Everyone needs a high interest savings account in their lives. These accounts let you earn a bit of interest on your spare cash—what’s not to like about that? The hard part is finding an account that actually pays a decent interest rate, as many accounts make you jump through lots of hoops in order to get their maximum interest rates.
The Maybank SaveUp savings account is lesser known than the popular Maybank Privilege Plus and Maybank iSavvy savings accounts. But that doesn’t mean it should be overlooked, as their advertised highest tier of interest is a whopping 3%.
So, can SaveUp measure up to the other Maybanks savings accounts? Let’s find out which is the best of all.
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1. Maybank Savings Accounts
Maybank is a Malaysian bank with a strong presence in Southeast Asia. They have over 2,600 branches and offices in 18 countries. In Singapore, they have 18 branches and 11 ATM machines. They’ve also got a securities and investment banking arm, Maybank Investment Banking Group.
There are 7 Maybank savings accounts open to customers in Singapore:
- Maybank Passbook Savings Account
- Maybank SaveUp Account
- Maybank Privilege Plus Savings Accounts
- Maybank iSavvy Savings Account
- Maybank iSavvy Savings Plus Account
- Maybank Youngstarz Savings Account
- Maybank Prestige Savings Account (exclusive to Maybank Premier clients only)
2. Maybank Savings Account: Minimum Balance
The interest rate is what makes us sit up and take notice. But interest rate isn’t the only thing you need to take into account when selecting an account—minimum deposit is also a very important factor.
Basically, you need to make sure you have enough cash to avoid fall-below fees. You should also consider the monthly minimum balance, if any, and how much you will need to pay in fees if you overspend one month and your balance falls below the minimum monthly balance.
The good news is that Maybank’s minimum deposit and minimum balance requirements are usually relatively low.
| Maybank Savings Account | Minimum Deposit | Minimum Balance |
| Maybank Passbook Savings Account | $500 or $1,000 | $1,000 |
| Maybank SaveUp Savings Account | $500 | $1,000 |
| Maybank iSavvy Savings Account | $500 | – |
| Maybank iSavvy savings Plus Account | $500 | $500 |
| Maybank Privilege Plus Savings Account (above age 50) | $500 or $1,000 | $1,000 |
| Maybank Youngstarz Savings Account (under age 16) | $10 | – |
As you can see, the highest minimum balance to maintain is imposed by Maybank Passbook Savings Account, the popular Maybank Privilege Plus Savings Account, which is for seniors aged above 50, and the Maybank SaveUp Account. Makes sense, as these are the accounts paying out relatively high interest.
Also worthy of note is that the Maybank iSavvy Savings Plus account, which offers up to 1.56% p.a. interest, requires a $500 minimum balance, which isn’t too difficult to achieve.
3. Maybank SaveUp Account
Here are the main eligibility requirements and fees you need to take note of when registering for the Maybank SaveUp Account.
| Maybank SaveUp Savings Account | Requirements |
| Minimum Age | 16 years old |
| Initial Deposit | $500 for Singaporeans & PRs, $1,000 for foreigners |
| Minimum average daily balance | $1,000 |
| Fall Below Fee | $2 per month, $0 if below 25 years old |
As you can see, for those aged 25 and above, the fall below fee is $2 per month if your average daily balance falls below $1,000. So, make sure you don’t withdraw too much.
4. Maybank SaveUp Account: Interest Rate
This is the part we’ve all been waiting for—just how much interest does the SaveUp Account really pay?
Here’s how their base interest rate payout structure works:
| Amount | Interest rate (p.a.) |
| First $3,000 | 0.15% |
| Next $47,000 | 0.25% |
| Remaining balance above $50,000 | 0.25% |
These are the base interest rates, meaning everyone automatically gets them.
Through the Maybank SaveUp programme, you also have the chance to earn bonus interest on your savings (available only for customers aged 18 and above).
Here’s how it works. When you sign up for one or more Maybank qualifying products (more on that later), you get the following bonus interest on the first $50,000 in your account, on top of your base interest rate.
| Number of Maybank qualifying products | Bonus interest (p.a.) |
| 1 | 0.1% |
| 2 | 0.7% |
| 3 | 2.75% |
Based on the above, assuming you sign up for three qualifying products, you can get a total of 2.9% interest on your first $3,000, and 3% on balance amounts above $3,000 and up to $50,000.
5. How does the Maybank SaveUp Account and SaveUp Programme work?
The Maybank SaveUp Account pays out a base interest rate (detailed in the previous section) to all account holders.
In order to earn bonus interest through the SaveUp Programme, you must sign up for one or more of the bank’s qualifying products. This is similar to the tiered interest offered by savings accounts such as DBS Multiplier and OCBC 360.
Here are the qualifying products:
| Maybank products | Requirements | Rewards period |
| Education loan | Minimum loan amount of $10,000 per loan account | 12 months |
| Home renovation loan | Minimum loan amount of $10,000 per loan account | 12 months |
| Home loan except equity loans | Minimum loan amount of $200,000 per loan account | 12 months |
| Car loan | Minimum loan amount of $35,000 per loan account | 12 months |
| Etiqa life insurance | Minimum aggregated annual premium of $5,000 | 12 months |
| Unit trust | Minimum lump sum cash investment of $25,000 or equivalent | 12 months |
| Structure deposits | Minimum investment amount of $30,000 or equivalent | 3 months |
| Platinum Visa Card and/or Horizon Visa Signature Card | Minimum retail spending of $500 per calendar month using one card or both cards combined | 1 month |
| GIRO and/or salary credit | GIRO: Minimum aggregate debit amount of $300 per month
Salary: Minimum of $2,000 per month |
1 month |
The troublesome thing is that for most of the qualifying products, the period during which you receive bonus interest is not unlimited. So, if you sign up for an education loan, it will only contribute to 12 months’ worth of bonus interest.
In reality, most people will only be able to consistently satisfy one or two of the qualifying product requirements—salary crediting and perhaps one loan or credit card use. That means that realistically speaking, you will earn an interest rate of about 0.25% to 0.8% on your first $3,000 and 0.5% to 0.95% on your balance above $3,000 and under $50,000.
How does this compare to the other high interest savings accounts in Singapore? Turns out, this ballpark figure of 0.25% to 0.95% is not that bad. Assuming you manage to hit 0.95%, you’re actually getting more than you would from most other banks.
6. Maybank SaveUp vs DBS Multiplier vs OCBC 360 savings accounts
Let’s compare the Maybank SaveUp Account with DBS Multiplier and OCBC 360 savings accounts, which are two of the most popular high interest savings accounts on the market.
| Maybank SaveUp | DBS Multiplier | OCBC 360 | |
| Minimum initial deposit | $500 | $1,000 | $1,000 |
| Minimum average daily balance | $1,000 | $3,000 | $3,000 |
| Fall below fee | $2 (waived for those under 25) | $5 (waived for those under 29) | $2 (waived for first year) |
| Interest rate | 0.15% to 3% | 0.05% to 3% | 0.05% to 2.38% |
As you can see, Maybank SaveUp is a bit more forgiving when it comes to the initial deposit and the average daily balance.
In terms of how to earn bonus interest, SaveUp is also a bit less structured in that you can choose any one to three qualifying products, including crediting of income or GIRO crediting.
DBS Multiplier, on the other hand, makes it compulsory to credit your salary or dividends or use SGFinDex in order to earn any bonus interest at all. Once you’ve done that, you can get your bonus interest a boost through credit card spending, buying insurance, investing or taking up a home loan. Also, your total transaction amount from all the approved products matters, while it does not for SaveUp so long as you satisfy the minimum requirements.
- Base Interest Rate p.a.
- 0.05%
- Max. Interest Rate p.a.
- 3.8%
- Min. Balance
- S$3,000
OCBC 360 works more like Maybank SaveUp in that there are five types of activities you can fulfil in order to access the three tiers of bonus interest, including crediting salary, increasing your account balance by at least $500 from the previous month, buying insurance, investing or maintaining a daily balance of at least $200,000.
- Base Interest Rate p.a.
- 0.05%
- Max. Interest Rate p.a.
- 4.40%
- Min. Balance
- S$3,000
Maybank SaveUp is suitable for those who do not wish to credit their salary. For instance, if you are self-employed you might need to transfer money via GIRO instead of crediting your salary. It’s also a great choice for those who intend to take out a loan soon, as they might be able to reach the top tier of bonus interest.
The number of qualifying products offered by SaveUp is greater than those offered by DBS Multiplier or OCBC 360 savings accounts, so have a look and see if you’ll be able to hit that top tier of interest.
Still looking for the best savings account in Singapore? Read more here!