Maximising benefits from cashless payments - OCBC 360 and NETS FlashPay

Disclaimer: I am not paid by any companies mentioned here to write this. I am writing this purely because it is really a productivity improvement to maximise benefits from cashless payments. All computations are in S$.

Possibly the best savings rates in 2014 -- OCBC 360 Savings Account

I had signed up the OCBC 360 account 6 months ago and had been reaping the full benefits from the account - 3.05% p.a. interest paid monthly on account balances up to $50,000 when you satisfy 3 conditions, which essentially are promoting cashless payments.

1. Your employer credits your salary into the OCBC 360 savings account through GIRO. (1%)
2. You perform 3 online bill payments a month. (1%) 
3. You spend at least S$400 on your OCBC credit cards (combined). (1%)

#2: These bill payments include your own OCBC credit card(s) or non-OCBC bank credit card(s) payments. If you sign up for GIRO payment of bills (e.g. credit card, utilities, town council, income tax, property tax, etc.) you literally can ignore the tracking of payment status of these bills.

#3: If you charge your recurring bills from utilities, handphone, internet, town council, etc. to your OCBC credit card, these amounts will still count towards the spending requirement.

Why am I sold?

There are certain expenses that I will definitely incur, so I should maximise my benefits from these expenses.

Assuming you have these monthly recurring bills:

• Utilities ($100)
• Handphone ($30)
• Internet ($40)
• Town Countil ($50)

Total: $220

What this means is that out of the $400 minimum spend, I will need to spend another $180 to qualify for the bonus.

This is where we start to look at NETS FlashPay

Other potential monthly expenses:

• Public transport - Train/bus ($80)
• Food court
• Medical 

Depending on our consumption, the amount varies, but the important thing here is the Auto Top-Up facility by GIRO or Credit Card. 

By linking to the top-up to your OCBC 360 account, every top-up will count as 1 bill payment.

By linking to the top-up to your OCBC Credit card, every top-up will count towards the $400 spending requirement.

Most optimised approach is to top-up with an OCBC credit card because it is very easy to get 3 bill payments if you have 3 credit cards.

Caveat: Top-up service fee is $0.25 per top-up, but waived until 31 Dec 2015. If you sign up now, you even get $5 cashback, which means you are paid to sign up. $5 will cover 20 top-ups. Just choose to top-up the maximum of $50 each time, and $1000 (20 x $50) cashless payments through FlashPay will probably last a year.

Note 1: OCBC Frank credit card has auto top-up activated before they send the card to you, so if you try to set up the auto top-up, it will fail. I learnt it the hard way.

Note 2: Auto Top-up only works at tap points at MRT and buses only, not at NETS merchants.

Which 3 credit cards?

1. NTUC Plus card for Link Points
2. Frank card for 6% rebates for online purchases if you spend $500 on the card, capped at $60/month. (particularly useful when you buy air tickets)
3. Titanium card for the NETS FlashPay top-up because currently only Mastercard is supported, except UOB Visa.

More perks for NETS FlashPay

1. 5% for Comfort cab expenses (min $30 a month), suitable if you take cab a lot. There is a transaction fee of $0.30, so to breakeven and benefit, you use FlashPay when $0.30 is less than 5% of your cab fare, i.e. $6, inclusive of booking fees and ERP charges. Unless your cab ride is less than 5 minutes, I am quite sure you will have to pay at least $6. You can also sign up for CAB rewards to get points everytime you use EZ-link or FlashPay to pay cab fares. Get $5 voucher when you accumulate 1000 points. If you sign up now, you get 800 bonus points, which is worth $4.
2. Some food court stall with NETS terminals accept NETS FlashPay too. Even hawker centres has a pilot set up! Beo Crescent and Clementi 448.
3. General Practitioner (GP) Clinics that have NETS terminals accept NETS FlashPay too. For me, I visit Ma Kuang (TCM) and they accept NETS FlashPay.

Lucky Draws:

1. $5000 cash until 31 Dec 2014.
2. Win a unit at Stratum Condo and 20 winners get $1000 cash.

Conclusion:

• I benefit from OCBC 360, which is a maximum of $1525 a year ($127/month), based on 3.05% of $50000.
• I benefit from NETS FlashPay by charging my previous cash expenses to the credit card by choosing to auto-up my FlashPay card by Credit Card.
• Saves time topping up cards, payment bills, etc. 
• My time savings are spent on personal development, researching for investment opportunities, and sleep.