Back in September 2022, OCBC hiked the interest rates on its OCBC 360 Account to 4.65% p.a., and reintroduced the bonus for credit card spend. Unfortunately, only spending on the cashback-earning OCBC 365 Card was counted.
But now there’s some good news. From 1 November 2022, OCBC has further increased the OCBC 360 Account’s maximum interest rate to a whopping 7.65% p.a., and added the OCBC 90ยฐN Card and OCBC Titanium Rewards to the pool of eligible cards for the Spend category.ย
By simply meeting the Salary, Save and Spend categories, you could take home as much as S$4,650 of interest each year- no buying of investment products necessary.
OCBC 360 Account’s new interest rates
Here’s the OCBC 360 Account’s previous interest rate structure, which applied up till 31 October 2022.ย
| ๐ฆ Old OCBC 360 Structure (Till 31 Oct 2022) |
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| ย | First S$50K | Next S$25K | Next S$25K |
| Salary | 0.6% | 1.2% | 2.0% |
| Save | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.6% |
| Spend | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.6% |
| Wealth (Insure) | 0.6% | 1.2% | 2.0% |
| Wealth (Invest) | 0.6% | 1.2% | 2.0% |
| Base Interest | 0.05% | ||
| Max EIR | ย 4.05%ย | ||
| Additional Grow bonus of 0.6% p.a. available if minimum ADB at least S$200,000 | |||
From 1 November 2022, the interest rate structure has changed as follows:ย
| ๐ฆ New OCBC 360 Structure (From 1 Nov 2022) |
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| ย | First S$75K | Next S$25K |
| Salary | 2.0% | 4.0% |
| Save | 1.2% | 2.4% |
| Spend | 0.6% | 0.6% |
| Wealth (Insure) | 1.2% | 2.4% |
| Wealth (Invest) | 1.2% | 2.4% |
| Base Interest | 0.05% | |
| Max EIR | ย 7.65%ย | |
| Additional Grow bonus of 2.4% p.a. available if minimum ADB at least S$200,000 | ||
With the revised structure, account holders can earn a maximum EIR of 4.65% p.a. on the first S$100,000 in the account.
Salary: Up to 2.5% p.a.
| ย | Up till 31 Oct 22 | From 1 Nov 22 |
| Salary | 1.1% p.a. | 2.5% p.a. |
| Min. Salary | S$1,800 p.m. | |
Customers who credit a monthly salary of at least S$1,800 to the 360 Account will earn up to 2.5% p.a., up from 1.1% p.a. previously.
As before, your salary must be credited through GIRO with the description GIRO- SALARY in order to qualify for this bonus.
Save: Up to 1.5% p.a.
| ย | Up till 31 Oct 22 | From 1 Nov 22 |
| Save | 0.35% p.a. | 1.5% p.a. |
| Min. Increase of ADB | S$500 p.m. | |
Customers who increase their average daily balance (ADB) by at least S$500 monthly will earn up to 1.5% p.a., up from 0.35% p.a. previously.ย
Spend: Up to 0.6% p.a.
| ย | Up till 31 Oct 22 | From 1 Nov 22 |
| Spend | 0.35% p.a. | 0.6% p.a. |
| Min. Credit Card Spend | S$500 p.m. | |
Customers who spend at least S$500 per month on eligible credit cards will earn up to 0.6% p.a., up from 0.35% p.a. previously.ย
In addition to this, OCBC has expanded the range of eligible credit cards:
- OCBC 365 Card
- OCBC 90ยฐN Visa (new)
- OCBC 90ยฐN Mastercard (new)
- OCBC Titanium Rewards (new)
This is excellent news for miles chasers, since there are relatively few bank accounts which award bonus interest for spending on miles and points cards. I could easily see myself clocking the requisite S$500 per month on the OCBC Titanium Rewards from online shopping.ย
Wealth (Insure): Up to 1.5% p.a.
| ย | Up till 31 Oct 22 | From 1 Nov 22 |
| Spend | 1.1% p.a. | 1.5% |
| Min. Purchase |
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Customers who purchase an eligible insurance product from OCBC will earn up to 1.5% p.a., up from 1.1% p.a. previously.ย
Do note that bonus interest is accorded for 12 months after the effective date of purchase, post the free look cancellation period or 14 days, whichever is longer.ย
Wealth (Invest): Up to 1.5% p.a.
| ย | Up till 31 Oct 22 | From 1 Nov 22 |
| Spend | 1.1% p.a. | 1.5% p.a. |
| Min. Purchase |
|
|
Customers who purchase an eligible investment product from OCBC will earn up to 1.5% p.a., up from 1.1% p.a. previously.ย
Do note that bonus interest is accorded for 12 months after the effective date of purchase, post the free look cancellation period or 14 days, whichever is longer.ย
Unfortunately, OCBC RoboInvest is not considered an eligible investment product.ย
How much more interest will you earn?
Under the previous OCBC 360 interest structure, an accountholder with a balance of S$100,000 could earn up to S$4,050 interest per year.ย Following the changes, the maximum interest on an account balance of S$100,000 will increase to S$7,650 per year.ย
| ๐ฆ OCBC 360 Maximum Bonus Interest | ||
| ย | Up till 31 Oct 22 | From 1 Nov 22 |
| Salary | S$1,100 | S$2,500 |
| Save | S$350 | S$1,500 |
| Spend | S$350 | S$600 |
| Wealth (Insure) | S$1,100 | S$1,500 |
| Wealth (Invest) | S$1,100 | S$1,500 |
| Base Interest | S$50 | S$50 |
| Total Interest | S$4,050 | S$7,650 |
| Account Balance | S$100,000 | S$100,000 |
Obviously, you’re not going to hit every bonus category, but even in a more conservative scenario of someone maxing out the Salary, Save and Spend categories, annual interest increases 2.5X from S$1,850 to S$4,650.
That seems attractive enough to me, and I’m actually going to make a concerted effort to hit it.ย
Conclusion
OCBC has hiked the interest rates on its flagship OCBC 360 Account, and expanded the range of eligible cards for the Spend category. By crediting your salary of at least S$1,800, increasing your ADB by S$500 per month and spending at least S$500 on your card, you could take home 4.65% p.a. on up to S$100,000.ย
With interest rates showing no sign of coming down, at least bank accounts are starting to catch up.
Which card better? OCBC 90ยฐN Card & OCBC Titanium Rewards?
Depends on your own spending habits.
If you have to increase the average daily balance by $500 per month what interest do the funds in excess of $100,000 earn? Your example is based on a starting balance of $100,000.
0.05%
Other bank follow
HSBC EGA now also 5.1% for 4 months
Only on incremental balance.
The terms are pretty clearly laid out. Don’t understand why people have a thousand and one questions.
Is the calculation missing the grow section where you need to have daily average of $200k in the account to trigger?
Think the implicit assumption is that maintaining a 200k balance just for 2.4% on 100k isn’t worth it
Ohh right, so you earn 7.65% even without the 200k balance. Had thought it was part of it. Thanks for the clarification.
Realistically you wouldn’t be investing or insuring with OCBC, so what most people would be getting is 4.65% on 100k
Does spending on the categories excluded for points allow you to fulfil the $500 requirements
Why would you do that
I think this is an important question for those who are unable to hit the $500 spend on categories eligible for reward, me included. The only way I can hit $500 every month is when I pay for insurance, which is not eligible for reward. But it is still worth getting the additional 0.6% as compared to paying with UOB Absolute (1.7% cashback) when you have more than $2833 in your balance
Can anyone advise on this?
Yup that’s what was on my mind too. If I can hit the 500 partly with insurance I don’t need to divert too much spending from other cards just to hit the requirement
I mean it’ll still count but 500 is honestly not a high bar to clear, especially for people currently already in the miles games – which carries the assumption that your organic spending is a healthy amount anyway so lots of room for reallocation.