Most Singapore banks have been revising their interest rates on savings accounts upwards in tandem with rising global interest rates. Previously, salary crediting didn’t earn you much extra interest but things have changed. Now, salary credit can earn you pretty substantial additional interest.
Read this post from Seedly for overall best interest rate: Best Savings Accounts Singapore (2022 Dec): Which Bank Has The Best Interest Rate?
I wanted to focus just on salary crediting in this post because my cash flow system (sub accounts and GIRO debits) is pretty much set in stone already, and salary credit is the easiest for me to shift around.
Summary
I picked out the bigger banks DBS, OCBC, UOB, and Standard Chartered. CIMB warranted special mention because of the good interest rates. I’ve excluded other foreign banks since they don’t offer competitive rates IMO (let me know if you think otherwise).
| Bank | Account | Salary credit | Minimum salary | Qualifying criteria |
| UOB | One | +3.20% | $1,600.00 | Min CC spend $500 + Account balance $30K (example) |
| DBS | Multiplier | +2.40% | $2,000.00 | Salary >$5K (example) + transactions in 3 categories |
| OCBC | 360 | +2.00% | $1,800.00 | None |
| UOB | One | +1.35% | $1,600.00 | Min CC spend $500 + Account balance $30K (example) + 3 GIRO debit transactions |
| SCB | Bonus$aver | +1.20% | $3,000.00 | None |
| SCB | JumpStart | No bonus | N/A | Age 18-26 only |
| CIMB | Fastsaver | No bonus | N/A | None |
The Full Works
If you can already fulfil the minimum spend of $500 on eligible credit cards, UOB One offers the biggest increment in extra interest of around +3.2% (on first $30K MAB). However, if you’re already meeting the 3 GIRO debit transactions the extra interest from salary credit is only around +1.35%. The exception is for the next $25K above $75K bracket, where salary credit grants extra +7.75% interest.
Fuss-Free Salary Credit Only
If you can’t be bothered to jump through hoops like minimum spend on credit card, GIRO transactions, insurance or investments, OCBC 360 offers the most fuss-free way to earn an extra 2% interest (first $75K) just purely from salary credit.
Special Mention: DBS/POSB Cashback Bonus
DBS/POSB has a Bank & Earn programme, where they give Cashback Bonus in the form of cash rebates based on a percentage of salary credit, credit card spend, home loan instalments, insurance, and/or investments. However, you have to hit 3 or more of these categories to qualify.
If you don’t have much cash savings, the cashback on your salary credit might even be more than the interest you’d be earning on your savings. For example, if you can credit $5K (after CPF contribution) to DBS/POSB on Bank & Earn you can earn $15/month or $180/year which is 2% p.a. on $9K savings. That’s equivalent to OCBC 360 extra interest. This scenario is a real consideration for me, since most of my cash is deployed into investment, SSB, SRS and CPF so I have minimal cash savings.
With bank savings account rates so high, I might also consider moving some lower yielding SSBs into these accounts instead – either to OUB One or OCBC 360.
Read also: Why I Just Put S$40K Into Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB)
If you know of a better bank savings account to credit your salary for extra interest, please let me know.
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