Guide to best savings accounts with highest interest rate in Singapore [September 2023]

What happened?

Many in the Beansprout community were excited to hear that MariBank has raised the interest rate on its Mari Savings Account to 2.88%. 

Finally, it would seem like banks in Singapore are starting to raise the interest rates on their savings accounts in September 2023, after cuts in the previous months. 

This led many to ask which is the best savings account in Singapore in 2023.

Thankfully, we were able to find a few a high yield savings accounts that offer an attractive interest rate on our savings.

Read on to discover which savings account in Singapore offers the highest interest rate in September 2023 and start maximizing your savings today!

Comparing Interest Rates Across Best Savings Accounts in Singapore 

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. 

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 should look 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.

For example, if you have deposits of S$70,000, you may be earning a lower interest rate for deposits of below $50,000. The higher interest rate of 8.0% is applied only to the $20,000 of deposits above $50,000.

Your total interest earned is calculated by adding the interest received across different tiers. The effective interest rate is the average interest rate you would get by dividing the total interest earned by your average balances.

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. 

Finding the best savings accounts in Singapore using Beansprout’s Interest Maximiser 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 Interest Maximiser 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 a monthly 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 for an individual who has S$100k of savings and wants a fuss-free savings account

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 CIMB FastSaver Account. 

CIMB is also running a promotion where new customers of the CIMB FastSaver Account or existing customers with fresh funds will be able to earn promotional interest rate of 3.50% p.a. for six months.

The Maybank iSAVvy account is also offering a promotional interest rate of 3.50% per annum for the months of August and September. 

Unfortunately, GXS has now brought down the interest rate on its Savings Pocket to 2.68% from 3.48% previously. 

However, MariBank is offering a promotional interest rate of 2.88% until 31 December 2023.

Best savings account in Singapore for an individual who has S$75k of savings and wants a fuss-free account

If you are looking for a fuss-free account but would prefer to keep your deposits in your savings account to within S$75,000 to make sure that all your hard-earned money is protected under the Deposit Insurance Scheme, then the savings account to consider is once again the CIMB FastSaver Account. 

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 any ongoing credit card promos with the best savings account?

Sign up for a CIMB credit card to receive a Apple iPad 9th Gen 10.2" Wifi 64GB (worth S$503.65) or S$320 cash via PayNow. Find out more about the promo here. 

Sign up for a OCBC credit card to receive an Apple iPad 9th Gen 10.2 Wifi 64GB (worth S$503.65), or an Apple Bundle [AirPods Pro (Generation 2) + MagSafe Charger] (worth S$421.90), or S$350 eCapitaVoucher or S$250 Cash via PayNow. Find out more about the promo here. 

What would Beansprout do?

With the many savings accounts offered by Singapore banks in 2023, it might be hard to find the best savings account to earn the highest interest rate.

Using our interest maximiser tool, we were able to easily discover what is the interest rate earned on different savings account based on various requirements we can fulfil. To sum up, here’s what our interest maximiser tool has revealed to us about the best savings account in Singapore.

If you are looking for a fuss-free account but would prefer to keep your deposits in your savings account to within S$75,000, then the savings account to consider is the CIMB FastSaver Account. There is an ongoing promotion that offers new customers and existing customers with fresh funds an interest rate of 3.50% p.a. for six months.

The Maybank iSAVvy account is also offering a promotional interest rate of 3.50% p.a., but the promotional interest rate only lasts till 30 September 2023. 

Amongst the digital banks, MariBank is offering the highest  interest rate with a promotional rate of 2.88% per annum until 31 December 2023.

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. 

Find out which is the best savings account for you using the Interest Maximiser tool. 

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

Join the Beansprout Telegram group and Facebook group to get the latest insights on the best savings accounts.