Banking & Credit facilities comparison OCBC & DBS

[Wd40]

the proposed SG savings bons? what do you guys think?

DBS has this multiplier account:

http://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/deposits ... multiplier

If your salary credited +Credit card spend(Total cash flow) > $7500 you get 1% interest on idle money in your savings account for amounts upto $50000. If your total cash flow is above $20,000 you get 2% interest.

OCBC is even better, you can earn upto 3%

http://blog.moneysmart.sg/saving/dbs-vs ... r-loyalty/

http://www.ocbc.com.sg/personal-banking ... count.html

[JR8]

Gimmicks gimmicks! Find yourself some proper investments.

[maneo]

DBS has this multiplier account:

http://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/deposits ... multiplier

If your salary credited +Credit card spend(Total cash flow) > $7500 you get 1% interest on idle money in your savings account for amounts upto $50000. If your total cash flow is above $20,000 you get 2% interest.

OCBC is even better, you can earn upto 3%

http://blog.moneysmart.sg/saving/dbs-vs ... r-loyalty/

http://www.ocbc.com.sg/personal-banking ... count.html

Yes, the OCBC 360 account is better, and much less hassle to set-up.
If you need a current account anyway for depositing pay, paying bills and linking to a credit card, this works out well.

However, you have to create the GIRO links for paying the credit cards and other bills.
It's not automatically set-up when you create the account.

[JR8]

'Earning' by spending on a credit card

Lol....!

[sundaymorningstaple]

'Earning' by spending on a credit card

Lol....!

I quite agree! What are they thinking!

But, if they are spending wisely, and not rolling over balances, they very well could be earning by spending if they were going to spend that money on those services/items anyway. Obviously it depends on whether or not the prices are inflated before making credit card purchases, innit.

[x9200]

I have this Citi Dividend card I use for most of monthly payments. I am not much into this stuff so I am not going to tell some exact numbers but with ca 2k of spendings I have always some money credited back to the account plus some to be claimed at the payment time (e.g. in CS). I believe monthly it is ca $100.

[Brah]

DBS has this multiplier account:

http://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/deposits ... multiplier

If your salary credited +Credit card spend(Total cash flow) > $7500 you get 1% interest on idle money in your savings account for amounts upto $50000. If your total cash flow is above $20,000 you get 2% interest.

OCBC is even better, you can earn upto 3%

http://blog.moneysmart.sg/saving/dbs-vs ... r-loyalty/

http://www.ocbc.com.sg/personal-banking ... count.html

Yes, the OCBC 360 account is better, and much less hassle to set-up.
If you need a current account anyway for depositing pay, paying bills and linking to a credit card, this works out well.

However, you have to create the GIRO links for paying the credit cards and other bills.
It's not automatically set-up when you create the account.

Why is one more or less a hassle? Assuming you already have an account with that bank.

[Wd40]

OCBC gives you check book with their 360 account but DBS doesn't give along its money multiplier account. You need to apply for a separate account and that has a $2 fees every month as well as a its own min balance requirement. This pissed me off because I got to know about it only after I applied for the dbs account online. Now once 6 months are up, I will switch to ocbc.

Not that I keep large balances in SG accounts, I actually transfer money to India whenever a chunk of $10k gets accumulated and that earns me 9% fixed interest there.

[Brah]

Then there was this article on the same blog
http://blog.moneysmart.sg/saving/ocbc-3 ... multiplier

OCBC gives you check book with their 360 account but DBS doesn't give along its money multiplier account. You need to apply for a separate account and that has a $2 fees every month as well as a its own min balance requirement. This pissed me off because I got to know about it only after I applied for the dbs account online. Now once 6 months are up, I will switch to ocbc.

Not that I keep large balances in SG accounts, I actually transfer money to India whenever a chunk of $10k gets accumulated and that earns me 9% fixed interest there.

On your last point, what is the cost and mechanism for those transfers?

I have been reviewing the options, DBS has a number of accounts with lower balances (from $3000 down to $500) and multi-currency options. Have not made a move yet, and one has to wonder how DBS will respond.

At this point I am on the fence but about to make a change. Including credit cards - the OCBC one seems good.

Edit: It seems (so far, need to read more on this) that if you don't have a home loan, OCBC is the more attractive option.

I have never changed banks before, and not so sure I like to do that, but it is an idea I am considering. Then there is the option of having two banks (though only one source of income).

[maneo]

DBS has this multiplier account:

http://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/deposits ... multiplier

If your salary credited +Credit card spend(Total cash flow) > $7500 you get 1% interest on idle money in your savings account for amounts upto $50000. If your total cash flow is above $20,000 you get 2% interest.

OCBC is even better, you can earn upto 3%

http://blog.moneysmart.sg/saving/dbs-vs ... r-loyalty/

http://www.ocbc.com.sg/personal-banking ... count.html

Yes, the OCBC 360 account is better, and much less hassle to set-up.
If you need a current account anyway for depositing pay, paying bills and linking to a credit card, this works out well.

However, you have to create the GIRO links for paying the credit cards and other bills.
It's not automatically set-up when you create the account.

Why is one more or less a hassle? Assuming you already have an account with that bank.

This is what you discover when you sit down in front of the customer "service" representative.
You find out what you can do and what you can't, what you have to do for deposits and payments to be eligible and what they don't seem able to do, even though there's no logical rationale.
Hassle was far worse for the bank I had the account with than the one I didn't.
It was much easier to set up a new account in the other bank.

DBS still seems to stand for Dismal Banking Service.
Will see how long OCBC will stay on my good side.

[Brah]

Interesting, I find most DBS service to be quite good, but I don't have experience with OCBC as a benchmark.

[Wd40]

Then there was this article on the same blog
http://blog.moneysmart.sg/saving/ocbc-3 ... multiplier

OCBC gives you check book with their 360 account but DBS doesn't give along its money multiplier account. You need to apply for a separate account and that has a $2 fees every month as well as a its own min balance requirement. This pissed me off because I got to know about it only after I applied for the dbs account online. Now once 6 months are up, I will switch to ocbc.

Not that I keep large balances in SG accounts, I actually transfer money to India whenever a chunk of $10k gets accumulated and that earns me 9% fixed interest there.

On your last point, what is the cost and mechanism for those transfers?

I have been reviewing the options, DBS has a number of accounts with lower balances (from $3000 down to $500) and multi-currency options. Have not made a move yet, and one has to wonder how DBS will respond.

At this point I am on the fence but about to make a change. Including credit cards - the OCBC one seems good.

Edit: It seems (so far, need to read more on this) that if you don't have a home loan, OCBC is the more attractive option.

I have never changed banks before, and not so sure I like to do that, but it is an idea I am considering. Then there is the option of having two banks (though only one source of income).

DBS is the best Asian bank, so if you are an Indian, a Filipino or an Indonesian, then DBS has the best remittance service to Asia.I use DBS India remit. INR, IDR and the peso are like not fully convertible currencies so its better to do it with banks like DBS. The cost is about 1%. But if you are transferring one of the G8 currencies, I think you are better off with 3rd party FX providers.

Also their ATM network is their strongest point.

Other then these factors, I think you are better off with OCBC. Their 360 account waives off the min balance requirement for 1 year and like I said before they give you a cheque book. DBS seems to be the only bank that wants you to apply for a separate account for a cheque book.

So my strategy is to have a basic posb e-savings account with 500$ min balance and then use OCBC 360 account as my checking account and also where I will have my salary credited and keep most of my balance

[maneo]

Then there was this article on the same blog
http://blog.moneysmart.sg/saving/ocbc-3 ... multiplier

. . .

I have been reviewing the options, DBS has a number of accounts with lower balances (from $3000 down to $500) and multi-currency options. Have not made a move yet, and one has to wonder how DBS will respond.

At this point I am on the fence but about to make a change. Including credit cards - the OCBC one seems good.

Edit: It seems (so far, need to read more on this) that if you don't have a home loan, OCBC is the more attractive option.

I have never changed banks before, and not so sure I like to do that, but it is an idea I am considering. Then there is the option of having two banks (though only one source of income).

I actually got a home loan with OCBC before opening the 360 account.
They had a very creative package that somehow allowed us to meet the TDSR constraint.

Still have the basic DBS account.
Just switched the direct payment for pay and several GIRO bill payments to the OCBC account or OCBC card.

[maneo]

Interesting, I find most DBS service to be quite good, but I don't have experience with OCBC as a benchmark.

DBS counter service is polite and capable for basic transactions.
Anything out of the ordinary (e.g. depositing a GBP cheque, depositing a cheque older than 6 months even though it has no explicit validity, etc.) becomes patience testing hassle.

However, they are not the worst.
Standard Chartered, which used to be much better, has steadily declined to become even worse, finding new ways to create customer frustration every few months.

[x9200]

An example of the DBS approach. I had a cc and a loan line with them. I asked them to redistribute the credit limit so I had less for the cc and more for the loan. The answer: not possible. So I simply closed the cc account and opened it with another bank. The remaining loan limit was later adjusted without any problem to the level I earlier requested.

Ocbc used to have IMHO one of the best customer services in SIngapore but its quality declined rather badly. E.g. it may take days now to get any response via their internal secure maibox. The only thing I still like about ocbc at this point is that many of their online transactions are instant. For example, if I pay my ocbc cc from my ocbc account it is cleared immediately. This is not the case for dbs or citi and I see no other reason for this but keeping my money at some intermediate bank account so it works for them and not for me.