I have recently deposited 2 US checks (in U.S. dollar) into my accounts with POSB (DBS Bank) and Citibank Singapore respectively, and I found out the clear disadvantage of depositing it into DBS Bank VS the subsidiary of the American bank.
Based on my bank statements, DBS Bank has 3 types of additional fees: commission, postage and agent charges for clearing my US check, while Citibank Singapore has NONE! Here are the details:
DBS Bank
US Check: US$29.85
After Conversion: S$40.86
LESS
Commission: S$10.00
Postage: S$4.00
Agent Charges: US$5.00 (S$6.92)
What I received: S$19.94 – I’ve lost S$20.92 to the additional fees!
Citibank Singapore
US Check: US$89.70
After Conversion: S$121.43
What I received: S$121.43
I shall be depositing all my US checks into my account with Citibank Singapore from now onwards.
If you think there’s a better option or the above information is misguided in any way, please share with us in the Comment Form below!
Wonder if you or any kind soul could share the best cheapest bank/procedure to encash/deposit money from my Paypal A/C here in Singapore? Maybe a write-up in your next feature article? Thankx…
@Deve. Are you referring to encash/deposit US$ from/into your PayPal A/C in Singapore?
I don’t know the exact terms, but if I’m not wrong it depends on whether the USD cheque is local or overseas clearing. A local clearing USD cheque (e.g. USD dividend received from ETFs listed on SGX) deposited into POSB won’t have all those fees that you mentioned.
Could it be that the one you deposited in POSB is overseas clearing, while he one deposited in Citibank is local clearing?
Correct me if I’m wrong.
@momo, thanks for sharing. Both cheques were issued by the same company, so there were no significant differences except the date and amount.
Hi, I cleared a USD cheque from CDP at DBS and was happy that there is only exchange rate component and all other charges is not apply since cheque from CDP is consider local clearing cheque.
As for oversea clearing cheque, the 3 charges / fees are apply.
I encountered the same problem with charges when I deposited a US cheque to UOB account. Was the cheque you recieved from US a Bank of America cheque?
@ag, yes, I believe it was a Bank of America cheque.
Thanks so much for the reply! I am so happy to have found a solution.
@ag, you are welcome. It has been awhile since I deposited a US cheque, so I would strongly advise that you verify the info with the bank again before depositing it.
hey er,can i deposit a Google cheque using posb quick cheque machine?
Hi Patrick,
I just called up POSB on the fee to bank in a cheque from USA. The staff told me that there is
1. A handling fee of 1/8% or min $10.00 and max $100 fee,
2. Cable fee of $20.00
3. Postage fee of $4.50 and
4. Agent fee
Is your Citibank account a saving account or a credit card account? I have a credit card account with citibank, may be going to drop the cheque into this account…
@Jeff, I believe you can deposit a Google issued cheque in a POSB quick cheque machine since I always drop it in their quick cheque deposit box.
@Chua, thank you for sharing the info. My Citibank account is a checking account (Step-Up Interest Account to be exact). I’m not sure about their credit card account so you may like to check with them before dropping the cheque.
I have the same experience and deposited 2 US Treasury Checks; 1 to DBS and another to Citibank. DBS charged me about S$14 + USD25 and Citibank charged me only S$15 to clear the check. DBS took 21 working days and Citibank only 2 working days.