One of the Best Interest Rates in Town (A Realistic 4.65% p.a.)? A Closer Look at the Updated OCBC 360 Account & How Straightforward It Is

This post was written in collaboration with OCBC. While we are financially compensated by them, we nonetheless strive to maintain our editorial integrity and review products with the same objective lens. We are committed to providing the best information in order for you to make personal financial decisions with confidence. You can view our Editorial Guidelines here.

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Here at MoneySmart, we’re no stranger to savings accounts with high bonus interest rates. In fact, you could even say we’re somewhat obsessed with high interest savings accounts. After all, earning juicy interest on your cash savings is one of the most passive forms of income you can get.

In the current high interest environment, banks are hiking up their interest rates, and it could be one of the best times to strategically shift your cash to an account that offers a more attractive rate.

 

Savings accounts with high bonus interest — realistic or not?

We can forgive you if you’re suspiciously wondering how much bonus interest you can actually earn from high interest savings accounts. After all, one of the biggest concerns people have about high bonus interest savings accounts is that you are usually required to jump through hoops and complete multiple tasks to earn it. You might also need to do specific things to climb up certain tiers in order to earn the maximum bonus interest.

We’re usually okay with completing basic tasks like crediting salary or spending on a designated credit card. But let’s be honest, most of us are just unable to or cannot be bothered to go beyond that to fulfil more “troublesome” requirements that we may not even need at the moment, like buying insurance, investing in the bank’s products and so on.

Thus, in reality we’re likely to end up earning half or less of the maximum interest rate that is being advertised.

You won’t have to worry about that with the OCBC 360 Account, which has updated its interest rates and made it genuinely straightforward to earn up to 4.65% p.a. and more on your first S$100,000. All you have to do is credit your salary, save and spend — and if you’re willing to do more, your interest rate rises even further to a maximum of 7.65% p.a.

The beauty of the OCBC 360 Account is that we can pick and choose what bonus interest works for us, which enables us to take the steps to create a savings account based on what we want — the bank does not force us to credit our salary, spend on our credit card and so on.

For example, even if you don’t credit your salary to the OCBC 360 Account, you can still fulfil the spend, invest and save criteria to get attractive interest rates. Or if you happen not to spend S$500 for the month, you will still get to enjoy your salary and save bonus.

By the way, OCBC is currently the only bank that rewards its customers for saving. Nice to have a bank that encourages us to consistently increase our bank balance!

Let’s take a closer look at how you can earn that sweet, sweet bonus interest on your savings account.

 

OCBC 360 Account: Achieving up to 4.65% p.a. bonus interest is straightforward

No, you’re not dreaming! OCBC really is doling out up to 4.65% p.a. worth of interest. And best of all, the bonus interest is simple and straightforward to earn.

When you credit your salary, save and spend, you’re eligible for up to 4.65% interest p.a. You can then give your interest an even bigger boost by fulfilling other simple steps.

One note about EIR, or Effective Interest Rate. This is similar to buying a bag of potatoes that shows the actual weight of the potatoes themselves, instead of the weight of the potatoes AND the bag, which could be an inflated figure if the bag itself is very heavy.

Here’s how to earn up to 4.65% p.a. on your first S$100,000:

Account Balance	Salary	Save	Spend
	Credit your salary of at least S$1,800 through GIRO	Increase your average daily balance by at least S$500 monthly	Charge at least S$500 to selected OCBC Credit Cards each month
First S$75,000	2%	1.2%	0.6%
Next S$25,000	4%	2.4%
EIR*	2.5%	1.5%	0.6%

*For maximum EIR illustration purposes for your first S$100,000

The OCBC 360 Account also earns a base interest of 0.05% p.a.

Here are the eligible credit cards:

• OCBC 365 Credit Card
• OCBC NXT Credit Card
• OCBC 90°N Mastercard
• OCBC 90°N Visa Card
• OCBC Titanium Rewards Credit Card

As you can see, the requirements are straightforward to fulfil. Let’s see how a fresh grad (let’s call her Cheryl) can get the bonus interest on her OCBC 360 Account easily:

• 24-year-old Cheryl is earning $3,000 at her first job. Every month, she credits her take-home pay (after CPF deductions) of $2,400 to her OCBC 360 Account.
• Being a sensible person, she aims to save at least $500 every month. In reality, however, Cheryl is able to save much more as she is still living with her parents. She actually spends an average of only $1,200 per month, meaning her account balance rises by $1,200 monthly ($2,400 minus $1,200 = $1,200).
• She charges as many of her purchases as possible to the OCBC 365 Credit Card, spending about $700 or $800 on the card every month.

With her current bank balance of S$20,000, Cheryl is earning 2% p.a. (salary), 1.2% p.a. (save), 0.6% p.a. (spend) and 0.05% p.a. (base interest) to get 3.85% p.a. on her savings. By continuing to be diligent about her savings and increasing her bank balance to over $75,000, she can attain up to 4.65% p.a. interest on her savings.

As you can see, many fresh grads like Cheryl will be able to easily fulfil the OCBC 360 Account’s requirements in order to earn interest of up to 4.65% p.a.

How do I change my salary crediting account? Crediting salary to your account is extremely easy. All you have to do is inform your employer’s HR department of your new account number. You only need to do it once. Once they have updated your account information, your salary should henceforth be automatically credited to your OCBC 360 Account. Note that when your employer credits your salary each month, it should be done via GIRO. You’ll know they are doing this when monthly transfers from your company are marked “GIRO- SALARY”.

 

OCBC 360 Account: Up the ante to get up to 7.65% p.a. bonus interest

If you want to earn EVEN MORE interest, here’s how to get up to 7.65% p.a. bonus interest:

Account Balance	Insure	Invest
	Purchase an eligible insurance product from OCBC	Purchase an eligible investment product from OCBC
First S$75,000	1.2%	1.2%
Next S$25,000	2.4%	2.4%
EIR*	1.5%	1.5%

*For maximum EIR illustration purposes for your first S$100,000 / This bonus interest is accorded for 12 months after the effective date of purchase.

 

Here are the eligible insurance products:

Eligible insurance products for OCBC 360 Account bonus interest	Minimum qualifying amount
Regular Premium: Protection/Legacy	S$2,000
Regular Premium: Endowment/Retirement	S$4,000
Single Premium Insurance	S$20,000

 

And here are the eligible investment products:

Eligible investment products for OCBC 360 Account bonus interest	Minimum qualifying amount
Unit Trusts	S$20,000
Structured Deposits	S$20,000
Bonds and structured products	S$200,000

 

A relatively young or mid-career working adult might be able to fulfil all three criteria to clinch a truly impressive interest rate. Let’s see how a 38-year-old web developer (let’s call him Sean), achieves this:

• Sean earns $7,000 a month and has been saving assiduously since he started working 12 years ago. He now has a nice investment portfolio as well as over $100,000 of cash savings. He decides to deposit his cash savings into the OCBC 360 Account for the bonus interest.
• Next, Sean decides to buy a retirement plan which could give him an additional source of retirement income when he decides to stop working.
• He also decides to invest in $20,000 worth of unit trusts, since he wants to add some relatively low risk assets to his investment portfolio in the current turbulent market.

Sean thus gets to beef up his investment portfolio and retirement-readiness, while at the same time boosting his interest rate to up to 7.65% p.a.

 

One of the best interest rates in town?

The OCBC 360 Account makes it straightforward to earn interest of up to 4.65% p.a. in three simple steps: credit salary, save and spend!

For those willing to go the extra mile and invest, insure and grow a sizeable account balance, the bonus interest goes up to 7.65% p.a.

If you’ve previously shied away from high interest accounts for fear that the interest rates would be difficult to attain, the OCBC 360 Account is ideal for you thanks to how simple it is to earn their attractive interest rates.

A decent interest can really grow your cash savings in a big way. Let’s see how much you can earn on your first S$100,000 worth of cash savings, depending on which requirements you fulfil.

OCBC 360 Account requirements fulfilled	Maximum Effective Interest Rate (EIR) per year
Salary + Save	4.05%
Salary + Save + Spend	4.65%
Salary + Save + Spend + Insure / Invest	6.15%
Salary + Save + Spend + Insure + invest	7.65%

As you can see, the bonus interest rate is pretty achievable, and if you’re willing to put in a bit more effort, you can really raise your bonus interest rate even more.

CNY Exclusive Interest Rate Enjoy more prosperity with OCBC! From now till 28 February 2023, get an extra 2.00% p.a. on your first S$100,000 when you open a new 360 Account and sign up for an OCBC 365 Credit Card. Promotion Terms & Conditions apply. Fees and charges apply.

Find out more and start earning attractive bonus interest rates the straightforward way with the OCBC 360 Account.

Singapore dollar deposits of non-bank depositors and monies and deposits denominated in Singapore dollars under the Supplementary Retirement Scheme are insured by the Singapore Deposit Insurance Corporation, for up to S$75,000 in aggregate per depositor per Scheme member by law. Monies and deposits denominated in Singapore dollars under the CPF Investment Scheme and CPF Retirement Sum Scheme are aggregated and separately insured up to S$75,000 for each depositor per Scheme member. Foreign currency deposits, dual currency investments, structured deposits and other investment products are not insured.

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