Complete Guide To Trust Bank’s Products And Services

Trust Bank – one of the handful of digital banks in Singapore – celebrated its second anniversary on 1 September 2024. As a digital bank reaching over 800,000 customers, Trust Bank has no physical branches and is accessible entirely through your mobile phone, 24/7.

Trust Bank is 60% owned by Standard Chartered Bank and the remaining 40% by NTUC Enterprise and FairPrice Group. Through this unique partnership, Trust Bank has linked its banking services to FairPrice Group’s ecosystem and loyalty program, Link Rewards, which serves more than a million customers every day through 570 touchpoints.

In addition to specially curated deals, Trust Bank offers users a savings account, credit cards, personal loan facilities, and a suite of insurance products, including Travel Insurance, Home Insurance, Maid Insurance, Car Insurance and Personal Accident Insurance, underwritten by Income Insurance (fomerly NTUC Income).

Here’s a complete guide to understanding Trust Bank’s products and services.

Easy To Use App With A Secure Interface

You can only perform banking transactions with Trust through its Trust Bank SG mobile application, which can be downloaded from both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Signing up is a simple process, and you can use your MyInfo to submit your details.

The app, which supports both English and Mandarin languages, is protected by multi-factor authentication and can only be paired with one smartphone and one phone number at any one time. There is also an extra layer of security with the Trust Key, which lets you use a 6-digit PIN to approve high-risk or sensitive transactions.

With the app, you will also receive the first-to-market numberless card to prevent your card details from being stolen. You can also use the app to lock and unlock the card and control permissions for online or overseas payments.

The app also provides instant notifications for all account activities—which incidentally, cannot be turned off—helping you to keep track of your expenses. Moreover, it is easy to monitor your bonus rewards with the app’s real-time rewards tracker, which helps you not miss out on those savings.

High-Interest Rate On Savings Accounts Without Any Hoops

Anyone over the age of 16 can open a single Trust savings account in their name. Your Singapore Dollar (SGD) deposits with Trust Bank’s savings account are protected under the Deposit Insurance Scheme for up to $100,000.

You will receive a debit card when you open your savings account. There are no fees charged (i.e., monthly fee or fall-below) for opening or having to maintain a minimum savings limit.

Interest on the savings account is calculated daily and paid out on the last day of each month. Currently, you can get an interest rate of up to 3.5% per annum (made up of a Base Rate of 1.25%, Spend Bonus Rate of 0.5% to 1.0%, a Balance Bonus Rate of 0.5%, and a Salary Bonus Rate of 0.75%) on the first $800,000. Deposits above $800,000 will earn 0.05% p.a.

You can deposit funds to your Trust account by either using a bank transfer (via FAST) or PayNow. On the other hand, if you need to withdraw physical cash from your Trust account, you can currently do so from Trust/Standard Chartered Bank ATMs located across the island as well as overseas ATMs with Visa enabled. Do note that you can only withdraw up to $2,000 in a single transaction. Here are the ATM locations (if you want to know where they are).

Read Also: [2024 Edition] Best Savings Accounts for Working Adults in Singapore

Dual Functionality As A Debit And Credit Card With No Recurring Fees

If you want to earn the highest rebates on your FairPrice group spending, then you should sign up for the Trust credit card.

The eco-friendly ocean plastic Trust credit card offers dual functionality as both a credit card and a debit card, removing the need for you to carry multiple cards. There are no annual fees, foreign transaction fees (not even the 1% Visa charges), cash advance fees, or card replacement fees.

Nevertheless, there is a late payment charge of $100 if you do not pay the minimum amount by the due date. You would also incur finance charges on your cash advance, which are calculated on a daily basis at 0.077% (27.9% p.a.) on the amount withdrawn until full payment.

It is also the first card that allows you to select your preferred credit limit and repayment date upfront. You can also set reminders to ensure that you do not miss your payment dates.

Get Competitive Exchange Rates On Your Foreign Spending

On top of using your Trust card for local spending, you can now bring it along on your overseas travel as well. Enjoy competitive exchange rates close to what you see on Google when paying in foreign currency without any markups or transaction fees, which are typically associated with credit cards.

Source: Trust Bank

With the Trust card, you can avoid the hassle of keeping extra foreign currency as you only need to pay for what you spend. Furthermore, you can easily lock and unlock the card for overseas use with a swipe of a button on the Trust app, giving you greater control and security protection at your fingertips.

Eligibility To Apply Credit Card

You can apply for the credit card if you are between 21 and 55 years old. You would also need to have an annual income of $30,000 as a Singapore citizen/permanent resident, or $60,000 if you are a foreigner with a valid work pass. If you are 55 years of age, you would need an annual income of $15,000 as a Singapore citizen/permanent resident or $60,000 if you are a foreigner with a valid work pass.

Retirees, aged 56 and above, who do not have an annual income of $15,000 may also qualify for a credit card with a $500 credit limit.

If you’re a Trust credit card holder with a credit limit of at least $1,000, you can apply for a Trust supplementary card, provided the supplementary cardholder has a Trust savings account and no credit card.

Both cardholders can earn the rewards together as the spending on the supplementary card would be counted towards the main cardholder’s monthly minimum spending and Linkpoints earned.

NTUC Membership And Linkpoints

The Trust card’s benefits are maximised if you are a Union member, which costs $117 annually to join. You can read our article on the benefits of an NTUC membership.

Basically, you would need to spend $1 to earn 0.50 linkpoints (or spend $2 for 1 linkpoints) at any of the FairPrice Group outlets, with no minimum spend. After that, it takes 100 linkpoints to redeem $1 worth of in-store credit in exchange for the rebates you’ve earned.

Trust Debit And Credit Card Rewards And Rebates 

The lure of using credit cards is based on the number of discounts and rebates that we can get with each spending category. In that aspect, Trust Bank’s Cashback and Link credit cards promises significant savings, especially if you shop regularly at NTUC FairPrice outlets.

On its Link Credit Card, you can get discounts of up to 20% – consisting of a 17% upfront discount – on your Caltex petrol spend and on a variety of other merchant discounts ranging from F&B, taxi fares, travel and mobile plans, to name a few. Check out Trust’s website for more partner deals.

The main “attraction” of the Trust cards is the Linkpoints rebates–of up to 21%–that you can earn on your FairPrice Group (FPG) spend. Here’s a more detailed look at the rewards – which are reviewed every quarter – that you can get as a Union member or as a non-union member.

Union Member – Linkpoints rebates up to 21% or 11% on credit or debit cards, respectively.

Source: Trust Bank

Non-Union – Linkpoints rebates up to 15% or 5% on credit or debit cards, respectively.

Source: Trust Bank

Terms To Understand:

Base Rate: Earns you unlimited savings on FPG spend and on all eligible spend.

Monthly bonus: Earns you bonus rebate on your FPG spend when you meet the minimum monthly spend outside of FPG.

Quarterly bonus: Earns you bonus rebate on your FPG spend, when you meet the monthly minimum spend outside of FPG for 3 consecutive months.

FairPrice Annual Member Bonus: Bonus rebate that Union members will earn once a year on their FPG groceries.

Its Cashback Credit Card offers 1.5% unlimited cashback. What’s great about Trust Bank’s Cashback Credit Card is that you get real-time tracking for your cashback within your Trust App, as well as receive your cashback instantly – so you don’t have to wait till your get your monthly bill to see how much cashback you actually earned and never have to guess which transactions were or were not eligible. You can also pay a consolidated credit card bill if you have both the Trust Link and the Cashback card

Moreover, you also get to choose a spend category, such as Dining, Shopping, Travel, Wellness, Transport, Entertainment, where you can earn up to 15% bonus cashback.

Similar to the Link Credit Card, there are also no annual fees and zero foreign exchange transaction fees, and you can receive up to extra 20% off on exclusive deals with partners such as Caltex, CDG Zig, agoda, KFC and Deliveroo.

You will also get a sure-win scratch card in-app that gives you up to $1,000 upon successful referral. One customer will be unveiled as The Trust Millionaire in a lucky draw held on 16 January 2025. All you need to do is sign up for a Trust Cashback card (giving you one chance) and successfully refer a friend or family member (giving you 10 chances), from now until 31 December 2024.

Offers Family Personal Accident Insurance And Travel Insurance

Trust Bank’s customers can purchase a range of insurance products directly on the app.

Its Family Personal Accident Insurance plan provides coverage of up to $8,000 for accidental death and permanent total disability due to an accident for just $0.50 per month. You can add your spouse to the policy without any additional premium. The insurance which is underwritten and issued by Income Insurance does not require any medical check up or underwriting from the customer.

You can also purchase travel insurance, Home Insurance, Maid Insurance, Car Insurance and Motorcycle Insurance, via the Trust app or website. The policies are similarly underwritten and issued by Income Insurance.

Read Also: 5 Reasons You Should Consider Getting A Personal Accident Insurance Plan

More New Products And Services To Be Expected?

Since Trust Bank first launched on 1 September 2022, the Digital Bank has been introducing new products and features. It has introduced credit card and personal loans, as well as extended its insurance product suite. Most recently, it launched the Cashback Credit Card on its 2nd anniversary.

It has also included new features, such as Budget Buddy, that illustrates users’ spending patterns with the use of animated characters.

It will not be surprising to see Trust Bank offer more products and services to its users in the coming months and years. Afterall, Trust Bank can rely on a banking juggernaut – in the form of its majority owner Standard Chartered Bank – to speed up any learning curve in introducing new products to the market.

This article was first written on 07 September 2022 and has been updated to reflect the latest changes.

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