• expired

3% P.a. Interest on Balances up to $250,000 for 25+ Years Old @ Bank of Queensland

1940

Big kudos to the people at Whirlpool, maintaining the savings spreadsheet

New challenger for Top Interest Rate Savings Account in Australia

Fast Track Saver Account
- 25 years old and over; citizen or permanent resident of Australia; personal account (ie not business etc)
- bonus rate only if balance is under $250,000
- deposit $1,000 to your linked Day2Day Plus Account and the following month earns bonus interest
- 0.5% p.a. standard; bonus is 2.5% p.a. variable

Also
- needs a linked Day2Day Plus account (looks like a fee free transaction account with no account keeping fees)
- Withdrawals? looks like you can withdraw to your Day2Day Plus account with no penalties. You can transfer to other banks, from the Day2Day Plus account.
- [For transfers to other banks, in excess of $5,000 a day, a token device may be required. letters numbers Says you can get a physical one in branch and Yola says you can get a software one instead


So maybe open the account and deposit the first $1,000 a few business days before the end of the month. Then move the rest that you want to move, after the new month has started.


If 14-24 years old, there is a 4% on up to $10,000 deal here

Related Stores

Bank of Queensland
Bank of Queensland

closed Comments

  • +36

    I had Home loan with these people ……Terrible Bank. Just to attract customer told me a good interest rate ..On the date of load disposal increased home loan rate by 0.5% and made it one of worse. Changed to HSBC…..Will never go back to them. Cheaters at least for me.

    • +14

      They all do that, mate. Banks are all tossers

      • +2

        Switch to customer owned banks

        • Which ones gives good % ?

          • +1

            @JetBombat: For savings, I find Credit Union Australia to be solid.

      • +7

        Hsbc has been unreal. I signed up 3.65% with offset. Then bank manager rang a few months later and told me to sign a form and dropped the rate to 3.6%. Then a few months later gave me a $200 voucher for being a valuable customer.

        The app is shit but I’ve never had a bank go out of their way to save me money. And I’m yet to see a better rate with and offset and no fees

        • Damn that is a solid deal. Super jealous. Unfortunately it doesn't look like that sort of rate is available with offset accs any more. Might have to use as a bargaining chip against CBA though…

          • @andyfc: I can get you the deal if you want

            • -3

              @BarryBargain88: 3.65% on a savings account? count me in!

              • @kevinMario: Read the comment again.

                Hsbc has been unreal. I signed up 3.65% with offset. Then bank manager rang a few months later and told me to sign a form and dropped the rate to 3.6%. Then a few months later gave me a $200 voucher for being a valuable customer.

                He's talking about his loan.

            • @BarryBargain88: Hi mate could you pm me details? Interested.

        • Wow. How much was joining fee? I have exit fee for existing loan and have to think of charges. Dont want to be in a boat when hsbc increases after few months as well.

          • +1

            @EnALup: No joining fees at all. And they even paid for my place to be valued. There’s no annual package fee. Nothing.

            • @BarryBargain88: @barrybargain88 can you PM me the details of this HSBC deal?

            • @BarryBargain88: I could see fee online. Do you mind sharing deal you got?

              • +1

                @EnALup: I went through one of the HSBC bank managers who came into my work one day

                • @BarryBargain88: If he is in Sydney, would love to speak to him or will ask my broker if they deal with HSBC.

        • +1

          i'm also on the same deal. v good, but man the app is so shit :(. Sure it does all the things you need, but the UI was designed by someone who's completely out of touch

        • -1

          Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation = HSBC

          FWIW

      • Lolantha Jimantha!

    • Pretty simple for interest rates though… you just take the money out if they don't pay it to you properly, which I can't imagine they would do.

      Have had a normal experience with them, best interest rate around.

      Their app is total hot garbage so they definitely aren't my daily driver. Just savings.

    • +7

      Also internet banking is literally at a 2005 standard

      • There's a reason why fraudsters pretend to be this bank more than others.

        • More fraudsters mimic CBA from what I see…

    • I would agree they are a difficult bank to deal with. I had a similar account like this a few years ago and closed it when the offer finished (ie when the interest rate went down). I had to pay to transfer a large amount of money and at that time I left the transaction account open and forgot about it. It had incurred charges which put it into negative and to close it the teller made me pay them money (something like $2.50).

      • -2

        You had to pay scheduled fees that you agreed to in the terms and conditions? Monsters!

    • Howz experience with HSBC? Wanna change as well

      • +1

        very good (normal account, home loan), if they have branch close to you, internet banking is OK

        • Thanks. Their current rate is .5% better to ehat I am paying. No branch close though.

    • Had a loan with BOQ and they tried to charge us the full 3 years interest when we tried to pay it out 12 months in, on top of normal early exit fees. They didn’t even read their own contract. I don’t trust them anymore.

  • -2

    hsbc has a better deal 3.1%. BOQ is a very bad bank also you lost interest on an entire month as the offer only applies the next month

    • +4

      There are other banks popular with OzBargain that do the same thing. First month won't get the bonus rate. But from then on, it does, so long as you meet the criteria.

      Which HSBC account is that?

      • -3

        hsbc serious saver

        • +22

          With HSBC, after 4 months, it will revert back to 1.2% p.a.

          This account will hopefully keep a good rate, going forwards.

        • +1

          For hsbc you cant withdrawal anything in order to maintain the rate, am i correct?

        • +6

          Yeah introductory rate… I bloody hate that it messes up the "sort by interest rate" table which is probably intentional. I don't give a shit about the dangling carrot what are you actually going to give me in the long Run

      • Also, after your 4 months vat 3.10%. They won't allow you to close and reopen another account from what i was told over the phone. Not sure if anyone has tested this to find out or not?

        • I was told the same. Once you have had this account with the bonus interest, you cannot get open a new account and get it again - ever.

          They will surely change the name of the account one day.

    • +5

      Only deposit 1k for the first month, keep money elsewhere?

      • Looking at the site, it would be $1,000 per month. "Earn Bonus Interest by depositing $1,000 a month (like your salary) to your linked Day2Day Plus Account".

        • +1

          We're talking about loosing the first month's interest and how to avoid it, not overall

    • +2

      so move money in on last day of the month

      • Exactly!

        Or if you want to play it safe, do it on the second last working day of the month, in case the transfer is slow (which still happens in this day and age despite promises of wide spread quick transfers).

  • +5

    From my understanding this is an ongoing interest rate not an introductory offer. The condition is that a min of $1,000 is deposited in the Day2Day account every month.

    • +1

      This is correct. I have had one for a few months. It was 2.8% before 20 March.

  • Finally the banks are competing for savers money!

    • +1

      Isn't there talk of an interest rate cut?
      So perhaps BOQ is hoping to get a few signups in the months before they drop their interest rates?

      • +1

        Banks drop interest rate together anyway

      • +5

        Rates cut won't happen unless RBA wants below 70 cents to the dollar. Banks won't pass rates cuts anyways. It's only a smoke till the next global recession.

        • +1

          So your sure there is a global recession very soon? What stocks are you shorting?

        • +3

          No offense, but I disagree. I'm a saver too, I wish central banks would stop this "cut rate to save economy" fallacy, but unfortunately it's what they do.

          • +1

            @nfr: To a degree it works, but after x amount of cutting it loses its effect. Sometimes only fuels the spending fire, where people need to be saving more.

            If RBA did cut one more time, it will get a lot of people (without giving it much thought) interested in getting back in the real estate market, again FOMO & thinking low interest rates are here to stay, so I although I think the RBA will not have anymore cuts, they won't be raising them either for another 10 - 12 months.

  • +1

    to meet the bonus criteria, you need to transfer 1k from account outside of boq. if you subsequently transfer out that 1k same month, will u still meet the bonus criteria? i mean if its your salary, you still have to at least eat right?

    • -3

      I don't think you need a saving account if you earn 250 dollars a week….

      • +2

        Or maybe he has 250k lying around and wants to maximise interest (safe investments)?

      • +1

        Even if you put your student allowance in there that’d be $1000 a month right?

    • Yes you still qualify just deposit it in the day to day account.

  • +19

    3% needs to be the new normal, I hope Ubank goes to 3% so I don't have to move.

    • This.

    • -5

      For Ubank's 2.87% p.a, we're talking about $2.16/month with a balance of $20,000. Username checks out, I guess

        • +25

          LOOK HOW MUCH MONEY I HAVE EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

          • +5

            @[Deactivated]: i thought the average Ozbargainer had 250k! I’m trying to catch up!

      • For Ubank's 2.87% p.a

        You should account for inflation.

        I don't know what that is at present but it typically removes a large portion of the profits from savings account interest.

        • +3

          Don't forget income tax you have to also pay on it. Generally after taxes and inflation even the highest bonus interest accounts produce negative returns when adjusting for inflation and the government CPI understates the real inflation.

      • $2.16? How did you come up with that figure, it would be around $47 a month

        • +6

          They're talking about the difference between the two, (3% vs 2.87%). Not the full amount.

      • -1

        Here is the math for you (0.0287/365days) x 30days x $20,000=$47.18

        • +2

          They're talking about the difference between the two, (3% vs 2.87%). Not the full amount.

    • -5

      The thing is, UBank is entirely online based so expect terrible communication. Want to go to a branch for any reason whatsoever? Too bad. Want to deposit cash into your UBank account? Too bad. Have an issue with your account? Wait in queue for 1 hour on phone.

      • +7

        I've contacted UBank several times on Twitter and Messenger and they respond quite quickly.

      • +2

        I'm with ING who are entirely online based and I have nothing but positive things to say about them.

        You get around the online only part by having a free everyday account with another Bank (e.g. NAB). So whenever I want to make deposits into my ING savings I just rock up at any NAB atm, deposit, then OSKO straight to ING.

        Works well.

        ING have excellent customer service too.

        • Sorry old thread - but ING does bank@post which means you can just deposit straight from a post office if you have one close.

    • I want them to go live with payid already

  • Up to 250k? Why do the do this?

    • They hate you rich people 🤑

    • I noticed that ING has reduced theirs from 250k to 100k.

      Not sure if this is just for new customers, or applies to existing customers also.

      • On top of that, ING have also abolished the "Loyalty" bonus.

  • +6

    Talk about age discrimination!

    4% if you are 18-24 for up to $10,000

    https://www.infochoice.com.au/banking/savings-account/bank-o…

    • Customer Lifetime Value…

    • +2

      up to $10,000

      There is the limit for you.

  • On a side note, what's the best home loan at the moment? The last I read about on OzBargain was the Bank of Sydney one which was about 2-3 years ago.

    • There's quite a few at 3.5%, but they also all want 30% LVR now.

      • Oh! Any idea what the average going rate for a p+I with LVR of 10% is?

    • Also interested in a new loan with offset if anyone has a good tip

      • Watch hsbc as they aim to take up more market share in home loans. I heard UBank has good rate too

    • HSBC and UBank are advertising no-frills 3.59% variable rate loans. The lack of offset accounts may be off-putting though.

  • +1

    I switched from CBA to Suncorp Growth Saver, with bonus rate is 2.60% per annum but you only need an increase of $200 per month in balance, it also gives you 1 withdrawal from this account without penalty of losing the bonus interest unlike CBA so i set up a saving account with this and auto transfer $200 each month to the growth saver and use the ATM withdrawing from the saving account for day to day expenses. With the overall service Suncorp offers I personally don't mind having a little lower rate.

    • +10

      Wouldn't UBank be better than the Suncorp Growth Saver
      2.87% p.a. vs Suncorp's 2.6%, unlimited free withdrawals, also only requires $200 deposited a month (you don't even have to increase the balance)?

    • +2

      Yeah ubank is better than suncorp in every way.

    • Me bank is better at 2.85% no need to deposit anything a month. Just have to make 1 paypass transaction a week to get the bonus rate

      • No more than 7 days, transaction to the next and transactions must be made, even when on holidays or sick

  • -1

    Will be enrolling, thanks! Are the two crazy QLD senators involved in this?

    • +8

      Only 2 of them are crazy?

  • +16

    Just a heads up:

    • They will give you your account details over the phone and will refuse to email it to you. They claim it's "insecure".
    • Internet banking interface is mediocre. You can't even view the current interest rate of your account, so you have no idea whether you've fulfilled the conditions for bonus interest until it has been credited.
    • Mobile banking is a straight out shit show. They have a separate app for tablets and mobile. Password managers don't recognise the fields and your session is not temporarily saved (like CommBank), so you have to copy paste manually every time you leave the app.
    • You can't even change the PIN for your debit card online or at an ATM. You have to go to one of their physical branches.
    • No NPPA, PayID or Google/Samsung/Apple Pay yet. If you want to deposit and withdraw $1000 in and out the same day, do it earlier in the day to leave some buffer room before the 4pm cutoff.

    There's not a lot that's great about them apart from "at call" funds (no "no withdrawal" condition) and pure interest. Make sure you know what you're getting into.

    • +2

      Thanks, sounds like a heap of crap to deal with for the slightly better rate than ubank.

    • This.. The app is plain useless

    • +1

      Email is insecure, plain text is also subject to metadata retention. So yeah.. That's something else to keep in mind.

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