Haha .. stay in sg can le .. basically can eat and rot here.

I think sg is quite a good place to work, everything quite fast paced and more merit based.

Eating 1:1 it's cheaper. Rental is at the higher side. Buying import things, I think pretty cheap considering our salary to msia.

Amoi very hard to score, too picky. So stay single haha

It is below actually, I also realised after some digging that there are A LOT of Malaysians on EP that are below the supposed threshold lol.

Ah yes, the Lowyat equivalent in SG, but even here seems to have many SG knowledgeable ktards already haha.

Which means my current MY cards will work but will probably cost more due to conversion rate. Will probably just get an EZ-Link or something. Oh unless you are using SG cards?

Thanks, will look at Zym as well.

There is actually a thread here in lowyat but macam not active lol.

Guy.

E Pass.

I always thought hawker is the same as food court no? Unless food court is like a more atas version of hawker lol. I was researching and a meal can be had for 3-4 SGD in most hawker places.

Yeah, rental is definitely the one thing that is pricey in SG. Payar Lebar and surrounding MRT areas (Aljunied, Eunos, etc.) seems to be still okay-ish in rental (single room below 1000 SGD) since it is not CBD area from what I gather.

When I did online comparison I thought WISE was better actually? The live conversion seems to favour WISE more than CIMB, unless I'm missing what you are seeing?

Paynow is something like our DuitNow system correct? Is there a TnG equivalent there? Is it GrabPay or DBS Paylah?

If the other room is locked means practically the whole house is yours, no need to share bathroom haha.

always compare during working hours

• cimb https://www.cimbclicks.com.sg/sgd-to-myr
• Wise https://wise.com/my/pricing/hold-fees?sourc...MYR&track=false
• midvalley https://cashchanger.co/malaysia/mc/max-mone...ey-megamall/520

sg bank stuffs can ask here https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1440794/lastCIMB sg app can use Paynow. PayLah is solely for DBS, not compatible with CIMB sg

This post has been edited by Medufsaid: Jul 29 2025, 12:57 AM

Some aircon foodcourt can be pricier, especially if you compare chap fan. A tip would be to sign up for Link or Trust card, then download Fairprice app. You enjoy 10% for all Kopitiam purchases when you pay via app. Get link points and freebies too.

Is trust card rebate good? What are the Cashback rebates?

interesting, so above 40 salary min is around 11k sgd to get the EP.

The Trust Cashback Credit Card’s rebates is good if you hit threshold or travel overseas a lot. You can get up to 15% cashback on stuff like dining or shopping (you pick one each quarter), capped at S$250, but you need to spend S$500–S$2,000 a month to hit 5–15%. Everything else gets 1.5% cashback, dropping to 1% in 2025. So I always target to spend $2K and then switch to OCBC 365. That being said, there are other better cashback cards if you don't hit $2K/mth.



This post has been edited by gnc88: Jul 29 2025, 10:35 AM

Yes. That's I felt those who get PR or even local Singkie can be disadvantageous because employer can tekan their salary. Stay as EP is better

need to compare during working hr. non working hr cimb rate is very low and wise might have charges that is not shown if u didnt login.

yeah paynow work like duitnow. grabpay and paylah is not so commonly use and they will not work with paynow.

another payment type is shopback.

nowadays i just bring my phone only, mrt bus can use paywave (google, apple , samsung pay all are accepted) and paynow & paywave for others.

ur ID (singpass) is in ur phone also.

Stay on EP if: You plan to stay short-term, prioritize higher take-home pay (no CPF deductions) and value job flexibility but lack long-term residency benefits.
Choose PR if: You plan to settle long-term, value stability and want access to public housing, healthcare subsidies and freedom from visa renewals.

for malaysian it is much lower, i have a friend that is in 3k+ range also get her EP recently. around 2-3 years ago the EP threshold is also starting from 5k, me and my wife during that time not in that range yet but we still got our EP 2-3 years ago.

i think employer will always try for ep first when applying it for msian (provided if you have degree), else spass/ work permit they got to pay 300-800 for the worker levy every month and they also need to fulfil the quota requirement.

end up they either employ local/pr and pay the 17% cpf or they pay for the levy. if they could employ local/pr to work for them i dont think they will want to employ spass/work permit worker as it is not much cheaper and the hassle to employ 1 (you need to provide banker guarantee to MOM also to employ non msian to work under work permit)

I believe that even for short term, it's still worth applying for PR. You never know when your EP might fail to get renewed and they got no more quota to employ u under the Spass.

The CPF contributions both 17% & 20% can be withdrawn when you give up your PR and this will be a very significant amount when u do that.

i straight away ask my hr to contribute full 17% and 20% CPF the moment i got my PR

This post has been edited by Lescotesco: Jul 29 2025, 11:21 AM

seems like not much chance to get SGD>11k salary there...

Quarterly? Is it the same as UOB? Then UOB is better ba .. spend on anything. Easily 2k monthly. But rebate is only 200 ..

If quarterly to spend 2k on dining .. I think can complement my UOB then. If monthly 2k on dining .. I pokai le

U can only get ur cpf if you're from east. West Malaysia cannot withdraw even you renounce your PR. Have to wait for retirement age.

Wah you so keng go 20% .. I go gradual .. haha but my employer contribute max. Now paying 15% .. Nex year 20 .. sien .. eat so much into my take home.

To hit the S$250 quarterly cap at 15% cashback, you’d need to spend S$1,667 on dining alone per quarter (S$1,667 × 15% = S$250). However, you also need to maintain S$2,000 monthly spend (S$6,000/quarter) across all categories to unlock the 15% rate.

got such rules? where u read it ah?
my ex colleague staying in johor got her full cpf when she renounce her pr last year. she got the full amount in cheque.

haha lucky i did that else every month i will spent it on my hobby (mr bone & Zombie party collection)

The CPF is good for buying house and paying the instalment, now the rental took away a big chunk of my salary.... 2 more years until we can buy a resales hdb.

Not necessarily. There are conditions in which you csn bypass. Gov will look at your company and as a while how much expats you have vs locals. Something like that

Hitting 500 monthly on dining a little bit hard, unless it includes food court like kopitiam, food republic, etc. Each dine out weekend is about 50 per time only.

Any cc without annual fee to recommend ? My SC charge me sgd200 leh. Want to cancel