Those who are looking for banking account with good interest rate can take a look at OCBC Bonus+ Savings Account. This is an account that encourages the holder to save more money into it.
For example, it will award you extra interest if you do not make any withdrawal from that account in a month. On top of this, if no withdrawal was made from the account in a quarter, you will also throw in higher interest rate as a reward. This is a good deal if you are a saver.
For this lunar new year, they are offering extra promotion for this account. Fresh fund of at least $10,000 will be rewarded with an extra bonus of 1.2% p.a. for the month of march.
You can find out more details from OCBC website.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
UOB PRVI Miles World MasterCard Card
There is a new credit card in town for air miles accumulation and it currently has the same miles conversion rate as the UOB PRVI Miles Amex card. This means that it has the conversion rate of
$1 = 1.6 miles for local spending
$1 = 2.5 miles for overseas spending
The good thing about this card is that it is a MasterCard. This means that it will be accepted by more vendors when compared to the Amex card that UOB previously have.
Some differences between this and the UOB Prvi Miles Amex is that
For more information about this card, please check out the UOB website.
$1 = 1.6 miles for local spending
$1 = 2.5 miles for overseas spending
The good thing about this card is that it is a MasterCard. This means that it will be accepted by more vendors when compared to the Amex card that UOB previously have.
Some differences between this and the UOB Prvi Miles Amex is that
- this card does not have the Airport limousine transfer rebate that the UOB Amex offers.
- it also does not gives 20,000 bonus miles if you spend more than $50,000 in a year.
For more information about this card, please check out the UOB website.
Thursday, November 27, 2014
American Express True Cashback Card
American Express has launched a new cashback card in Singapore. Its aim attraction is to provide a spending rebate of 1.5% without any conditions. It has no minimum spending, no caps on cash and the cashback is applicable to everything that you charge to the card, from online shopping to paying at the supermarket.
To be truthful, this cashback amount is among the lowest from credit cards that offer cash rebates. However, the condition free cashback will be a draw for users likes cashback card and often purchase some stuff that is not covered by the higher cashback of other cards.
If you are interest, you can find out more about it from American Express website.
To be truthful, this cashback amount is among the lowest from credit cards that offer cash rebates. However, the condition free cashback will be a draw for users likes cashback card and often purchase some stuff that is not covered by the higher cashback of other cards.
If you are interest, you can find out more about it from American Express website.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Standard Chartered Fix Deposit Promotion is BACK
Standard Chartered Bank is running a promotion on its Singapore Dollars Time Deposit again.
It is offering an interest rate of 1.5% for a 3 month Singapore Dollars Time Deposit. The condition is that it must be fresh fund of at least SGD$25,000. The promotion ends on 10 Nov 2014, so hurry down to your nearest Standard Chartered Bank branch now if you are interested in this promotion.
It is offering an interest rate of 1.5% for a 3 month Singapore Dollars Time Deposit. The condition is that it must be fresh fund of at least SGD$25,000. The promotion ends on 10 Nov 2014, so hurry down to your nearest Standard Chartered Bank branch now if you are interested in this promotion.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Supplementary Retirement Scheme
If you are working in Singapore, do you know that there is a voluntary saving scheme for retirement that will lower your taxes every year? This is known as the Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS).
Each year, a person can contribute up to $12750 to this account and all this amount will contribute to a tax relief for that year of tax assessment, assuming that you perform the contribution before 31 December of that year. This saving is substantial if you fall into a higher tax bracket.
To open this account, you will need to go to any of the local banks in Singapore, such as DBS, OCBC or UOB. The amount that you put into the SRS account can be invested into stocks or unit trust to generate even higher return than simply putting them in cash.
When the tax assessment comes from IRAS, this amount should be automatically included, as the banks would have already passed the relevant information to IRAS.
As this is a voluntary saving scheme for retirement, it has measures in place to encourage only withdrawal after the statutory retirement age. When you hit that age and start the first withdrawal from SRS, you are given 10 years for penalty free withdrawal. For any amount that you take out, only 50% of it is subjected to taxes. And most likely, you are not working at that time and this means that the tax amount from the actual withdrawal will be either very low, or even $0.
But in the event that you do need the money before the retirement age, you can still withdraw it. However, the full withdrawal amount will be subjected to tax for that assessment year of withdrawal. In addition, there will be a 5% penalty imposed on the withdrawal.
In conclusion, this is a scheme that you should consider if you fall into a higher tax bracket. And remember, to save the taxes for this year, do contribute to it before the end of 31 December. To make it a even better deal, some of the banks have already started promotion to sweeten the contribute, giving vouchers for each contribution made.
Each year, a person can contribute up to $12750 to this account and all this amount will contribute to a tax relief for that year of tax assessment, assuming that you perform the contribution before 31 December of that year. This saving is substantial if you fall into a higher tax bracket.
To open this account, you will need to go to any of the local banks in Singapore, such as DBS, OCBC or UOB. The amount that you put into the SRS account can be invested into stocks or unit trust to generate even higher return than simply putting them in cash.
When the tax assessment comes from IRAS, this amount should be automatically included, as the banks would have already passed the relevant information to IRAS.
As this is a voluntary saving scheme for retirement, it has measures in place to encourage only withdrawal after the statutory retirement age. When you hit that age and start the first withdrawal from SRS, you are given 10 years for penalty free withdrawal. For any amount that you take out, only 50% of it is subjected to taxes. And most likely, you are not working at that time and this means that the tax amount from the actual withdrawal will be either very low, or even $0.
But in the event that you do need the money before the retirement age, you can still withdraw it. However, the full withdrawal amount will be subjected to tax for that assessment year of withdrawal. In addition, there will be a 5% penalty imposed on the withdrawal.
In conclusion, this is a scheme that you should consider if you fall into a higher tax bracket. And remember, to save the taxes for this year, do contribute to it before the end of 31 December. To make it a even better deal, some of the banks have already started promotion to sweeten the contribute, giving vouchers for each contribution made.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
The Hidden Cost of Direct Currency Conversion
Recently, I made an online purchase from a company and this turns out to be start of a nightmare. When I received the credit card statement, I realise that the amount in the statement is different from the amount in the merchant's invoice. Thinking that the merchant charged me wrongly, I gave them a call and they verified that they only charged me the invoice amount.
After this, I proceed to call the bank to find out more about the charges. The bank then mentioned that this transaction is a Direct Currency Conversion (DCC) transaction, where the merchant convert a foreign currency to Singapore Dollars when performing the charging. Therefore, it will inured a 0.8% admin fees on top of the transaction cost.
My instant reaction was "What?!". The merchant did not mentioned anything about conversion to me. Furthermore, although it was a foreign company, it has local presence in Singapore. Nobody buying something on a website with Singapore Dollar pricing would imagine that the merchant needs to perform DCC. If this is the case, the website should state it clearly so that consumer can make an informed choice.
So be careful when you make an online purchase, and always check if the merchant is engaging DCC when they sell you in Singapore Dollars. If not, you will be paying an additional hidden cost of 0.8% of the transaction price for nothing.
After this, I proceed to call the bank to find out more about the charges. The bank then mentioned that this transaction is a Direct Currency Conversion (DCC) transaction, where the merchant convert a foreign currency to Singapore Dollars when performing the charging. Therefore, it will inured a 0.8% admin fees on top of the transaction cost.
My instant reaction was "What?!". The merchant did not mentioned anything about conversion to me. Furthermore, although it was a foreign company, it has local presence in Singapore. Nobody buying something on a website with Singapore Dollar pricing would imagine that the merchant needs to perform DCC. If this is the case, the website should state it clearly so that consumer can make an informed choice.
So be careful when you make an online purchase, and always check if the merchant is engaging DCC when they sell you in Singapore Dollars. If not, you will be paying an additional hidden cost of 0.8% of the transaction price for nothing.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Updated T&C for Blue Chip Investment Plan (BCIP)
I just got a letter from OCBC regarding the Blue Chip Investment Plan that I am on. It has updated some terms and conditions that govern this product with effects from 15 Sept 2014.
Most of them relate to cut-off dates which they will withdraw money from your account for the shares purchase and these does not affect me much.
What is interesting about the new conditions is the one that determine how much shares will be allocated with each purchase. From their website, I have extracted the condition.
"On completion of the execution of the aggregated Purchase Instructions, the actual number of shares/units of each Security allocated to each Customer is computed by dividing Net Investment Amount by the Average Purchase Price, rounded down to the nearest whole number.
For Cash settlement, OCBC Bank will credit the unutilised portion of the Gross Investment Amount after excluding the fees (i.e. the residual monies which was not utilised to purchase Securities) back to the Customer’s GIRO-linked account.
For SRS settlement, OCBC Bank will only debit an amount equivalent to the gross investment amount plus fees for the Securities actually purchased from the Customer’s SRS account."
As some of your may have know from my earlier post, I wrote about the hidden cost of investing in BCIP. With this new condition in place, it effectively remove the hidden cost and I am very happy with the way the product operates now.
Well done OCBC for listening to consumer feedback!
Most of them relate to cut-off dates which they will withdraw money from your account for the shares purchase and these does not affect me much.
What is interesting about the new conditions is the one that determine how much shares will be allocated with each purchase. From their website, I have extracted the condition.
"On completion of the execution of the aggregated Purchase Instructions, the actual number of shares/units of each Security allocated to each Customer is computed by dividing Net Investment Amount by the Average Purchase Price, rounded down to the nearest whole number.
For Cash settlement, OCBC Bank will credit the unutilised portion of the Gross Investment Amount after excluding the fees (i.e. the residual monies which was not utilised to purchase Securities) back to the Customer’s GIRO-linked account.
For SRS settlement, OCBC Bank will only debit an amount equivalent to the gross investment amount plus fees for the Securities actually purchased from the Customer’s SRS account."
As some of your may have know from my earlier post, I wrote about the hidden cost of investing in BCIP. With this new condition in place, it effectively remove the hidden cost and I am very happy with the way the product operates now.
Well done OCBC for listening to consumer feedback!
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