Bank::BOC #.8+.9+.5>4.2ppa

Posted on by tiger40490 rendered_on [ Thu, 6 Mar 2025 ] 18:14 UTC

Under HistoricalTransactions, each transaction has a new balance figure 🙂

See also BOC.sg RMB facilities

Since late 2024, BOC charges $0 penalty for premature FixD withdrawal, any currency.

— to reduce card-loss hazard on dCard

Consumption limit (paywave) = $500 done
dCard xfer limit = $0

— RMB banknotes ..
Free deposit of all notes up to Rmb 10, better than icbc.sg (Rmb100).
Free withdrawal of big notes. Withdraw then convert on street.

BOC.sg has  FX rate for physical RMB (electronic same rate), comparable to Singapore money changer rates. This is a free-market rate not gov-controlled. I call it the Singapore street rate.
— UsdFixD:

To reduce manual operations, Prefer very few deposits of large quantum + longer tenor.

Placement can be done on mobile 9-5 Mon-Fri. Outside those hours, placement is disallowed.

— manual rollover of Rmb ^ USD
If OTC, then give instruction. Upon UsdFixD maturity, fund will stay in the FixD account. Afterwards, I can transfer it to my MCSA any time. Immediate.

If self-service, then choose no-rollover.

I can place a new FixD any time after maturity

Rule: some days after rollover, you can withdraw Rmb premature, and lose accrued interest only. Principal unaffected, despite the warning on GUI. However, for USD, premature (withdrawal) penalty eats into principal.

— SgdFixD: Can withdraw pre-maturity and receive 0.1% pa as a “condolence interest payout”. Confirmed: 20k over 8D earned me interest of $0.44 = 20k * 0.1% * (8/365)

— MCS EOD balance snapshot.. methodology confirmed by email. Concrete examples confirmed by phone. See email [1:06pm 5 May 2023]
— MCS [multi-currency savings] account is indeed nice2have. Enables fund transfer to other banks.

MCS promotion rules are harder than EGA, but better than other banks’ rules. Every free-money promotion has pros and cons.

  • fall-below fee
  • 0.1~0.4 ppa base interest .. see below. In addition, there is a bonus int (paid on the first 100k of ADB):
  • .. 2.5 ppa based on payroll, since Jan 2023
  • .. 0.9 ppa based on 3 bill-pay $30 each.
  • card spend .. 0.5/0.8% if $500/1.5k. Note “card spend” includes dCards 🙂
  • still more bonus items .. see https://www.bankofchina.com/sg/pbservice/pb1/202212/t20221230_22348761.html
  • ^^^ realized DIR usually exceeds $353/30D ~ 4.2 ppa+

bill payment:

  • Settlement is usually 1~3 business days after user action. If settlement falls in Jan, you score a Jan bill-pay 🙁
  • Prefer BillPaymentTransactionInquiry, which shows payee
  • Adding bill payee doesn’t need OTP or token 🙂
  • Some payee accounts would not show incoming payments very promptly.  IRAS and MB are slow. SPService, HSBC, eccard  are prompt.
  • — In general, prefer SPower, IRAS, SCB,,,, Hope to keep $0 in HSBC, eccard
  • SCB ccard .. a suitable payee. BOC bill payment can wipe out entire current balance.
  • SPower ..Good credibility and no “en-route” complication
  • IRAS …. Good credibility and  no “en-route” complication _but_ bad sys2 workload if you need recon, monitoring.

$500/M card spend.. Prefer large spends or [w=warehouse accounts]

  • Unposted dCard transaction details … available on SMS, not webank
  • settlement date (not transaction date)
  • AXS/SAM excluded 🙁
  • PacificLight .. on 3 Apr 2024 I set up auto-pay. I hope this would simplify my effort to meet $500/M. If not, then I can always go back to Giro.
  • [w] town council fees.. must go onsite, not AXS.
  • [w] SgPow… visit HDB9 to pay any amount up to 3x the current balance. Need to print out the bill.
  • [w] cmlink
  • [w] ActiveSg wallet might accept it
  • PacLight … no way to use dCard without AXS

Base int .. accrued daily, compounded monthly. Flat rate on entire EOD balance

  • 0.4 ppa if ADB > 100k. For example, if on a given day, balance is 101k, daily accrual = $1.1 [101k * 0.4 ppa /365]

USD check:

  • deposit is free;
  • issuing to self, first cheque free each day

— refresh screen .. may need to (click the X on the top right) close the page and retry. This procedure is simpler than re-login.

— online fund transfer .. 实体 (not soft) token unconditionally required for sensitive operations:

  • add payee
  • increase transfer limit (impossible on mobile banking)
  • large transfers

For smaller transfers, SMS OTP ( physical token not usable; hotline can’t override it ) is unconditionally required. If slow, then no choice must retry but not too frequent please.