Singapore is one of the most advanced countries in the world when it comes to digital banking. The country’s mobile penetration reached 158.8% in 2021 and its digital financial services are one of the world’s most competitive and regulated. With such supportive space, many banks have turned digital and more neobanks, also known as digital-only banks, keep showing up. One of Singapore's latest digital banks on the block is Trust, and let us tell you more about it!
In September 2022, multinational bank Standard Chartered and the giant retail FairPrice Group joint ventured and created Trust Bank, a hyperlocal digital banking service for Singapore. Trust claims themselves to be very customer-centric and they don’t plan to stop developing further products and features based on their customers' feedback.
As of Q4 2022, there are 3 main product lines that Trust Bank offers, and everything is 100% online: savings account, credit card, and family personal accident insurance. To start accessing Trust’s products, customers can sign up for a Trust account via the mobile app in minutes with a SingPass account and they can immediately access their digital cards. The Trust app also offers two language options for users to choose from, English and Mandarin.
The unique selling proposition with Trust’s savings account is how much you can save as someone who stays in Singapore. Customers can earn up to 1.4% per annum interest on the first S$50,000 deposited to the Trust account. The Trust savings account comes with a free debit card that allows you to save up to 11% when you shop a minimum of S$200 monthly anywhere outside FairPrice Group.
While traditional banks require you to visit a physical branch, digital banks operate completely online and are most likely to offer a $0 fee on account opening and card activation. However, other digital banks typically require a lock in period and charge for a monthly fee, minimum balance, account closure fee, card replacement fee and foreign transaction fee. With Trust, there are none of those fees involved.
If you are thinking, “that sounds too good to be true”, and are asking “what’s the catch?”, we got you. Considering that Trust is less than a year old, they currently only accept local SGD transfers and have no features to support inward and outward transfers of foreign currencies or cross-border payments (in either SGD or foreign currency). There is also a cap on the amount of money you can transfer. Unlike other digital banks that can go beyond, Trust only allows you to transfer no more than SGD 5,000 per PayNow Transfer and no more than SGD 10,000 per bank transfer.
There are even more opportunities to save on groceries and food spending with this credit card. You can save up to 21% on groceries and food at FairPrice Group and up 20% savings on fuel purchase at Caltex. Similar to their savings account and credit card, there is no annual fee, no foreign transaction fee (not even 1% Visa charges) and no cash advance fee that you need to spend on. In the event that you lost the physical credit card, replacement for a new one is also free!
What’s unique about this credit card is that you can say goodbye to the cash crunch at the end of the month from credit card repayment while waiting for your salary to come in, because it is the first credit card in Singapore that lets you choose your own repayment date during the card application. If, for some reason you failed to make the credit card repayment on time, there will be a late payment charge of S$100 if the minimum amount due is not received by the due date. More about their interest, fees and charges here.
Trust is definitely made for people living in Singapore, especially those who frequently shop in Fairprice for groceries (because the points will be rewarded in NTUC LinkPoints) and/or spend on fuel. While they are offering other discounts in the Trust mobile app, Trust cards can only be used at Standard Chartered Bank ATMs at the moment. Like mentioned above, even though they are backed by the legendary Standard Chartered and FairPrice Group, hiccups are expected, could be from their newly launched app or the customer support. Sign up at your own risk.
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