Just received the notification. They have updated their site to reflect the new interest rates.
Once Ozbargainers have recovered from shock, what are your plans now? Remain with ING or jump ship?
High interest alternatives courtesy of Catsfan070911
Ubank – 2.87%
St George – 3.00% (First 3 months only)
Rams – 3.00% (No withdrawals in the month)
RaboDirect – 3.05% (First 4 months only)
Me Bank – 3.05% must Tap & Go purchase with Everyday transaction card, weekly.
Already switched to RAMS. They have 3% now but you can't withdraw money and need to deposit $200/month.
What happens if you do withdraw money? Do you get charged or does it only mean you don't get the interest for that month?
You will earn only the base rate - think it is 1.35%.
The golden age is over. When I started here at Ozbargain- doesn't seem that long ago- the dollar was US$1.06 and ING was giving 5% cashback. Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end.
Actually we all thought they would end very soon and which they did. Sorta took out the enjoyment of the moment in fear of the future
:'(
Around 2012 - 2013 was a great year
I seem to arrive at the end of the party.
I decided to wait, when Westpac offered I think 8% on deposits. That was only 5 or 6 years ago from memory.
Oh the times they are a changin'.
I may move to ME bank
I wouldn't from past experience. Anyone know if their online system has improved / no longer randomly locks accounts?
Any suggestions for absolutely fee-free superannuation? My mother has a very small super balance and fee would have eaten up all balance by the time she retires
I think AMP and some of the others have a fee free (and income free) option, based on cash only.
If it's very small and not getting much income anyway, that could be an option.
Thanks for your help. I have been having a look here but could not find anything that is fee free. Could you please point me to the right direction? Thanks
Oh … sorry, you're looking for SMSF bank accounts.
Commsec and CDIA bank account is an option.
https://www.commsec.com.au/why-join-commsec/self-managed-sup…
Competitive interest, no account or withdrawal fees
1.5% on balances above $10,000 too
Your mum can also buy shares for her SMSF if she likes and pay no monthly commissions etc for having these stocks etc (or having none)
Looks like you can BPAY and Transfer (which looks like "Pay Anyone") as well.
Also
I think you can also ask for a debit mastercard for access to the money
Based on earlier comments, I'm not sure if you're looking at SMSF, but if its only a small balance wouldn't the audit costs of SMSF negate any benefits of DIY?
Anyway, if you are looking to outsource it to a fund, I don't think you'll ever find fee free super.
However, HostPlus is the lowest I know of. The charge an admin fee of $1.50 a week ($78 per annum), plus if you choose the Index Balanced Option, the management fee is 0.02% of the value of funds managed. I don't know what the average management fee is these days, but a little under 1.00% is not unusual. So this is cheap.
Their website is a little bit of a challenge to navigate, but here are the fee breakdowns for different funds.
https://pds.hostplus.com.au/6-fees-and-costs
The Indexed Balanced option is split along a 75/25 Growth/Defensive allocation so it may be a little more volatile than your mother's risk profile - but man is it a cheap fund. Description of asset allocation is here.
https://pds.hostplus.com.au/5-how-we-invest-your-money
I'm not with them myself. I've gone with a higher growth allocation with my super. But I did seriously consider them at one stage, will revisit them to reconsider eventually, and hear good things from other people on investment forums….
For a very small balance QSuper might be a consideration. Admin fee is 0.2% rather than a fixed $ amount.
Add the investment fees for the chosen investment option, e.g. moderate and you're looking at a total of 0.57% p.a. in fees.
Also, consider opting out of insurance if not needed.
It's annoying but I'm still going to stick with ING. I have all my accounts with them and the support is second to none.
Also their website/mobile apps are great and simply work. Plus free ATM's is still there. If they get rid of that then I may leave…
Macquaire Bank is better:
The list goes on and on.
Take a look :)
Pity about the inferior interest rates. Seriously are you a MacBank rep?
I don't think he is, because the information he posted is incorrect. Probably just an misinformed fanboy.
No International Fees (ING charge you $2.50)
Wrong. ING charge 2.5% for international purchases, not $2.50.
Additonally:
ING charge $2.50 for international ATM usage, and no other fees (which is very good)
Macquarie charge $5 for this.
My take on this is:
Let's say Mac Bank has an interest rate of 2.75%, which is slightly lower than ING's 2.8%, then I totally agree that Mac Bank is a far superior choice. However, with a measly 2.3%, it is totally not worth it.
Do we have a rep in disguise?
Nah, just a misinformed fanboy, since the information he posted is incorrect. See my reply to Cobalt above for details.
If you look at E5TOQUE's forum thread it's so full of gushing praise for Macquarie that its almost embarrassing. I smell a rat.
Ditto
All you people moving to Ubank - do you realise that this equates to about $6 extra in interest per month if you have a full $100,000 in the account?
Isn't cash the worst place to keep money now?
Indeed. If you are earning enough interest that it's something to be worried about maximising, unless you have an impending big purchase that you can't avoid (i.e. house), better investing in a diversified index fund. Yes, you need to get used to the volatility, but superior returns over the long term and you don't get as taxed as badly as you do with interest, and you protect your savings/investment against inflation.
$5.83 per month. Look after the pennies……;)
Every little helps ;)
I think I'll stay with ing for now.
Eh makes sense from a strategic point of view. Most of their customers won't switch as there's no attractive alternatives. I'll stay for now.
Has anyone tried AMP Bett3r?
3.0% p.a.
$2000 a month deposit
I don't know about it apart from that. I just saw it on that Whirlpool spreadsheet, pointed to by idontknowwhy
I am looking at this as well, seems interesting https://www.amp.com.au/personal/banking/products/everyday-ac…
It seems to have 3 sub accounts. Pay, Save & Spend. Save account is offering 3% interest with rewards.
You will be eligible to receive the relevant Rewards for a month, where AMP Bank determines on the first working day of that month that in the previous month at least $2,000 was deposited into your Bett3r Pay account from an external source that is not another AMP Bank account.
It will be between this and Me bank but I will close the ING account. Super already moved to Hostplus.
I've been digging into it further and found a $5 a month fee :S on the Bett3r pay account … :S
So, that changes the rates big time :S
Let's say a person:
- deposits the $2,000 a month and withdraws it monthly too
- pays an extra $5 to cover the monthly fee
- draws off any interest to spend
on $1,000 in savings -> -3.0% p.a.
on $10,000 in savings -> 2.4% p.a.
on $30,000 in savings -> 2.8% p.a. (ING's rate)
on $99,000 in savings -> 2.94% p.a.
Another issue is, if they drop their rates, we then have to shut the account down or keep paying that $5 a month.
The fee can be waived, as mentioned here. So account is worth considering.
Another issue is, if they drop their rates, we then have to shut the account down or keep paying that $5 a month.
Yeah, that will be the major downside, once the rates are so low it is no longer worth the effort to deposit $2000.
How likely are ME to stay out in front of the pack? Last time this happened I moved to ME, then they went down after 6 months, then I went to UBank and they went down after a few months more, then ING was back on top so I moved back. A lot of hassle for a couple of hundred dollars. I don't think I can be arsed this time.
I've just used ubank for years mainly due to their card and haven't really been looking at the interest as across the board it has been going down.
Was it really even a couple of hundred dollars? I would have guessed more like a couple of dozen dollars.
Not that big of a deal really. At most people will not make $200/year that they otherwise would have.
how is 2.8 to 3.0 a drop?
It was 3.0, now it's 2.8.
To be honest while it's annoying it's still minimal, as I don't really feel the need to chase tiny variances in interest rate as I don't have the savings to make it worthwhile.
ING still offer me a good experience, so I'll stay put for the time being. If this turns in to a definitive gradual degradation of their product then I'll move elsewhere.
I made these notes immediately after recieving the notification from ING. I was going to wait to see if the other banks dropped their rates at all before making a decision but I guess I have nothing to lose other than the day my funds are in transit from one account to the other.
Ubank – 2.87%
St George – 3.00% (First 3 months only)
Rams – 3.00% (No withdrawals in the month)
RaboDirect – 3.05% (First 4 months only)
Me Bank – 3.05% must Tap & Go purchase with Everyday transaction card, monthly.
Based on the above, my personal preference will be RaboDirect for four months, then i'll reassess and see whats going on. At that point I suppose i'll switch to Me Bank and try to make a Tap & Go purchase monthly. I'm not super keen on any account where you can't make a withdrawal of funds at all.
Fyi mebank requires weekly tap and go, not monthly. It's not difficult to maintain, but it is one more thing to remember.
Thanks for that, found that in another link shortly after I posted, I typically only use a credit card to tap and go :S..
Does RaboDirect have a linked transaction account with visa/mc? Or is purely just a savings account?
It is purely a savings account. You have to link it to an external account which allows direct debit. And transfers are not instantaneous.
The good old days of ING offering the best rates are over.
I've already opened a ME account at 3.05%. And if they do the same I'll just move again to a higher rate paying account.
For you frequent bank shoppers, perhaps it's a good idea to leave your dormant other accounts open, just pull the money out. That way you don't have to go through the activation and account creation process every single time you discover 'greener pastures'.
Personally, I will stick with ING as most of my money is locked into a TD at a higher rate and I still find their bank app and customer service second to none.
I'm going to stay with ING despite the drop, their mobile app seems to have one of the best UI's and very pleasing to use.
No other banks with similar / better interest rates have this good of a mobile app and website.
i'm transferring some to ubank
There is simply no competition for deposits at the moment. Rates across the board are rubbish. ING and UBank still seem the best options with no, or at least easy, conditions that don't either require specific action to be taken (i.e. contactless payments) or not subject to lock ins (i.e. no withdrawal clauses). But, geez, it's hard to find anywhere worthwhile to park a bit of cash these days.
The issue is that you also need to pay tax on any interest accrued. What I’ve done (because I don’t have a mortgage) is given the money to my brother to keep in his offset home loan account. I give him 1% and I keep the rest tax free ;-)
If I had a mortgage which a lot would, I would just do it myself.
This is good, but it is not without risk. I hate to be morbid, but if he passes away, then his wife may inherit your savings.
I left ING for UBank in 2010 and haven't looked back. I just follow the interest really, I'd jump to ME but requires too much maintenance and I legitimately hate their ads enough to not give them my business :)
I joined ING back when they were giving out $20 and had 7% interest rates. I'd be making a healthy wage if that were still the rate!
I live for the day that I have a problem jumping through the ME Bank hoops. Until then it's working for me.
For those considering RAMS, don't forget the mid month interest rate drop stunt they pulled.
What was the "aplogogy" email referring to, what information was incorrect?
Suggestion to those moving to ME bank and concerned about having to make a weekly payment - try weekly paypass to top up your Opal card.
With the $2k transfer for the AMP Bett3r account, can you deposit it and then withdraw it every month?
Had a brief glance at the Account T&C, and nothing suggests that any withdrawal will forfeit the bonus interest rate. The only requirement being to deposit $2000 into the PAY account. But note the $5 fee if the $2000 deposit is not met. Hope this helps.
I totally agree with Pastry, ING has some amazing offers but once they get really popular, the bank tries to introduce alternative fees or features so that the people using the service would have to pay extra basically for the same deal. It's sad indeed but I am afraid there is nothing we can do in this regards, as it is the company's policy we are talking about.
Does anyone know if the $1k deposit per month for the ING DIRECT Savings Maximiser can be done as follows to satisfy the criteria: ING Savings Account -> ING Transaction account -> ING Savings Account
nope the $1,000 has to be from an external bank account.
Damn. Time to keep looking for a savings account that will let me withdraw without losing my interest and has no min. monthly deposit then :/ Can't believe how hard it is to find a decent savings account for a student with a small amount of savings….
you can deposit $1000 from an external bank account and then immediately transfer it out and still collect the bonus interest rate with both ING and UBank
ME Bank just dropped their interest rate to 2.95% this morning :(
Please vote with your money and switch to another bank!