It’s not Chinese New Year until you lay your paws on crisp, new banknotes for all your angpow packing needs, right? But huat’s the quickest, and most fuss-free way to get them? Ain’t nobody has time for long queues at the bank when you’ve got spring-cleaning to do and bak kwa to buy.

POSB announced today that you’ll be able to get your new and “good-as-new notes” from one of 40 POSB pop-up ATMs across 20 community clubs across the island from Jan 9 to 24. These temporary machines have been introduced since 2015, in partnership with the People’s Association, during the CNY period to alleviate the rush for brand new notes.

All pop-up ATMs are accessible 24 hours daily, with the exception of those at Chong Pang and Teck Ghee Community Club, which are open 9am-9.30pm daily. To save time and the need for multiple transactions, customers can withdraw CNY new notes in sums of $100 ($2 x 50 notes), $300 ($10 x 30 notes), $500 ($50 x 10) and $600 ($10 x 20 notes + $50 x 8 notes).

Last year, over 200,000 customers used the pop-up ATMs, almost four times as many since its launch five years ago.

There’s even a way to quicken the process: reserve online your preferred time slots for new notes exchange. Customers can choose from denominations of $2, $10 and $50 and collect them up at full-service DBS branches (except DBS Marina Bay Sands branch and DBS Woodlands Service Centre branch).

Two sets of DBS/POSB red packets will be given out to each customer collecting and withdrawing their CNY notes at the pop-up ATMs and DBS/POSB branches.

When the CNY festivities are over (and you’ve eaten more pineapple tarts that you care to admit), don’t throw those used red packets away. Instead, haul it all to a recycling bin at all DBS/POSB branches, accessible during operating hours (and 24 hours at selected outlets) from Jan 28 onwards. These recycling bins are available all year round to also cater to recycling packets from other festive occasions like Hari Raya and Deepavali.

For a full list of POSB pop-up ATMs, go to https://www.dbs.com/pop-up-atm/index.html. For the CNY new notes online reservation, go to http://go.dbs.com/sg-cnynotes.

Photos: DBS/POSB