On deposit accounts

In my previous post I blogged about the amazingly "high" interest rates of POSB savings account, and in this post I shall blog about the alternatives.

Here's a site that I found: Ask Dr Money; and it compares the various deposit accounts out there in the Singapore market, weighing their pros and cons, ranking them.

I will list a few of the outstanding/interesting ones here....

• Your standard savings account(POSB/DBS): 0.25% p.a. credited annually
• Standard Chartered e$aver/e$saver kids: 1.88% p.a. 2.45% p.a. for deposit above $50,000, no lock in period, no fees, no minimum balance. $5 surcharge for counter withdrawals
• Maybank Isavvy: 2.88%, 1 yr lock in $25,000 minimum
• Fundsupermart: 2.45% (The rate is actually calculated daily from the Singapore interbank lending rate minus 0.5%, minus 0.25% annual management fees, as it is actually a fund buying portal, so this will be the first to receive high interest rates if the interbank rates move up) This one is interesting
  
• Most of the banks' fixed deposits are at around 2.8% but this is for large sums like minimum 20k- 50k
  

In my opinion, for a poor guy like me, the Standard Chartered e$aver is the way to go, since it has much higher rates than even fixed deposits for small sums), its flexible with no conditions attached, the internet banking only facility is of no trouble to me. Now that there's the kids e$aver even those below 21 can have an account, provided you have a parent with you.

The bottom line, do not let your $$ rot in your POSB saving accounts, stash those savings somewhere else and leave enough for your normal usage and to maintain the minimum balance needed before the surcharge kicks in. Your $$$ can't even catch up with inflation with a measly 0.25%