Savings Accounts
1. Standard Chartered BonusSaver Account
The main draw of this account is that it gives 1.88% p.a. interest on your checking account, on a monthly basis provided you hit the minimum monthly spend of $500 using the linked debit or credit card. Some of the items that can be paid by Credit cards includes telco bills, ez-link card via ez-reload, groceries at NTUC etc.
Even if you can hit the minimum spend say every alternate months only, it still translates to a respectable 0.94% interest on your checking account. The amount that can earned this 1.88% is capped at $25,000, which is roughly six month worth of salary for the average income earner, so no reason you shouldn't be earning close to $40 per month if you hit the monthly $500 spend. Look at it from another perspective, the $40 translates to about 7.8% cashback on your $500 spending, and no other credit cards in the market can beat this.
April '14 Update: The OCBC 360 Savings account beats the BonusSaver account at time of update.
2. CIMB Starsaver account
This account gives 0.8% p.a. on the balance in your account, credited monthly. The pre-requisite is that you maintain a $100 incremental value to your account during that month. You can also deposit a one lump sum of say $10,000 and for the next 100 months the 0.8% interest will automatically be applicable.
The ATM card that comes with the account also allows free ATM withdrawals worldwide.
Credit Cards
1. Grocery Shopping
If you do shop at NTUC, Cold Storage, Sheng Shiong, the Maybank Friends & Family card is the best as it gives you 5% cashback for the above merchants (and a few others), credited within the next statement month, and has no minimum spending requirement. As you might have notice NTUC would promote its Plus Visa card which gives 4% rebate, but comes with its own set of Terms and Conditions which I don't bother to read through all. This card beats it hands down. As an added bonus, it has 0.5% cashback on all other spending.
2. Travel
Earning Miles- The ANZ Travel card is the best if you are buying tickets directly from airline website, awarding 2.8 miles for every dollar spend. If you hit $1500 within a 30 day period,you can get a redeem a free ride to the airport as well. Be aware of 2.5% extra charge if the website is overseas though, due to dynamic currency conversion. ANZ has one of the highest DCC charges. Maybank Travel Horizon card gives you 2 miles for every dollar spend overseas, with
Feb '14 update: Maybank will start charging miles conversion.
Free Travel Insurance- The Visa Signature cards and World Mastercards from various banks gives you free travel insurance if the full air tickets or travel package are bought using the respective cards.
Airport Lounge access- You can get up to 13 lounge access at airports, here's how.
Priority Pass- Citibank PremierMiles, ANZ Travel Card, DBS Altitude Visa are some of the cards that makes you eligible for a Priority Pass membership. The card gives you 2 access to airport lounges worldwide within the 1 year membership, and yes 3 cards gives you 6 access, so stagger the application of the cards.
Feb '14 update: ANZ no longer comes with Priority Pass, but gives cardholders free unlimited access to "Veloce Lounges" worldwide.
ANZ Travel Card gives you 2 SATS lounge access at Changi Airport. Amex Krisflyer Ascend gives you another 4 entries to SATS lounges and other limited lounges worldwide.
Diners club card gives you 1 entry to lounges worldwide
