UOB Stash savings account review: Does it live up to its name?

A stash-and-forget account is essentially one that allows you to put aside extra money at a good interest rate. You don’t need to do any action except maybe increase your balance month on month. The UOB Stash is one such account.

Does it live up to its name as a decent stash-and-forget savings account in Singapore? Let’s look at its pros and cons.

Note: This article reflects the latest UOB Stash account interest rate changes, as of Jan 1, 2022.

UOB Stash savings account at a glance

How does the UOB Stash savings account work? 

While other active savings accounts like UOB One and OCBC 360 offer more attractive interest rates, these accounts require you to fulfil transactional criteria like credit card spend, crediting your salary and others. The UOB Stash account requires none of those and lets you earn up to 1per cent interest. 

The UOB Stash account also has low entry barriers such as a low minimum initial deposit of $1,000 and a low fall-below fee of $2. 

The initial savings amount below $10,000 will earn you a mediocre 0.05per cent interest. However, from $10,000 onwards, you are eligible for bonus interest if you meet these requirements:

• Maintain a monthly average balance (MAB) above $10,000 
• Maintain or increase your MAB compared to the previous month

Potential pitfalls of the UOB Stash Savings Account 

To ensure you maintain or increase your MAB, you may need to restrict your withdrawals and keep tabs on your deposited amount.

If you foresee that you will need a large sum of money within the next 12 months, you probably should go for something without this requirement like the CIMB FastSaver.

The best way to make the most out of UOB Stash is to treat it purely as a stash account and draw from your active savings account instead. This way the funds in your UOB Stash account can be left to grow. 

Also, if your savings go beyond $100,000, the interest on your account will revert back to 0.05 per cent interest. In that case, you are better off saving your overflow cash elsewhere. 

In that case, you might want to check out some of the 2022 fixed deposit promotions going on right now.

UOB Stash vs Citibank MaxiGain vs CIMB FastSaver — which is the best?

The Citibank MaxiGain, UOB Stash and CIMB FastSaver are all stash accounts. So who’s the winner here?

Let’s look at the once-popular CIMB FastSaver account, which, like UOB, has also slashed its interest rates as of Jan 1, 2022:

CIMB FastSaver account
Interest rate (first $10,000)	0.3 per cent
Interest rate (next $65,000)	0.3 per cent
Interest rate (>$75,000)	0.15 per cent

Both accounts look equally bad when it comes to interest rates, but CIMB FastSaver has a slight edge. While you have to maintain at least S$1,000 in your CIMB FastSaver Account on any given day to earn interest, you will not be charged fall-below fees.

The Citi MaxiGain account is similar to the UOB Stash in that you need to maintain or increase your account balance to earn bonus interest. You get an extra 0.05per cent every month but to note, this is capped at 0.60 per cent. Meh.

Verdict: Given the poor interest rates offered by all 3 accounts, we’d say to go with the CIMB FastSaver as it has the fewest account requirements to meet.

So, who should use UOB Stash?

We would say that the UOB Stash account is suitable for those with plenty of spare cash (up to $100,000) to squirrel away, and who prefer to bank with UOB rather than CIMB.

The increasing MAB criterion makes it similar to a fixed deposit, but a bit more liquid. You can still withdraw cash; simply make sure to top up your account before the month is up to qualify for bonus interest.

It’s also easier to bank with UOB as there are branches and ATMs everywhere, and their i-banking interface is decent. Can’t say the same for CIMB.

How to open a UOB Stash account

The UOB Stash savings account is very straightforward as a “passive” savings account. Even if you don’t have a lot of savings now, you can gradually work your way towards increasing your savings which in turn increases your interest rate. 

Setting up the account can be easily done online which saves you the time and hassle. You can set it up instantly by retrieving your personal information via MyInfo and no other submission of documents is required.

This article was first published in MoneySmart.