Little Guy in Little Red Dot
Actions Brings Results & Results Builds Confidence!

As stated in my previous post: High Interest Rate Savings Account, the interest rates of the better savings account of Maybank and Citibank are as below

1) Citibank Stepup Account

• Base interest – 0.16%p.a.
• Step-Up to 1%p.a.over 12 months

2) Maybank iSAVvy Savings Account

• 0.50%/0.75% + 6% IOI — iSAVvy savings (min $5k/$50k)
• Daily balance below S$5,000 (0.25% p.a.)
• Daily balance of S$5,000 to below S$50,000 (0.50%p.a.)
• Daily balance of S$50,000 and above (0.75% p.a.)
• Interest-on-interest every 6 months (6.00%)

I would suggest opening both accounts at the same time.

Maybank iSAVvy Savings Account initial deposit is S$500 while Citibank Stepup Account is S$2000 (no initial deposit required with salary credit)

Credit your salary into iSAVvy and automate fund transfer a small amount of money (eg. S$100) monthly to the StepUp Account to build up the interest to the max of 1% p.a.

It will be good if you have S$5000 in iSAVvy to enjoy the 0.5% p.a. interest on the savings while building up the StepUp interest.

After which you can change the salary credit to the StepUp Account, and/or move your money from iSAVvy to StepUp to enjoy the 1% p.a. interest while ensuring that the current month minimum balance is not less than last month. (hope that the interest doesn’t drop by then)

Current Stanchart eSaver Interest Rates is listed as below:

• 0.40%/0.50% — e$aver (min $0/$50k)
• Daily balance below S$50,000 (0.40 % p.a.)
• Daily balance of S$50,000 to S$199,999 (0.50 % p.a.)
• Daily balance of S$200,000 & above (0.68 % p.a.)

You might want to consider FairPrice Plus Savings Account as it offers better interest rate of 0.50 % p.a. for amounts up to S$50,000.

The base interest of Citibank Step-Up Account starts from 0.16% p.a.

If your minimum monthly balance is higher than the previous month’s minimum balance, the interest will step up automatically.

The step up interest is 0.07% p.a.

The interest rate steps up (adds up) each month to a maximum of 1.0% p.a. over a 12-month period.

View the Step-Up Graph

After reaching the 12th counters of Step-Up and getting the maximum of 1.0% p.a. interest, in order to continue getting the interest rate of 1% p.a., you need to have at least S$20,000 inside the account or ensure that the current month’s minimum balance doesn’t get lower than the previous month minimum balance.

Citibank Step Up Account Interest has already drop from 2% -> 1.2% -> 1% p.a.

I hope the interest don’t go any lower any more as there isn’t much high interest rate savings account in the market already.