Singapore Expats

Hello everyone,
I'm going to arrive in Singapore from Norway as a young expat in January (I'm from New York city by the way). I would like some advice about opening a simple checking account as well as obtaining a credit card in Singapore.

I have an account in Norway because I can only be paid in a local banks account. The fees the banks charge here for overseas usage are insane so I would like to know which bank or banks would be the easiest to use and have no or very low minimum balance requirements since at the moment I wouldn't start out with too much money..say a couple of thousand USD since I am only 22.

I do have a Chase account from the US. Does that help at all?

Thank you in advance!

We went to DBS not long after we first arrived. They were very helpful and we didn't need a referral letter or anything from your employer etc in spite of what we read in various places.

We were still staying in a hotel at the time so used my husband's employer's address (which was on his ID card) to open the account, other than that you just need your passport.

In spite of some horror stories I have read about people trying to open accounts, we walked out of he bank in less than 30 mintues with a cash card each so once we'd transferred our UK stirling we could use the account straight away.

DBS and POSB are very good.

UOB card enjoys a lot of rebates in food outlets etc.

We use both DBS and UOB. Opening a bank account was quick and painless at both places. If I remember correctly you just need to bring your EP, passport, and company ID.

DBS / POSB seems to be more popular and have more ATMs (although I could be wrong).

UOB is good for dining discounts and their Lady's Card is great for women - two free gym passes a month and some other discounts.

We like having cards from both banks because we get a wider range of discounts.

For checking account, you may want to find out more about Standard Chartered Bank's Xtra Savers account that comes with an ATM/debit card that is accepted internationally.

I've heard from a lot of sources that having a US Citibank account makes it much easier to transfer money to the States. So if you're going to be stopping back in the US before coming to Singapore, open a Citibank accout... I wish I had known that before I came.

In Singapore, DBS have the most number of ATM kiosks followed by UOB.. so with these 2, you won't go wrong..

Citibank offered CGT (citi global tranfer) - easy transfer between citibank account worldwide. however, I found out they have applied different exchange rate which is much disadvantageous than normal telegraphic transfer. For instance, when normal TT rate from DBS or to other account overseas is 1USD=1.40, they used CGT rate 1USD=1.44 or 1.45 SGD. They advertise to make us feel it is cheap with 10 SGD transaction fee, but I feel they fooled us by applying different exchange rate. It is convenient, but be cautious! In terms of money, it is not beneficial!