Interest Rates (Photo credit: 401K)

There are lots of banks in Singapore offering savings account of different interest rates. The interest given out by some of the banks have fallen by quite a bit.

As a large part of my savings are deposited in savings account, I like shift my savings if there is a better deal on the market.

As you can see below, the rates being offered now are much lower than in the past years. I can see that it can only go lower in time to come due to the possible market downturn in near future.

Standard Chartered eSaver and Citibank Stepup have reduced their interest rate through the years and I have removed them from my list.

I like to do some homework to be current on the bank that offers the highest interest rate for savings account so that I do not lose out on the potential interest which I could have earned.

I am happy that my favorite CIMB StarSaver Account still offers the best interest rate!

High Interest Savings Account Singapore 2012

CIMB StarSaver Account Interest Rate

Plus! Savings Interest Rate

Maybank iSAVvy Savings Account Interest Rate

Standard Chartered BonusSaver Interest Rate*

Earn 1.88% p.a. on your savings for the first S$25,000 in your Bonus$aver account when you charge a minimum of S$500 to your linked Bonus$aver World MasterCard credit and/or debit card(s) each month.

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The last High Interest Rate Savings Account listing was updated in 2009, since then the interest rate pretty much falls to new lows.

Seeing the interest rate falling really breaks my heart. But there is a newcomer in the Singapore banking industry that brought surprises. Their tagline is “Be surprised by money”!

Thats right, it is CIMB bank. Currently offering one of the highest interest rate of 0.8% p.a. for your savings with their CIMB StarSaver Account.

0.8% p.a. is 4 times that of StandardChartered eSaver Account which currently stays at 0.2% p.a.

The only cons for this bank is that since it is relatively new, there isn’t much ATMs and branches available in Singapore yet. But please don’t be lazy, make an effort to go and open the StarSaver Account with them to enjoy the high interest rate of 0.8% p.a. while it last.

CIMB StarSaver Account

• Month-end incremental deposit of $500 or more: 0.8% p.a.
• Month-end incremental deposit of less than $500: 0.5% p.a.

Maybank iSAVvy Savings Account

• Daily balance below S$5,000: 0.1875% p.a.
• Daily balance of S$5,000 to below S$50,000: 0.25% p.a.
• Daily balance of S$50,000 and above: 0.32% p.a.
• Interest-on-interest every 6 months: 6.00% p.a.

Citibank Stepup Account

• Base interest – 0.14% p.a.
• Step-Up of 0.015% per month
• Interest rate steps up each month, and up to a maximum of 0.32% p.a. over a 12-month period

StandardChartered eSaver Account

• Less than S$50,000: 0.2% p.a.
• S$50,000 to S$199,999: 0.3 p.a.
• S$200,000 & above: 0.4 p.a.

 Plus! Savings Account

• First S$50,000: 0.2 p.a.
• From S$50,001 to S$500,000: 0.4 p.a.

Finding a high interest rate savings account is not easy these days due banks slashing them lower and lower. Sometimes banks such as StandardChartered do offer bonus interest rate for fresh funds deposited into their eSaver Account for a period of time.

These High Interest Rate Savings Accounts do offer better rates as compared to POSB savings account which currently offers only 0.1 p.a.

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Citibank is going to reduce the interest rate for the step-up account again.

From my march 2010 electronic statement:

Effective 1 May 2010, the interest rates for SGD Step-Up Interest Accounts and Tap and Save Accounts will be revised to:

Base Interest 0.14% p.a
Bonus Interest per Step-Up Counter 0.03% p.a (Maximum Step-Up Counter = 12)
Maximum Interest Rate 0.50% p.a

So, they are doing it on labour day. I wonder when is the next cut, I hope not so soon. The good thing is that 0.5% p.a is still higher than most of the savings account out there, but its time to look out for better ones.

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Standard Chartered e$aver account is still offering one of the better savings account rates in singapore. The interest rate  has indeed dropped quite a bit since its high of 2%p.a.

The current rates of SCB eSaver

Less than S$50,000           0.30% p.a.
S$50,000 to S$199,999    0.40% p.a.
S$200,000 & above          0.50% p.a.

(rates effective 20 July 2009)

Location of standard chartered branches to open accounts with them. Visiting them to open account is so much faster than mailing them appliciation forms.

Incoming Search:

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Citibank’s Step-Up Interest Account & FairPrice Plus Savings Account has reduced their interest rate yet again!

Bad news for us who have savings in these accounts.

Step-Up Interest Account still offers the highest interest rate if you have managed to step-up to the max. You might want to consider Maybank’s iSAVvy Savings Account or StandChart’s eSaver account as they have better base interest rate.

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

Step-Up Interest Account New Interest
Base interest – 0.15%p.a.
Step-Up to 0.75%p.a. over 12 months

FairPrice Plus Savings Account Old Interest
First S$50,000 (0.50 % p.a.)
From S$50,001 to S$500,000 (1.00 % p.a.)

FairPrice Plus Savings Account New Interest
First S$50,000 (0.30 % p.a.)
From S$50,001 to S$500,000 (0.60 % p.a.)

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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)

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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.

Incoming Search:

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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.

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This simple video shows how compounding interest can make your money grow over time.

It is always a good habit to save a percentage of your monthly pay regularly automatically.

One way to force yourself to save money is by having 2 savings account (eg. Citibank’s Stepup Account & FairPrice Plus Savings Account).

You deposit your monthly paycheck into FairPrice Plus Savings Account (main paycheck account) and then making an arrangement (Recurring Transfer Request) through Internet Banking to transfer a certain amount (eg. $200) to Citibank’s Stepup Account (pure savings account with money going in only) on a predefined date monthly.

This way, you pay yourself first and the deductions are done automatically.

FairPrice Plus Savings Account  currently offers 0.5%p.a. interest on the first $50,000 while you can stepup to 1%p.a. with Citibank’s Stepup Account.

Finally FairPrice Plus is going to drop the interest rate for their Savings Account Interest. From their website, it states:

Wef 1st Mar 09, the new FairPrice Price interest rates will function as:

First S$50,000	0.5% p.a.
From S$50,001 to S$500,000	1.0% p.a. (limited to maximum deposit of S$500,000)

Scenario 1: If customer has S$60,000, for the first S$50,000, he earns interest at 0.5% p.a. and for the next S$10,000, at 1.0% p.a. interest.

Scenario 2: If customer has S$600,000, for the first S$50,000, he earns interest at 0.5% p.a. and for the next S$450,000, at 1.0% p.a. interest. His remaining S$100,000 would not earn any interest.

I believe many of the people like me will be sad, with the previous promotion of 1%p.a. interest rate now cut into half. I am also not happy with the way the new interest rate is being calculated, as you can see from both the scenarios stated above.

Its time to jump ship again!