seems like HugoSave have a couple of partnership links that users can take advantage of:
a. From Circles (Telco): https://bit.ly/HugoXCirclesLife (minimum S$40 payment for 5 bills, get $S20 in staggered Goldback payment) You will need to be a Circles customers I suppose and looks like they have a promotion code to sign up too.
b. From Ohm Energy (Electricity Retailer): https://bit.ly/HugoXOhm (minimum S$40 payment for 5 bills, get $S30 in staggered Goldback payment) You will need to be an Ohm customer I suppose and looks like they have a promotion code to sign up too.
My Personal Thoughts
Pros
Good things first – When i first checked this out, the first thing that came to mind was a structured way to save money. This works for me in terms of setting saving goals for myself and pocket money for my kids.
The idea of roundups came in as a fresh perspective. Putting it into Gold was a little off-putting initially but i figured out that it is a safe haven so no harm to do so.
Next, I eventually thought about freelancers and people who say that they can’t really save every month. This put in to practice what you can really do now. Putting money pots and fix your savings without spending it.
With the increase and new generation into freelance work, this will help people in terms of educating savings. You have a fixed
Cons
I’m just thinking as a devil’s advocate. Should there be more than Gold as an option in this roundup function?
Next up, the physical card took rather long to arrive before I can use it. Perhaps, there can be consideration for spending on the numberless card before it arrives.
Are there any signup perks for customers? Since the objective is driven by savings instead of an interest bearing account. Considering that I can do the same via a Bank app, what is the edge other than purely savings.
Afterall, I’m pretty seasoned in this new app, new services stuff. They spend money to acquire customers, then roll a tight budget to stay sustainable. Nothing wrong in doing so, that’s just entrepreneurship and staying relevant.
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.
Now, if what I am sharing does resonates with you, do use my referral codes here at Referral and Recommendations
I have been later for one quarter in 2021 in terms of updating. Nothing much has changes for the StashAway portfolio. Similar to Endowus, it is on auto-run and monthly additions are placed into different portfolios. I am still on the risk index of below 20%, split all the risk portion for 3 different portfolio. I still maintain that having calculated risk per $ makes more sense in my opinion. It doesn’t mean high risk high rewards although it can give you high rewards.
As I have always preached, the important thing is that I am not left on the sidelines. If Mr Market decides to go either way, it would matter that much to me in my opinion. If Mr Market drops, then I will add on more to the portfolios. That is what I believe will work for me for my traditional and rather stable investments.
Retirement Portfolio A (risk-14%)
The SRS account since deposit is currently at +2.11% as on 8 Apr 2021 (Time-weighted return). I think this is quite okay as I entered the market at a high before it dropped in March 2020. Performance wise, I think it is decent and also this is a super long term portfolio – I would say close to 25 years horizon so I’ll just leave it there to monitor on the progress. It was at around +3% in Dec 2020 but oh well. Let it be i guess.
In USD performance, that’s about 5% (Time-weighted return). That’s expected.
Education Portfolio B (risk-16%)
This portfolio is set out to be on a 15-18 year investment horizon. It is at 7.63% on 8 Apr 2021 and I think that this is pretty good. It’s the same as the last time i measured during Dec 2020. I have been averaging in whenever there are market dips. The risk index is at 16% and I will adjust those risk levels as and when I feel that there is a risk on or off.
In USD, I’m looking at double digits 11.75% (Time-weighted returns)
Education Portfolio C (risk-20%)
For this portfolio, I look at this at shorter horizon of 12-15 years so I feel that I need to take on some risk to achieve my goals. This SA risk index is currently at 20% and will take on to be one of my riskiest portfolio. Return is at 14.42% (Time-weighted return) at inception as at 8 Apr 2021 Not much of it has changed or rather it has dropped slightly but this is just a note to self and measure the monthly performance. Over time, more funds will be added to achieve the targeted invested goals.
In USD terms, we are looking at 18.81% (Time-weighted return). Looking great I feel.
Conclusion
So far StashAway has been a great supplement as a robo advisor. I will try to do more regular updates as a reminder to self. After using a few robo-advisors, I find that SA will play second fiddle to my Endowus Portfolio. The year of 2021 should be a test of time for most portfolios. I still believe that rebalancing regularly will be the key.
StashAway does have their own advantages. They do hedge their portfolios against huge crashes and take a stand on some positions which I do like because a lot asset managers don’t and even though they talk big about macro. I can’t see those actions being translated into customer’s returns.
To sign up or try out Stash Away, visit the website and use my referral code at Stash Away Referral
We’ll both get up to $10,000 SGD managed for free for 6 months which is a good deal.
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 Stash Away website for this article.
Investing especially in spot market is a tough business. Most people cannot accept fluctuations in their portfolio. Autowealth is yet another solution for me. Just that this time around, this is for my kid to start out her investment journey when she can. Teaching financial literacy is something I would recommend to anyone.
Summary on my review on Autowealth:
(a) try out different more robo advisors to understand more about them and how they invest and
(b) segregate this fund for any other purpose other than the kid’s investment journey.
My take about the investing journey has been the same since day one. Don’t sweat the small things, the costs of robo are so low. We are talking about a 15-20 year horizon here so heck those low costs. You need to pay them to keep their lights running. For companies like Endowus and StashAway, these guys have the experience and passion and these translate into actions. I am satisfied on how they are prudent and still maintain the low fees.
In my previous performance to compare the performance, I discussed about the historical S&P 500 chart for the last 50 and 100 years. Markets will go up and each time it drops, just pick some up and let the robots do the work on balancing and re-balancing. As long as fees remains low, the portfolio will grow over time and over a longer period. It should remain in the black based on some backtesting.
Performance
Looking at the portfolio again in November, it still looks pretty nice ahead of the 15-20 years horizon. This is a portfolio which is set at roughly 40% equities and 60% bonds. The investment vehicles will be through ETFs. It does look like it can withstand long term peaks and troughs. What i really like is that i can switch between the SGD and USD currency performance portfolio as well as the impact on USD SGD forex on performance. I wouldn’t say this does as well as the portfolios but to be fair, markets were already slightly upwards and I would like to deploy funds out into the market in tranches over time.
As compared to October 2020, +5.66% absolute is decent in my view (that is +2.66% comparing to October) and this is as at 11 Dec 2020. If markets drop, the rule is to fund the account more. Do note that all of these will have USD exposure. Time versus DIY – it is really about what is important. I usually will want to see the ultimate end goal whenever I start anything.
For this month, I also tried to look at the impact of FX and without the weakening USD, performance in USD is actually 8.56% year to date. That is on course to double digits returns once more.
The impact of the USD FX exchange is actually affecting the performance by -3.1%. These FX risks are part and parcel of investing unless I just intend to invest into the Singapore Markets. However, it is just too boring to do so.
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 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.
The pictures were taken from Auto Wealth website for this article. If you need a referral code, drop me a message and you can indicate my full name during registration. From there, both of us will get $20 each to supplement the fees.
Whenever we touch on the topic of owning cars in Singapore, there will always be a ruckus. The ambitious demands of ourselves would deem that we wish to own a car, a branded German Luxury for most. However, as much reasoning that we give, owning a car here is as good a depreciating asset or in more negative context, a liability. Owning a car isn’t exactly rocket science but there are some things to take note and the extra costs that comes in regularly. A piece of transportation that brings you from A to B, that’s something everyone appreciates if you have the luxury to do so.
Own or Grab?
Hands down, taking grab rides, gojek or comfort taxis wins owning a private car. It gives one the luxury of leaving home at any time and going anywhere without any restriction or so to say no stress. That comes with a price like any other thing.
Perhaps for a start, what are the tax and pricing related to car?
1) Open Market Value (OMV)
OMV is the price paid or payable when a vehicle is imported in Singapore. The Customs assesses the price and is inclusive of purchase price, freight, insurance and all charges. Different cars have different OMV.
2) Additional Registration Fee (ARF)
ARF is the tax payable when you register a vehicle. ARF is based on a percentage of the OMV. This is just another layer of tax on top of all other fees and taxes.
3) Excise Duty & GST
You need to pay customers excise duty to import and register a car and motorcycle or scooter. There is also a 7% GST payable to Singapore Customs based on the total cost of importing the vehicle.
4) Certificate of Entitlement (COE)
All vehicle in Singapore will require a COE. In order to register your vehicle, you need to place a bid for a COE in the different category. Once you have a successful bid, you get to own a vehicle to use on the road for a maximum period of 10 years. This is the upfront costs apart from all the taxes and fees.
5) Finally, the margins (The P&L)
After paying for all the taxes and fees, the companies who sell these cars need to cover their overheads, costs and make a margin on it.
The other costs
Now that you have paid for the car and you manage to drive it home. No, wait. Before you do that, you need to have a valid driving license.
Driving License
This costs roughly from $800 to $3000 depending on how good of a driver you are and if you take a private lessons or a driving school. The school definitely provides you with an all encompassing structured lesson but it also costs more. If you fail to get your driving license on the first try. That means more practical lessons and more cost. The upside to this is that, there is no expiry once you obtained your driving license until you are deemed too old. You will be required to complete a renewal test to ensure that you are fit to drive.
Car Insurance
In order to drive on the roads, you need to have a valid car insurance. The cost of insurance is renewed annually and depends on your age and type of car you own. You can have a comprehensive plan or a basic plan but in my opinion, you just need to go for the most comprehensive plan to get yourself covered.
Road Tax
Once you have paid for your car insurance, you will need to pay for your road tax. How is your road tax calculated?
a. Engine Capacity – The larger your engine’s capacity, the higher the amount of road tax (Payable 6 months or 12 months)
b. Age of your vehicle – Vehicles that are more than 10 years incur surcharge of 10-50% on top of the standard road tax. (For cars renewing beyond the initial 10 years of COE)
If you forget to pay your road tax, you will be liable for late payment and also for infringement since you are not allowed on the road. Yikes, more bills.
Car Loan
At the start of the article, I discussed about the price of buying a car. You can now loan up to 60% of the total cost of the sale of the car. Depending on the interest rate you can get, (Maybe around 1.88% p.a. at this point) that will be the additional interest payable on your loan amount.
Not too sure about you but it seems like the costs are piling up even before driving it on the roads.
The maintenance costs
It does seems like it doesn’t make sense to own a car anymore now but I still need to add on the maintenance cost during the 10 year life of owning the car.
Maintenance/Servicing
The initial 3 to 5 years should be an added benefit that your dealer will throw in when you buy that car. But take note that this is just purely servicing, meaning engine oil change and those point checks and tyre rotation. Any wear and tear are still liable to be charged at their retail price.
Typical servicing starts around the 1km, 5km, 10km mark or around 3-5 months depending on which comes earlier. I mean, if the car is new there wouldn’t be an issue. But if you don’t bring your car back to the dealer then the warranty that they gave you would be voided.
Inspection check
During the first 3 year of owning your car, before you renew your road tax, you do not need to bring your car to a registered inspection company such as VICOM or STA. After the third year, you have to do so to ensure that you do not change certain aspects of your car when you drive on the roads. It is a small cost but it does take some time to do so. After the initial 3 years, you have to go for an inspection once every 2 years until your 10 year mark is up. For cars more than 10 years, you have to do so annually.
Car Battery Change
If you do not own an electric car, you need to change your car battery 1.5 – 2 years regularly. Depending on what kind of car you drive, the number of batteries and type will also differ in price.
Wear and Tear/ Repairs
Any wear and tear (e.g. brake pads, windscreen wipers, tyre balding, rim change, air compressors, solenoid, repairs and more) will incur cost. After all, you need to make sure your car lasts for as long as it can given how expensive they are. Your tyres need to change every 3-5 years depending on how you drive your car and there may be small damages or even faulty electronics due to wear and tear. Also, our climate is pretty warm and heat will wear most stuff out when exposed over time.
Parking and Fines
Anywhere you stop your car, you need to enter a carpark. Parking your cars comes with a cost. You can’t just stop anywhere you want. If you get a parking ticket, that amount will pay for your 1 month’s parking budget.
Take note of red light and speeding cameras. Any breaches will set you back a few hundred dollars with demerit points. In the worst case scenario, you may be charged and your driving license taken away.
Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) and New Changes
Paying tolls have never been easier. (Sarcasm) Going through expressways and roads during peak period will set you back a few bucks per day when you drive through these to ease traffic flow. These will be replaced by a satellite distance-based ERP system in the near future.
Fuel Costs
Finally, you need fuel to run your vehicle. Basically, everyone is a price taker. You can’t not fuel up your car. Not having fuel in your car will do your vehicle more harm than good. After all, you are supposed to own some form of flexibility with a car.
Conclusion
Don’t feel that owning a car is beyond your reach now. There are different ways to do so. To always weigh the pros and cons about owning a vehicle, you will find the answer clearly but we still see a lot of vehicles on the roads. This part of our brain is unexplainable, the comfort and flexibility of owning a car outweighs all that reasoning. I have also read about the other options to owning a car but it really depends on individuals.
a. Lease (Instead of owning it, you pay a fixed cost per month for leasing the car)
b. Drive for a private hire (You get to moonlight during your free time but perhaps not so ideal during this covid-19 situation)
c. Own a car and lease it out/rent it via apps. This will cut your cost in owning a car
d. Take the public transport and Grab/Gojek. Times are different now, we are not at the mercy of Nazi Taxi Drivers.
Personally, I just am thankful during times when it rains. I get the comfort of going to somewhere at whichever time I wish without getting drenched. There isn’t any worries of price surge or cancellation. That said.
Disclaimer
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.
The Singapore electricity market decentralised some time around 2015 and that made way for the big commercial companies to change their electricity supplier. The bulk of electricity are consumed by the business/commercial companies. As an estimate, the ratio of consumption is probably around 65/35 in terms of consumption. The Open Electricity Market started out in phases since November 2018. There was a trial run for 100k households and small businesses in the Jurong Area in April 2018 and these guys get to save at least 30% off the electricity bills! That is such a good deal and a first mover advantage.
The Start of OEM
Since November 2018, it was a phased launch to open up the entire Singapore to all residential households and smaller businesses. By May 2019, Singaporeans can choose the electricity retailer of their choice. It is interesting and unique to see this happening in this small island because SP Group is the monopoly in such nationwide infrastructure. I used to know nothing about the electricity market until such an initiative was discovered. The fact that SP Group remains as the electricity grid provider and transmission lines is indeed unique only to Singapore.
What this means is that all generation in Singapore has to go through the National Grid and in return, the power supply remains consistent, stable and reliable. Not much of a difference I would say.
If there are power outages or blackouts, the whole responsibility still lies with SP Group and you have to contact their 24-hour hotline. These outages has nothing to do with the generation firms. So the key question is still, how is it that these retailers can provide a lower pricing as compared to regulated tariff. (Electricity Rate Tariff is revised every January, April, July and Oct)
Electricity Retailer
From digging up articles and information online as well as speaking with the respective retailers, the simple answer to this question is:
Regulated tariff was formulated. It is similar to how Airlines price their seats which oil prices play a part in that calculation. From only buying electricity from SP Group (It takes in and calculate the 2.5 months of Brent Oil in USD) as part of the formula.
The retailer price, however depends on the bring of electricity they buy from the wholesale market (www.emcsg.com) and from their portfolio in Electricity Futures.(Which is traded in SGX) As a result of a different formulation, this allows the retailers to price in roughly about 15-25% cheaper as compared to the Regulated Tariff.
There is an interesting write up that talks about how prices are cheaper from Ohm Energy here Ohm Market Outlook. Of course, there are also retailers who are willing to absorb all costs to get more customers. As long as there are no hidden costs, we stand to benefit.
The Power to Choose
Now, for the exciting part. there are a 12 choices to choose from. We, as consumers should benefit from the increase in competition from different retailers. I will try my best to let everyone know what are the things to look out for before you switch to a retailer:
Not just the Price
a. First thing first – Do not sweat the small stuff. Cheap does not mean that it is good. Cheap is just the first step to getting your attention. Prices can be compared at the Price Comparison Website which is the official comparison website atCompare.
Good Reviews Online
b. Check out the reviews first. You can go to Facebook, Google, Retailers’ website, Value Champion, SeedlyReviews and many more. Do not underestimate the power of reviews. Don’t let cheap cover your eyes.
This retailer penalises you for forgetting to renew your contract at 5% off the tariff.(What a rip-off! I’m sure there are a few more of such retailers around) A friend of mine told me that Geneco, Tuas power and Union Power renewed their contract at 10% off regulated tariff so please check your contracts.
Renewal Clauses
c. Look at the renewal clauses. It is extremely troublesome to keep switching retailers once every 6/12 months. Some retailers are just out there to rip consumers off by renewing you on a bad renewal contract if you forget. You have to write these guys off permanently.
Choice of Billing
d. What do you prefer? Consolidated fuss-free billing or more separate billing?
What Type of Plans?
e. No perfect plans. Just what s more comfortable for you.
If you want to be paying cheaper than Regulated Tariff then go for the Discount off Tariff price plans. The cons is that if the tariff goes higher, your rate may be higher as well.
If you wish to have some form of fixed pricing, then go for the Fixed Price plans. The cons is that if the tariff goes lower, then your rate will remain at the fixed rate.
Fees and Hidden Charges
f. Take note of Fees and Charges. If you want to just take on a long term contract, make sure you do know the criteria if you can transfer your contract to a new address without incurring an ETF or other fees.
For example Early Termination Fees if you terminate your contract Early.
Late Payment Charges
Transmission Loss Charges
Extra fee for Hard Copy bills
Fee charges for failed payment (Credit Card/Debit Card)
Fee charges for failed GIRO application
Admin Fee if you failed to provide the proper documents to a retailer
Consumer Safeguards
g. There are consumer safeguards so there is no need to worry that your lights will go off. It’s just that it is going to be a little troublesome if anyone goes bust. You can read more about these safeguards here: Consumer Safeguards
It is a no-brainer and there is no catch. Just switch and you are on your way to cheaper bills. You just need to be wary about the retailer you choose from. There are no risks – What you have is literally a financial contract on a rate you agree to sign up on for a certain period. (If you decide to go on a contract plan) If you wish to go on a no commitment, no contract plan, you can check out Ohm Energy. They are one of the rare retailers who offer such plans.
Who did i choose?
Personally, I really prefer Ohm Energy. You can check them out here at Ohm Energy.
Positive and Good Reviews
A. The reviews are literally positive and they look rather solid. They are also Most Popular at Seedly Reviews.
Great Customer Service
B. The customer service seems to be the center of all the buzz which I really like. When I have a query, the response that i get from the customer care is quick and concise. Not quite what I have seen elsewhere.
Nice Colours and Branding. Even the Name Sounds Cool
C. The branding is just appealing to me and everything is done online. I am so done with roadshow salesperson. They are just out there for a single purpose.
Renewal Bonus
D. When you renew, they have a renewal bonus and also they renewal you at the market rate during the renewal period. That is fair.
Referral Program and more Savings!
F. You can also refer as many friends as you want. That is S$20 for both referrer and referee with no cap. Thumbs Up!
Consolidated Bills
G. Consolidate SP Billing with them means that the payment arrangement, Security Deposit, Hard copy bills all remains the same. That is really easy.
Trial Period
H. For New Customers, they have a three month trial period to try them out. If you decide to switch out before then, there are no fees involved. That gives me confidence about how much they are willing to let you “Try them out”.
If you do select Ohm, do remember to use my referral code: OHMREF3F28B7(Input into the promocode field and click apply at Step 3 of the application)
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.
In the past, there used to be only 3 players in the telco market – Singtel, Starhub and M1. They sort of formed into a monopoly where 5.2 million people on the island will choose either of the 3 companies. All things change when Circles.life came into the picture and to be honest, it was such a game changer that almost instantaneously switched to them at the earliest time possible once my contract was up. Notably, Singtel has the best coverage in Singapore and underground but they were keen on only making profits for themselves.
After some time, all three incumbent were forced to break off from their current model into a SIM only plan. This has been really great for consumers in particular as more competition means more competitively prices plans and better customer service. Of course, the incumbent truly matched the competition and eventually I switch out to GIGA, a SIM only plan from Starhub.
The real benefits of going with GIGA means that for a basic plan,
a. S$18 for 20GB of data, 200 mins of outgoing calls, 200 SMS, free caller ID and free incoming calls and incoming SMS.
b. For unused data, you can carry over to the next month (Capped at 2x the base data – 20 GB x 2 = 40GB
c. No contract means, flexibility and freedom to cancel the contract anytime.
d. Signup is digital only – meaning you can only sign up online and use an app to access your account as well as setup your payments. They accept most major credit cards.
e. There isn’t any IDD so for for overseas usage, you would need to buy either gigaRoam (Asia Pacific) or gigaRoam (Rest of the world)
f. You would need to pay a small registration fee and arrange for the SIM card to be delivered to your preferred location. However, you can use a referral code to supplement the discount. You will get a one time $20 gigabucks off the 25GB plan or a one time $42 gigabucks off the 50GB plan if you use my code – “LhS9Ng”. The referral credit is only valid for any plans except the basic $10 GIGA plans.
The downside of using GIGA is that you can’t surf the internet while on a call (for e.g. checking for emails or stuffs while on a call however if you have your WiFi switched on, it works perfectly) but you can still receive OTP (One time Pin) while still on the call so that’s not too much of a worry.
Generally, I like the interface, colours and customer service support on GIGA. They even have a live chat function but you need to clear your cache regularly as it seems like it is stuck on my app most of the time. It is fuss-free and simply to use. I’ll say that they are trying hard to evolve and re-invent themselves. I don’t have too much faith with Singtel and GOMO so this is my next best choice.
GIGA just launched a 40GB data, 300 SMS, 300 outgoing calls at $20 for 12 months. It is still a no contract plan, just that it reverts back to $30 a month from the 13th month onward.
From time to time, they will launch limited time offers like the one above. You can visit their website to find out more: https://www.giga.com.sg/
In the past, there used to be only 3 players in the telco market – Singtel, Starhub and M1. They sort of formed into a monopoly where 5.2 million people on the island will choose either of the 3 companies. All things change when Circles.life came into the picture and to be honest, it was such a game changer that almost instantaneously switched to them at the earliest time possible once my contract was up. Notably, Singtel has the best coverage in Singapore and underground but they were keen on only making profits for themselves.
The comparison
After some time, all three incumbent were forced to break off from their current model into a SIM only plan. This has been really great for consumers in particular as more competition means more competitively prices plans and better customer service. Of course, the incumbent truly matched the competition and eventually I switch out to GIGA, a SIM only plan from Starhub.
Benefits
The real benefits of going with GIGA means that for a basic plan,
a. S$18 for 20GB of data, 200 mins of outgoing calls, 200 SMS, free caller ID and free incoming calls and incoming SMS.
b. For unused data, you can carry over to the next month (Capped at 2x the base data – 20 GB x 2 = 40GB
c. No contract means, flexibility and freedom to cancel the contract anytime.
d. Signup is digital only – meaning you can only sign up online. You can use the GIGA app to access your account as well as setup your payments. They accept most major credit cards.
e. There isn’t any IDD so for for overseas usage. You would need to buy either gigaRoam (Asia Pacific) or gigaRoam (Rest of the world)
f. There is a small registration fee. You also need to arrange for the SIM card to be delivered to you. However, you can use a referral code to supplement the discount. You will get a one time $20 gigabucks off the 25GB plan or a one time $42 gigabucks off the 50GB plan. Use my referral code – “LhS9Ng”. The referral credit is only valid for any plans except the basic $10 GIGA plans.
Others
The downside of using GIGA is that you can’t surf the internet while on a call. (E.g. checking for emails or stuffs while on a call. However, if you have your WiFi switched on, it works perfectly) You can still receive OTP (One time Pin) while still on the call so that’s not too much of a worry.
Generally, I like the interface, colours and customer service support on GIGA. They even have a live chat function but you need to clear your cache regularly as it seems like it is stuck on my app most of the time. It is fuss-free and simply to use. I’ll say that they are trying hard to evolve and re-invent themselves. I don’t have too much faith with Singtel and GOMO so this is my next best choice.
GIGA just launched a 40GB data, 300 SMS, 300 outgoing calls at $20 for 12 months. It is still a no contract plan but that it reverts back to $30 a month from the 13th month onward.
From time to time, they will launch limited time offers like the one above. You can visit their website to find out more: https://www.giga.com.sg/
