Great for savings - OCBC 360 and 365

Jes 8 Comments

I can't remember how many times I told my friends about this.

This is like the most unbelievably, too good to be true savings account, especially when I can hit the criteria easily. Ok, shall stop rambling and start introducing:

OCBC 360 savings account

OCBC 360

Save up to $50,000 in this account to get 3.05%!0.05% - Fixed for all Singapore banks
Additional 1% - Get salary credited into OCBC instead of the usual POSB
Additional 1% - Pay 3 bills via Giro (OCBC 365 / FRANK + other credit cards bill or hdb parking or insurance payment)
Additional 1% - Spend at least $400 on the OCBC 365 card which I will mention below (Telco bills can be linked up to credit cards too)
(Please see this updated post on the changes starting from 1st May 2015)

And just like that, you get additional 3% of the $50,000 = $1500 a year = $125 a month. Compare it to DBS multiplier, an excellent review is done here.

Tell me, where have you ever seen your interest in banks exceeding a few dollars?! The first time the interest came in, I was really jumping for joy! It's like free money hahaha.

Now, comes the double happiness:

OCBC 365 credit card
(Source: ocbc.com)
They give cash back for these regular spending:
3% for Telco bills
3% (weekday) to 6% (weekends) on dining... food.. food... I need food..
3% on groceries and online shopping and more..
Caveat: Spend at least $600 a month.

If you buy groceries, pump fuel and go restaurants monthly, $600 is not hard to reach. So when you spend $600, you get the additional 1% in OCBC 360 bank account, and you get the cash back on 365 credit card which will offset your next bill. For example, if you spend $100 on food during Sat/Sun, you will get $6 off your next OCBC bill! It's that easy. Best of all, your supplementary card holder's spending can contribute to this minimum spending.

Another restriction is that you have to maintain $3000 a month in OCBC, if not $2 fee is charged but this is waived for the first year. I think you need to have more than $3000 to make the interest worthwhile anyway!
Previously, I was using Citibank Dividends Card. I like having cash back cards you see, and Citibank was giving 2% off for all dining and 5% for groceries (Min spending of $50). However, they require you to hit at least S$50 cash back in order to claim the rebates and it must be within 6 months if I am not wrong. Some of my cash back dollars expired  :( and so I prefer to use OCBC 365.

I don't know why you are not rushing to OCBC right now. I think they are very aggressive recently and I am also monitoring their stocks since I am an ambassador for now, haha.

Jes

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8 comments:

  1. Hi Jes,

    I agree that the OCBC365 credit card is a jack of all trades if one wants hassle-free. But the weekend dining 6% is hard to beat.

    Examples:
    - OCBC Frank - 6% for online purchases and Nets-Flashpay ATU with minimum $500 spending per month - Pay telco bills online, HDB parking
    - Citibank Dividend - 5% for transactions above $50 and above for groceries and petrol. if grocery can't chalk up $50, buy some vouchers. :)
    - ANZ Travel - Utilitarian card which offers 2.5% rebates without of transaction amount or minimum monthly spending restriction. 2.5% rebate is capped at $10,000 spending per month

    Furthermore, you can pay for the above credit cards to meet the 3 minimum transaction required for the 1% for OCBC360 account.

    Some food for thought. :)

    Cheers,
    Naro

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Naro,

    Thanks for the suggestions! I think ultimately it is up to ones's spending and assess accordingly.. like for my case, i don't really do online purchases much, but dining definitely much more!

    Citibank Dividend - 2% dining and no rebates for NTUC.

    ANZ Travel sounds good but I am already using Citibank Premier Miles.

    Appreciate your input and glad to know about your views:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is there a cap to the principal applicable under this higher interest rate?

    DBS/POSB has something similar for up to $50,000: http://lizardorealm.blogspot.sg/2014/07/dbs-multiplier-account-savings-interest.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Lizardo,

    Yes there is a cap at 50k. For me, anything more than 50k would be my war chest. I have forgotten to add the link to the comparison so thanks for your reminder.

    http://blog.moneysmart.sg/saving/dbs-vs-ocbc-which-bank-deserves-your-loyalty/

    It's hard for me to get DBS's interest as I do not have the home loan, OCBC's interest is also higher and easier to hit. Anyway read your post, OCBC also have the caveat to maintain 3k a month , if not $2 fee is charged but this is waived for the first year.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hmm, quite similar packages. OCBC's is probably more attractive overall. But I guess there's some stickiness depending on which bank one has accounts with - especially existing housing loan, salary GIRO, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Lizardo,

    Yeah, anyway both are not mutually exclusive. The more the merrier, the hard part is to get money only. Haha.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi, Citi Dividend card has 5% rebate for NTUC spending (>$50).
    I'm balancing the spending between the OCBC 365 and Citi Dividend card to maximize the rebate. Also bare in mind that OCBC 365 rebate cap at $80 per month.
    Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work :).

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Ryan,

    Thanks for dropping by!

    Yeah you are right and I have corrected it. The preferred grocery partners misled me so I thought NTUC was excluded. Appreciate that you pointed it out!

    You must be a big spender cos' I could never hit $80 on OCBC 365. I think FRANK card is cool too and I and using it to maximize the rebate...
    http://simplyjesme.blogspot.sg/2014/11/ocbc-frank-vs-citibank-premiermiles.html

    Enjoy your weekend.

    ReplyDelete

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