【USD Short-Term Savings Insurance Comparison 2025】US Rate Cuts Slow Term Deposit Interest — Short-Term Savings Policies Keep Delivering Surprises

The U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 0.25 percentage points in October as expected, marking the second rate cut of the year. Since the start of the year, Mainland China and Hong Kong stock markets have performed strongly, rebounding significantly from their lows, and many people have begun to watch for the risk of a pullback. On the other hand, falling interest rates mean there will be fewer high-yield products in the market, which particularly affects income-seeking investors. If you want to lock in returns and balance your portfolio, you can consider using short-term savings insurance. Insurers generally focus on 5-year short-term savings insurance, and some companies also offer 8-year and 10-year products. Many insurers launched high-yield savings insurance plans before the rate cuts; the returns are quite attractive, but these plans usually sell out quickly — first come, first served. If you want to take advantage of premium discount offers, you should act quickly.

Short-term savings insurance on the market is often denominated in US dollars, Hong Kong dollars, or Renminbi. In the above comparison of US dollar savings insurance, contribution periods range from 1 to 2 years, and a 5-year policy term is a relatively common short-term savings insurance product;In addition, there are longer-term savings plans such as Blue’s WeWealth “GO息寶” Savings Plan 2, which also shows strong performance for “short-term” operations. Its contribution period is 2 years; taking discount offers into account, in policy year 5, besides a guaranteed IRR of 3.93% it also has non-guaranteed bonuses, with an expected IRR of up to 5.65%, making it both offensive and defensive. By applying through 10Life, you can enjoy an additional 3% first-year premium discount (this discount has already been reflected in the IRR in the table).

10Life calculates the product’s annualized guaranteedinternal rate of return (Internal Rate of Return, IRR) using the entire cash flow, which can reflect investment returns and consider the time value of money. This is an important metric for measuring investments — do not confuse it with other rates.

Some of the products in the table can be applied for online, while others require offline application. If you have questions, feel freeto contact 10Life professional advisers.

Short-term savings insurance usually results in a loss if surrendered early, so before buying a policy the policyholder should ensure there are sufficient liquid funds during the policy term to cover unexpected expenses. But if one really has to surrender early, how much would they lose? The table above shows that, assuming surrender one year after taking out the policy, most products end up with negative returns; in the worst case the first-year IRR is as low as -62.76%, meaning the policyholder would lose over 60% in one year.

Short-term savings insurance differs from bank deposits; the former is not covered by the Deposit Protection Scheme. The financial condition of an insurance company affects its ability to meet policy contracts. In other words, policyholders are exposed to the insurer’s credit risk. If an insurance company unfortunately fails to meet its financial and contractual obligations under a policy, policyholders may lose all premiums paid and their coverage.

However, the Insurance Authority exercises strict supervision over licensed insurers, and when it identifies potential problems with an insurer it has statutory powers to intervene in operations, providing reassurance to policyholders.

Finally, if you want to compare short-term savings insurance products in different currencies, consumers can browse the product decoder on the 10Life website:

• Compare short-term savings insurance (RMB)
• Compare short-term savings insurance (USD)
• Compare short-term savings insurance (HKD)

Further reading:
[US rate cut] The end of the high-yield era — how to lock in high yields and deploy?

Last updated: November 6, 2025.

This English version of this article has been generated by machine translation powered by AI. It is provided solely for reference purposes. In the event of any discrepancy or inconsistency between this translation and the original Chinese version, the Chinese version shall prevail.