Wealth Management Notes (November 1, 2024)

I can finally start saving a bit of money.

After a quick review of popular banking and financial apps, I ultimately chose Tencent's WeBank for my daily money market funds and secondary market (fund) trading.

The reason is simple: slightly higher interest rates, more promotional offers, and better overall returns compared to other platforms.

First, money market funds:

While most institutions are dropping below 2% annualized yields, WeBank still offers several money market funds above 3%, as shown in the image. The higher-yield PLUS tier requires a minimum balance threshold, but even the standard version offers quite respectable returns.

Another friendly feature is that paying off credit cards is fee-free, and it also supports repayment via Cloud QuickPass. The deduction priority is: bank account balance first, then the daily money market fund, and finally the daily PLUS account — automatically designed to maximize your earnings. Overall, it’s a solid financial card.

Second, membership benefits:

On other platforms, you might need to pay for zero-fee fund purchase privileges, but on WeBank you just need to accumulate points and redeem them for those benefits. (Currently, about 588 points — roughly equivalent to ¥6 — gets you one year of zero-fee subscription privileges.)

Of course, earning points can be tricky since they’re mostly awarded when you make new purchases or deposits into wealth management products. However, once your deposit reaches a certain threshold, you’ll upgrade to Gold membership, which includes a perk of 500 points back (worth about ¥5) for every ¥2,000 spent on credit card repayments. Those 500 points can be redeemed for JD.com gift cards, phone credit discounts, or zero-fee fund purchase privileges — pretty decent.

Keep upgrading your membership tier, and you’ll also receive quarterly benefits like Tencent Video subscriptions, Starbucks coffee, and more.

That said, employees of major tech companies (hundreds of them) don’t need to deposit funds — simply completing the corporate identity verification grants you lifetime Gold membership (equivalent to earning ¥2,000–5 back on credit card payments each month).

If you’re interested, I’d recommend checking it out. I personally feel it’s pretty good and have gradually emptied my bank account balances, Alipay, and JD Finance into WeBank.