If you don’t want to be locked into a fixed deposit for a year, consider a current account, savings account (CASA). It has no lock-in. You can even withdraw your money the next day with no penalty. 

CASA accounts also link to a checking account, which means you earn the saving rate on your checking.  

After reviewing CASA accounts for all banks, the best is CIMB with its “StarSaver” account.   It pays the same interest rate as its 12-month fixed deposit (FD) – 1 per cent – and like the FD, the rate is higher than other banks.

StarSaver is a “step-up” savings account which forces the account holder to save.  The bank requires a $5,000 opening balance AND $500 monthly top ups. 

The top-ups can be done through GIRO or -- more conveniently – by making a larger initial deposit. 

For example, one could make a year’s worth of top-ups in advance, which is $500 x 12 = $6,000. Add it to the initial $5,000 to open and it comes to $11,000.  With that deposit, no further top-ups are needed for a year.

To keep a lower balance, a way to beat the system is to close the account after, say, 6 months and start afresh with a new account, requiring the $5,000 initial deposit.