Singapore Expats

Hi Guys,

I'm planing to apply a personal loan from a Singapore bank because of my urgent personal matter (Around 20k SGD). I have accounts in DBS ,OCBC and CITI bank here. But I never applied a loan ever.

1. Which bank prefers for personal loan in Singapore (may be bank with less interest rate).
2. What are the things need to consider when applying loan in Singapore.
3. Any hidden tricks, charges banks do?

Please help with your experience. Thank you!

Lower the interest rate the better, obviously, but other factors may influence you, e.g. availability, term, etc.

The banks will need to see proof of id and ability to repay, i.e. income, address, work pass, etc.

Despite what they advertise, they often won't lend up to the limits they state. A friend is looking for a loan and has only been offered 2 times his monthly salary rather than the 4 on offer. He has no debt and is well paid.

After being with the bank for over two years and in good standing, Citibank gave me a credit line of 4x my monthly salary. About 95% of it can be used for instant cash. I think most banks are similar.

I don't use it or know if there are any secret catches to it, but they gave S$50 just to send them an updated pay slip and that's when they adjusted it up from the original ~.5x of my salary when I first arrived on an EP. I think they're hoping that much cash just sitting there will be tempting.

zzm9980 wrote:After being with the bank for over two years and in good standing, Citibank gave me a credit line of 4x my monthly salary. About 95% of it can be used for instant cash. I think most banks are similar.

I don't use it or know if there are any secret catches to it, but they gave S$50 just to send them an updated pay slip and that's when they adjusted it up from the original ~.5x of my salary when I first arrived on an EP. I think they're hoping that much cash just sitting there will be tempting.

Most banks are similar but if you have salary of S$120k+, SCB will give you 10x credit line for instance.

stiwi wrote:

zzm9980 wrote:After being with the bank for over two years and in good standing, Citibank gave me a credit line of 4x my monthly salary. About 95% of it can be used for instant cash. I think most banks are similar.

I don't use it or know if there are any secret catches to it, but they gave S$50 just to send them an updated pay slip and that's when they adjusted it up from the original ~.5x of my salary when I first arrived on an EP. I think they're hoping that much cash just sitting there will be tempting.

Most banks are similar but if you have salary of S$120k+, SCB will give you 10x credit line for instance.

I do, and that's a bit scary to know. Knowing how much I could do a runner with if I ever needed to go 'off the grid' as-is... If more banks follow suit, oh boy.

stiwi wrote:

zzm9980 wrote:After being with the bank for over two years and in good standing, Citibank gave me a credit line of 4x my monthly salary. About 95% of it can be used for instant cash. I think most banks are similar.

I don't use it or know if there are any secret catches to it, but they gave S$50 just to send them an updated pay slip and that's when they adjusted it up from the original ~.5x of my salary when I first arrived on an EP. I think they're hoping that much cash just sitting there will be tempting.

Most banks are similar but if you have salary of S$120k+, SCB will give you 10x credit line for instance.

Sure about 10x for income more than 120k ? is that for the personal loan or the credit card ?

blue_thunder wrote: Sure about 10x for income more than 120k ? is that for the personal loan or the credit card ?

Not sure about SCB, but the other banks I've checked (Citi, DBS, OCBC) have a shared credit limit for both the loan and credit cards.

blue_thunder wrote: Sure about 10x for income more than 120k ? is that for the personal loan or the credit card ?

Credit card.

Thanks for the headsup, just managed to confirm the same from SCB RM.

Thank you for all the ideas. Actually after some studies, I found all the bank rates are almost same (As I read MAS control all the things of the banks in Singapore. Bank cannot decide the Interest rates as they like ). So I have to choose depend on the service and facilities they are giving to customers. These information may help to you.

As my experiance :

Citi Bank: less queue in bank, less ATM. But they have lot more options,cradit card, personal loan pools. always retun the late charges, After late payment done. but customer care hotline is stupid. complex online banking.

OCBC: Hotline Is very good, Less queue in bank, More ATMs, Good sercive in branches. But high delay charges. complex online banking.

DBS: Reputed in Singapore. lot ATM and branches. good online banking, customer care is not so good but not bad. So long queue in branches. poor service of branches. Most of the peoples work in Singapore uses. they have Loan in 5 min option.

Because of the quick loan approve I choose DBS though their some services poor. So they approve my loan 4X monthly salary withing 6 hr.

They only asked passport copy, ep copy, 3 latest salary slips, application form. I sent these thing by email after scan. I never thought getting a loan from a bank is this much easy. =)

kevin4u wrote: Because of the quick loan approve I choose DBS though their some services poor. So they approve my loan 4X monthly salary withing 6 hr.

That’s interesting, I’ll pass that onto my friend looking for a loan. He has tried several places, I don’t think DBS was one. He was only offered 2x.

bgd wrote: That’s interesting, I’ll pass that onto my friend looking for a loan. He has tried several places, I don’t think DBS was one. He was only offered 2x.

+1.
DBS offered 2x even with a salary of a 100k+ whereas SCB 4x times.
if your salary is more than 120K then SCB offers upto 8x monthly salary or 100k which ever is lower.