Its time to get higher interest rates for our bank accounts now. Interest rates on bank accounts have been very low the past few years at an average of 0.15%. But, all these will change soon as in the past few months, many banks have started to offer good interest rates on selected savings account. This is in line with what the US is doing, increasing interest rates slowly and steadily.
So, which are the bank accounts that will give us higher interest at the moment? I've looked through a few banks and shortlisted 2 banks which have the most attractive rates:
Best Savings Account
CIMB
CIMB savings account lets you earn up to 1% without any spending required. They have 2 good savings account namely CIMB fast saver account and CIMB StarSaver account.
For CIMB fast saver account, you just need to maintain a minimum balance of $1000 in the account and you can earn 1% on the first $50,000 and 0.6% on any amounts above $50,000. No other conditions required.
For CIMB StarSaver account, you just need to maintain an incremental deposit of S$100 or more monthly to enjoy an interest rate of 0.8% p.a. on the entire account balance.
OCBC has the highest and most attractive interest rates so far. The OCBC 360 account lets you earn up to 3.25% on the first $60,000 in your account. Just by crediting your salary of at least $2000 and you get 1.2%. Pay any 3 bills and you get additional 0.5%. Spend at least $500 on your credit card and another 0.5% is given to you. Its easy to get more than 2% interest through the OCBC 360 account.
Furthermore, with their credit cards which has attractive rebates such as the OCBC 365 credit card which gives us up to 6% cashback on dining, 3% cashback on all online spendings, groceries and telecommunication bills and up to 18.3% on petrol, we can enjoy even greater savings on our daily necessities.
For me, I have a special corporate account under Standard Chartered Bank which gives 1.4% on any amount in that account. That account is good enough for me as of now. It really makes a difference as I can get much more interest on a monthly basis. Its much better than leaving my money in an account which only gives 0.15%. For $50,000, the interest is $700 per year on 1.4% but on 0.15%, the interest is only $75. This extra few hundred dollars is enough to go on a short holiday trip or offset some of our expenses.
Being smarter with our money is not too difficult. Try one of the accounts above and take the first step to make money work harder for you.
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