UBank has beaten BankWest's introductory offer with 5.62% on at call savings for everyone, effective from 22 January.
With Ubank's 0.1% loyalty bonus that's 5.72%.
Ubank lifts savings interest rate to 5.62%
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I give up with Ubank crap, deposit using ASP takes 4 days for the fund to be cleared. It means that in 4 days you can't access your fund in case you need it. They don't even put up a warning there even though I have complained to them about that TWICE.
Fund access gonna take at least 1 days, I'd rather use Bankwest and have access to my fund immediately, anytime I want because I can link it with Bankwest Transaction account and Bankwest have a physical branch or at least ATM access via transaction account.
Also, my friend got special offer from CBA for 5.75% for Netbank Saver. This seems happen to selected customer only. I asked CBA to match it for me but they don't want to, so I go with Bankwest. CBA is hopeless, you need to close your NetbankSaver and re-open to get the current rate of 5.25% or else you will just get 3.75%.
Don't use the ASP, just transfer it from your other bank account, only take 1 day for me.
Your's not the worst. I deposited a cheque into ING Orange savings account, and it took more than a week before the fund is available.
But that's a cheque - cheques usually take a couple of days to clear, no matter which bank it is.
Only asp the minimum amount then :) i transfer $150 every month and I get the extra .1% and I still have a lot of my pay left.
You have to expect 4 days due to the system they use to get the money out of your account (which is clearly explained when you set it up)
I think UBANK is great! and they actually respond to emails! :)
And good luck to your mate with CBA account I cant get that from them :(I'd hate to tell you samehada…
CBA owns Bankwest so your logic is flawed.. Saying that the parent company is hopeless suggests that the subsidary is hopeless also!
Anyway with the ASP you only need to put in $100 a month to get the extra 0.10% so you just put in $100 once per month using ASP and then the rest of the money you have you can just transfer in and out and that only takes one day!
ASP goes through Direct Debit.
It DOES take time to be processed and it relies on both banks (i.e. UBank(NAB), and the other bank).
The idea of ASP is you REALLY want to SAVE that amount every month. I use ASP to save 4K every month for my first home and transfer some extra money to UBank whenever I have spare money.
If you just want to gain the extra 0.1%, you should just setup ASP with the minimum bonus threshold so you don't lose the flexibility.
LOL.. I like exactly that. The fact that I cant access my savings over night sort of thing. That way I am not tempted to quickly add some money to our weekly budget, instead we just take it easy for a couple of days til payday ;-)
I thought UBank is great. It's just like ING years ago and BankWest a couple of years ago. Hopefully UBank keeps it up.
Yep 24/7 customer support via phone in ENGLISH!
Fixed the one off payment "click on it menu item" easier to transfer.
As long as they are Highest interest rate, I'm with em!
Gone from Bankwest to ARAB(charged me to transfer money to UBANK GRRRR)and now on UBANK!See that's the catch. You can only withdraw on the 1st of the month or you lose some interests you've earned already.
You can't deposit more than $500 every month either. For people like me who save 4K a month. It's useless.
That's a higher rate from UBank's, although you need to deposit at least $50 in the account per month (easy), and make no withdrawals otherwise the interest rate collapses. I might open up a BW Regular Saver account and use it in conjunction with UBank's account. UBank for normal savings and transactions, and BW's account for long term savings.
This rate only applies to $50-$500 per month deposited, max account balance is $5500.
After 12 months, they 'sweep' it to your linked account and you need to start again.
http://www.bankwest.com.au/library/pdf/PDS_20070723-143550.p…
You can't compare this type of 'gimmick' account with a standard online saver, so you shouldn't have voted negative.I think you've mixed up the bankwest products.
There's 3 savings accounts (that I know of):
Regular saver: Min $50 Max $500/month. Swept every year (Withdrawals = No Interest)
Smart eSaver: Must deposit $X to get high rate, otherwise you get 2-3% or similar (Withdrawals = Low Interest)
Telenet: (The one the author of this bargain was referring to) which is 5.62% for new customers only. This is the one that is most comparible to USaver. (Withdrawals doesn't matter)
Unlike the term deposits you are free to come and go as your please. Switched from Bankwest as well, was quite frustrated with their lack of competitiveness to respond to Ubank when it started and eventually after giving Bankwest a chance, jumped over to Ubank.
I'd say UBank has not beaten BankWest yet… unless they lift the rate to 5.63% :)
but anyway it all good work.Technically UBank's 5.62% is the same as BankWest's, but I can't get BankWest's rate as I already have a TeleNet account there. The offer is only available to new customers, while UBank's is open to all.
Good point, UBank is open to all, even their existing customers (which keeps them happy).
The BankWest one is only for new customers! And if I was an existing BankWest customer, I'd be a bit annoyed!
When I was with ING direct in the past, I was always annoyed that new people got the promotional rate, and all the rest of the existing customers just got some low rate, even at half the promo rate at times…
same here, thats why i got rid of ING and went to BW
now that uBank is treating us nicely, i'm only keeping BW around because of the quick access to funds
Plus with the ASP with UBank you get 0.1% bonus interest. You just need to setup an ASP (i.e. automated direct debit) of at least $100 (easy as well).
Ubank is great… anyone who gives this offer a neg isn't worth talking to.
I like ubank.
Citibank -> Transfer -> Ubank = Takes 1 business day.
Ubank -> Transfer -> Citibank = Takes 1 business day.However
CBA -> Transfer -> Ubank = Takes 2 busienss days.
Ubank -> Transfer -> CBA = Takes 1 business day.Go figure.
I figure CBA likes to hold on to the money that much longer to make extra interest from it, hehe…
Exactly what I thought. Pretty piss poor effort from them IMO.
Very cool. Good to see UBank sticking to their price match policy. Technically they didn't even need to announce this until Friday - even better than their own terms!
Like many on this board I've switched to Ubank from ING, although their everday savings account is still a market leader (free withdrawals from any ATM so long as you take out more than $200, etc etc).
Don't be too surprised if Ubank stop outperforming once they've established a big healthy customer base. These market leading rates are great at building up customers, but after a while its easier making money milking your existing customers with a higher profit margin, rather than aggressively growing more customers at a lower profit margin.
Will be interesting to see how it all develops.
I have been an ING Direct customer since 2001, but now I keep just $100 in there. Why? ING went from being a market leader in high rates to having one of the lowest online rates.
Every now and then (especially in the December quarter) ING releases special teaser rates. 1% bonus on any extra savings made. That just gives me an incentive to keep almost nothing in the account, and then pile money in when the special rate strikes. Once the bonus rate finishes, migrate all the money out again and wait for the next special. ING must know some customers do this. The current teaser rate of 5.5% ends at the end of January, but it's not high enough to tempt me (UBank's standard rate is higher).
I do the same thing. The only deals they do involve money transfered after a promotion starts, meaning if i keep my ING account low and dump in a large sum once the promotion starts is the only way to get a good rate from them.
Do ING allow you to transfer to/from UBank though. I was trying to transfer my money to Ubank from ING, but was unsuccesful.
My main account is with Comsec. Fee free, and unlimited transactions. I channel money from ING, to Comsec, to Ubank, or vice versa. It's not direct but just takes an extra day. Comsec is the 'hub' between my 5 online accounts. I just pick whatever offers are best at the time :-)
I completely agree with your point but at the moment ubank just smells like they can be trusted to keep this act going longer term. They are very hip and saavy and they communicate through twitter etc, how could they be untrustworthy :-)
We are with ANZ and have our online saver attached to our account. While not the highest interest rate out there, transfers are instantaneous both to and from the account, and we asked for and got the introductory interest rate for new members, 5.25%. I like the comfort from knowing my bank has a 'face', not a faceless corporation that could disappear overnight with my money. Anyone remember Pyramid?
When Pyramid collapsed there was no government bank guarantee in Australia. Now all accounts are automatically insured for one million dollars until late 2011. UBank is also a part of the NAB, and not a small state based building society.
Banks that pay the highest rates need the highest bearing loans to cover the costs, which may prompt the bank to issue riskier loans. However until October 2011 this isn't an issue.
Just because the government says they will cover accounts under one million doesn't mean they can cover the accounts. They have said this to keep consumer confidence high. I have heard from a reliable insider that there's no way the government has the cash at the ready to support multiple bank failures, just one or maybe two. All the money has been spent on handouts and insulation rebates.
One or two would be more than covered, even if we're talking about the Big Four (of which UBank is a part, via NAB). It's natural that the government doesn't have tens of billions set aside waiting for bank collapses. The mere presence of the guarantee makes a bank run much less likely, as people are not fearful their bank will collapse and take all their money with it.
During a true banking run the government would use its AAA rating to borrow money cheaply and pay the depositors. That of course shifts the burden onto the taxpayers, but the guarantee makes this scenario much less likely to happen anyway.
What bank customers need to be wary of is 'moral hazard', where the bank makes reckless high risk loans because there is a guarantee to make bank runs much less likely. To the best of my knowledge no Australian bank is currently in this position. Those that know better are free to correct me. Just be sure to quote your 'reliable insider' sources :-)
@Cluster: Apart from lending out to the Aussie housing bubble. The banks know how far overvalued things are, yet they keep lending. There has to be risk there!
This is awesome, I was not expecting this! :D
If this is how Ubank plans to run their business I can imagine they will be very very popular in the future :)
If this is how Ubank runs their business, you should be concerned. Theres nothing worse than an unprofitable bank. Unprofitable bank's mean you will lose your money in the end. For some reason, Australian's think that profitable banks are bad, rather, preferring society have unprofitable banks prone to collapsing.
What does Ubank do with your money? It doesn't have a loan book and the collateral that comes with it, so does it
1) just let it sit there and therefore loses 5.62% (variable) a year?
2) take it away and invest it somewhere to make a profit? (risky for you as a depositor)
3) funnel it back up to NAB, where UBank management have no control of where the money goes?Either way, Ubank is losing money and you as a depositor should be concerned. After the government guarantee drops off "Backed by NAB" will mean nothing. I don't know why people bother with Ubank given the level of risk associated with it - People not knowing all the details and unwittingly taking on more risk was part of the financial crisis.
UBank's stunt in December of offering 10% rates on $10k for 3 months definatly lost money. Offering 5.62% is not so outrageous, seeing as BankWest's Smart eSaver does 5.51% (no withdrawls), ING is doing 4.25% + 1.25% until the end of this month, and Westpac recently offered 1 year term deposits for 6.8%.
Consider all the credit card debt people foolishly carry every month. There's almost $50 billion outstanding, with at least a third being carried over outside interest free periods, which earns between 12% and 20%pa. Personal loans start at 9%+. Home loans (outside of teaser periods) are above 6% and growing.
For a smart bank that doesn't play the derivatives market there's ample opportunity to earn a good income, even when borrowing money at 5.6%. UBank does not have any branches or ATMs. Imagine the tens of millions saved right there.
And just to clarify, banks don't borrow money from the RBA at 3.75% (soon to be 4% on Feb 2nd). That's the overnight rate banks are paid by the RBA to park money with the bank. Otherwise, why borrow at 5.6 when you can get unlimited funds at 3.75?
Hello suti -
I'll try and answer some of your queries:
UBank being part of National Australia Bank consolidates its funds with NAB, through NAB treasury and onto NAB's balance sheet. This has a variety of benefits for our customers:
Firstly, it allows us to price our deposits as part of the NAB portfolio, and pass on some of the benefits of having a very large lending book (including our business lending book) to customers.
Secondly, it means that UBank affords the same depositor protection that NAB provides - including, but not limited to, the government guarantee. The only way a UBank customer would lose their deposits is if National Australia Bank were to collapse.
With regards to UBank's profitability, this is a matter of how we transfer price our products internally in NAB, and naturally I can't go into details here. But I can affirm that the best way customers can contribute to a stable, successful UBank is to tell their friends about us if they like us and tell us about things they don't like so we can fix them. We listen and do appreciate feedback.
Speak soon,
Gerd from UBank
Hey Gerd,
Could you guys do something about the duration between transfer of money?
It takes longer than other banks and its pretty annoying.Cheers
@twig: Hello - this tends to depend on the partner banks for the most part. At our end, we credit funds on the day we receive them. Our principle has always been to pay customer interest the day UBank gets "interest", and not "hold back" funds. We see the feedback, of course, and will look into whether there's anything we can do to improve.
Speak soon
Gerd
I'm another one who is not pleased with the 3 days it took me to get funds from my UBank account into another bank.
Where was my money, and the interest on it, for those 3 days?
Let me guess…
Appropriated and sitting in a short-term money market account somewhere without my approval.
@twig: From their faq. This is standard across all the banks I use. Notice the use of the word "generally" though as they do not guarentee it.
"Transfers to accounts with other Australian financial institutions are generally processed overnight as long as you provide the Security Code that we send you by SMS. The transfer must generally be completed before the cut-off time of 4:00 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time. Funds should generally be available at the other institution the next business day (depending on the institution)."
If NAB collapsed, wouldn't our deposits be covered by the government?
I'm paranoid about money :)
@samfisher5986: Hello - the government guarantee covers customer balances up to $1million at the moment. MOre details can be found here: https://secure1.ubank.com.au/ub/web/customer-help/government…
Speak soon
Gerd
Hi Gerd
Thanks for your reply. I am still not 100% convinced. Is there an agreement between Ubank and NAB that governs where exactly Ubank's money goes. ie is it being exclusively used for residential loans (lower risk), exclusively for higher risk commerical loans (yikes), or something else? At the moment, myself and a lot of people don't know and this is the big disadvantage of operating as a subsidiary and will steer clear as a result. Investing at the head level you at least know its going to the consolidated loan book. Its not worth the risk in our view for 0.01% extra ($10 bucks a year for every $100,000)
Rang Bankwest to change my rate to the 5.62% and they said NO. It is only for new customer and that I have already had my intro rate. Which is CRAP.
Looks like I will be moving savings money to Ubank.
Exactly and I encourage everyone to do the same.
I've been with Bankwest since day 1 and their rates were the market leader without a doubt. However, after the 12-month honeymoon period, the interest rate becomes ordinary while they kept offering much better rate to tempt new customers.
I've transferred all my money to UBank and I now have $0 in my Bankwest account and it has been like that for a while.
Same here. Bankwest is a toothless tiger now that the Commonwealth bank has taken it over.
For those of you with CBA, there was a special offer sent to me on the 8th of Jan offering bonus 2% on my Netbank Saver acct until March 2010 making the rate 5.75%
You should check your new unread messages to see if you received this offer as well. You have to reply to the message for the bonus interest to take effect and it takes 3 days to implement.
Ubank, you have done it again!!!!
Nice, just signed up which was really easy, no dead trees required.
I also got a message from CBA giving me the special offer increasing the rate of Netbank Saver to 5.75% until 31 March 2010.
OOOOOOO I wonder if ubank will beat that also? ! DO IT!
my CBA offer was also for an increase - but only to 5.25% .
Perhaps the extra .5% is an incentive for those who haven't shuffled money around to rival banks and Term Deposits (as i do).
Will be ringing them to inquire if they will match the top rate.
CBA wouldn't increase our rate, but at least the staff were happy enough to close our netbank account, reopened a new one and offer us the 5.25%, but I'm pissed we weren't offered 5.75% despite our disappointment with 5.25. We are a loyal customer and they have matched rates in the past for us without issue. They seem to be trying to keep various levels of customers happy, and those who are in the "over it" category are getting shafted by not playing the "move the money around game".
Oh well at least a rate rise looks likely again this year and we will see if the banks fall over each other to offer better rates again. The sub 3% rates last year were pathetic.
Just ditch the CBA, it's for the best IMO.
But isn't 5.62 > 5.25? Why go through all the hassle to close and open accounts only to have an inferior rate?
Banks don't care if you're a loyal customer or not, the sooner you realise this the better of you will be.
Hello winter - this is why we've introduced our unique Loyalty Bonus for term deposits and Savings Bonus for USaver (details here: https://secure2.ubank.com.au/ub/web/term-deposits/term-depos…)
Speak soon
Gerd
Speaking of term deposits, Ubank actually lets you receive the interest into USaver on a monthly basis. That's interest on interest! Normally you get the interest + capital at the end of the term deposit.
Raboplus also offers this option for periodic interest payments on a term account.
Does anyone know if there is a way around the $20,000 daily limit taking money out of this account? You can transfer more than this in by using the linked account option, but there doesnt seem to be the reverse available :|
Hello - you can transfer a larger amount any time by calling us (24/7) on 13 30 80. This is for security reasons.
Speak soon,
Gerd
Hey thanks Gerd, thats great to know cause I was thinking it would be really painful to have to transfer money out of a period of days.
Citibank introduced a fee free account with a rate of 5.72%.
I guess we can get that with UBank but need to have an ASP set up.
Gerd or UBank, any chance of boosting the rates? :)
Awesome!