Which Bank?

THIS IS IN PARTS

PART I: My PB journey

PART II: Where to Park Cash

PART I: Priority/Privilege/Premier Banking 

I started my privilege banking journey when UOB one day upgraded my account to privilege banking even though I had hardly any funds with them. Maybe it was because my main credit card spend was with them? 

However, the first Priority Banking account I actually applied for was Stanchart. Previously, Stanchart online trading had no minimum commissions for everyone but later restricted it to priority banking accounts only. Also, PB accounts get slightly better trading commission rates. 

Recently in 2021, I applied for OCBC Premier Banking in order to get a Mastercard with lifetime fee waiver, because Amazon was threatening to impose surcharges on Visa payments.

Stanchart hardly any ATMs?

Long time ago, the ATM network of a bank was important as we were very much a cash-based society, so banks with good ATM networks like OCBC/UOB's joint network were very useful. I don't like DBS because their ATM always has long queues. But nowadays, withdrawing cash is really not as crucial as it was previously, which opens the door to considering the banks with smaller ATM networks (less operational costs for them too).

Stanchart Priority Banking

SCB priority banking is great and the "easiest" to qualify for because the $200k AUM includes stocks, retail bonds, plus the cash in your bank account. However, I would add that its entirely possible that OCBC/UOB the AUM is for show and they semi-randomly 'upgrade' people to PB even though they don't apply for it (based on some internet threads and my experience with UOB).

Furthermore, it comes with actual benefits

• No minimum comm stock trading, and lower trading comms. 
• USD High Account with USD Mastercard and chequebook (free). Have written about this a lot. You change S$ to US$ at 0.4%, spend using this card, get 2% cashback (less 1% overseas transaction charge unless you pay via Paypal SG, then no transaction charge - yet you get 2% cashback!). Much better than other bank Visa cards.
• Priority Pass. Its free, but I didn't bother to apply for it because I have no use for it. Its useful for those that travel a lot within the US because you get access to the USA domestic airline lounges (which are not that fantastic by the way). But give my a Krisflyer lounge anytime (or Qantas)
• Blue Visa Infinite card.  With no annual fee so far - some say they deduct your points at the end of the year to pay for it - they didn't deduct mine but if you are scared just redeem all the points before card renewal. However, its benefits are not huge. UOBs Privilege Banking Visa Signature has better benefits.
• Wall Street Journal Subscription (edit - promotion ended). May not be a permanent thing but PB you get 1 yr complimentary WSJ subscription. Hey at least thats better than OCBC/UOB.
• Better FD rates. Genuinely better FD rates than anything OCBC/UOB can come up with, either in S$ or US$.

UOB Privilege Banking

I haven't a clue what benefits UOB/ OCBC PB has.

UOB I admittedly do get a very nice UOB Privilege Banking Visa Signature with good rewards and lifetime fee waiver.

But I've not gotten any other benefits. If you want their UOB PB Visa Infinite, there's no automatic waiver of annual fees so why bother? I can't see any benefit in UOB PB apart from this card.

As for OCBC, I don't think there's any free credit card for Premier Banking. The RM asked me to sign up for PB with the AUM requirement waived and I asked what free stuff there was and I don't think there was anything (I guess its easy to waive AUM requirements for Premier Banking when the customer doesn't get any free stuff - i.e. minimal to zero additional cost to give u PB status) The OCBC Voyage metal card there is also no automatic waiver. .

Update on OCBC Premier Banking

I finally signed up with OCBC PB since signup is free and because I thought I needed the free World Elite Mastercard because I only have Visa and Amazon was threatening to impose a surcharge on Visa payments (It was in the end a negotiating tactic to force Visa to lower its charges which it did, and there is current no surcharge).  Other than the Debit card, they sent me the OCBC Premier Banking Visa Infinite with lifetime fee waiver which I haven't actually used. I guess if they discontinue my current main card, I'll switch to this. However, the OCBC Voyage card, there is no lifetime fee waiver, so I was not interested.

PART II: Where to Park Cash

Each of the major banks offers some high-interest account that requires you to do a variety of things, such as salary crediting, credit card spend etc. Some are so desperate to earn the interest that they open multiple accounts and credit their salary into multiple accounts.

Frankly, I don't think its worth the hassle, so I am currently sticking to OCBC. On and off, DBS Multiplier looks attractive, but not so much to make me want to change banks. I like the OCBC ATM network - less queues.

2022 update: I think places to park cash change so much, it would be hard for me to constantly update this, so readers can check my blog for what I'm parking cash in at the moment.