facebookIs the UOB One Account suitable for students? - Seedly

Anonymous

02 Jan 2020

Saving Hacks

Is the UOB One Account suitable for students?

The requirement is to meet $500 card spend + 3 giro cc every month.

  1. Does giro payment for monthly bills count towards the $500 spend? Or does it have to be retail/offline spend?

  2. As a student, I won’t be eligible for CC. Will this account still be suitable with a UOB one debit card?

Discussion (2)

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Pang Zhe Liang

02 Jan 2020

Fee-Based Financial Advisory Manager at Financial Alliance Pte Ltd (IFA Firm)

In order to maximise the interest earned from your UOB One account, you will need to meet the eligible spend from the UOB One card on each calendar month.

Eligible Spend: Minimum $500 on the card every month.

Furthermore, in order to maximise the cash rebate from the UOB One credit card, you will need to spend $500 or $1,000 monthly for a consecutive billing quarter to receive 3% cashback. If you spend $2,000 monthly for a consecutive billing quarter, you will receive 5% cashback.

This cashback from the credit card is on top of the interest earned from the UOB One account.

For your case, GIRO payment does not count towards the $500 spend. Instead, the $500 spending must come from the UOB One credit card.

For your second question, yes, instead of using the credit card facility, you may use UOB One debit card as it is an eligible card to be used in conjunction with UOB One account. Accordingly, you will still receive the additional interest on your UOB One account if the conditions are met.

Having mentioned the above points, I will suggest you to understand your cashflow first. Through this process, we will understand our earning ability and spending habit. Here is a guide to help you: https://www.blog.pzl.sg/understanding-your-pers...

This process is especially important as a student where you will want to keep expenses low. As a result, you may wish to evaluate if spending $500 every month is sustainable for you. Otherwise, you may wish to consider other alternatives.

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Mark Chan

02 Jan 2020

Business Manager at Amobee

Hi!

Does giro payment for monthly bills count towards the $500 spend? Or does it have to be retail/offline spend?

As you have mentioned, the $500 spend is for Credit Card spend only, and not for GIRO. Since GIRO entails direct debiting from your account, it will not be possible to stack this as Credit Card spend.

As a student, I won’t be eligible for CC. Will this account still be suitable with a UOB one debit card?

Based on the T&Cs online, "A One Account will be eligible for Bonus Interest A if the Primary Holder successfully charges a minimum required sum in a calendar month on retail transactions to such UOB credit card and/or UOB debit card as determined by us."

So yes, it is possible. I'd recommend writing in to their customer service via this form here to ask them about the specific debit card you'd like to use.

All said, since you are a student, I would highly recommend non-hurdle accounts such as the SCB JumpStart which pays an attractive 2% p.a. interest albeit at a cap of $20,000 balance. Only caveat is that you have to be between 18 - 26 years old.

Hope this helps!

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