Why Heartland Boy Switched To UOB One Account

The OCBC 360 Account has always held a special place inside Heartland Boy’s heart. Convincing Heartland Girl to switch to OCBC 360 Account was the first personal finance related advice that Heartland Boy ever recommended to her. Heartland Girl beamed with joy whenever she saw the huge monthly interest rolled in. This recommendation cemented Heartland Boy’s position as a dependable personal finance consultant in Heartland Girl’s heart. Since then, any finance related recommendation by Heartland Boy was greeted with staunch submission and unreserved approval from Heartland Girl.

With the second change in as many years to the OCBC 360 Account, Heartland Girl’s interest rate had dropped drastically from 3.05% to 1.85%. Now the smiles have stopped. The unstinting loyalty is also in serious jeopardy. Unsurprisingly, the online personal finance community also reacted negatively towards this change. Well, Heartland Boy can only conclude that the reduction of interest rates is good for shareholders of OCBC but very bad for its OCBC 360 customers.

To salvage those hard-earned brownie points, Heartland Boy had to act fast. He got down to comparing and reviewing the various bank products immediately. Finally, he found a suitable alternative and switched to UOB One Account. Here is his review of the UOB One Account and why he thinks it is the best savings account in Singapore for him.

2.43% Interest From UOB One Account

Do note that the interest rates declines in tiers if the deposit inside the UOB One Account is less than $50,000. Worse, the interest rate drops to a negligible 0.05% if one fails to spend at least $500 per month on a participating UOB Credit Card. Therefore, the UOB One Account is most suitable for someone who has $50,000 in savings and is able to spend regularly a minimum of $500 on a UOB Credit Card per month. Here is Heartland Boy’s tip on some life-hacks in order to achieve minimum spend on your credit cards.

As explained, spending $500 on a UOB One Account approved credit card is really critical with the UOB One Account. Thankfully, this is a rather manageable task for Heartland Boy to complete. He has consistently achieved this target with his OCBC 365 Credit Card. For instance, some “fixed spending” are the Uber and Grab rides that he takes while commuting to and from the airport, which he later discovered would be best paid using the Standard Chartered’s Unlimited Cashback Credit Card.  A backup option would be diverting his flight expenditure from the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard to the UOB One Credit Card. That would surely allow him to achieve $500 spend on his UOB One Card.

For those who are looking to achieve the additional 0.83% via the “GIRO Criteria” route, here is a useful tip Heartland Boy read on Hardware Zone forum. Some users who have reviewed the UOB One Account mentioned that it may be administratively faster to cancel an existing GIRO facility before re-applying for new GIRO facility under the UOB One Account.

In this illustration, Heartland Boy has deliberately omitted the cashback from the UOB One Credit Card. It would not make for an apple to apple comparison with the OCBC 360 Account. However, for those who are curious, the cashback from UOB One Credit Card varies from $50 to $200 per quarter. This would require the cardholder to perform at least 5 transactions that would aggregate to a minimum of $500 to $2,000 per month for 3 consecutive months.

0.65% Interest for OCBC 360 Account

Yes, you saw it right. Heartland Boy will only be earning 0.65% interest from OCBC 360 Account after the revision in interest rates. The difference between UOB One and OCBC 365 for Heartland Boy could not be starker.  Ever since Heartland boy was posted to Jakarta, his salary was paid into his OCBC 360 Account via a telegraphic transfer from an Indonesian bank. This fails to meet the criteria of having his salary be credited via GIRO. Therefore, he does not qualify for the 1.2% interest for crediting of salary. At least he consoles himself that he is not receiving his salary in Indonesian Rupiah. To think that his Human Resource Department even posed this option to him!

Realising that he would now only earn $325 from a total of $50,000 deposit was utterly painful. Heartland Boy hates to see his money working less than him. This eventually proved to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Afterall, an effective interest rate of 0.65% was only marginally better compared to the POSB savings bank account that he was originally on.

Therefore, Heartland Boy made the decision to switch to UOB One Account. He moved $50,000 from OCBC 360 Account into his brand new UOB One Account. This $50,000 will be untouched and truly serves as an emergency fund to be used only on rainy days. Furthermore, the Singapore Deposit Insurance Corporation guarantees up to $50,000 worth of deposit should the member bank fails.

Switched To UOB One Account

After comparing all the savings account in Singapore available in 2017, the UOB One Account suits Heartland Boy’s circumstances best at this juncture of his life. The UOB One Account will offer him the highest interest rates of all. Heartland Boy particularly likes the fact that he can earn the extra 0.83% either by completing 3 GIRO payments OR crediting his salary into his UOB One Account. Therefore, it is best to critically analyse the various banks’ offerings given that individual’s circumstances vary. For just 30 minutes of work, Heartland Boy will be able to earn an extra $890 in annual interest income. This is a very high yield for his savings. Yes, it only took Heartland Boy 30 minutes to set up his UOB One Account on an early Saturday morning. For those who are keen, UOB is also running an online promotion for users who sign up online! Having said that, Heartland Girl has decided to switch to the new and improved DBS Multiplier!