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Savings Account with no minimum balance

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popeyefan
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Savings Account with no minimum balance

Post by popeyefan » Thu, 14 Jun 2012 1:17 am

Hi all

I have been hunting to open a no-frills account with as less constraints on it as possible.

I came across e$aver account from Standard Chartered. Pretty neat with absolutely no strings attached (atleast seems so :D)

Anyone using this account or similar type with any other bank? Most of the banks here ask for $500 deposit as well as certain minimum balance to be maintained.

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JR8
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Post by JR8 » Thu, 14 Jun 2012 2:04 am

Why go the trouble for the sake of earning 0.1% interest? Inflation is what, 40-50 times higher than that?


I'd be more curious in looking at the SG stocks that are essentially government agencies, SPH, Starhub, SIA, Singtel. From memory they yield 5-7%, and they're not exactly likely to be allowed to go bankrupt are they...

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Post by popeyefan » Thu, 14 Jun 2012 10:47 am

May be I should have put forward the purpose of the SB account.
Its purely intended for what it stands - savings.

I just have one account and all income/expense are out of that account. Of late, I have been having trouble allocating a proportion of income towards savings. So the best, i thought, was to divert it to another account so that it is kept away and i don't touch it for expenses.

Investing is a discussion for another day :)

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Post by the lynx » Thu, 14 Jun 2012 11:07 am

JR8 wrote:Why go the trouble for the sake of earning 0.1% interest? Inflation is what, 40-50 times higher than that?


I'd be more curious in looking at the SG stocks that are essentially government agencies, SPH, Starhub, SIA, Singtel. From memory they yield 5-7%, and they're not exactly likely to be allowed to go bankrupt are they...
JR8, oh JR8. OP asked for a worm and you gave him a dragon! :o

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Post by the lynx » Thu, 14 Jun 2012 11:12 am

popeyefan wrote:May be I should have put forward the purpose of the SB account.
Its purely intended for what it stands - savings.

I just have one account and all income/expense are out of that account. Of late, I have been having trouble allocating a proportion of income towards savings. So the best, i thought, was to divert it to another account so that it is kept away and i don't touch it for expenses.

Investing is a discussion for another day :)
I know what are you talking about. If you use POSB or DBS, you can create a MySavings account which automatically transfers in a fixed sum on fixed date on monthly basis from your primary account. Interest is not high but definitely higher than regular savings account.

Or you can do a step-up time deposit, something like FD but with regular contribution. I just created a thread asking about it few months ago. Check this thread http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic ... highlight=

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Post by popeyefan » Thu, 14 Jun 2012 11:36 am

the lynx wrote:
I know what are you talking about. If you use POSB or DBS, you can create a MySavings account which automatically transfers in a fixed sum on fixed date on monthly basis from your primary account. Interest is not high but definitely higher than regular savings account.

Or you can do a step-up time deposit, something like FD but with regular contribution. I just created a thread asking about it few months ago. Check this thread http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic ... highlight=
Thanks for the link!

I did explore the option of the Recurring Deposit but the problem is i might not be in a position to pin-down the savings to a certain amount every month consistently. Partly because expenses keep fluctuating and also partly because i might not have too much to put away, anyway.

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Post by zzm9980 » Thu, 14 Jun 2012 12:21 pm

Consider the "Frank" account from OCBC?

http://www.frankbyocbc.com/products_account.html

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Post by JR8 » Thu, 14 Jun 2012 3:18 pm

popeyefan wrote: Investing is a discussion for another day :)
Er, well I consider a savings account an investment, and in SG usually not a very good one. But I can see a bit more clearly now that what you apparently want is simply a way to protect your money from yourself :)

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Post by the lynx » Thu, 14 Jun 2012 5:18 pm

popeyefan wrote:
the lynx wrote:
I know what are you talking about. If you use POSB or DBS, you can create a MySavings account which automatically transfers in a fixed sum on fixed date on monthly basis from your primary account. Interest is not high but definitely higher than regular savings account.

Or you can do a step-up time deposit, something like FD but with regular contribution. I just created a thread asking about it few months ago. Check this thread http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic ... highlight=
Thanks for the link!

I did explore the option of the Recurring Deposit but the problem is i might not be in a position to pin-down the savings to a certain amount every month consistently. Partly because expenses keep fluctuating and also partly because i might not have too much to put away, anyway.
Well the whole idea of putting money aside is to be done with discipline. I know you have your own approach but you put a fixed amount consistently, you will be less prone to spend more and you can save more.

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Post by popeyefan » Thu, 14 Jun 2012 10:38 pm

the lynx wrote:
Well the whole idea of putting money aside is to be done with discipline. I know you have your own approach but you put a fixed amount consistently, you will be less prone to spend more and you can save more.
Agreed. How badly I wish that I could be that disciplined. :P

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Post by popeyefan » Thu, 14 Jun 2012 10:39 pm

JR8 wrote:
Er, well I consider a savings account an investment, and in SG usually not a very good one. But I can see a bit more clearly now that what you apparently want is simply a way to protect your money from yourself :)
True. Can----not put it in a better way lor :)

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Re: Savings Account with no minimum balance

Post by Splatted » Fri, 15 Jun 2012 12:32 am

popeyefan wrote:Hi all

I have been hunting to open a no-frills account with as less constraints on it as possible.

I came across e$aver account from Standard Chartered. Pretty neat with absolutely no strings attached (atleast seems so :D)

Anyone using this account or similar type with any other bank? Most of the banks here ask for $500 deposit as well as certain minimum balance to be maintained.
I don't get it.

If your objective is to save, why does it matter if there's a $500 minimum balance?

If the objective is to simply have an account without a minimum balance, and no account keeping fee so that you can hold an amount under $500, you can find something along those lines with NTUC/fairprice: www.plus.com.sg

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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Fri, 15 Jun 2012 6:57 am

:-k #-o
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Post by the lynx » Fri, 15 Jun 2012 2:39 pm

On another note, I think zzm's suggestion on FRANK account is a good one. In fact I'm gonna look at it myself too :-)

zzm, have you tried it before?

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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Fri, 15 Jun 2012 2:57 pm

My name is Frank. You can put it in my account, no problem. :cool:
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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