Choosing the best bank savings account might seem like the simplest and lowest hanging fruit but I’ve actually found it to be the more complicated to optimise than I thought. It doesn’t help that the various banks increase their interest rates at different times and have pretty different requirements to unlock higher rates.
I finally sat down to compare the various interest rates with the aim of locking down which account I’d want to move the bulk of my liquid cash into in view of rising interest rates.
I’m only looking at local banks and banks I already have accounts with, i.e. SCB, CIMB, and Trust bank. I’m not interested to open with other foreign banks even if they offer higher interest rates, so I won’t be including them in this analysis.
CIMB is the only foreign bank (SCB is widely considered the 4th local bank) I have an account with since I use them for transferring funds back to my parents in Malaysia.
I’m glad that Standard Chartered has finally upped their interest rates recently. I was about to move my cash out because the other local banks have raised rates quite a while back.
Read also: StanChart ups maximum interest rate on Bonus$aver to 7.88%
I won’t go into detailed analysis either, just sharing any pertinent info to explain my thought process and decision. For a more in-depth analysis, read the article from D&S below.
Read also: [2023 Edition] Best Savings Accounts for Working Adults in Singapore
Comparison table
I’ve compiled the interest rates from the various banks and calculated the effective interest rate (EIR) on $75k and $100k, based on 2 conditions:
- Realistic (subjective) EIR if you can fulfil salary credit, credit card spend, and bill payments
- Maximum EIR if you can meet all criteria
Important disclaimer: Note that the calculations are my own and may contain errors. Please only use as a guide. Refer to respective bank websites for most current and accurate information and do your own calculations before making any financial decisions.
| Bank | Account | Base interest on $75K | Realistic EIR on $75K (salary+CC+bills) | Realistic EIR on $100K (salary+CC+bills) | Max EIR on $100K (all criteria met) | Remarks (my own) |
| SCB | Bonus$aver | 0.05% | 4.88% | 4.88% | 7.88% | CC spend $2k/mth 2% + credit salary $3k 2.5% + invest 1.5% + insure 1.5% + 3 bill payment 0.33% (all independent) |
| SCB | Bonus$aver | 0.05% | 4.13% | 4.13% | 7.88% | CC spend $500/mth 1.25% + credit salary $3k 2.5% + invest 1.5% + insure 1.5% + 3 bill payment 0.33% (all independent) |
| UOB | One | 0.05% | 3.42% | 4.50% | 4.50% | CC spend $500/mth (must hit) + credit salary $1.6k |
| OCBC | 360 | 0.05% | 2.65% | 3.15% | 7.65% | Salary $1.8k + spend $500/mth; additional 1.5% for save $500/mth; additional 3% for insure+invest; additional grow 2.4% (balance $200k) (all independent) |
| Trust | Savings | 1.50% | 2.00% | 1.51% | 1.89% | Above $75k 0.05%; extra 0.5% on first $75k for 5 card spends + extra 0.5% on first $75k for NTUC Union members; no extra interest for salary credit |
| CIMB | FastSaver | 1.88% | 1.95% | 1.48% | 1.63% | Above $75k 0.8%; no extra interest for salary credit; 4.2% max on first $10k only |
| DBS | Multiplier | 0.05% | 1.11% | 1.11% | 4.10% | Total eligible transactions $30k/mth 2.2%; salary+CC spend (first $50k only); max incl home loan+insurance+investments (first $100k) |
| DBS | Multiplier | 0.05% | 0.91% | 0.91% | 2.40% | Total eligible transactions $5-15k/mth 1.8%; salary+CC spend (first $50k only); max incl home loan+insurance+investments (first $100k) |
| DBS | Multiplier | 0.05% | 0.76% | 0.76% | 2.20% | Total eligible transactions $2.5-5k/mth 1.5%; salary+CC spend (first $50k only); max incl home loan+insurance+investments (first $100k) |
With so many different criteria to fulfil, best is definitely subjective when it comes to bank savings accounts. I can only offer my opinion, starting from highest to lowest.
SCB Bonus$aver
Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) offers the highest maximum interest rate of 7.88% for up to $100k, if you can meet all criteria. Even if you only meet the criteria for Spend, Salary Credit and Bill Payment (what I consider Realistic), SCB also offers the highest at 4.88% (CC spend $2k/mth) and 4.13% (CC spend $500/mth). All criteria are independent of each other.
However, the downside is that only CC spend on Bonus$aver (B$) linked credit/debit card are considered. This is a big downer, since the B$ cards don’t offer any other benefits from what I can tell. CC spend on other cards like Simply Cash and Spree credit cards (which I use) don’t qualify.
Note also that the salary credit has to be at least $3k (after CPF), which is higher than other banks.
OCBC 360
OCBC 360 actually comes pretty close behind SCB Bonus$aver especially on both the Realistic and Maximum EIR for $100k. That’s because they offer much higher rates in the $75k-100k range.
UOB One
UOB One is one of the more complicated ones, with many tiers of account monthly average balance (MAB). For UOB One, the criterion for CC spend of $500/month on eligible UOB Card is a MUST to unlock higher interest rates in combination with salary credit or the 3 GIRO debit transactions.
So if you decide to use UOB One, you need to fairly confident you can hit the minimum CC spend of $500 every calendar month. That said, I’ve heard good things about the UOB One credit card but I’ve yet to try it out myself. I keep getting my online application rejected, not sure why, so I’ll have to visit a branch soon.
Trust Savings
Trust bank was all the rage when it first launched in Sep 2022, as one of the digital banks licensed a few years back. So far besides earning Linkpoints and using the discount coupons (FairPrice, Caltex, Esso, Starbucks, KFC, Gong Cha, Coconut Queen, Collin’s), I don’t really put much cash into this account. Having a base interest where you earn 1.5% without doing anything is great, but the rate isn’t quite high enough to be compelling as a savings account.
If you’re interested to sign up for a Trust bank account, you can use my referral code 4UTRX5S8 to earn a $10 FairPrice e-voucher (I’ll get one too).
CIMB FastSaver
The only reason I use CIMB is for cross-border transfers to my parent’s CIMB Malaysia account. Since I pay allowance to my parents there but don’t do much else, it’s good that CIMB pays a decent base interest rate (EIR 1.95% on first $75k). However, even if you hit the CC spend and investment/insurance criteria, the bonus interest is only applicable to the first $10k which isn’t great. CIMB does have a pretty good fixed deposit offer of 4.15% (personal banking clients) for 12 or 18 months and a minimum of $10k only, so you can consider putting excess cash above $10k there too.
DBS Multiplier
At the bottom of the list is the only bank I own shares in, DBS. Sadly, DBS Multiplier rates are pretty far behind the rest, unless you can hit total eligible transactions per month of $30k or more and in 3 categories (which I think is a stretch for most), and credit your salary. Great thing though about DBS Multiplier is that there’s no minimum transaction amount required for salary or the various categories to be qualified as an eligible transaction.
My thoughts
Assuming you don’t fulfil the investment and insurance criteria for any of the banks (maybe except DBS) and your monthly take-home salary is more than $3k, I think the fight for your cash is just between SCB Bonus$aver and UOB One.
However, you would need to balance between using Bonus$aver cards which don’t earn you extra points/cashback vs UOB cards which do. If you have substantial savings, e.g. $75k-100k and don’t spend much on credit cards, Bonus$aver might be better and vice versa for UOB One.
That said, my preference would shift to OCBC 360 above UOB One if you can consistently increase your average daily balance by at least $500/mth (Save).
Trust and CIMB are good if you want fuss-free and/or can’t fulfil the salary credit criteria for other banks.
Finally, DBS Multiplier seems to only be good if you transact large amounts and in many categories with them. Otherwise, I don’t think DBS is a good place for your cash. That said, if you have little or no savings, POSB Cashback Bonus scheme might be a good alternative since the cashback bonus doesn’t depend on savings amount but rather on the value transacted.
What I’m doing
Personally, I’m still undecided but I’m thinking of crediting my salary to SCB Bonus$aver and try to hit the $500/mth card spend to achieve 4.13%. That’s almost equivalent to CIMB FD and T-bill yields without having to lock in the funds, not bad.
I don’t intend to hold a lot of liquid cash in savings accounts, so focusing my funds in one savings account works for now. The bulk of our emergency funds are actually in SSB at average 10-year yield of around 3%. SSB yields are lower but locked in for longer (10 years).
My personal view is that although short-term interest rates might still increase, I don’t think they’ll go much higher. In addition, I think long-term interest rates have peaked and might not go up any higher, at least until we either go into recession in the U.S. or it becomes clear that we have averted one.
As a side note, I also keep some of my investment funds in cash funds on Tiger Brokers, moomoo, and Endowus (SRS), which are yielding around 3.6-3.8% currently. Another notable option is MoneyOwl’s WiseSaver yielding 3.88% (5-day MA as of 6 Jan 2023).
Read also: How I Manage My Cash Between SSB, T-Bills, Fixed Deposits and Cash Funds
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