Travel & Food, Itineraries & Guides, Hotel Reviews
In the realm of air travel, ignorance may definitely harm you—or at least your wallet. Unexpected prices, policy changes, or tiny print details that profoundly affect their trip have many tourists caught off guard. This article seeks to simplify the complicated world of flight tickets and surcharges thus enabling you to confidently and wisely negotiate the skies.
source: unsplash.com
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It was only a couple of months back when I reported about UOB One Account’s lower interest rates in May 2020. However, as rates continued their steady decline since then, we have seen the other competitors lowering their rates respectively for the likes of DBS Multiplier and OCBC 360. UOB is actually one of the last to announce for the UOB One Account, with a new (and lower) set of rates that will become effective starting 1st of August 2020.
source: UOB
There is no change to the qualifying conditions. You need to spend at least S$ 500 per month on a UOB credit card (for example: UOB One Card, UOB Yolo Card, UOB Lady’s Card) to earn the lower interest rate tier. To earn the higher interest rate tier, you will have to spend the said amount on your UOB credit card AND credit your salary to the account or make 3 GIRO payments per month. The good thing about the GIRO criterion is that you do not have to fulfill a minimum amount for each GIRO transaction.
This is the 2nd time UOB revised the interest rates of the UOB One Account in 2020 alone. The revised effective interest rate starting 1st August 2020 is now at 1.20% p.a. assuming you max out the S$75,000 account balance on your UOB One Account. This is lower than the 1.796% p.a. during the May 2020 adjustment. Base interest rate is still 0.05% p.a. if you do not meet any of the stated conditions for the month.
Do note that UOB One Account interest is paid in two installments each month. The base interest is paid on the first of the month while the bonus interest is usually credited on the second day of the month.
In my view, there is still a special place for the UOB One Account given that the salary crediting criterion can be substituted. This bodes well with folks who would have exceeded the cap in the other accounts for example (OCBC 360 is 70k while DBS Multiplier is 100k) and need another place to park excess funds.
Even for those who don’t exceed the cap of the competing products, the UOB One Account still makes for a good primary savings account. Assuming you have S$75,000 lying around and are able to make at least 3 GIRO transactions and spend S$500 on your UOB credit card, you are better off with the UOB One Account than the OCBC 360 which pays the same 1.20% p.a. interest but only up to S$70,000 (provided you do not fulfill the Wealth or Grow criteria). For the DBS Multiplier, provided you make the same type of transactions and you do not keep investments, insurance or home loans with them, you will have to make at least S$15,000 in total transactions each month just to hit the 1.20% p.a. interest tier.
As mentioned previously, the current state of the UOB One Account is still competitive compared to its peers despite the lower interest rates. However, since interest rates of these bonus savings account products have fallen quite a bit over the past few months, and are now even lower than the prevailing housing loan interest, it does seem that some depositors may choose to park their funds elsewhere (i.e. retail or wholesale bonds or stocks) to achieve higher returns.
Given the rapid lowering of interest rates in recent months, it is perhaps inevitable that banks have once again changed their interest rates for CASA (current account & savings account) products. Among those banks offering the “contingent high interest rate” CASA products, UOB is probably the first to make the change this quarter with the announced revision for its popular UOB One Account.
Update: UOB has made another revision effective August 2020. You can check out the details of that update here
The qualifying conditions remain the same. You need to spend at least S$ 500 per month on a UOB credit card (for example: UOB One Card, UOB Yolo Card, UOB Lady’s Card) to earn the lower interest rate tier. To earn the higher interest rate tier, you will have to spend the said amount on your UOB credit card AND credit your salary to the account or make 3 GIRO payments per month.
UOB spells out the revised interest rates clearly. From about 2.44% p.a. previously, the effective interest rate is now around 1.796% p.a. assuming you max out the S$75,000 account balance on your UOB One Account.
Despite the drop in interest rates for the UOB One Account, it still serves a purpose. This is considering that other “contingent high interest rate” CASA products have revised their mechanics previously, even before taking into account the current market environment. Many of the UOB One Account’s competitors are even less desirable now (case in point – the revised Citi Maxigain and even the OCBC 360 which is revising rates in July).
The good thing about the UOB One Account despite the lowered interest rate is that you are still not required to credit your salary there. You can easily replace this criteria through the “make 3 GIRO debit transactions” rule. The 3 GIRO debit transactions can be easily fulfilled by setting up GIRO on your UOB credit cards. If you have 3 UOB credit cards, that already qualifies as 3 GIRO transactions. Note that there is no minimum $ amount for the GIRO payment to qualify. I then use the UOB One Card to fulfill the minimum S$500 spend required on the credit card side. I find their cash rebate of up to 5% (for S$2,000 monthly spend) quite attractive even for a miles chaser like me.
Given the current renewed low interest rate environment, even my suggestion above might not hold for long if other banks also change their rates for their respective savings products. Apart from this, there is of course, no one-size-fits-all solution. Given the multitude of permutations out there, identifying the ideal savings account depends on one’s financial circumstance, spending habits, etc. as well.
Bangkok is one of the most popular cities to visit in Southeast Asia. The cultural experience, cuisine as well as shopping opportunities are simply phenomenal that most folks don’t know where to begin. If it is your first time to visit the Thai capital, there are certain things you need to be mindful of when deciding how and when to fly there.
Here’s a short checklist to help you get started in terms of arranging your flights:
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Virtual reality has transformed gaming across the world. Essentially, this is an interactive experience that takes place in a simulated setting. Generated by computers, it is widely considered a technological triumph. And if there’s anywhere that offers innovative tech, it’s Japan. Unsurprisingly, it is leading the way in VR experiences. If you’re planning a holiday here, why not check out its best VR parks? Our guide can help you to select which one to visit.
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With Singapore Dollar interest rates rising steadily over the past year as reflected by the one month SGD SIBOR Rate, Citibank’s Citi Maxigain Savings has become one of the better CASA accounts to go for to earn decent interest, especially since it does not require clients to credit their salaries there. Just to illustrate roughly, if you had qualified for the 12th counter and assuming the current SIBOR Rate of ~ 1.64%, you would have been earning 2.51% p.a. with the MaxiGain. This is all the more compelling when you consider what some corporate retail bonds are yielding at the market. Temasek’s 5 year SGD bond which pays a coupon of 2.7% p.a. is currently yielding only 2.42% p.a. and that comes with interest rate risk.
The adage that all good things must come to an end rings true for the Citi MaxiGain Savings, at least to an extent. It was only a year back when I first wrote about the Citibank MaxiGain Savings Account. Citibank recently announced a slew of changes to the terms and conditions of this CASA product. These are:
Before: Base interest of 80% of 1 month SGD SIBOR for the first S$150,000 balance
Perhaps the change that hurts the most is the fact that one of the things that made the MaxiGain such a great account – its ability to at least track interest rate fluctuations – will be diluted somewhat. A change of 80% of SIBOR to 70% of SIBOR equals roughly 0.16% p.a. This is not a biggie in the greater scheme of things. Based on current SIBOR and assuming you are within the S$150,000 ceiling, this is equal to roughly S$20 of foregone interest per month. However, if you consider this feature’s ability to track current interest rates, this presents a somewhat noticeable potential loss. 1 Month SGD SIBOR reached its all-time high of roughly 3.50% back in late 2006. If it were to reach that level again, the reduction in the base interest multiplier certainly reduces the capacity to potentially earn more as interest rate rises.
Before: Daily end balance of S$10,000 was needed in order to earn base interest
Again, this will limit one’s ability to maximize the interest in this account. In the past, while S$10,000 was the minimum to earn base interest, most people started with S$15,000 anyway as this is Citi’s minimum relationship balance required to avoid any fall below fees. The revision puts those clients who are maintaining between S$15,000 to S$70,000 in a bit of a bind. Typical folks that fit within this profile are young professionals who have been in the workforce for a few years or people who maintain multiple “high interest” kinds of accounts and put anything extra into the MaxiGain. With the changes effective 2019, the MaxiGain won’t be as good a deposit product unless you have at least S$70,000 to spare.
Another segment of clients affected are those who are relatively new into the account. A common tactic for those who opened the MaxiGain back then is to park S$15,000 first and wait for the counter to reach somewhere more respectable (i.e. the 6th counter) before they start pouring in the rest of their savings. With this revision, there’s now a bigger opportunity cost involved. Now, you’ll have to start by parking S$70,000 (instead of S$15,000 before) and earn only the base interest (roughly 1.14% p.a. considering current SIBOR levels) while waiting for the counters to progress.
Before: No cap on the amount that can earn bonus interest
When the revision kicks in, any amount over S$150,000 will earn a customary 0.05% pa. Prior to that, any extra balance could have earned max 1.20% pa bonus interest which is still ok considering there aren’t a whole lot of conditions attached to this deposit product. After the revision on the 02 January 2019, it will make little sense to park more than S$150,000 into the Citi MaxiGain Savings.
Have you ever noticed that some folks on social media seem to be professional country hoppers—and you want to know how they do it? Surprisingly, few are trust fund babies equipped with unlimited funds to support their holidays. Instead, these world travelers are usually frugal and smart when it comes to traveling on a budget. No matter what your financial situation, it’s easier to travel the world than you think. All it takes is a little planning, some flexibility, and willingness to get a little uncomfortable at times.
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The idea of travel has evolved rapidly in the last ten years or so that tools I used in the past – such as my notebook, guidebook, map and even compass – have relegated somewhat to being old-fashioned. So many tools have come up in recent years to make the idea of putting your life in a suitcase a reality. Guide books are now found as e-books and can be read over a tablet or phone while modern-day apps tell me exactly how to get from point a to b without having to ask a stranger for directions or look like a screaming tourist with a large paper map in tow. I suppose one of the main hurdles now is getting oneself familiar with these tools and the best way to use them. One tool which can easily be integrated to daily wear is the smart watch. Whether you are an android or iOS user, there are definitely advantages to be had by using a smart watch to help you with your travels. Check out the smartwatch infographic and read my top picks of the available options.
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