Personal views are being portrayed in this posts.
It might not be the absolute fact, and I have no professional background in this field.
To know more about my background, you can take a look here.
Hi,
I have recently heard about a new Banking Service that is as good, if not, better than the OCBC 360 account. It is known as UOB One. There are already some articles, like those from Investment Moats
The new OCBC 360 account boasts it "just got better". Personally, it just got more confusing and harder to hit the higher interest tiers.
To read its original source, it can be found here.
So what does this mean?
1. Credit your salary of at least $2k SGD through GIRO
Simple enough. Ask your company to pay you through GIRO to your OCBC account. But if your company doesn't use the GIRO system? No more 1.2% per annum!
2. Pay 3 bills online or through GIRO
This is quite easily done with all those bills hanging around. However, it was a downgrade from the previous system(1% previously to 0.5%)
You can pay your credit cards bills with this account and it counts as 1 bill. This will be helpful since 1 credit card is considered as 1 bill. So if you use all 3 OCBC credit cards, you can easily hit this criteria.
For myself, I would try to use 3 different cards just to get this, since i credit my phone bills to one of my cards for points and rebates.
3. Spend at least $500 on OCBC Credit Cards
This is something better than before if I intepretely correctly. Previously, I remembered it as $400 on 1 card. Now, it says $500 on OCBC Credit Cards and its FAQ states:
"You just need to spend a minimum of S$500 across your OCBC Credit Cards (examples of eligible cards are 365, Titanium, Platinum, FRANK, Robinsons, Plus! and Best Denki)."
This gives you flexibility to choose your favorite card to make dealings, instead of trying to clock the amount on one card.
BUT.
Do note that some cards requires a minimum amount to get the rebates, like you requires 600sgd spendings on OCBC 365 cards to be entitled 3% weekday dining rebates and 6% weekend dining rebates.
4. Insure or Invest to get 1% bonus for 12months
NOT all insurance or investment plans gives you this 1%. Hence this 1% is pretty hard to achieve. You can understand more from its FAQ
5. Increment your balance from previous balance
While all other clauses pays until $60k, this clauses pays until 1million SGD.
It counts your monthly average and compares it to your previous month average. The amount differences will then be given 1% per annum.
So to see substantial amount of money from this 1% monthly, the increment in difference must then be quite big.
6. It is capped at 60k.
Unlike OCBC 360 with seemingly achievable clauses, UOB One is a lot more simpler.
1. Spend on UOB One card or UOB Direct Visa Debit Card
2. Credit a minimum of $2k pay via GIRO OR perform 3 GIRO debit transaction
The point to note is that GIRO transaction is not online transaction.
And this would mean that, if you credit your pay to your bank account, but do not meet the $500 spending limit, you do not get any interest(apart from the 0.05%)
This table would tell you how much interest you would get.
Read it carefully.
First 10k is 1.5% (0 to 10k)
Next 20k is 2.00% (10001 to 30k)
Next 20k is 3.33% (30001 to 50k)
Capped at 50k.
First 10k will get you 1.5% which is 150sgd.
Next 20k will get you 2% which is 400sgd.
Final 20k will get u 3.33% which is 666sgd.
It is capped at 50k for this account.
So which one is better?
Considering OCBC 360 to be able to fulfill the salary, credit card and 3 bills components, you would be awarded with only 2.25%(1.2% from salary, 0.5 each from CC and bills, and 0.05 basic)
Calculation 1
Since it is capped at 60k for OCBC, we will calculate to 60k.
2.25% *60k would be 1350SGD.
As for UOB One would be
150+400+666+50 = 1266.
Calculation 2
if we were to calculate to only 50k...
OCBC would be:
2.25% of 50k would be 1125
As for UOB One..
150+400+666 = 1216!
Now, this is a substantial difference!
To compare in specific cases:
If you have less than 30k in your bank, OCBC 360 would seemed to pay you better interest because the 2.25% is consistent, unlike UOB One being tiered.
Also, UOB One accounts only allows the usage of UOB One card, which is a pretty awesome card. But because of that, there is a severe lack of flexibility, unlike OCBC 360.
However, the key thing about UOB One is simplicity. It is easy to understand and achieve, unlike OCBC 360, there are 3 clauses to cater for and achieve.
In conclusion,
If my calculation is to be trusted, UOB one is for people with above 30k but below 50k, or does not have 3 bills to pay.
Otherwise, IMO, OCBC 360 is still the best for general savings account!
Regards
Benjamin Chai
