Singapore Expats

I have looked over the different banks and nothing really pops out at different than the other....just want a place to put some money/have a place to deposit my salary. Suggestions?

Use this board's excellent search function. Banking here has been discussed numerous times.

borninAZ wrote:I have looked over the different banks and nothing really pops out at different than the other....just want a place to put some money/have a place to deposit my salary. Suggestions?

Citibank will let you move money to other Citibank accounts around the world from SG instantly with no fee. (Note that the reverse is note true; from the US, you will pay a US$10 fee) HSBC will do the same if you have a "Premier" account, which has six-digit minimum balances. Most other banks will charge a small fee, and it won't be instant.

OCBC is open Sundays.

Other than those two features which may or may not be of value to you, they're all mostly the same from my recent research.

Be aware that most local banks (DBS/POSB/OCBC/UOB) will not give you a "debit" (Visa/MasterCard branded ATM card) by default; you'll have just an ATM card. You can still use them at almost any POS around Singapore that supports 'NETS' (most of them), but you will be high and dry outside of Singapore.

Also be aware that while DBS/POSB has the most ATMs by far, they also have the longest and slowest moving lines. I think people day-trade at them; it seems like everyone takes at least 5 minutes to do whatever it is they're doing.

One last caveat; Singapore long mandates two-factor authentication. That means in addition to your login and password, you will have a secondary password. This is either via a 'token', SMS, or (Rarely) an App on your smart phone. When I say 'token', it is a small keychain that has a continually changing number on it, or gives you a number when you press the button. For SMS, they SMS they # to your registered mobile phone. You will need this for most of your online banking. Sometimes to even log in, sometimes for transfers and such. I find having to carry a "token" inconvenient, so I avoid using banks that require it. You may want to check which banks offer tokens, and which offer SMS. When I last checked, DBS/POSB and HSBC only offered tokens, OCBC and Citi offer SMS. Not sure on the others.

My personal preference is OCBC bank.
POSB certainly has the longest queue ever and also their machines always encounter difficulty like "cash deposit not allowed" Its happening once too many.
OCBC cash deposit machines very user friendly and apparently the queue to do business is shorter and faster.
I do not work for OCBC but just sharing my views.
Why not try open both ocbc and posb and try observe the queues and you will be able to compare.

I personally prefers UOB especially with their new MobileCash for iPhone

The NETS card is a bonus. If you earn a salary and are on an employment pass then getting a credit card is not difficult. If you're looking for internet banking functionality - I'm in the process of leaving SCB because I cannot have more than 5 private payee's at any given time (and it takes them 24 hours to recognise the deletion of one so I can load another....)

I love - NOT - the 2nd factor authentication system here. In a SG paper article on Internet banking it was noted that the biggest threat to money in a bank is internal fraud, yet a couple of paragraphs later it states that the MAS is implementing MORE stringent user controls. No-one noticed the irony!

I prefer DBS. Avoid Citibank IMO

zzm9980 wrote:Citibank will let you move money to other Citibank accounts around the world from SG instantly with no fee. (Note that the reverse is note true; from the US, you will pay a US$10 fee)

If you have Citibank accounts in more than one country and want to use their instant transfer feature, is there a tight limit on the amount you can transfer per day? Or is there no limit because they are both accounts in your name, albeit in different countries?

aster wrote:

zzm9980 wrote:Citibank will let you move money to other Citibank accounts around the world from SG instantly with no fee. (Note that the reverse is note true; from the US, you will pay a US$10 fee)

If you have Citibank accounts in more than one country and want to use their instant transfer feature, is there a tight limit on the amount you can transfer per day? Or is there no limit because they are both accounts in your name, albeit in different countries?

Any caps on transfer limits can be removed.

But you'll get bummed on the x-rate though

aster wrote:

zzm9980 wrote:Citibank will let you move money to other Citibank accounts around the world from SG instantly with no fee. (Note that the reverse is note true; from the US, you will pay a US$10 fee)

If you have Citibank accounts in more than one country and want to use their instant transfer feature, is there a tight limit on the amount you can transfer per day? Or is there no limit because they are both accounts in your name, albeit in different countries?

Not sure, I've never moved more than a few thousand at a time. I use it just to handle incidentals. I intentionally keep the balance low in my Citibank accounts since they "did me the favor" of reporting the account to the US Treasury and IRS when i opened it here. (I guess I'm supposed to do that myself now with all of my accts?)

zzm9980 wrote: Not sure, I've never moved more than a few thousand at a time. I use it just to handle incidentals. I intentionally keep the balance low in my Citibank accounts since they "did me the favor" of reporting the account to the US Treasury and IRS when i opened it here. (I guess I'm supposed to do that myself now with all of my accts?)

It's now the bank's obligation to report you.

That's why so many foreign/local banks won't take US citizens any more. They can't be bothered with having to comply with these new US reporting requirements.

Yep, you sure are. You will see it at the bottom of 1040 Schedule B Section III Foreign Accounts and Trusts that tell you which form to file and under what parameters.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sb.pdf

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f90221.pdf