Comparison of Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB) VS T-bill VS Bank Fixed Deposit VS REPs
Most people who work in Singapore park their spare money either in various banks (such as CIMB, Maybank, OCBC, DBS/POSB, etc.) fixed deposits, Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB), T-bill, stock, and others depending on self-risk level.
If you choose to invest your spare cash in a bank fixed deposit. You are required to fulfill a number of criteria (salary crediting, credit card spending, GIRO transactions, and/or insurance and home loans) + have a certain amount of savings to enjoy the maximum effective interest rate. Average Singapore banks fixed deposit interest rates are between 2.5%-4%.
DBS Multiplier Account
Source: DBS Official Website
OCBC 365 Account
Source: OCBC Official Website
UOB One Account
Source: UOB Official Website
If you choose to invest your spare cash in Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB).
You must accept the low-interest rates but zero-risk concept. SSB was issued because the Singapore Government wants to give investors access to long-term interest rate returns with maximum flexibility at zero risk. Hence, the maximum sum to invest in SSB is $200,000 at any one time. Let’s imagine you put in $10,000 to your SSB account, you will get back $12,390 (total gain of $2,390) which is much less than put into a bank fixed deposit.
If you choose to invest your spare cash in T-bills.
You are required to keep taking note of when the T-bill issue date is and keep repeating the process to invest to get attractive interest rates. It is good if you are an investor who is considering income like short-duration and high-quality bonds, high-dividend stocks, and short-term endowment plans.
Some investors invest their spare money in Traded/Resale Endowment Policies (REPs) (TEPs). REPs/TEPs are existing savings plans/endowment plans given up by the original owners before maturity, which are safeguarded under the Singapore Deposit Insurance Corporation (SDIC)—average compound interest rate between 4-5.5%.
View Current Available REPs Plans.