Resisting 11.11 Sale

Source: AliExpress

As much as I try to spend only on things I need, sometimes you just got to give in to some of the wants.

I always manage to restraint myself when it comes to brick and mortar stores that advertise huge discounts, because its easy, you just walk right past them and don't look back. However, when it comes to the context of online shopping, you get emails on offers and discounts, even if you turn away and delete them, a new one comes in.

That was the case for this week's 11.11 event. In the span of 24-hours on 11Nov17, I've received at least 3 mailers from each online store. Multiply that by a few online store, and.. well, you get my drift..

When you receive that amount of mailers about discounts and offers, no matter how rational you think you are, it gets thrown out the window - or maybe my resolve is not strong enough, kudos to you guys who can resist the temptation.

After all, these online shops pay a lot for marketing, and if it doesn't pull the crowd in, then something is really wrong.

I am only human after all, and it is natural to be drawn to such temptations. The challenge then lies with whether or not you can control the amount you spend. It took me 3 times the amount of time to thin my cart down to only three basic items, compared to how quickly I filled my cart with all the things I wanted to buy.

Even after checking out with those 3 items, I still felt that I had spent too much. Maybe this episode would strengthen my resolve for the upcoming future sales - Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Free Shipping Day, Christmas. All these sales that the consumer industry has come up with as marketing strategy.

What about you? Did you succumb to temptation as well?

DBS New Multiplier Account

You might have already heard word going around that DBS has a NEW multiplier account! They have revamped criteria to becoming more attractive for us consumers. You can get up to 3.5% per annum depending on how many criteria you can hit! WOW.

Being the thrifty Singaporean I am, I had to check it out and compare to the OCBC 360 account I am using right now that gives 1.55-1.85%, depending on my month's spending on OCBC 365.

Image Source: DBS Multiplier

The mandatory basic criteria is that you HAVE to credit your salary with DBS/POSB and a transaction in one of the categories above. Although it is advertised that no minimum salary or credit card spending required, when referencing to the breakdown below, notice how a total transaction of <$2,000 would leave you with only the basic interest rate of 0.05%? I would have appreciate it if DBS had been more clear that the minimum transaction has to be >$2,000 per month.

Image Source: DBS Multiplier

Take into example a monthly salary of $2,500 and credit card spending of $500 (with DBS/POSB), you would get a 1.85% interest! (total amount transacted: $3,000).

Now, taking this into my own perspective, I usually use SC Unlimited Cashback Card or Amex True Cashback Card for my purchases because most months I would hardly hit >$500, let alone >$600 (OCBC 365 credit card criteria). Therefore, for most months, I usually earn 1.55% on my OCBC 360 account.

With this new DBS multiplier account, I only need to make one small purchase on a DBS/POSB credit card and I can get 1.85% interest (even charging $0.01 to my card is considered a transaction). Since the minimum spend for DBS/POSB credit cards are pretty unreachable for me - $600-$700 minimum spending, I will still stick to my no minimum cashback cards. In conclusion, DBS multiplier account is definitely better than my OCBC 360 account because of how much easier it is for me to earn a higher interest rate!

Also, comparing this new DBS multipler account to UOB's One account, if you are able to transact in 2 or more categories, then DBS multipler is definitely the way to go.

DBS is pretty aggressive, let's watch and see if the rest will play catch up.