I'm an Ozbargainer and I've recently been offered a job in Singapore which I intend to take and I believe I'll be heading over in a few months. Do you guys have any tips for me, in general?
I might post this on Ozbargain as well and see if I get much advice over there as it's obviously still quite a fair bit more active than here.
Here's what I'm curious about at this stage:
- Banking - best transaction account? best high interest savings account (although I've heard interest rates are crap)? Someone did ask this earlier and there are some decent tips but things can change in a year :P
- Credit Cards - I'm currently extremely familiar with the Australian Credit Card market (I kinda made the Credit Card Wiki on Ozbargain? haha). I'm aware AMEX has a transfer program for when you migrate to certain countries (and I know Singapore is one of them) so I do intend to explore this
- Accomomdation - I'm aware of the options of HDB vs Condo and that condos are generally more expensive and have a gym/pool. Personally, I don't feel a condo is a necessity. I would probably even consider getting a cheaper HDB with an additional bedroom and Airbnb-ing out a spare room?
- Phone plans - I'm a SIM slut in Australia. I kinda feel this won't be a thing that I'll be able to continue to do in SG.
- Purchasing Electronics (TV, washing machine, microwave, etc.) - In Australia I would either look at paying on a Credit Card with extended warranty + points, or look at buying discounted 5% Woolies eGift Cards to buy JB Hi-Fi Gift Cards to then buy electronics. I would also look at price matching etc.
- Furniture - similar to above. Or should I look for a furnished place..? Is there a gumtree equivalent? I know there's Carousell.
- Investments - Given interest accounts have pretty low rates.. what do people normally do with their money?
- Visa (looking ahead) - PR application, if I intend to stay long term? What should I consider?
- Health Insurance/Medicare equivalent? - I've heard that medical care is quite expensive
- Food hacks, booking portals, payment apps? I know hawkers are pretty cheap as it is.. but is there something like Dimmi, Qantas Restaurants, Liven, Groupon from Australia? I've heard of GrabPay and FavePay (FavePay is what replaced Groupon)
- Discounts (or cashback/points earn) to top up EZLink? For example in Sydney, you can use discounted Woolies eGift Cards to top up your Opal card at a Woolworths
- Anything you think I should do/get in Australia before leaving?
Thanks in advance guys!
Hi illumination,
I am an Aussie in Singapore for a few years, and do browse ozbargain and cheapcheaplah frequently. hope I can help you out on some below:
BANKING: standard interest rate is about 0.10%, to be fair mortgage is only 1.7% currently. Lately mostly banks are offering interest rates near 3% if you achieve a few things, e.g. deposit your salary into it, pay 3 bills, use their credit to hit certain limit, or hold some investment product with them. Most caps the deposit this 3% applies to around $50-70k. You really need to do your own research on the suitable package, main banks to consider DBS, UOB, OCBC, Citibank, HSBC, Maybank, Bank of China.
CREDIT CARD: if you are into miles, the equivalent of POINTHACKS in australia is milelion.com in Singapore, so check that out. Most banks here are pushing heavily on Paywave and Online transactions, for cashback cards, you can achieve around 5% rebate on them. In Singapore Paywave is PIN free below $200, so very handy. Here credit card companies generally separate the spending categories into Paywave, Online, Dining, Grocery, Entertainment, Government (no rebates), Hospital, Petrol, Foreign Currency. So you need to pick the one that suits your spending habit.
ACCOMODATION: yeah, HDB not bad too, they can still have nice renovation inside. There is also Executive Condo, which is a HDB built to Condo standard.
PHONE: Most companies have a company plan with telco's called CIS, which give you around 25% discount on the regular rate. Telcos here try to package sell pay tv and broadband. so get a package. interest is super cheap here and yet faster than nbn in australia. 3 main telcos Singtel (owns Optus), M1, Starhub, fee structure all very similar. TPG coming as the 4th telco soon.
PURCHASE ELECTRONICS: Online shopping, Lazada, Amazon Prime, Qoo10. Offline Harvey Norman, Courts, Best Denki (they have a credit card for 8% off) TV is cheaper is Australia. Oh, if you use cashrewards in aus, the one in singapore is shopback.sg (which also recently expanded to aus and advertised on ozbargain). There is a big electronic fair at Expo or Suntec every quarter where you can find some promo bargains.
FURNITURE: Yes, Carousell has overtaken gumtree by far. There are some malls dedicated for furniture.
INVESTMENT: Goes back to the banking question, banks tries to tie everything together. You can always fx and deposit back into Aus too.
VISA: PR status here is still very similar to a foreigner status, apart from long term residence, it allows you to have a superannuation account here called CPF and lowers your stamp duty on property purchase. that's pretty much it.
HEALTH: I was worried about medical when first thought about coming, because in Australia we are covered by medicare. After I got here, all the companies purchase health insurance for employees as standard, which covers all GP costs, specialist with caps. So it is actually even cheaper than Australia, because I don't even have to pay for medicine cost. check with the hr on the coverage.
FOOD: FAVE (ex Groupon), food delivery - Food Panda, Grab, UberEat.
EZLINK: You can now use your MasterCard as Ezlink directly, so just shop for the best rebate you can get on your MasterCard. Alternatively some credit cards have discounts for Ezlink topups 1-5%.
ANYTHING ELSE: Cash FX rates in Singapore is the best in the world, common currency bid/ask spread is within 1%. So don't change too much aud to sgd cash.