I have seen some comments where people say that they have their home loan or whatever with one of the Big 4 Banks. I am just wondering how frequent this is. I am just looking at the headline rates of products advertised on websites (plus I have inside knowledge that staff only really have maximum 0.2 - 0.3% in potential variation from stated rate (on both loans and deposits)).
It's interesting how the banks have been called out as ripping people off for charging fees for no service. or for selling insurance people couldn't claim on. However, in my opinion, the biggest rip offs of banks have been in plain sight the whole time, and have never been called out. You look at most at call savings accounts for big 4 banks, the rate is 0.5%, with possible an extra 2% add on for the first 3 or 4 months. However, you can go to other various banks and get 2.8 - 3% ongoing, with really quite easy conditions to satisfy (the same conditions required to avoid the monthly fee at a Big 4 Bank).
Big 4 Banks offer 0.5% savings rates, well below inflation. It doesn't matter how good your apps are, and how good your spending alerts are, that's a rip off. Even worse than a rip off, it's a silent rip off (because most people don't understand economics and the concept of real returns).
Yes, Big 4 Banks do have Term Deposit rates that are closer to competitors, but even then, its still quite a difference.
No wonder they have such high returns on equity. They only have to pay 0.5% for most of their savings, compared to the 2.8 - 3% that some other banks offer. So that's an extra 2.3% margin (on just the deposit side, there is still extra margin on the loan side to account for as well).
And then there is the rip off of balances in transactions accounts getting zero or 0.01% interest (I remember this very well, from days as a teenager, getting bank statements that said I had earned 1c or 2c in 6 months. I switched to ING then, and have never looked back).
If only people weren't so lazy, regular people could have inflicted a lot of pain on the banks for their misbehaviour. Yes, it looks like there is some shift of people moving banking accounts and superannuation away from major banks given the royal commission, but this could have happened well before the royal commission if people weren't so lazy.