Review: POSB Cashback Bonus Savings Account – Better than DBS Multiplier?

POSB Cashback Bonus is an interesting savings account. Instead of giving you interest on your account balance based on what transactions you perform like DBS Multiplier or OCBC 360, it directly rewards you for the transactions done.

With the major banks nerfing their bank accounts (UOB, DBS, OCBC), could this be a viable alternative?

How does it work?

POSB Cashback Bonus gives you cashback on the following categories, if you can perform at least 3 of them:

  • Salary Credit (0.3%) – Capped at $20
  • Credit Card Spend (0.3%) – Capped at S$20
  • Home Loan Instalments (3%) – Capped at S$30
  • Insurance (3%) – Capped at S$30
  • Investments (3%) – Capped at S$30

Note that you have to choose between DBS Multiplier and POSB Cashback Bonus. The bank does not allow you to have both accounts at the same time.

For an example of how Cashback Bonus works, if you credit a salary of $4,000, spend $1,000 on DBS cards, and purchase $500 of DBS Invest-Saver, this is what you will get:

  • $4,000 salary → $12 cashback (0.3%)
  • $1,000 spend → $3 cashback (0.3%)
  • $500 investment → $15 (3%)

Now, that’s $30 of cashback, which isn’t too fantastic. Fulfilling these three categories on DBS Multiplier gives you 2.2% pa interest, which is about $45.83 on $25,000 of balance.

When does this make sense then?

Seth
Seth

🔥 Get S$350 or other pricey gifts when you sign up for HSBC credit cards!

Subscribe to the Telegram for more great deals and updates. Prefer email/WhatsApp? Tap here.

People with low account balances

If you hardly have any savings, POSB Cashback Bonus is obviously for you since interest-bearing accounts would just give you practically nothing. For $30 of interest, you will need at least $16,500 in a 2.2% pa account.

People who can satisfy the requirements for a second bank account

The thing is, even if you do have $10,000 to $30,000 of savings, you should still pick POSB Cashback Bonus over DBS Multiplier as you can place your savings in another account.

Even at 1% pa interest (which CIMB FastSaver offers without any conditions like salary crediting), you get $13.75 on $16,500 of savings. Coupled with the $30 from Cashback Bonus, you get $43.75 which is significantly more than $30 DBS Multiplier gives you.

At $25,000 bank balance, the 1% pa bank account gives you $20.83, which gives a total of $50.83 with your POSB Cashback Bonus, still higher than the $45.83 Multiplier offers.

If you use a second account like OCBC 360 and are able to fulfil its high interest criteria together with your POSB Cashback Bonus, the difference is even more staggering – hit 2% pa and you are getting $71.67 on $25,000 of bank balance. (To be fair, you may have to shift some income and card spend to your second account, but it shouldn’t affect your POSB Cashback Bonus too much given that those categories are only 0.3%).

People with a DBS/POSB mortgage

I fall into this category! Previously, I mentioned that it’s easy for DBS mortgagors to make DBS Multiplier work for them since they clear 1 category easily. This is even truer for POSB Cashback Bonus, and you get 3% rebate on your mortgage. Pretty generous, even if it’s capped at $30 which most home loans would run into.

A combination of POSB Cashback Bonus your savings in a second high-interest bank account would likely be far superior to just relying on a single high-interest bank account.

Calculator

To find out whether or not POSB Cashback Bonus works for your specific set of circumstances (versus just using DBS Multiplier or another high-interest account), I have created an online calculator! While I’ve tried to make it as accurate as possible, do let me know if there are any bugs or miscalculation 😅

Converting from a DBS Multiplier

If you have an existing DBS Multiplier account, you can convert it into a POSB Cashback Bonus via your online banking. The process is instant, but you would lose any interest that hasn’t been credited to your account.

Conclusion

The POSB Cashback Bonus isn’t so much a replacement for high-yield savings account as it is a very good supplement to it.

If you are able to split your salary to fulfil $2,500 here and $2,000 somewhere else (OCBC 360 perhaps, which is reducing the salary requirement to $1,800), and clock two more categories for POSB Cashback Bonus, you are going to get quite good returns that no one account can match.

The good:

  • Great for those without much savings
  • Excellent for people with a mortgage with DBS/POSB
  • Superior returns if you are able to qualify for another high-interest account and put your savings there

The bad:

  • Requires 3 categories
  • Salary credit is $2,500 instead of the usual $2,000

The ugly:

  • Investment/insurance categories only last for 12 months… troublesome

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
9 Stars of Sethisfaction

Keep up to date on the best cashback/mile cards, financial products, attractive deals, and more tips to maximise your financial wellbeing by subscribing to my Telegram channel.

Subscribe to the channel, then join the group chat. You would often benefit from the tips shared exclusively in the group chat!

Disclaimer: I may receive an affiliate/referral fee when you sign up for services/products on this site, and such fees keep the site running. I would only recommend services/products I would personally use or recommend to my own friends and family, but I do not provide any warranty or guarantee for the quality of these services/products. Thank you for supporting my site!

Please exercise due diligence when signing up for any service/product as I will not be liable for any personal loss, financial or otherwise. Content published here are my sole views and personal opnion, and none of the information here constitutes personal financial advice nor represents the views of my employer(s).

4 thoughts on “Review: POSB Cashback Bonus Savings Account – Better than DBS Multiplier?

  1. It looks interesting until I see “must clock at least 3 categories”. I think it might suit you well, but still not for me. What I think the strongest point of Multiplier is there is no minimum for everything, except for salary. I can just spend $0.01 and have salary credited, then get I am considered for hitting 1 category. I tried to calculate if I buy cheap insurance like $10 per month, I still end up to pay more than additional interest I am trying to get 😅

    1. Hi CK, thanks for your comment. It highly depends on your personal circumstances which is why I created the online calculator. I would recommend a monthly investment rather than getting insurance you don’t need to clock the categories.

      Even if your transaction amount isn’t too big, POSB CBB + second account will be better if your second account gets similar interest to Multiplier.

      Young working adults should find this very good since they don’t have much savings, and they can easily get 2% pa interest with a JumpStart account.

  2. Hi, thank you for your review. Do you think there is a best time to convert DBS Multiplier to POSB cashback bonus account? Eg. After DBS Multiplier interest is credited on 7th working day and immediately apply for POSB cashback bonus. Once approve, apply for RSP before 15th so that still can get interest for the month when account is converted.

  3. A note on switching between Multiplier and Cashback or vice versa: first, you need to opt-out from your existing program, before you can opt-in to the new one.

Leave a Reply

%d