OCBC Bonus Plus Savings Account

Watch your savings grow faster with higher interest rates

I was surfing OCBC website and the tag "Earn up to 1.18% a year when you deposit $10,000" caught my eye.  I followed the click through link and was brought to the OCBC Bonus Plus Saving Account page.

Here's how the account works:

• The account is a statement savings account with monthly statements availed.
• An initial deposit of S$10,000 is needed with no monthly minimum balance requirement.
• Singaporeans, Singapore Permanent Residents and Foreigners age 15 and above are eligible.
• The base interest rate is 0.2% p.a.
• Monthly bonus of 0.25% p.a. will be given if there is no withdrawal within the calendar month.
• Quarterly bonus of 0.73% p.a. will be given in the third month if there is no withdrawal within the calendar quarter.
• Base and bonus interest will be credited into the account on the first business day of the following month.

Curious on the average interest rate, i computed the interest amount an accountholder would earn based on a S$10,000 deposit for a full 12 calendar months.

Average interest earned:

Month	Interest (% p.a.)	Interest Earned (S$)
1	0.45	3.75
2	0.45	3.75
3	1.18	9.84
4	0.45	3.76
5	0.45	3.76
6	1.18	9.86
7	0.45	3.76
8	0.45	3.76
9	1.18	9.87
10	0.45	3.77
11	0.45	3.77
12	1.18	9.89
		69.55

Effectively, the accountholder would earn S$69.55 over a one year period which translates to an average interest rate of 0.6955% p.a.

Seems like i would be better off by putting S$10,000 into the CIMB SGD Step Up Fixed Deposit and earning S$105 interest (i.e. average interest rate 1.05% p.a.) instead.