Guide to best savings accounts in Singapore [Apr 2024]

The big news on 1 April is that UOB One will be cutting its interest rates from next month onwards.

Shortly after, Standard Chartered also announced that the interest rate on the Bonus Saver account will be reduced.

The consolation is that these revised interest rates will only take effect on 1 May. This meant that the interest rates for savings accounts are still fairly attractive in April.

With the latest updates, many in the Beansprout community asked us where we should park our savings.

This led us to our hunt for the best savings account in Singapore to earn the highest interest rate and maximise our savings.

The Best Savings Accounts in Singapore (April 2024)

Using our Compare Savings Accounts tool, we were able to easily discover what is the interest rate earned on different savings account based on various requirements we can fulfil. 

• The best savings account in Singapore if you have S$100,000 of savings, can credit your monthly salary into your savings account and spend regularly on your credit card is the UOB One Account.
• The best savings account in Singapore if you are also looking to buy an investment or insurance product with the bank in addition to depositing your savings, crediting your salary and spending on credit card is the Standard Chartered Bonus Saver and OCBC 360 account. 
• The best savings account in Singapore for fresh funds promotion is the HSBC Everyday Global Account.

• The best savings account in Singapore without salary credit and jumping through hoops is MariBank.

To uncover which is the best savings account in Singapore, we start by doing a simple comparison of the maximum effective interest rate offered by some of the more popular savings accounts in Singapore. 

If the concept of effective interest rate is new to you, don't fret! We will explain it to you using Primary 5 math. 

The effective interest rate is the total annual interest earned as a percentage of your average balance in the savings account over the year. 

We suggest looking at the effective interest rate rather than the headline interest rate as a bank may offer an interest rate of “up to 8.0% p.a.”, but this 8.0% p.a. rate may be given only for balances above a certain level of deposits, say $50,000.

Comparing the maximum effective interest rate across various bank accounts, Standard Chartered Bonus Saver, OCBC 360, and UOB One all offer a maximum effective interest rate of 5% p.a. and above. 

5 Best Savings Accounts in Singapore

UOB One Account

The UOB One account is the flagship savings account of UOB which allows you make minimal effort to earn the maximum interest rate possible. 

The UOB One account allows you to earn an effective interest rate of up to 5.0% per annum with two simple steps. 

All you have to do is to spend a minimum sum of $500 monthly on eligible UOB credit/debit cards and credit your salary via GIRO.

The UOB One account does not require you to purchase insurance or an investment scheme to unlock the highest tier.

However, do note that the interest rate on the UOB One account will be cut from 1 May 2024. 

Learn more about the UOB One Account here.

OCBC 360 Savings Account

As the flagship savings account of OCBC, the OCBC 360 account allows you to make your savings work harder especially if you are able to 'jump through a few hoops' to earn a higher yield.

The OCBC 360 account offers an attractive interest rate of up to 4.65% per annum (p.a.) on the first S$100,000 of deposits when you credit your salary, save and spend.

You can earn an additional 3.00% a year when you insure and invest with your OCBC 360 account.

Learn more about the OCBC 360 savings account here.

Standard Chartered Bonus Saver Account

The Standard Chartered (Stanchart) Bonus Saver (Bonus$aver) account offers an interest rate of up to 7.88% p.a. 

You will be required to fulfill certain requirements such as spending on credit card, salary credit, and purchase of investment and insurance product before you can earn the interest rate of up to 7.88% p.a.. 

However, we like the Standard Chartered Bonus Saver account as it does not follow a tiered system where you earn a higher interest rates based on the amount of deposits you have.

Like the UOB One account, the interest rate on the Standard Chartered Bonus Saver account will also be revised from 1 May 2024. 

Learn more about the Standard Chartered Bonus Saver Account here.

HSBC Everyday Global Account (EGA)

The HSBC Everyday Global Account (EGA) is offering a promotional interest rate of 3.5% p.a. for fresh funds deposited into the savings account. 

The bonus interest will be paid for the months April 2024 and May 2024. 

In addition, you can earn an additional 1% bonus interest rate’ on the incremental SGD average daily balances under the HSBC Everyday+ Rewards Programme.

Learn more about the HSBC Everyday Global Account here.

MariBank Account

Owned by Shopee’s parent Sea Group Ltd, MariBank has been progressively rolling out its digital banking services since the third quarter of 2022.

MariBank has announced that it will be extending its promotional interest rate on its savings account of 2.88% per annum (p.a.). until 30 June 2024.

You will be able to earn this interest rate with no minimum deposit required, no salary crediting, and no minimum spending necessary.

The interest earnings are credited to your account daily, calculated based on the previous day’s balance.

Learn more about the MariBank Savings Account here.

Finding the best savings accounts in Singapore using Beansprout’s Compare Savings Accounts Tool

Do the higher maximum effective interest rates offered make these the best savings accounts in Singapore?

The short answer is – it depends. 

Many of these savings accounts require you to fulfil various criteria, such as depositing your salary and spending on credit cards, to be able to earn a higher tier of interest rates. 

Hence, the best savings account would depend on whether you are able to fulfil these criteria.

To help you find out which is the best savings account based on your ability to meet these requirements, we have come up with the Compare Savings Accounts Tool.

Let us look at a few examples to see how different individuals would be able to find the best savings accounts with the highest interest rate using the tool.

Best savings account in Singapore for an individual who has $100k of savings, credits salary, and spends on credit card

If you have S$100,000 of savings, can credit your monthly salary into your savings account, and spends regularly on your credit card, then the best savings account for you might be the UOB One Account.

You would be able to earn an effective interest rate of 5.0% with the UOB One Account if you are able to meet these requirements.

This would translate to an annual interest earned of about S$5,000, or close to S$425 per month on your S$100,000 of savings!

Best savings account in Singapore that is fuss-free and does not require salary deposit

If you have S$100,000 of savings, and are looking for a fuss-free account that does not require any salary deposit or credit card spending, then the best savings account might be the HSBC everyday Global Account, which offers an interest rate of 3.50% p.a. for April and May when you top up with fresh funds  

MariBank has also extended its promotional interest rate of 2.88% until 30 June 2024.

Best savings account in Singapore for an individual who has S$75k of savings, credits his salary, and purchases investment/insurance products

If you are also looking to buy an investment or insurance product with the bank in addition to depositing S$75,000 of savings, crediting your salary and spending on credit card, the good news is that you would be able to earn an even higher interest rate on your savings account!

The Stanchart Bonus Saver account will offer you an interest rate of 7.13% p.a., while the OCBC 360 account will offer you an interest rate of 6.25% p.a.!

Are there priority banking accounts that offer a higher interest rates on savings accounts?

Some banks may offer priority banking customers a higher interest rate for savings accounts.

For example, the HSBC Everyday Global Account (EGA) offers a higher interest rate of 3.6% p.a. for a top-up amount of above S$500,000. 

Learn more about the best priority banking accounts here. 

What would Beansprout do?

With the many savings accounts offered by Singapore banks in 2024, it might be hard to find the best savings account to earn the highest interest rate.

Using our Compare Savings Accounts tool, we were able to easily discover what is the interest rate earned on different savings account based on various requirements we can fulfil. 

If you have S$100,000 of savings, can credit your monthly salary into your savings account, and spends regularly on your credit card, then the best savings account for you might be the UOB One Account.

If you are also looking to buy an investment or insurance product with the bank in addition to depositing S$75,000 of savings, crediting your salary and spending on credit card, then the best savings account for you might be the Standard Chartered Bonus Saver or OCBC 360 account. 

If you are looking for a promotional interest rate for top-up of fresh funds, then the savings account to consider is the HSBC Everyday Global Account (EGA).

Amongst the digital banks, MariBank is offering the highest  interest rate with a promotional rate of 2.88% per annum.

If you would like to reduce the worry of losing your hard earned savings to scammers, then it might be worthwhile considering a "money lock" account which allow you to only access your deposits in person. 

If you are open to locking in your savings, check out our guide to best fixed deposit rates in Singapore. 

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