Overdraft Loans

Term Loans

Rank

Lender

(Product)

Interest rate

Rank

Lender

(Product)

Interest rate

1

UOB

(CashPlus)

10.4 %

1

HSBC

(Personal Loan)

9.7 %

1

HSBC

(Line of Credit)

10.5 %

1

NTUC Income

(SmartCredit)

10.3 %

1

Stan Chart

(Personal Credit)

11.0 %

2

Stan Chart

(Flexi-Cash)

11.7 %

1

DBS

(Cashline)

11.4 %

2

Citibank

(PayLite)

11.7 %

1

Maybank

(CreditAble)

12.6 %

2

POSB

(Loan Assist)

13.7 %

2

Citibank

(Ready Credit)

12.7 %

3

GE Money

(James)

15.9 %

3

OCBC

(EasiCredit)

15.3 %

4

GE Money

(ezyCash)

21.2 %

Average

12.3 %

Average

13.6 %

(i) Overdraft loans are also called lines of credit.  They are often cheaper than term loans since you can pay down the loan at any time and renew it later, even for only a week or a month. You pay for the money only when you use the overdraft facility.  Most banks have special offers on overdraft loans like 0 per cent interest for the first 6 months. (The special offers are already included in the rates shown above.)  Most require balance transfer, so you must transfer out the money that you borrow, usually to another bank. 

(ii) Some lenders show flat rates of interest for their term loan rates.  It is misleading as these are about half the effective rate, which is the interest rate you actually pay.  The rates shown here are effective rates.

(iii)  The rates here include one-time processing fees, one-time insurance costs over 1% and special offers.

(iv) All loans are unsecured.  GE Money requires home ownership and NTUC Income requires ownership of a term or other life policy -- (but neither requires pledging of these assets).

(v) The NTUC Income rate is after its 20% prompt-payment discount (for paying within 30 days of due date).  Not shown is the effect of its daily balance method of calculation. It would reduce the rate to 9.5% assuming payment is received by 15th of the month.

(vi) The loan period for all loans shown is for 1 year and loan quantum is $10,000 except for GE Money (James) which is $12,000.  (viii) Figures are rounded to the nearest .001. 

(vii) For overdraft loans: (a) For Maybank the overdraft rate is 8.88 % for the first 6 months and 16.38 % for the next 6 months, averaging 12.63 %. (b) For UOB, it is 0 % for the first 6 months and 15.8 for the next 6 months plus a 2.5 % administration fee, giving a 1-year rate of 10.4 %. (c) For DBS, it is 0 % for the first 6 months and 17.8 for the next 6 months plus a 2.5 % administration fee, giving a 1-year rate of 11.4 %.

(d) For Citibank, the interest rate for 90 per cent of the loan is 11 per cent.  The rate for the other 10 per cent is 17.9 per cent.  There is also a 1 per cent service fee.