FD for USD 3.3% by UOB

[yiwei]

That's decent by bank standards, not great by low cost brokerage standards.

Seriously, just go compare with U.S. T-bills via a low cost broker. You can buy and sell U.S. Treasuries rather easily nowadays if you want to park U.S. dollars for any period of time you wish. You can even place limit orders if you only want to buy or sell at specific prices/yields. At original issue U.S. Treasuries range from 4 week T-bills to 30 year bonds. You also have the option to buy and sell U.S. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) which are available in 5, 10, and 30 year maturities at original issue. TIPS are inflation-indexed (a.k.a. real return) bonds, meaning their yields are pegged to the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Individual U.S. Treasuries are completely U.S. tax free (for non-U.S. persons who are tax residents of Singapore), they're the safest available vehicles for holding U.S. dollars, AND the yields are higher than what banks in Singapore are offering on uninsured U.S. dollar deposits. What's not to like?

Every adult living in Singapore should have access to U.S. Treasuries through low cost brokers. However, some Singapore residents may also have these choices available:

• If you have a U.S. Social Security Number (SSN, which is yours for life — even if you got one as an international student 20 years ago in the U.S.) and a U.S. bank or U.S. credit union account, you may be eligible to buy U.S. Treasuries and U.S. Savings Bonds directly through TreasuryDirect.gov. (Series I U.S. Savings Bonds are pretty interesting, actually.)
• Your favorite low cost broker might offer other low risk ways to park U.S. dollars, notably "brokered CDs" (Certificates of Deposit). Brokered CDs are equivalent to fixed deposits. Your broker arranges the CD with a U.S. bank or U.S. credit union, and the yield you see is the yield you get. CDs enjoy deposit insurance of at least US$250,000. Brokered CD yields can be higher than comparable U.S. Treasury yields.

Actually I only wanted to highlight the exchange rate, because it is contrary to most other banks where the rate is not so good, as the discussion was about changing fx with bank is marked up. Not saying I am going to place my USD there, in fact even the money market funds are offering ~3.5% (not guaranteed I know) and better flexibility.

 

[wutawa]

Oh, the UOB mightyfx exchange rate usually is quite good, I'm looking at 1SGD to 0.7822USD in the app at the moment and xe mid market rate is
1.00 SGD = 0.78242078 USD

but ya, putting FX fixed deposit will always carry more risk, so DDODD.

0.03% based on your figures
this beats all other banks and most brokers

 

[henrylbh]

Guys anyone tried deposit fresh fund and FD in USD? Any gimmick? Why so good 3.3%?

Get real, any FD in foreign currency is NOT what it is. Worst if it's not your functional currency.

 

[CrashWire]

0.03% based on your figures
this beats all other banks and most brokers

UOB spread is great, but there's no way to easily/cheaply transfer USD in and out of UOB.