Bank of China Fixed Deposit - 1.15% 12 months for $50,000

Bank of China has launched a Fixed Deposit promotion from 19th June.  This new FD is now slightly better than ICICI/CIMB/Maybank's FD which offer 1.10%.  The minimum deposit amount for BOC FD is S$50,000.

This promotion is valid for customers with fresh funds only, meaning it is not applicable for money transferred from existing BOC accounts.

There are few branches of BOC in Singapore:
1. Battery Road (BOC Building),
2. Chinatown branch (Furama Hotel),
3. Katong branch (188-192 East Coast Road),
4. Middle Road (BOC Plaza),
5. Maxwell Road (Maxwell House).

According to BOC's website, this promotion is for a limited period only.

Promotion Details:

	SGD Time Deposits Promotional Interest Rates % p.a.
	3-Month	6-Month	9-Month	12-Month
S$50,000 and above	0.55%	0.85%	0.95%	1.15%

Alternative Investments ???

The last two years, through my friends and cold calls from some sales agents, I came across some alternative investments that guaranteed or assured crazy returns.  Some of them are:

- Hong Kong Land Asset Acquisition, 100 to 200% returns in 5-7 years
- Brazil Opportunity investment, assured 64% return in 36 months
- German Government Listed Building Projects, 24% return in 24 months
- Brazil Global Forestry Investments,  Fixed 10%-12.5% yearly returns with assured 5% capital appreciation on exit in 36 months
- Detroit Exit Strategy (house flipping), Fixed 15% in 12 months
- Canada Crude oil, assured 3% continual payout every 3 months for 24 months
- Phuket Nikki Beach  (Buy-to-let hotel investment) - 5% Fixed returns annually

I have attended one of the seminars and I have serious doubts on these investments:

- most of the companies offering these investments are new and have no proven track record

- why these Brazilian, US, German, Canadian, etc, come all the way to Singapore and pay such high returns to the investors, when they should be able to obtain much cheaper loans from their national banks?

- these companies said "due diligence" was used to research these overseas projects and assured people that these are safe investments.  But how true is this?

- some companies presented testimonies from such "first generation" investors to convince people that these investments really pay.  To me, even if these testimonies are true, they do not make the investment more safe.  They actually make it more dangerous. First generation investors, after tasted sweet (or bait?), most likely will pump in more money into the investment and also drafting family members and friends to join.  These companies are collecting a bigger pool of money in the 2nd iteration of these investments on people's greed.

- lastly, most of the sales people are saying that these investment opportunities will not last and telling people not to miss the boat.

Although the jury is still out on whether these are ponzi schemes, and no risk no gain, but Caveat Emptor !

What are the break even prices for my holdings?

On the recent volatility of the stock market, one of my friends asked me whether to liquidate all the stock holdings?  Actually, the stock market is just back to the level at beginning of 2013; and the sentiment back then was good and people were rushing in.

After the experience of the CLOB shares, my money in the stock market are excess money that I do not need in the short time horizon, and I sleep well in this recent stock market correction.

On curiosity's sake, I ran a calculation on the break even price on my holdings, taking into consideration of all the dividends collected and the commission chargeable.  In general, except a few holdings in red, the rest are in very good shape.

No.	Stock Name	Lots	Portfolio%	Avg Cost$	Breakeven$
1	Starhub	5	19.58	3.22	2.92
2	SPH	4	16.68	3.98	3.68
3	SGX	2	14.45	2.68	0.97
4	CapitaLand	2	6.76	3.91	3.69
5	CapitaMall Trust	3	6.30	1.71	1.24
6	CDL HTrust	3	5.39	1.66	1.22
7	Starhill Global	6	5.10	0.71	0.58
8	Suntec Reit	3	5.05	1.52	1.21
9	SingTel	1.2	4.36	3.21	3.05
10	Hyflux	2.5	3.27	1.70	1.58
11	HPH Trust	3	2.87	0.90	0.88
12	FE Orchard	1	2.10	1.18	0.94
13	CapitaMalls Asia	1	1.87	2.12	2.06
14	AIMS AMPI Reit	1	1.61	1.70	1.76
15	CitySpring	3	1.41	0.65	0.49
16	Sing Post	1	1.28	0.875	0.73
17	FE HTrust	1	1.00	0.93	0.94
18	SP Ausnet	0.7	0.94	0	0

My Stock Portfolio @ end May 2013

No.	STOCK NAME	LOTS	PORTFOLIO%	AVG COST $
1	Starhub	5	19.58	3.22
2	SPH	4	16.68	3.98
3	SGX	2	14.45	2.68
4	CapitaLand	2	6.76	3.91
5	CapitaMall Trust	3	6.30	1.71
6	CDL HTrust	3	5.39	1.66
7	Starhill Global	6	5.10	0.71
8	Suntec Reit	3	5.05	1.52
9	SingTel	1.2	4.36	3.21
10	Hyflux	2.5	3.27	1.70
11	HPH Trust	3	2.87	0.90
12	FE Orchard	1	2.10	1.18
13	CapitaMalls Asia	1	1.87	2.12
14	AIMS AMPI Reit	1	1.61	1.70
15	CitySpring	3	1.41	0.65
16	Sing Post	1	1.28	0.875
17	FE HTrust	1	1.00	0.93
18	SP Ausnet	0.7	0.94	0

Movement in my portfolio in May:-
Sold:- Yeo Hiap Seng
Bought:- Suntec Reit.

Dividends collected in May: $1,306.11
2013 avg dividends/month: $390.38

May was a milestone month for me.  This was the first time that my dividends harvest exceeded $1,000 in a single month.

June's Fixed Deposit Rates Update - 1.10% p.a.

RHB Bank's "Ground Shattering Interest Rate" Fixed Deposit promotion was over.  

I have found out that ICICI Bank has a HiSAVE Fixed Deposit offering 1.10% p.a. for a 12 months tenure and have added ICICI Bank to my list of high interest FD.

The highest interest rate in the market now is 1.10% p.a., offered by 3 banks.

1. ICICI Bank

HiSAVE Fixed Deposit is an online fixed deposit account linked with the HiSAVE online Savings Account and all monetary inflow and outflow of funds happens online from and to such HiSave accounts.  Minimum placement sum for HiSAVE Fixed Deposit account is $1,000.

HiSAVE online savings account starts from as little as $1.  No minimum balance requirements and no monthly fees.

2. CIMB Bank

The promotional interest rate now is 1.10% p.a. for 12 months tenure.  Minimum placement sum $25,000.

3. Maybank

The promotional interest rate now is 1.10% p.a. for 12 months tenure.  Minimum placement sum $60,000.

No.	BANK	MIN. PLACEMENT SUM $	TENURE months	INTEREST % P.A.
1	ICICI Bank	1,000	12	1.10
2	CIMB Bank	25,000	12	1.10
3	Maybank	60,000	12	1.10

Related post:

May's Fixed Deposit Rates Update

Maybank Fixed Deposit


Please let me know if there is better offer in the market.