OCBC 360 Account Offers The Best Fixed Deposit Rates

OCBC 360 Account

This is a contribution by Alison, who blogs at www.heartlandboy.com

Readers may be surprised that Heartland Boy is suggesting that an actual banking account, as opposed to some plain-vanilla fixed deposit schemes, offers the best fixed deposit rates in town currently. Ever since DBS launched its DBS Multiplier Programme with headline grabbing interest rates, it has forced its key competitors to react accordingly. As a result, this has spawned a new type of hybrid savings account which typically rewards account holders with significantly higher  interest rates than the moribund 0.05%. OCBC has its own OCBC 360 Account while UOB has its UOB One Account.  After comparing the various bank offerings, Heartland Boy chose the OCBC 360 Account as he thinks it offers the best fixed deposit rates amongst the local banks.

HOW THE OCBC 360 ACCOUNT WORKS

OCBC rewards account holder bonus interests for completing a myriad of tasks. This is in addition to a base interest of 0.05% per annum. The respective bonus interests applicable to the first $60,000 of the account holder balances are:

  1. 1.2% per annum when your credit your salary of at least S$2,000 through GIRO
  2. 0.5% per annum when you pay any 3 bills online or though GIRO
  3. 0.5% per year when you spend at least S$500 monthly on OCBC Credit Cards
  4. 1% per annum when you purchase a new insurance (eg: Policies of at least S$2,000 in annual premium) or investment product (Unit Trusts or Structured Deposits of at least S$40,000) with OCBC

Source: http://www.ocbc.com/personal-banking/accounts/360-account.html

The bonus interest accumulates and pays when you do all of the above of any of the following. As an illustration, if you satisfy only criteria 1 and 2, you would still be eligible for 1.7% bonus interest per annum.

TIPS ON MAXIMISING THE OCBC 360 ACCOUNT

  • Make sure that the salary credited into your OCBC 360 Account uses a code recognised and approved by OCBC in order to earn the 1.2% bonus interest.
  • A working adult should easily satisfy the criteria of paying 3 bills online (mobile phone, credit cards, insurance premiums etc). If you do not meet the criteria of paying 3 bills online, offer to help pay some of the household bills, such as broadband or utility charges, online.
  • Whenever possible, apply for GIRO so that the bill payments are automated. This ensures that you will never forget and are guaranteed to complete that task.
  • OCBC offers plenty of attractive credit cards, such as the OCBC 365, OCBC FRANK, OCBC Robinsons etc. Choose a credit card that is most compatible to your spending habits. For instance, if you enjoy dining out on weekends, you may apply for the OCBC 365 credit card to earn 6% cashback. If you are an online shopaholic, you can earn 6% rebate on OCBC Frank credit card.OCBC Credit Cards
  • If you are paying bills to an organisation which OCBC Credit Card has a partnership with, you can apply to pay through GIRO for greater bang on your buck. For instance, Heartland Boy’s M1 bills are deducted monthly via GIRO on his OCBC 365 credit card. He gets a 3% cashbackfor setting up a recurring telco bill, as well as becoming closer to achieving the S$500 minimum spending on an OCBC credit card as required by the OCBC 360 Account. That is equivalent to killing 2 birds with 1 stone.
  • If you are capable of making your own investments, you may consider forgoing the 1% bonus interest applicable for new insurance or investment products. That is because the expenses and fees that these products typically charge may well exceed the incremental 1% bonus interest that you earn.
  • The bonus interest is calculated based on average daily balance, so you cannot “game” the system by withdrawing money at the beginning of the month and depositing money at the end of the month and still hope to get the full interest over the month.

WHAT HEARTLAND BOY LIKES ABOUT THE OCBC 360 ACCOUNT

  • Previously, Heartland Boy was using the POSB Savings Account, an account his parents set up for him after he got tired of playing with his piggy bank. This account was paying a miserable 0.05% per annum and yet Heartland Boy continued using it out of habit and convenience. This was despite Heartland Boy knowing that he was actually losing money in real terms as Singapore’s historical average inflation was probably 2% per annum. However, since switching over to OCBC 360 Account, Heartland Boy feels awesome whenever he sees the bonus interest roll into his OCBC 360 Account. It was the same feeling he had when he was a small kid collecting candies after accumulating a series of stamps at the funfair.
  • There is no lock-in period and you are free to utilize the savings inside the OCBC 360 Account whenever you need to. This is in contrast to the traditional fixed deposit schemes whereby there is a lock-in period.
  • Informing Heartland Boy’s Human Resources Department to change his salary crediting account was surprisingly straightforward. All it took was an email instruction and he only had to do it once!

If you are unconvinced and still fret over the hassle of changing your monetary habits, Heartland Boy can assure you that once you have done it, it will become habitual eventually and you will thank yourself for having done so!

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Best Cash Rebate Credit Card in Singapore for Frequent Travellers

Heartland Boy recently took a leap of faith to accept a job assignment in the chaotic streets that is Jakarta.

As a recently married and henpecked husband, he agreed voluntarily to fly back to Singapore on weekends so as to spend time with his lovely wife, Ms Heartland Girl. Heartland Boy does not have the luxury of having his company fund his weekly trips home; so minimizing his airfares were a huge priority for him. Therefore, Heartland Boy set out to look for the best cash rebate credit card for frequent travellers, instead of the typical credit cards that issue air flyer miles.

ANZ Optimum Mastercard

After comparing across various credit cards in the market, the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card is the best cash rebate credit card for frequent travellers due to its headline grabbing 5% cash rebate. In this programme, the cash rebates are awarded in the form of Optimum dollars but essentially, they are effectively as good as cash. Therefore, for simplicity, Heartland Boy shall address Optimum dollars as cash rebates in this article.

Source: https://sg.anz.com/apps/optimum/

HOW ANZ OPTIMUM WORLD MASTERCARD CREDIT CARD WORKS

  • Select 1 out of these 4 categories. [Dining&Leisure, Travel, Shopping, Groceries]

ANZ Optimum Mastercard categories

Table 1: Definitions of the categories under the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card

  • The selected category, otherwise known as a core category, will earn 5% cash rebate, while the remaining 3 categories (non-core categories) will earn 1% rebate.
  • The cash rebate is calculated based on every multiple of S$10 where the transaction amount will first be rounded down to the nearest S$10. The table below illustrates the different type of transactions and the cash rebates applicable.

ANZ Optimum Dollar IllustrationTable 2: Cash rebates applicable on the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card

  • The cash rebates will accumulate daily and eventually be rounded down to the nearest dollar on your monthly statement. Therefore, assuming that those were the only 2 transactions for the entire month, the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card holder will earn a total of S$11 cash rebate for that particular month.
  • Once you have accumulated a minimum of $50 in cash rebates, you can choose to “redeem” the cash rebate to offset the cost of your future transactions. Redemption of cash rebates are in multiples of S$50.

What Heartland Boy likes about ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card

  • With a cash rebate of 5%, it is easily the best cash rebate credit card for frequent travellers.
  • No minimum spend is required on the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card to earn the cash rebate. Therefore, even if you charge S$20 for your core category on the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card, you already earn S$1 cash rebate for the month.
  • There is no limit to the amount of cash rebate you can earn in a single month.
  • Cash rebate earned have a long validity period of 3 years.

Tips on optimizing the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card (pun intended)

  • As card holders are allowed to change their core categories every quarter, you may want to switch category in anticipation of some big ticket expenditure. For instance, if you are booking year-end holidays for the family, it will be good to switch to “Travel” category to earn the maximum 5% cash rebate. After completing this big ticket expenditure, card holders can still switch back to their original core category in the next quarter.
  • Note that the maximum amount of cash rebate awarded per transaction is S$30. This translates to S$600 and S$3000 per transaction for your core and non-core categories respectively. If your transaction exceed the quantum, you may want to break up your transaction into separate receipts and payments to qualify for more cash rebates.
  • ANZ is having a credit card promotion now whereby new-to-bank customers who apply for the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card and have their credit cards approved by 15 March 2016 and spend at least S$488 on their Credit Card will earn a cash rebate of S$100! Readers who are eligible should take advantage of this credit card promotion!

In reality, the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card is a fantastic credit card as long as one is a “heavy” user of any of the four categories. For instance, a parent with a large family may find the 5% cash rebate on groceries very useful. Heartland Boy also thinks that readers can be creative and utilise a suite of credit cards to leverage on their respective strengths. For instance, Heartland Boy uses the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card to book air tickets and the OCBC 365 Credit Card to pay for bills at restaurants.

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