I have recently opened an account with OCBC bank known as the 360 Account, which offers up to 3.05% pa in interest. This is by far the highest interest rate offered for deposit accounts among the local and offshore banks. While the website offer more than enough information, do let me briefly go through the factors that will enable you to earn the maximum interests from them.
How to earn the extra 3% of bonus interest?
1) Credit your salary through Giro into the 360 Account
– However, you have to be earning a minimum of $2,000 a month for the 1% bonus interest to be effective.
2) Make 3 bills payment a month using Internet Banking
– This includes any Giro deductions or payment of other banks’ credit card bills.
3) Spend a minimum of $400 on your OCBC Credit Card every month
– You need to be the Principal credit card holder to enjoy this.
You will receive the base interest of 0.05% on the last calendar day of the month, and the remaining 3% (provided you fulfill the respective requirements) on the 7th working day of the following month.
Besides the high interest rate, I grew in love with OCBC bank due to their Internet Banking Platform – Money In$ights. I can’t stop raving over it! OCBC had recently launched a Personal Financial Management tool that allows you to track your spending online via their internet banking platform. It helps you categories and consolidate your spendings whenever there is a money outflow, or purchases made using your credit card.
Besides that, you can also set a budget to make sure you don’t overspend on the respective categories. This works extremely well for people who are too lazy or have no interest to budget for themselves. For hardcore folks like me who love to track my expenses, it works as a comparison and its fun to use as well!
Another totally cool feature of the Money In$ights platform is the Goal Setting feature whereby it automatically save a specific money for you every month, or you can choose to transfer a lump sum amount towards your goal. Once you do that, the platform protects you from temptation by disallowing ATM withdrawls, Giro deductions or fund transfer on the preset amount.
It’s so cool isn’t it? This is by far the best internet banking platform that I have used.
There is one more cool feature that I’ll like to cover, but I’ll do it on another blog post! Don’t want to have an information overload here.
Stay tune! 🙂
Get Rich Diva 
Jasmine, great write up !
Thanks for sharing !
Hi Snooppy,
You’re welcome! Glad you like the post 🙂
Cheers,
Jasmine
Wow, I didn’t know that OCBC bank provide such a good platform for tracking your expenses and break them into categories. I do agree with you that it is a great tool to provide busy (or lazy) people a channel to track their expenses!
Hi Spectraoflife,
Yeah, I’m really impressed with OCBC bank. So impressed that I bought a lot of it’s shares awhile back at $9.43 with my CPF. You should check out their 360 account as well, it’s offering the highest interest rate of 3.05% right now among the different bank deposits.
Cheers,
Jasmine
Thanks Jasmine, it’s really a useful tool.
OCBC has also credited my bonus interest today (7 working days), and I got the salary bonus credit. Hopefully, next month onwards I can get all three tiers and maximize my returns with them!
Keep up the good articles!
Hi Musicwhiz,
Thanks for introducing me to the OCBC 360 account as well! Besides the cool 3.05% interest, I’m loving their online platform as well.
Cheers,
Jasmine
Really nice write-up, Jas! I was speculative before especially since I thought that I would have to give up my citi premiermiles card.
Have you tried using apps to track your daily expenses? I have been using an app called “Expense Manager” by Markus Hintersteiner on Android. I used to leverage on the expense analysis from credit card platforms when I do my analyze my spending month on month. I also used to manage my finances with an excel table model, governing my budget etc. However, even though I try my best to keep on top of things, I always felt like I was missing a trick.
1. I don’t always get easy access to a tool that allows me to view my expenses to date (which relies on me remembering my limits while I’m about to make a purchase)
2. I can sometimes lose track of how much I spend via cash-based transactions
When I started using an expense tracking app, I started getting a deeper understanding of my spending pattern. And while initially thought that updating an app everytime I make a purchase was troublesome, I found that it wasn’t such a burden at all. Having a comprehensive view was so worth it.
Hello my friend! I’m using excel spreadsheets to track my expenses, investments and net worth (albeit not a lot). It’s becoming a habit that I constantly have to update them every other day. You’re right, it’s nice to have a comprehensive view on where we stand, and to see our savings grow month after month.
Cheers,
Jas