Standard Charted Bank

Made a quick trip to Standard Charted Bank to open up a eSaver account during lunch hours. Pretty fast serving rates by tellers. Thought the teller should be able to fulfil my request of opening an account but somehow I got referred to another person. Not sure what's his title, maybe personal banker ?

This guy was telling me about mobile/non mobile saving, how much saving I m looking at per month and displaying comparison chart on ROI of different products. I m not looking to long term saving at that point of time as I got a few saving policies on hand + no intention of reducing my current cash flow.

After I make it clear to him that I m there for only the esaver account, things became much quicker. He proceed with the registration and paper documents after getting my clear signal. Somehow I sensed sarcasm when he asked me for the amount to deposit, "How much do you intend to deposit with us today?" Follow by almost immediate, "A dollar?" I had been asked the same question before but it just feel different today.

Here's the story how I landed up in Standard Charted today.
Got this eSaver information from a friend, she showed me this $e-Saver brochure last year end and recommended me to open an account with them. Why ? She's not working for the bank. It's the attractive interest rate, 1.88% PA.

Well it didn't catch my eyes initially. But 1 years later, I started research on interest rates of saving account offered by common brand of namely, HSBC, OCBC, DBS, UOB, MayBank, interest rates varies from 0.25 to 1.25 % depending on the amount.

Well if you think there isn't much different on where you put your cash, take out a calculator and complete the problem sum.

Jaslyn has a active saving account of $5000 with Xyz bank. Xyz bank offer a interest rate of 0.25% PA. Joyce has a active saving account of $5000 with Abc bank. Abc bank offer a interest rate of 1.88% PA. If both of them did not make and withdrawal/deposit for the next 12mths,
1) What is the payout interest for each of them ?
2) What the difference in amount between their accounts?

Selling points,
* High Interest Rates, 1.88% for amount less than 50k
* NO lock-in period.
* NO monthly fees.
* NO minimum deposit.
* NO minimum balance.
* NO fixed term.
* NO statements to file.
* NO ATM cards, passbooks or cheque books to lose.

Now the crons,
1)e$aver is a Savings Account that can only be operated via Phone Banking or Internet Banking. 2)Withdrawals at branch counters will incur a $5 service fee.

More info of eSaver