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I admit that when it comes to matters of finance, I am a complete idiot.
It is a very dry subject to me and I always just doze off when I hear people rambling about banks, interest rates or loans. My mother on the other hand is pretty good with these things (she used to be a bank teller in the 1980s) and she would always handle all my finances for me.
Till today, I am still using the same bank account that I had since I was a child.
The bank when my mom opened for me to put my angpow money inside... I am still using that at age 31!!
One of my old Nuffnang cheques... Just anyhow deposit into my childhood bank account
The bank gave me an atm card so I used it. One day it broke and I went to the bank to replace it, then they said "here, we will give you a debit card instead". I said "Oh ok" and I've been using that same card till now.
The card works, the account works, so I just never bothered to change it.
Birthed a pretty cute dependent
I used to be so cavalier about my money because I only needed to care about myself. Now, I have a dependent. It sounds so disgustingly uncool to say this, but I really need to plan my finances better. And maybe it doesn't seem sexy to do so, but there is nothing sexy about being broke when you are old either!
Back to my bank choice... It is only when I was preparing for this blog entry that I realised I have been missing out on a lot of extra money I could have had... all these years!
Why?
I know finance is a very boring topic so I'll try to keep it a bit less technical. Everybody knows what interest rates are, right?
I found out that the interest rates for my account is only (I need client to let me know how much my POSB Savings account interest rate is)
To put it very simply, if I have $50,000 in my current bank account for a year, I earn an interest of $xxx.
Erm, that's like one of the lowest interest rates in Singapore. Or perhaps actually the lowest.
After I found out about the newly launched UOB One Account, I did some research on it and found this very comprehensive article which breaks down all the financial jargon into bite sized pieces! http://blog.moneysmart.sg/saving/why-the-uob-one-account-easiest-earn-interest-singapore/
With the newly launched UOB One Account, I would have gotten an interest of $1216 on savings of $50,000!!
Yes, the UOB One Account actually offers the highest interest rates in Singapore for fixed deposit accounts - a whooping 3.33%.
Of course, before you think you can simply set up your bank account with UOB and get 3.33% interest, there are some criteria to consider before you can get the best interest rate out of your bank.
At first glance I thought these criteria are very difficult to fulfil since I am not technically employed, but they are actually quite easy.
Here are the criteria:
First, you have to spend at least $500 on your One Account, every month.
That's really quite easy.. It takes me only 3 grocery trips to spend $500. :( #milkpowdersoexpensive
Who doesn't spend at least $500 a month right? If you don't please teach me how wtf.
Then, you have to fulfill either one of these criteria:
- Credit your monthly salary of at least $2,000 every month into the account,
- Or use the One Account to pay for at least 3 bills every month with GIRO.
Now the monthly salary thing won't work for me because I tend to only request my cheques from Nuffnang when I run out of money (told you my finance handling is very medieval), but the GIRO thing I can do!
GIRO my phone bill, my insurance payment and my helper's levy. Done!
For many working Singaporeans, a $2,000 salary isn't very hard to achieve. If you don't have that, 3 bill payments are still pretty easy to do.
(Of course, the bank uses some complicated method to calculate your interest rates, so it doesn't mean that if you have $10,000 in your account you will automatically get $333 for free. To understand more about how the calculations work, you can refer to this blog or go to UOB One Account's website!)
Paired with the UOB One Account is the UOB One credit card!
Dubbed "Singapore's Most Generous Rebate Card", it promises you:
Up to 5% rebate on all spend, up to 3.33% rebate on spend below $2,000
Car owners will LOVE this: Up to 22.9% at Caltex and 24% at SPC!!
ME ME ME I NEED!!
And the card is so cute!!! Check it out:
This is how it will look like if your name is Jaime Wang.
It is a special limited edition SG50 card!! Got five stars!! #simisaialsosg50 #butthisoneiscutelah
To find out more about the privileges and amazing rebates of the UOB One Card, you can click here!
You can get the UOB One account and the UOB One card independently of one another but to get the best interest rates and rebates, it is good to use them both together.
Interested? (lol coz this post is about interest rates ok so that's punny)
It only takes 10 mins to open an UOB One account and to apply for your cute Limited Edition SG50 UOB One card!
I told my mom about the UOB One account and asked her if she thinks I should apply. She immediately said yes!
To put my money where my mouth is (not literally because the UOB One account isn't in my mouth har har har), I have just applied for my UOB One account and UOB One card!!
Yes! I personally believed in it so much that I applied for the 1st bank account I ever opened in my life. (1st one is opened by my mother) LOL I guess my blog post is so convincing it convinced me too. Hahaha!
And yes it only took me 10 mins, super easy wtf!!
I'm looking forward to not being a sucker for shitty interest rates anymore and for a much nicer looking card to use! And all the rebates I have been missing out on!
