OCBC 360 - from 3.05% to 2.25% Account... Still the best for me

This post came from my other blog at Singapore Corporate Bonds and Preference Shares... Include Credit Cards so http://singaporecorporatebonds.blogspot.com/2015/05/ocbc-360-from-305-to-225-account-still.html

With a change in policy from OCBC this year, they tried to tie in more criteria to sell more products and generate more sales and at the same time, cushion the impact of unhappiness. Well, it looks like an increase but it is actually a decrease.

• Salary Credit increases to 1.2% per annum
• 3 GIRO dropped to 0.5% per annum
• $500 Credit Spend dropped to 0.5% per annum
• 1% more if you buy structured products, unit trusts or selected insurance (Selling more products here)

To me, the last criteria is not really important as they are trying to sell more products here. That leaves me with 2.25% which is still not too bad.

Thus, for every $10,000 savings in the account, we will earn $225 per year with $50 coming from minimum $500 spend per month ($6,000 per year) credit card spend.

Still the best in town, better than fixed deposits. Just glad that I have enjoyed the earlier 3.05%.

OCBC 360

I think by now we already know that OCBC is changing the rules for OCBC 360 Account. Thus, the amount that we spend in OCBC cards will generate only 0.5% rebates on the monies in our OCBC 360 Account.

I am still looking at how is the impact and more details will be on only after 1st May when they have released their new criteria. Better to give an overall picture.

Money Saving Tips via Credit Cards: Money saved - For a Single (and available) person - Updates

Money Saving Tips via Credit Cards: Money saved - For a Single (and available) person



Recently, I have made a post about money saving tips for a single. Here I will do some updates on it so that he/she can reap more savings.



Apart from using OCBC 360 account which will give him about 2.05% of return in his savings, here are some credit card saving tips. Moreover, he can use OCBC 360 account to pay his credit card bills and that helps to accumulate to his "at least 3 internet banking transactions per month"



1) Transport => He spends about $80 on transport using his EZ Link card. Thus, I would recommend POSB Everyday Card which gives 2% rebate. It has "No Minimum Spend" which is excellent for him. Thus he saves about $19.20 per year (There is no top up charges for DBS and POSB credit card holders for Ezlink)



2) Telco (Singtel) => He happens to be using Singtel as his Telco and he spends about $34 on mobile bills. Thus, I would recommend UOB-Singtel Card which gives 1% rebate. It has "No Minimum Spend" which is excellent for him again. Thus he saves about $4.08 per year. What is more important is that he gets the privileges that UOB offers.



3) Others => Lastly, I would recommend that he gets a OCBC 365 card just for everything else. No particular reason except that he may get some rebates and possibly earn extra 1% in his/her OCBC 360 account.



Savings are not a lot. But the fact is that this friend of mine spends little as well so just trying my best to help. :-)

Money saved - For a Single (and available) person

I got a friend who gave me some of his expenses as a young single, available adult who has stepped into the working world for about 4 years with some savings. Here are his expenses and recommended cards.

Dining - $10 per day - $300 per month (Not very sure whether he uses cards so I am going to discount this)
Public Transport - $80
Telco - $34
Two Insurance Policies - $200
Unit Trust Investments - $600
Other expenses - $200

For him, the focus is "Be focused". His spending is not high so all those minimum spend cards are not useful. So my recommendation is to focus on OCBC 360 Account because he needs high savings returns to help him save as much as possible. Here is the savings

OCBC 360 Account
1) 1% Savings when he switches to bank in his salary into this account.

2) Another 1% for doing the following. Transfer his GIRO transactions to his OCBC 360 account i.e. Unit Trust Investments, and two Insurances policies. That will give him another 1%.

3) As for the third 1%, sign up for a OCBC 365 card and try to spend $400 especially with his "other expenses". Link his Ezlink Card or Nets Flashpay card (Transport expenses) and Telco to this credit card to try to accumulate more expenses. If you can't, don't force it. Just treat it as a bonus when it comes.

If he has $20,000 savings (Assuming $5,000 savings per year), he will earn $400 per year just on its interest.

OCBC 360 Account - 3.05%

http://www.ocbc.com.sg/personal-banking/accounts/360-account.html

I know that this is weird to show in this blog but I think I have to because it is such a great opportunity. I have opened this account and did all they need me to do for the past few months to earn the 3.05%. The results were amazing. There were months where I earn $18 interest just for deposits in that month.

To me, it is really a lot considering that I have been researching on how to have risk-free interest and investments and now we have this account to earn so much interest.

Highly recommended. DBS' 2.08% can't beat it.

OCBC 360 Account - Extra 1% interest if you use OCBC cards

http://www.ocbc.com.sg/personal-banking/accounts/360-account.html

This is an account which I have just opened and changed my salary deposit to this account. It gives me up to 3.05% interest which I thought was fantastic. 1 of the 3.05% would be due to the $400 spent on credit cards which I already have due to spending on petrol and dining through OCBC 365 Card (http://www.ocbc.com.sg/personal-banking/cards/365card.html)

Assuming that I have $5000 in my account, 1% gives me additional $50 interest which is extra income for me. Great!