The effective interest rate for May 2020 Singapore Savings Bonds (GX20050A) is 1.39% if you held it for 10 years. Due to the COVID-19 situation, this is the lowest interest rate that was offered by Singapore Savings Bonds since inception. The minimum amount you can purchase for Singapore Savings Bonds is S$500. If you decide to hold and sell it for 1 year, the effective interest rate is 0.96% which is worst than what fixed deposits can offer. But of course most fixed deposit requires a minimum sum of at least 10K. If you are unable to fork out 10K at the moment, Singapore Savings Bonds is still a good place to dump your money to earn interests.
Last month, NTUC Income has released their single premium savings plan (“NTUC Capital Plus“) with a guaranteed return of 2.13% per annum over 3 years. There is a minimum sum requirement of 5K. I have purchased it using my Supplementary Retirement Scheme fund.
On 1st January 2020, DBS Bank has notified that the dividends from CDP will no longer qualify under the investment category for DBS Multiplier Account. This means that the reason for purchasing Singapore Savings Bonds for the purpose of additional interest for DBS Multiplier Account is no longer valid.
Tracking Singapore Savings Bonds via Stocks Café
My favorite website, Stocks Café has introduced a new feature to allow adding of Singapore Savings Bonds into your portfolio. If you didn’t know, I signed up as a Friend of Stocks Café as my most favorite feature of Stocks Café is the automated tracking of dividends payout.
This is the third year that I continue to use Stocks Café to track my dividends.
Tracking Singapore Savings Bonds via My Savings Bonds Portal
MAS has launched My Savings Bonds Portal where you can track your Singapore Savings Bonds purchases separately from your stock purchases. I have done up a simple guide here. (Read more: Guide to My Savings Bonds Portal)