It's high time I reviewed my bank account situation and I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for sweet deals on bank accounts/credit cards and such. No preference for any particular institution.. just want the best deal.

I basically just want a credit card with minimal fees (I always pay it off straight away anyway) and then just a bank account for day to day stuff (paying bills, withdrawing cash from ATMs)..again i'm just after minimal fees I guess (unless there's some other factors worth considering?). I will probably start a savings account too.

I'm a bit of a noob with banking.. so any advice would be radical :]

I'd also like to know some info seeing as my bank merged and its now $2 to withdraw from the branch and 1.50 from all atms.....

Also must have visa debit <3

I have a NAB account with an iSaver (online saver account), a Gold Visa Debit card (basically no ATM fees anywhere in the world) at a flat $12 bucks a month. I end up spending more on the standard $5 a month one coz who has time to find a NAB ATM... Gold stuff ftw

no one...? :(

I don't know enough about the differences between plans. My bank is ANZ and I lovez them. I think you'll have to do the hard yards comparing the options yourself on this one, sorry :)

Sup dude!
I am with ANZ
Access Account (Regular Bank account) $5 per month, unlimited transactions. (Except for non-anz atms). $5 a month is cheap for the ability to not carry cash around with ya
I have a VISA Debit card with them and its got the same $6/ month deal.
I have also just got a "First VISA" through them, 44 days interest free, and its $26 a year (if linked to a access account) ( http://www.anz.com.au/aus/personal/credit-cards/compare-cards/anz-first-visa/ )
(Mainly be using above card for my large ticket items that either make me poor for a week or two, or make me take money outta my savings - ie $1k post grad course, rego, insurance etc. And I won't be carrying it around with me so that it doesn't get stolen - besides they are pretty good with the bonus, I just checked the website, and i get extended warranty after expiry of manufacturers warranty on items...WT?! and I won't be liable for unauthorised online purchases.)

Thankfully my student card doesn't run out until august 2009, so all fees are waived for me!

Also just saw that there is a ANZ Online Saver Account, with 6.5% interest! :| Which is better than the 6.1% i am getting through ING Direct!


last edited by Fireblood at 19:15:52 15/Oct/08

3dee or anyone else with nab had any issues with their bulls*** apply online?

I've had two joint accounts (isaver + ebanking) with them for ages and done all that going into the branch and signing bs (twice!). Applied for a second isaver online started putting cash into it and lo and behold i can't take it out.

I just rang up and apparently you have to go into the branch and sign paper work cause they don't have my s*** on file.

Is this something you have to do every time you setup an account in which case wtf is the point of the apply online or have they just lost my details.. again?

BOQ "reverse charges". Keep balance over $2k and all your atm and internet banking is fee free. no monthly charge.

game over.

ermmmm interesting ^

I bank with NAB

I have a couple of mortgages with them, my day to day bank account, an on-line saver, an offset, a credit card and a cheque book.

$10 a month, and free with no mortgage.

Just have to deposit $5k a month into the account for it to be free, which is sweet cause you just get your salary paid into it and that counts as a deposit.

Just have to deposit $5k a month into the account for it to be free,

:( Thats good for people that earn 80k+ :P

I think BankWest have had the best rates for a while now (I'm not a BankWest customer, its just what I've read)

I bank with NAB

I have a couple of mortgages with them, my day to day bank account, an on-line saver, an offset, a credit card and a cheque book.

$10 a month, and free with no mortgage.

Just have to deposit $5k a month into the account for it to be free, which is sweet cause you just get your salary paid into it and that counts as a deposit.

I have similar set up with NAB also.

we bank with cua and have home loand and debit cards with them;

no fees on our day to day operating accounts, as its linked to our homeloan

very happy with cua so far:

I'm with Suncorp and have everything through them; mortgages, CC, savings, etc. Pretty good bank to be with but now that I'm in Melbourne I might have to look at changing because I'm getting SLAMMED by non-Suncorp ATM fees (there aren't many around).

Found this web site that could help with CC/Mortgages though, http://www.helpmechoose.com.au

now that the gov has secured all accounts and CBA purchased bankwest it would now be a pretty good place to stash some dosh. 8.1% on the internet account (max 1mil) and 8.6% on the 1 year term and 8.1% on the 5 month.

I just signed up with UBank (www.Ubank.com.au) 8% term deposit for 3 months! f*** yeah hook me up! ~$150 bucks more in interest than my ING savings account!

8.1% on the 5 month.

Where does it say that? 7.1% on the website AFAICS? But that 8.1% is tempting

i see anz just dropped their interest rates!

Spook, they also dropped them on their savings account (ie, earning interest rates)?? Maybe a month ago. I noticed last month I earned less interest on one of my accounts; just called them to find out what's going on and apparently the interest rate on this particular type of account has dropped from 7% (or 6.5%, can't remember) to 6%.

This seems sort of weird; admittedly I don't understand economics but term deposit interest rates seem to keep going up - why not regular savings?

admittedly I don't understand economics but term deposit interest rates seem to keep going up - why not regular savings?

as I have mentioned in other posts, fractional reserve banking relies solely on the amount of deposits a bank holds to secure their lending (money creation). if they are required to maintain a ratio of 1:10 on their lending, and they wish to increase their lending (to grow interest revenue) then they need more deposits to support this expansion.

Usually interest fluctuations are mirrored in lending and deposit returns. However since the start of the year we have seen the peculiar scenario that as interests rates tightened first lending rates rose faster than deposits (as cost of inter-bank borrowing rose - the premium banks charge to lend excess funds to each other), then as banks scrambled to maintain liquidity and drastically reverse their lending exposure they jacked up the deposit rates to encourage depositors to choose them.

by hitting the brakes on lending and rapidly increasing their deposit holdings Australian banks were able to ensure they did not have runs on their deposits and keep liquid for further lending if the opportunity presented itself.

Term deposits represent long term reliable deposits that will not be called upon and form a strong basis for this 1:10 requirement. Regular saving accounts can fluctuate as customers may withdraw funds without notice.

last edited by infi at 17:37:11 17/Oct/08

cool infi, I guess that makes pretty good sense, ta.

I spose I was thinking that if term deposits were going up, why not regular deposits given that would improve liquidity - but I guess the normal accounts just dont have the long term reliability of term deposits so there's no advantage in them offering higher interest.

Term depost interest rates are measured on the initial investment and it's calculated over the whole term, is that right?

Correct

I need a spreadsheet to figure out what's better then; term deposit for a year or compound daily interest at a lower percentage for the same amount of time. I think I tried to make one last time this came up but got stuck on compound interest equations in the spreadsheet.

you dont need a spreadsheet trog.

effective annual rate (EAR) = [(1 + Rper)^m]-1 where Rper = interest rate per period and m = number of compounding periods.

e.g. 5% per annum compounded daily:

[(1+(0.05/365))^365]-1 = 0.0512675 = 5.12675%

just do that for each interest rate/product you'er looking at and compare the EARs

hey, cool trick - ta. That's way less than I was expecting it to be for some reason.

I'd still like a spreadsheet thingy so I can easily just put values in and compare over various periods and varying interest rates, etc.

wickid...cheers for the advice fellas !

IMPT I think is the spreadsheet function to do that.

Just open Function wizard and do a Compound Interest search.

Or just hit up google and you get a bunch of websites that will do it.

Trog try these calculators - http://www.ingdirect.com.au/savings/calculators.htm. Specifically, regular savings calculator and term deposit calculator.

Man i really don't know as much about excel as i should. I do tend to use www.indybudget.com for tracking finances and their debt amortisation/payoff calcs. Its interesting to see how much an extra $100 / month on the mortgage makes aswell as how much of that montly payment is just pissed away on interest :(.

* In no way affilated with the site i get nothing out of it just found it super handy and has really helped in getting me and my finances in order.


last edited by Fizzer at 22:14:50 18/Oct/08

Trog thinks all life's problems can be solved by a spreadsheet

Excel has plenty of financial functions.

Just click on the Fx button and learn how to use some.

FV (future value) and PMT (payment ie: for homeloan etc) are good ones and its pretty easy to use when you get the jist of it.

Or hit up the bank websites as they normally have calculators on there. I use Suncorp's (mainly cause we bank with them).