Guide to best savings accounts with highest interest rates in Singapore [Nov 2024]

What happened?

I noticed a lot of discussion in the Beansprout community about the best savings account with in Singapore for the month of November.

After all, many of us are looking for the best place to park our savings and to earn a higher interest rate.

In the post below, I will be sharing which are the best savings account in Singapore to earn the highest interest rate and maximise our savings.

The Best Savings Accounts in Singapore (November 2024)

• 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 OCBC 360 account.
• The best savings account in Singapore if you have S$150,000 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 for fresh funds promotion is the HSBC Everyday Global Account (EGA).
• The best savings account in Singapore without salary credit and jumping through hoops is GXS.

OCBC 360 Account

Why we like it:

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.

UOB One Account

Why we like it:

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 4.0% 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.

Learn more about the UOB One Account here.

HSBC Everyday Global Account (EGA)

Why we like it:

The HSBC Everyday Global Account (EGA) is offering a promotional interest rate of up to 3.10% p.a. for fresh funds deposited into the savings account, on top of the prevailing interest rate of 0.05% p.a. This means that you can earn an interest rate of up to 3.15% p.a. with the HSBC EGA. 

if your top up amount is S$2 million or more, you will earn a bonus interest rate of 3.50% p.a. This means that you can earn an interest rate of up to 3.55% p.a. with the HSBC EGA.

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

This would bring the highest effective interest rate on the HSBC EGA to up to 4.55% p.a.

Learn more about the HSBC Everyday Global Account here.

GXS Account

Why we like it:

The GXS Savings Account is a savings account offered by GXS, backed by a consortium consisting of Grab and Singtel. 

GXS recently launched Boost Pocket, which allows us to earn an interest rate of up to 3.28% p.a. over 3 months.

This would make it one of the highest interest rates across savings accounts and fixed deposits currently. 

The Boost Pocket carries a base interest rate of 2.38% p.a., which is credited daily. It also has a bonus interest rate of 0.7% p.a. or 0.9% p.a. that will be applied if the Boost Pocket is held to the 1 month or 3 months maturity respectively.

This means that you can earn an interest rate of up to 3.28% p.a. for 3 months through the GXS Boost Pocket.

Customers can fund the Boost Pocket with any amount from S$100 to S$30,000.  You can open up to two Boost Pockets. This means that you can fund a maximum total of S$60,000 across two Boost Pockets.

Learn more about the GXS Savings Account here.

How did we come up with the list of best savings accounts in Singapore?

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 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.

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.

To uncover which is the best savings account in Singapore, I started 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 and OCBC 360 offer a maximum effective interest rate of 5% p.a. and above. 

Best savings account for $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 OCBC 360 account.

You would be able to earn an effective interest rate of 4.65% with the OCBC 360 account if you are able to meet these requirements.

This would translate to close to S$395 per month on your S$100,000 of savings!

Apart from the OCBC 360 account, the Standard Chartered Bonus Saver Account also offers a decent interest rate of 3.68% p.a.

Best savings account without 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 Standard Chartered e Saver, which offers a 3.5% p.a. interest till September 2024.

Best savings account for S$75k of savings, salary credit and investment/insurance products purchase

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 6.88% 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 higher interest rates?

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

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.

However, we were able still able to maximise our 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 OCBC 360 account.

If you have S$150,000 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. 

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), Standard Chartered eSaver account or CIMB FastSaver Account.

Amongst the digital banks, GXS offers a compelling option with the interest rate of up to 3.28% p.a. with the Boost Pocket. 

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. 

To learn where to park your cash for higher yield, check out our comparison of T-bills and SSBs and fixed deposits.

Join the Beansprout Telegram group to get the latest insights on growing your wealth.