The Best Wallet App, Bank Account, Trading App, and Credit Cards!

Here are the best personal finance products that have given us users the best value over the past year, and would hopefully still hold strong in the new year ahead!

Best Wallet App of the Year

Okay I have talked a lot about Kris+ but I can’t help it because it really is such a strong wallet app and deserves the Best Wallet App of the Year for 2022. From relatively frequent spend and win promos to milesback campagins, Kris+ delivers earn rates that no other wallet app can match. Even its base earn rates of 3 to 9 miles per dollar or 2 to 6% cashback is generous, and you get these rewards on top of your card’s earn rates.

Kris+ does have relatively scarce merchant acceptance, but the list of merchants is growing each month with new retailers and restaurants added. This problem was so bad at first, even shops that accepted Kris+ had cashiers who had no idea how to work the app. Such an issue is long solved now that more users are coming on board, and if you have been missing out, sign up here, and check out my guide for more details.

Kris+

Remember to enter code W159000

New users

Get S$5 when you sign up with referral code W159000

First 10,000: spend at least S$50 within a single transaction with a Mastercard credit/debit card and get bonus 2,250 Krispay miles (S$15 rebate). Make sure to start the challenge first.

Until 31st December 2023

Gives miles on top of your usual card rewards! Not a miles person? The miles can also be used as cashback. Get as much as additional 9 miles or 6% cashback! See the review here and check out the guide

The honourable mention for Best Wallet App of the Year goes to ShopBack Pay which can rival Kris+ in terms of earn rates. It also does have its promos from time to time, and just like Kris+ offers its additional cashback rates on top of our usual credit card rewards.

ShopBack has also been getting their wallet app accepted in places like hawker centres and food courts, and it’s a strong wallet app to use where it’s accepted.

Shopback

Use code CsgtbD

New users

Get S$5 when you sign up with referral code CsgtbD, make a transaction of at least S$20, and add your withdrawal information.

Terms and conditions

Gives extra cashback on top of your usual card rewards!

Best Trading App of the Year

The trading app scene has been quite competitive over the past couple of years with all manners of animals trying to win you over. This prize has to be given to the one that has been giving the best value to users, and my pick would be Webull.

Do note that Webull has been a regular sponsor of my site and YouTube channel, but I think we can all agree that Webull has been one of the most generous. It has been giving great sign-up offers and its trading fees currently stand at a big fat 0 for commission and platform fees.

Webull has also been introducing new features such as buying of mutual funds, and it also supports fractional trading I really like. These two features mean that you can invest even with a low capital outlay, and you can have a well diversified portfolio without incurring high fees that other brokers tend to charge.

Webull

Until 3.59PM 7th December 2023

ActivityReward
Register and open account with this link0 commission trades for US Stocks and ETFs for 31 days
0 subscription fees for mutual funds
Fund any amount🔥 2 Five free sharesTSLA US$3 each
AAPL US$50 each
AMZN US$100 each
GOOG US$500 each
Maintain funds for at least 30 days🔥 2 Five more free shares
Accumulate deposit with Moneybull before 29th December 2023 (3.59PM) and hold until 31st March 2024 (11.59PM)US$2,000: US$80 cash vouchers

US$100,000: US$3,000 cash vouchers
Please read the terms and conditions for exact details.

Get 0 platform fee, and trade fractional shares from as low as US$5 per trade. Great for dollar-cost averaging small amounts!

Last updated 5th December 2023.

The honourable mention for Best Trading App of the Year goes to Syfe Trade. I haven’t talked about that app in a while, but it is perhaps the easiest to use owing to its simple and clean user interface. Syfe Trade recently introduced SGX trading, and you can now buy local stocks which was a missing feature during its launch.

See more trading apps here.

Syfe Trade Promo Details (tap here for review)

Last updated: 18th June 2023

ActivityReward
Sign up for Syfe Trade (use phone) with promo code SETHISFY
Fund minimum S$2,000 and place your first trade within 30 days of account creationS$20 for new to Syfe customers
For quick reference only. See terms and conditions

Best Bank Account of the Year

High-interest bank accounts are becoming a thing again, after becoming irrelevant for a good part of the pandemic thanks to suppressed interest rates. They’ve made a big comeback since, and UOB has offered not only attractive interest rates, but great promos too.

You have probably missed the flash sale (see the importance of subscribing to the Telegram?) but UOB still has a Lunar New Year promo that lets you earmark funds for added cash gifts (will write a post on this soon).

UOB One Account

Up to S$110 cash credit comprising EITHER 1a) S$60 cash credit, OR 1b) S$30 cash credit and 2) S$50 cash credit:

Terms and Conditions

1a) S$60 cash credit is only for the first 200 New-to-UOB Deposit customers per calendar month who: 

  1. Successfully open a UOB Uniplus Account, UOB Stash Account, KrisFlyer UOB Account, or UOB One Account online from 1 March 2023 to 30 April 2023, and
  2. Deposits at least S$5,000 Fresh Funds into their new UOB account within the account opening month and hold it till the end of the following calendar month.


OR 

1b) S$30 cash credit is only for the first 200 Existing-to-UOB Deposit customers per calendar month who: 

  1. Successfully open a new a UOB Uniplus Account, UOB Stash Account, KrisFlyer UOB Account, or UOB One Account online from 1 March 2023 to 30 April 2023;
  2. Deposit at least S$5,000 Fresh Funds into their new UOB Account within the account opening month and hold it till the end of the following calendar month; and
  3. Fresh Funds deposited into the new UOB Account must result in a corresponding increase of at least S$5,000 when compared against the total amount standing to the credit of all other UOB current accounts and/or savings accounts of the customer as at 28 February 2023.


Click here for full terms and conditions governing UOB Online Account Opening Promotion (1 March to 30 April 2023). 

And 

2) S$50 cash credit is available under the UOB Salary Credit Campaign (1 January 2023 to 30 June 2023) for customers who have: 

  1. Successfully submitted an online participation form here; and
  2. Successfully credit monthly salary (of at least S$1,600) into an Eligible UOB Account via GIRO or PayNow within two calendar months from the date of submission of the participation form.


Click here for the Terms and Conditions governing UOB Salary Credit Campaign (1 January 2023 to 30 June 2023).

Get as much as 5% p.a. effective interest on $100,000 balance!

The honourable mention for Best Bank Account of the Year goes to OCBC 360, and you can see a in-depth comparison here. Also, see more savings products here.

Best Miles Card of the Year

My pick for Best Miles Card of the Year is Citi Prestige, and you would probably choose any card that gets you some 300,000 worth of miles in a few months to be your personal favourite too. This was achieved almost entirely with Citi PayAll promos, where I essentially bought miles for cheap by putting all manners of bills and payments through Citibank’s payment service.

While Citi PayAll is also available on other Citi cards, the Citi Prestige is a particularly compelling one to use since PayAll spend counts towards its sign-up promo as well as complimentary airport transfers.

Citi Prestige

If code is required C04233289T

🔥 👍🏼

New or existing Citi Cardholders

Apply here (if you get an error message signing up as an existing cardholder, try again as a new Citi cardholder)

Get 177,500 ThankYou points worth 71,000 miles (even existing cardholders of other Citi cards are eligible!):

Welcome Gift (payment of annual fee)62,500 points
(25,000 miles)
S$1,000 spend in local currency¹ within qualifying period² 57,500 points
(23,000 miles)
S$1,000 spend in foreign currency within qualifying period² 57,500 points
(23,000 miles)
Total177,500 points
(71,000 miles)

For quick reference only. See terms and conditions for full details.

  1. Fee-paying Citi PayAll transactions also count towards the local spend requirement.
  2. Qualifying period is 2 months after end of card approval month (e.g. card approved on 15th August 2023 → qualifying period until 30th October 2023).
  3. Existing cardholders of other Citi cards can also enjoy this promo.

Until 31st January 2024

⚠️ For new to Citi customers: I encourage you to apply for one of the other Citi Cards first before getting Citi Prestige. This way you enjoy both promos.

Complimentary hotel nights, unlimited lounge access, and limousine service. Annual requirement of S$120,000 (fairly flexible and up to the bank’s discretion). Read the review here and an analysis if the promo is worth it

Honorable mentions go to HSBC Revolution, UOB Preferred Platinum Visa, and Citi Rewards + Amaze. All three cards give 4 miles per dollar on most areas of spend, and they are good choices to get lots of miles for your daily expenditure. A comparison article is coming up, so stay subscribed to the Telegram for that.

See more credit cards here.

Best Cashback Card of the Year

Whether a cashback card is good or not is perhaps one of the most subjective things on this list – we can’t even agree on what earn rate a cashback card gives sometimes – but few people would dispute that UOB EVOL is a strong cashback card deserving to be called the best for 2022. Its contemporary, OCBC FRANK, was nerfed a few months ago, leaving UOB EVOL an easy pick for Best Cashback Card of the Year.

While its “8% cashback” marketing is misleading, the UOB EVOL can easily give an effective 6.67% cashback for S$600 of spend per month. The requirements are simple and straightforward since you just need to split your spend between online and contactless payments. To top it off, UOB EVOL even works as an eligible card for UOB One Account’s requirements.

UOB EVOL

🔥 👍🏼

Get Apple Watch SE 2nd Gen worth S$382* when you sign up now!

Be the first 50 new-to-UOB Credit Cardmembers in the month to sign up and meet a min. monthly spend of S$800 within the first 2 months. 

All you need to do is to register for this promotion via an SMS to 77862 before 30 Jun 2023: SMS EVOLGIFT‹space› last 4 alpha-numeric characters of NRIC/passport (eg. EVOLGIFT 123A)

What’s more, enjoy up to S$140 cash credit# when you apply for a UOB One Account.
T&Cs apply.

Terms and conditions

Get 6.67% effective cashback on $600 of spend each month!

Despite UOB EVOL’s strengths, Maybank Family and Friends can be the superior card for many. 8% cashback is nothing to sneeze at, and the requirements for Maybank Family and Friends are not that difficult to meet since you can choose 5 categories out of 10. Once you get a regular, monthly thing going, it is a difficult card to top given how generous 8% cashback is.

Speaking of 8% cashback, the honourable mention for Best Cashback Card has to be Citi Cash Back given how easy any person or family can get essentially an 8% discount on groceries. Longtime readers should already know this “trick”, but it’s worth repeating for those who are unfamiliar: you simply buy $800 to $1,000 of supermarket vouchers with the card to meet the minimum spend of 8% cashback, then spend the vouchers over however many months you need to.

Citi Cash Back

Please note there are two different promos and select carefully:

🔥 👍🏼

Citi Promo:

  • Citi PremierMiles: 30,000 miles
  • Citi Prestige: 177,500 points and more
  • Citi Rewards: 40,000 points + S$50 FRx gift card
  • Citi Cash Back: S$300 cashback
  • Citi SMRT: S$300 cashback
  • Tap here to see Citi promos

Until 31st January 2024


SingSaver Promo

  • Dyson Supersonic™ hair dryer (worth S$699)
  • Dyson V8 Slim Fluffy (worth S$509) or
  • Apple iPad 9th Gen 10.2 Wifi 64GB (worth S$503.65) 
  • S$300 cash via PayNow

Last date to apply: 14th December 2023.

⚠️ Fill up SingSaver rewards form in email to choose your gift. No form completed = no reward given

Terms and Conditions. Click here

Sign-up Process

  1. Apply with the link
  2. Important: find SingSaver email and fill in redemption form after application; no form no reward
  3. Promo code field can be left blank
  4. Fulfil requirements as stated in terms and conditions

Credit card terms and conditions
Banking account terms and conditions
Priority banking terms and conditions

Get 8% cashback on groceries and petrol, as well as 6% on dining! Read the review here

What does 2023 hold?

Will we see even better products come 2023, or will we see nerfs? It’s anyone’s guess what’s going to happen this year, but I look forward to compiling this list again when this year comes to a close.

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.

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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).

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