We've just received the following from BankWest:
BankWest has just launched one of the most competitive interest rates in the savings and deposits market, offering an amazing variable interest rate of 8.25% p.a. This promotional rate is only running for a limited time, the end date is yet to be confirmed.
And remember earn $40 moneyback per submitted and accepted online application, if you click through the MBC link.
Don't you love marketing and spin…
It's only for up to $5000 though - amounts over that will be paid at the standard rate
I think you have that wrong - its for all balances
In fact its also 8.25% for existing intro rate customers for amounts that they hold over what they had in their account as at may 1 2008. eg if they had $5000, then add another $4000 then the rate is 7.75% for the $5000 and then 8.25% for the $4000.
The limits they say on this account are $5,000,000
"For the period, if any, that a Special Introductory Interest Rate applies to your account, the maximum investment limit is increased from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000. (See clauses 22 and 24 of the TeleNet Saver Product Disclosure Statement effective 1 May 2008 at bankwest.com.au/telenetpds."
I may have 9k on telenet saver already. So this existing amount will not earn the new interest??
No. Only the amount above your balance on the 30 April will earn 8.25% interest. So if you deposit $2k today, then your 9k will earn the old interest rate whereas your 2k will earn 8.25 until 1 Jan 2009.
@scotty: i should better move to their gold deposit (8.5%), as i think that is the highest one today
I just started switching my accounts to BankWest due to their excellent savings interest rates.
For a Telenet Saver you need a linkning "everyday" transaction account. There are a few choices. For those that earn $2000 per month, a Zero Transaction Account is the way to go.
The other account to consider is the BankWest Lite Transaction Account
A low, predictable fee structure and plenty of other great features:
I wonder if Raboplus will increase the rate to compete against this
Probably the best way to encourage this is to open a BW account and transfer your money across - then maybe Rabo will get the message,. if they do then you can transfer back if you prefer their service etc. Thats the nice thing with these accounts you can easily swap and get the best deal offering.
Loyalty has it's price as the bank profits prove
One thing holding me back from joining BW is their Credit Card. At least $85 annual fee for a CC that offers a reward program. I'm still liking my BOQ Credit Card with no annual fee + reward program. I'm still trying to make up my mind on this.
Gosh the BankWest registration process is terrible! I mean really bad. I have tried it now in Internet Explorer 5, Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 2, and Firefox 3 RC 1, and it does not work in ANY of these browsers. Whoever designed this website needs to be taken out back and shot, or subjected to hours of watching ordinary users trying to register on their website without being able to help them in any way. Example: Step 1 requires you to download the PDF documents, and then tick the box. Now, I had tried in so many browsers that I had already seen those documents. However, if you don't download first, then it won't advance to the next step, but the warning about this is off to the side and top and doesn't stand out that well, so it's not an especially clear UI. But far worse is step 2, where you fill in a full page of details, and then the "next" button does not work. I am unable to work out why - I have filled in every field of the form correctly, there are no errors, there are no fields marked in red, there are no warnings on the top right, and it refuses to advance to the next step (this is in IE5, IE6, FF2, and FF3, on 3 different computers - 2 Windows computers + a Linux box). I am starting to wonder if it's even actually possible to complete the registration - but I guess it must be, or else they would have no customers, but I have no idea how people successfully registered. I think they must be losing potential customers because of the poor usability of the site :-( Honestly, the interest rate is great and I would love to move my ING savings there to take advantage of it, but if you can't register on their site then the rate they offer is irrelevant.
As a proud sponsor of the Australian Olympic Team, we love to see someone giving their all. It's what our athletes will do in Beijing 2008, and it's what we're doing with BankWest TeleNet Saver featuring Australia's highest variable online rate of 8.25% p.a.
We've combined the ease and convenience of online banking with a new variable promotional rate of 8.25%p.a. that will be paid until 1 January 2009.