OCBC 360 to Revise Bonus Interest Rates from 01 November 2018 - New Categories and Higher Interest Rates

[Update on 04 December 2018]: You can now earn 2.0% p.a. interest for your Salary Bonus on the S$35,001 to S$70,000 balance from December 2018 to March 2019.

It has been almost a year a half since OCBC 360 introduced any changes and this is set to change (again) from 01 November 2018. I have done multiple comparisons between this account and other competing products offered by other local banks in Singapore and the OCBC 360 is still the account that I have been sticking with throughout the years. From 01 November 2018, OCBC 360 will be introducing a new tier of bonus interest rates for balances between S$35,001 and S$70,000. While there is perhaps one negative change to the total bonus interest that one can get out of this account, it appears to be largely positive if you are currently maxing out the bonus with an average monthly balance of S$70,000.

Click HERE to find out more about the upcoming changes to the OCBC 360 account!

Photo Credit: OCBC

Salary Bonus - Maximum EAR of 1.35% P.A. (up from 1.20% P.A.)

[Update on 04 December 2018: Maximum EAR of 1.60% P.A. from December 2018 to March 2019]

If you are not so mathematically-inclined, you might be a little confused with the upcoming changes to the OCBC 360 account. Currently, all OCBC 360 account holders earn a flat 1.20% interest on the first S$70,000 of their account balances. The only thing you will have to do is to credit a minimum salary at least S$2,000 to your OCBC 360 account each calendar month. From 01 November 2018, they will continue to earn 1.20% p.a. interest on the first S$35,000 of their account balances and if they have anything above that, they will earn 1.50% p.a. interest on the next S$35,000 of their account balances. If you are currently maxing out your bonus by maintaining a S$70,000 balance, you should expect an additional S$105 each year - this puts the EAR at 1.35% p.a. which is an improvement from the current 1.20% p.a..

Credit Card Spend Bonus - Maximum EAR of 0.45% P.A. (up from 0.30% P.A.)

No change to the minimum spend required (S$500 per month) to trigger the credit card spend bonus but there will be an increase to the quantum of bonus interest rate - customers will continue to earn 0.30% p.a. on the first S$35,000 of their OCBC 360 account but they will earn 0.60% on the next S$35,000 - this results in an EAR of 0.45% p.a. and account holders who maintain a S$70,000 balance can expect an additional S$105 each year.

Photo Credit: OCBC

Step-up Bonus - Maximum EAR of 0.45% P.A. (New Permanent Bonus Category)

This is a little hard to compare since OCBC 360 was running an intermittent bonus for incremental balances based on a month on month average. Even though the previous quantum was larger at 1% p.a. , the bonus interest was only applicable to the incremental amount - this means to say that if you had S$50,000 in your account last month, and now had S$52,000 this month, you will only earn that bonus 1% p.a. on that additional S$2,000. With the upcoming changes that will go live on 01 November 2018, you will earn 0.3% p.a. interest on the first S$35,000 and 0.6% p.a. interest on your next S$35,000 if your average account balance increases at least S$500 each month - with an EAR of 0.45% p.a., this is worth S$315 each year.

Boost Bonus (1.0% P.A.)

Similar to what is periodically offered by the OCBC 360, account holders will soon be able to earn up to 1.0% p.a. of bonus interest each month on the incremental balances based on the month-on-month average balance up to S$1,000,000. For example, if the average balance of your OCBC 360 account is S$70,000 in November and it grows to an average of S$80,000 in December, you will earn 1.0% p.a. of bonus interest on this additional S$10,000. Making this a permanent feature of the OCBC 360 account is definitely a positive move.

Photo Credit: OCBC

Removal of 0.30% P.A. Payment Bonus (Negative Change)

With the upcoming changes that will go live on 01 November 2018, account holders will no longer be able to earn 0.30% p.a. of bonus interest each year for simply paying at least 3 bills online or through GIRO with a total amount of at least S$150. There is no way to sugarcoat this as this is definitely a negative move - account holders maintaining an average balance of S$70,000 will see a reduction of S$210 in bonus interest each year.

No Change to Wealth or Grow (Save) Bonus

Customers will continue to earn up to 1.20% p.a. on S$70,000 if they invest purchase eligible wealth products from OCBC Bank. They will also continue to enjoy bonus interest of 1.0% p.a. if their accounts' average daily balance is S$200,000 or more.