Nerfed: Bonus$aver Revised From 1st April
Bonus$aver is undergoing some revisions, and whenever a bank says the word revision they usually mean nerfs.
| Old | From 1st April | |
| Credit Card Spend | Up to 1.88% p.a. (minimum spend of S$2,000 monthly) Up to 0.88% p.a. (minimum spend of S$500 monthly) | Up to 1.50% p.a. (minimum spend of S$2,000 monthly) Up to 0.5% p.a. (minimum spend of S$500 monthly) |
| Salary Credit | 1% pa | 1% pa (unchanged) |
| Bill Payments | 0.25% pa | 0.1% pa |
| Invest/Insure | 0.75% pa | 1.28% pa |
Basically, Standard Chartered is shifting away higher interest rates from card spend and bill payments to investing and buying insurance from the bank.
Bill payments is one of the easiest ways to clock additional interest, which is little wonder OCBC got rid of it some time back, and with a reduction to a derisory 0.1% pa interest rate, StanChart has followed suit.
Credit card spend takes a hit too, with only with 0.38% pa interest reallocated to invest/insure.
Does the Bonus$aver make sense now?
When I last reviewed Bonus$aver, I gave it a really harsh 3 ★ rating, so why would a revision/nerf make this account any more compelling today? Well, one of the most significant downsides of this account – the opportunity cost of not gaining any cashback/miles on the spend – has been diminished since UOB One itself was nerfed. The 10% cashback opportunity cost has now been halved.
In fact, the shifting of some 0.38% pa interest from card spend to investing makes this account a 2.38% account (1% pa salary + 0.1% pa bill payment + 1.28% pa invest) on $100,000, and one could just shift his/her spending to a UOB One card for 3.33%/5% cashback. This is comparable to 2.44% on $75,000 with a UOB One Account, but with a larger capacity of $100,000.
Of course, this would mean getting an insurance or investment product from the bank, and you should know by now how I feel about this. Insurance requires a staggering annual premium of at least $12,000, while unit trusts require a minimum of $30,000 lump sum, and this rate will only be for 12 months.
In short, I think this account is still lacklustre. Get a Multiplier + UOB One if you have $100,000 to put aside.
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