Singapore Expats

Evening all.

I've been looking at different options for bank accounts here. I want to be able to transfer money to my UK account to pay some direct debits I have to keep (phone contracts etc)

Today I went to most of the banks in Holland Village. Thought I'd share what I found. These are for those with an Employment Pass as opposed to a Student Pass (I'm guessing they're different).
Please don't quote me on these (I'm sure there are many underlying charges etc) but they will give you a basic idea.

To open an account you'll need Passport, Employment Pass (most will accept the In-principle one) and proof of where you're staying (which most places will provide if you ask).

OCBC:
Set up fee: (didn’t ask)
Min. account funds: S$1000
Transfer fees: S$30

UOB:
Set up fee: S$1000
Min. account funds: S$500
Transfer fees: S$30

CITIBANK:
Set up fee: S$2000
Min. account funds: S$2000
Transfer fees: S$30

DBS:
Set up fee: S$1000
Min. account funds: S$1000
Transfer fees: S$20 + 0.125%

HSBC:
This one is different as I already have an HSBC Advance account in the UK. (Subscription fee: £6 a month for 3 months then £12.95 after that).
Seems to be the best option if you can get an Advance account before you get here, then open an Advance account here to link accounts.

With Advance: Set up fee: S$1000
Transfer fees: S$10 (online)
You can open the account and then transfer the S$1000 from your UK account (don’t need to have it floating around in cash).

If you get Advance it also means you get free ATM withdrawals when you’re abroad (despite the subscription fee it works out better).

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*To transfer money with most of these banks you have to go into the branch and fill in a form rather than do it online.

That's not quite accurate regarding Citibank.

If you have the foresight to open a UK Citibank account (either SGD or GBP) then you can make transfers online between Citi accounts for free, then from your UK Citi account to whatever UK current account you have, also for free.

Source: Me. I do it every month.

curiousgeorge wrote:That's not quite accurate regarding Citibank.

If you have the foresight to open a UK Citibank account (either SGD or GBP) then you can make transfers online between Citi accounts for free, then from your UK Citi account to whatever UK current account you have, also for free.

Source: Me. I do it every month.

Cool - I just opened a Citibank account in the UK for this exact purpose so I'm glad that is the case (it describes it on their website as such but I wasn't fully convinced there wasn't other charges somewhere).

Opted for a SGD foreign deposit account too but not exactly sure what that's for.

curiousgeorge wrote:That's not quite accurate regarding Citibank.

If you have the foresight to open a UK Citibank account (either SGD or GBP) then you can make transfers online between Citi accounts for free, then from your UK Citi account to whatever UK current account you have, also for free.

Source: Me. I do it every month.

Confirmed, I do this to my Citibank US account every month also, and it is free that way too. The only catch is if you xfer money from US back to SG, there is a small (US $11) fee. Not a big deal IMO.

Just make sure on the UK side that the type of account you have is able to do the free citibank global transfers (and hence be also able to receive money this way), as not every type of citibank account will let you.

Good advice! Wish I had worked that out before I left the UK!
Turns out with HSBC if you have the advance account, sure it's like £6 or more a month in the UK but here you have to have a minimum of S$20,000 in the account!
Also, I didn't know that here you can't use any ATM; it has to be the one you bank with, HSBC hardly has any!
I've ended up going with DBS - they have an Expat service, if you keep the account above S$5000 you can withdraw money as many times as you like unlike the normal account with them where you can only take money out 4 times a month at an ATM.
They also give you the card there and then and can set you up for Internet Banking. Much better deal! Sorry for any confusion that all might have caused!

Echolo wrote:but here you have to have a minimum of S$20,000 in the account!
Also, I didn't know that here you can't use any ATM; it has to be the one you bank with, HSBC hardly has any!

It might have something to do with local law when it comes to privilege banking or something like that, recall reading something about this in a recent article about the laws regarding CC limits.

As for ATMs, I'm sorry to say but I think you'd be better off with HSBC. It's not true that you can only use their ATMs - HSBC is part of the atm5 network which is actually comprised of 6 banks that all share their ATMs:

- Citibank
- Standard Chartered Bank
- HSBC
- Maybank
- ANZ
- State Bank of India

The problem with DBS is that during busy periods the lines to their ATMs can be horrendous at times...

If I may add on to the earlier post by Echolo, I noticed that he didn't mention POSB. Did a quick search and for their funds transfer..
For amounts under S$5000, the handling commission is $5 and cable/telex charges @ $20 (Total $25). For S$5000 above, handling commission $10 and cable/telex charges $20 (Total $30)
Bit more info for those who have POSB accounts.

I just opened a OCBC account this morning... They didnt charge anything for opening it but i had to deposit s$1000 into there.

And lady said it was s$5 to transfer back into a uk account.

Only other charge is if the monthly average balance falls under s$1000 you get charged s$2.