An article by GenX published
at Melbourne Victoria Australia www.melbournevicaustralia.blogspot.com
Please do not reprint or republish in part or in any form.
INTRODUCTION
Previously in my article titled FREE Visa and MasterCard Debit Cards From Australia Banks, I mentioned that I have
Everyday Transaction Accounts with NAB, Commonwealth Bank, Citibank and
HSBC Australia. All these said accounts come with FREE Visa or
MasterCard Debit cards. However, all these accounts do not earn me a
cent in interest for balances sitting in the account. Worst still, my
Commonwealth Complete Access Account, an Everyday Transaction Account,
charges me a monthly fee if I do not deposit AUD 2000 monthly into it.
NAB, Citibank and HSBC Everyday Transaction Accounts are truly FREE FOR
LIFE as there are no monthly fees forever (unless they change their
policy) and you do not need to deposit a cent into it after you open the
account.
Therefore, in order to earn interest from my money deposited with Citibank Australia, Commonwealth Bank, HSBC Australia and NAB, I have their Online Savings Accounts and transfer my funds into my Everyday Transactions Accounts when required. However, if you do not wish to open an Online Savings Account but want you money sitting in your Everyday Transaction Account to earn you some pocket money, I got good news for you.
Therefore, in order to earn interest from my money deposited with Citibank Australia, Commonwealth Bank, HSBC Australia and NAB, I have their Online Savings Accounts and transfer my funds into my Everyday Transactions Accounts when required. However, if you do not wish to open an Online Savings Account but want you money sitting in your Everyday Transaction Account to earn you some pocket money, I got good news for you.
EARN MORE FROM AUSTRALIA SAVINGS ACCOUNTS AND BANKWEST HERO EVERYDAY TRANSACTION ACCOUNT
Now, today I will share with you three tips on Australia Banks Savings Accounts:
1. COMMONWEALTH BANK COMPLETE ACCESS ACCOUNT - Monthly Fee waived with AUD2000 Deposit.
Like I mentioned earlier, I will be charged a monthly fee should I fail to deposit Aussie 2K into my Commonwealth Complete Access for a particular month. And I also said I have their Online Account called NetBank. So, the easiest way to avoid paying the Complete Access monthly fee without depositing any new funds into Commonwealth Bank is to transfer money between your Complete Access and NetBank accounts. For example, you have AUD100 in your Complete Access and AUD 800 in your NetBank Account. So in order to meet the AUD2K deposit requirement:
a. transfer AUD800 from your NetBank into your Complete Access Account.
b. transfer back AUD800 from the Complete Access Account back into your NetBank account immediately,
c. repeat the above 2 more times and you would have deposited more than AUD2K into your Complete Access Account; and thus fulfilling the RM2K requirement to have the monthly fee waived :)
2. PERPETUAL BONUS INTEREST RATE FOR ONLINE SAVINGS ACCOUNT - NAB iSaver
Most if not all Australia Banks offer Introductory Bonus Interest Rates for their Online Savings Account, but for a limited time ranging between 4 to 6 months. With the Bonus Interest Rate, the total effective interest rate (ranging from 3.9% to 4.2% as of February 2014) from these Online Savings Accounts are usually higher than Term Deposit Interest Rates. And best of all, most of these Online Savings Accounts pay interest monthly and you won't be penalized for withdrawing your money as and when you desire. However, the down side to these accounts is that after the introductory period, any money left in these online accounts will earn the normal interest rates (about 2.5% as of February 2014).
Previously in my article titled Citibank CitiGold Debit Card and FREE Platinum Credit Card, I have shared with you guys how you can continuously earn higher interest rates from Online Savings Account without needing to shift your money to another bank. I will repeat it again below:
a. Go open NAB Classic Banking Everyday Transaction Account which is FREE without any fees whatsoever.
b. Then, sign up for NAB iSaver, which is an Online Savings Account. You can either sign up for it when you open the NAB Classic Banking account mentioned above or do it yourself online anytime. As of February 2014, the NAB iSAver earns the account holder effectively 3.8% p.a. interest credited monthly into the same account.
c. You will then get to earn this higher interest rate for 4 months only. After the introductory offer, you will be stuck with their normal interest rate of 2.5%.
d. To continue earning the higher interest rate, what you should do is OPEN ANOTHER iSaver account and get to enjoy the BONUS INTEREST RATE again. YES, you can open as many NAB iSaver accounts as you wish. Transfer the money from the previous NAB iSaver to your NAB Classic Banking Account and then transfer it to the NEW NAB iSaver account. Repeat this step every 4 months and you will get to enjoy continuous higher interest rate compared to Term Deposits offered by most banks in Australia.
3. BANKWEST HERO EVERYDAY TRANSACTION ACCOUNT - Earn 3% Interest for balances up to $5K.
If you ask me, Bankwest Hero Transaction is one account all residents of Australia should have. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this article, most banks' Everyday Transaction accounts DO NOT pay any interest. But the Bankwest Hero Transaction account pays you 3% p.a. interest for amounts less than AUD5K. Interest is calculated daily and credited monthly. Let me highlight to you that Bankwest's 3% interest rate for their Hero Everyday Transaction Account is higher than most of Australia Banks' standard Online Savings Account interest rate of 2.5% (without Bonus Interest Rate as of February 2014).
However, for the Bankwest Hero Transaction Account, you will be charged a monthly fee in the event you fail to deposit $2K into the account monthly, like Commonwealth and ANZ banks Transaction accounts. Now, Bankwest has an Online Savings Account called TeleNet Saver which pays 4.3% interest rate (with Bonus Interest) for 6 months and after the introductory period, you will earn variable interest rate ( 2.7% as of February 2014). So, if you do not have a constant $2K to deposit into the Bankwest Hero Transaction Account monthly, and to avoid paying the fee, apply exactly the same method of transferring funds between your Bankwest TeleNet and Hero Transaction accounts like I taught you in the Commonwealth Bank case above.
So, if you are one of those who deposit your income (i.e. salary or pocket money) into your current Everyday Transaction Account and use your debit card for your daily expenses; and do not want the hassle of transfering your funds between your Online Accounts (which pay interest), why not switch to Bankwest Hero Transaction and earn 3% interest p.a., that's FREE MONEY ( versus other Transactions Accounts that do not pay interest).
CONCLUSION
My wife usually has about a couple thousand in her Commonwealth Bank Complete Access Everyday account which earns her NO interest and a few thousand in her Commonwealth NetBank Account. Therefore, instead of earning nothing on the balances sitting in her Commonwealth Compete Access, she opened a Bankwest Hero Transaction account that earns her 3% p.a. in interest calculated daily and credited monthly, FREE money like I like to say. And she also signed up for Bankwest TeleNet Online Savings Account and transferred most of her money into this account to earn 4.3% interest rate.
Both my youngest children have the Bankwest Student Account since last year, and recently, they too signed up for Bankwest Telenet account to earn 4.3% interest for their savings. Having said this, if you are really looking for a long term savings plan, there are other savings accounts which pay perpetual higher interest than standard Online Saving Accounts BUT you will be penalized should you make any withdrawal in a particular month. If you ask me, the better option is like what I taught you above, i.e. go sign up with NAB and open "new: NAB iSaver. The NAB iSaver interest is calculated daily and credited monthly and best of all, you won't be penalized should you make any withdrawals (you will still continue to earn the bonus interest plus the standard variable interest rate).
Anyway, my second son turned 16 a few months back, so he is entitled to have his own MasterCard Debit Card with his name embossed on it. Please refer to the image above - my son's MasterCard is the black one while the red belongs to my wife.
As for me, previously in my article Citibank CitiGold Debit Card and FREE Platinum Credit Card, I mentioned that I'm currently earning 4.2% interest rate with Citibank Term Deposit Promotion and a "new" Online Savings Account. Most probably I will move my funds to Bankwest too and earn 4.3% in interest rates when my Citibank Term Deposit matures sometime in mid 2014.
that how to reach 2k minimum monthly deposit for complete access fee waiver sounds very interesting.are you sure it will work?haha
ReplyDeleteanyway another tips if you havent know about it since you have a netbanksaver with commbank
1.signin to netbank
2.click on your netbank saver and there is a manage account icon on top
3.then choose compare & switch my account option,here you can change from the defaulted classic which offers 2.5% now to special loyalty offer +1% which makes it 3.5%
previous years commbank was pretty 'kiamsiap'/'cheapskate' with these loyalty offer only 0.25% or 0.5% but recently its getting better with 1%