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Westpac up to 3% Interest on Savings (up to $30,000) for 18-29 Year Olds

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Just read about this on a news.com.au article - 3% savings rate is amazing but sadly im too old. Better then I am getting on ING though so thats fairly amazing even if it is only the 1st $30k. I copied the T&Cs below seems legit

3% p.a. variable interest: earn up to 3% p.a. variable interest each month when you meet the criteria for both Westpac Life variable interest and Spend&Save Bonus variable interest. For bonus interest qualification, a month is the period from close of business on the last business day of the prior month to close of business on the last business day of the current month.

  1. Westpac Life variable interest: to earn the variable interest, which currently includes a 0.40% standard variable base rate plus a 0.60% p.a. variable bonus rate, you must make a deposit to your Westpac Life account, ensure the account balance is higher at the end than the beginning of the month and keep the account balance above $0. Interest is calculated on the daily balance of your Westpac Life account and paid on the last business day of the month.

  2. Spend&Save bonus variable interest: to earn the bonus variable interest, you must make 5 eligible purchases with the debit card linked to your Choice account and have these settled (not pending) within a calendar month. The following transactions are ineligible: ATM transactions, BPAY, EFTPOS cash out
    only transactions and purchases settled to a credit card account. Interest is calculated on the daily balance of your Westpac Life account(s) up to $30,000 and paid by the 20th day of the next month.
    Available to individuals aged 18-29 on new and existing sets of Westpac Life and Choice accounts from 1/07/2020 and may be varied or withdrawn at anytime in accordance with the deposit account terms and conditions. Westpac Choice and Westpac Life sole or joint accounts must be opened in the same customer name(s). Eligible on a maximum of 3 sets of Choice and Westpac Life sole and/or joint accounts.

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    • +3

      "With the Westpac Choice bank account, you can say goodbye to the $5 monthly fee if you deposit at least $2,000 each month."

      I get my salary paid into my Westpac Choice account and have never paid a fee. The monthly fee is also waived if you're a full time student.

      • Thanks! My salary goes into a different account, I’ll probably change that

      • +4

        Would it be possible to transfer $2k into the account and straight back out?

      • -2

        If you're planning to use Westpac Life only for the 3% at the 30k max savings cap, you're probably better off paying the $5 monthly fee. Keep that additional $2,000 per month in another higher interest rate bank say ING at 1.8% currently (rather than the low 1% base Westpac rate)

  • I guess they have to spend that retained dividend somehow!

  • +8

    Eligible on a maximum of 3 sets of Choice and Westpac Life sole and/or joint accounts.

    Does this mean I can have 30k in 3 Westpac Life accounts, i.e. 90k total earning 3% interest p.a.?

    • This will be interesting

    • You have $90k? Hello :)

      • +18

        hypothetically. Of course if I had 90k it would be in a high yield investment vehicle.

    • This would make it better as the $2k required to be put in for the account fee waiver can then be put to use in if you've hit the $30k cap on one account.

    • +1

      It appears it is 30k max between all your Life accounts and 5 transactions between all your choice accounts, see https://www.westpac.com.au/faq/spend-and-save-faqs/ ,about 2/3 down.

  • +10

    I’m wondering if Beemit payments count as eligible…

  • As someone 18-29 with a westpac mortgage this is tripping me out. What benefit does westpac have offering such a deal? Then again I'm someone who always has $0 in both their choice and saver accounts as the interest rate/transaction account features are crap.

  • Question: If I had 31K in the the account, would I get bonus interest on the first 30K? or would i get no bonus interest at all as I am above the 30k limit?

    • The Spend&Save interest applies to total balances of up to $30,000. For balances above $30,000, you’ll still receive the variable base rate and the bonus rate, provided you grow your account balance by the end of the month.

      • so on 31K, do i get the Spend&Save interest on the first 30k?.. it's unclear to me.

        • My understanding is yes, for balances portion exceeding 30k it's 1% max

          • @Meovel: hmm the way i read it "total balances of up to $30,000" - I wouldn't be so sure, will definitely ask the question if I apply

            • @Rdigity: I've confirmed, if you have more than 30k you get 3% for 30k and 1% for the portion over as long as you comply with criteria.

  • Age discrimination

    • +1

      18-29 year olds are predominantly thankless essential workers in this pandemic so I think it’s nice

  • How do they verify your age?

    • As part of the application process, Licence / ID etc.

      • So what happens is anyone can open it but they have coded in something to check the age criteria when it comes to bonus interest?

        • +3

          I'm sure you have to provide your date of birth as a part of the application process as is the case with any financial services company.

  • +4

    Transaction account requirements kill this deal. Not worth the effort.

  • +6

    Not worth it if limit is 30k. And too many requirements

  • If you have the upper limit of 30k in your account,

    you will get $75 interest on that first month, $50 of which only if you make 5 transactions.

    So each transaction must be <$10.

    • -2

      so you don't buy stuff each month, not even woolies, how do you survive

      • +1

        i think most of us already have primary accounts (Macquarie, 86400, UP, ING, etc), and this is just added hassle.

        • -2

          not me though

    • +1

      I think you can exceed the $30,000. The $30,000 limit simply means the rate only applies to a max of $30,000

      The three rates are independent of one another.

      The 1st rate you get just because, the 2nd you get for increasing your balance, the 3rd applies to 0-$30,000

  • +2

    An way to automate 5 debits of $1 per month? Would prefer to use another card.

    • +2

      Beam It?

      • Sweet. Seems like a pretty decent choice.

        • +2

          PattyDaPanda confirmed Beem It doesn't qualify.

          • @DuckKnight: Was it a customer service rep? Seems to not be mentioned in the terms unless it counts as an Eftpos cash out transfer.

            • @machej: Yes, it seems like they talked to a rep. It's not mentioned in the exclusions since Westpac classifies it as a bank transfer.

              • +1

                @DuckKnight: Funny because Beem It transactions work with BOQ. I might confirm with them as Beem It transfers out are technically a 'Visa Debit' purchase.

                • @Divado1: Might be because Westpac partly owns BeemIt. Xinja bank's instant topup feature is an alternative that also works with BOQ and I expect will work with this.

  • +1

    3% "VARIABLE" rate,

    so tomorrow they can just reduce the rate to 1% after getting all ozbargainers savings

    • +2

      It's titled "variable" because parts of the 3% rate are awarded as "bonus" rates on top of the base rate.

  • Hopefully the other banks follow suit. Otherwise I’ll be switching back to westpac

    • depends on how much they'll lose

  • +6

    I'm gonna switch and see if I can hit the 5 txn requirement just using BeemIt

  • +1

    30k only. What a pittance!

    • +3

      Can you transfer me a pittance please?

  • transaction fees for choice account in aud in australia?
    minimum spend for the 5 transactions?

  • +8

    I have talked to support, and they have said Beem It doesn't qualify as a purchase towards the bonus 2% spend and save bonus interest. Such a shame :(

    Support said that Beem It transactions are classified as a "transfer of funds" and not a "purchase"

  • interest..paid by the 20th day of the next month

    What a rip off.

  • +1

    Damn I was really excited about this until I saw that Balance(n - 1) has to be bigger than Balance(n) .

    Dealbreaker for me. Will be taking the tiny hit to use BOQ, not to mention that they've waived the card fckery 'til Sept.

    • Balance(n) > balance(n-1).

      • not sure why someone downvoted you, really should be Balance (n) < Balance (n+1).
        You gets the point across anyhow

  • Guys idiot here. So if I put in $10,000 and fufill the requirements for the 3% interest.

    It would work like $10,000*1.03 = +$300 a month free money????

    • +13

      3% is per annual, you get $10,000*0.03/12 = $25 free per month, $300 per year.

  • So they pay interest at a loss ? Most interest rates on mortgages are less than 3%

  • +1

    Variable interest rate - they could do an AMP Bait & Switch after sucking people in to the high rate savings.

    Best method if you don't satisfy the age criteria is to churn and burn your High Interest Savings Accounts.

  • +4

    Is anyone interested in a service that automatically meets their card-use-per-month criteria?

    If like more than two people would use it I'll make it, the lowest I could make this would be 50c per transaction so if you require 5 card transactions/mo, that would cost AUD 2.50.

    So for example - BOQ @ 2.85%, 10k AUD, you get 23.75/month. With fee that would be 21.25 AUD, taking it to 2.55 % but taking away the hastle.

    Let me know if you'd like it, I'll do it, have been thinking about it for a while.

    • -1

      Or just transfer money to a mate with Beem. Don't waste your money. It only takes 2 minutes.

      • +2

        comment from PattyDaPanda earlier today:

        I have talked to support, and they have said Beem It doesn't qualify as a purchase towards the bonus 2% spend and save bonus interest. Such a shame :(

        Support said that Beem It transactions are classified as a "transfer of funds" and not a "purchase"

        • Pay off your bills in 5 transactions then.

          • @askbargain: And jees doing this with bills? Coles is easy atleast… But your bills that must be a huge pain. My times worth more than that in $ for sure.

            • @Scantu:

              But your bills that must be a huge pain

              How so? You can do it easily.

              My times worth more than that in $ for sure.

              Good for you Mr Moneybags.

              • +1

                @askbargain: Doing that is going to take like what 10 to 15 minutes? Even at minimum wage most people's time is worth more than that… Hardly Mr money bags.

                • @Scantu: Maximum 5 minutes if you're slow? I guess for you it could be 2 hours.

      • Sure when you remember to do it five times per bank per month. I'm currently just manually doing 5x1c transactions at Coles, it's not impossible to do by yourself and never said it was. It's a pain in the ass however and I'd pay $2.50 a month to get it done, especially now that I have two and I have to remeber to do 10 1 cent transactions at Coles every month now..

        • Beem isn't even part of the exclusion. My guess is that the support staff gave wrong information.

          • @askbargain: Yes, still… My point being you still have to do it and it takes time. You seem oddly oppositional to something that would just be helpful it's weird.

            But also I could definitely see why it would be excluded, it's a transfer not a transaction.

            • @Scantu: If you can use Beem, you can automate it.

              • @askbargain: You can automate 5 low denomination transactions per month to any/as many banks as you want?

              • @askbargain: I can't find anywhere in beam you can do this

                • @Scantu: I think you do a transfer from the debit card over to another card within the app, and you can set it to repeat over a set period

                  • @PattyDaPanda: Sounds dodgy to me + the guy said it was invalid because it's a transfer

                    • +1

                      @Scantu: Yeah support said it's not a valid transaction, however I use Beem It for Up bank and it works fine to reach 5 transactions there. Maybe Westpac flags transactions from Beem it, not too sure

                      • +1

                        @PattyDaPanda: beem it shows up as a debit card transaction on the logs so it would be interesting to test if it works

                        • @theartofthedeal: I did it last month and it showed as debit card purchase, but when I tried this month, all it says is "beem it AU". was that the same for you?

                          • @skido: Wait for the payment to be processed (usually need to wait till next business day) and then it will show up as a debit card purchase.

                    • +1

                      @Scantu: Beem works for BOQ definitely, also Up - Westpac is still ambiguous, maybe because they're part owner of Beem they actually know to flag it.

                      • @blighst: I expect instant topup for Xinja would work for Westpac - works for BOQ.

  • How long does this 3% go for?

  • It's like they read my mind, I was going to move much of my money out eventually.

  • +2

    Take note there is a $5 monthly fee as well

    Westpac Choice bank account $5 (criteria for fee waiver below)
    This fee is waived for:
    Customers that deposit at least $2,000 each month (other fees apply)
    Customer under the age of 21 or a full-time tertiary students
    Australian Pensioner Concession or Health Care Card holders
    New to Australia or expatriate customers (for the first 12 months)

  • I've had a westpac choice account for 10 years, and just started saving properly. How do I start to earn interest? My statement says I earned 0 interest for the last 2 years. Do I need to provide my TFN?

    • +1

      You don't get interest on Westpac Choice. You should open a Westpac Life account

  • Would Beemit transaction counts for the 5 spends?

  • hmmm if you create a Joint Account for this, do both individuals have to meet the 18-29 requirement?

  • Somebody has already contacted support who said Beemit transfers do not count towards the Spend&Save bonus.

    However, I was thinking another way to satisfy the criteria is to add money to your TransferWise account from the Westpac debit card. Using Google Pay is a few cents dearer than normal card transfer, but it is faster and doesn't flag the Mastercard ID check.

    5 x $5 from Westpac to TransferWise Au balance (5c fee each time, 25c total)
    Withdrawal fee to an Australian bank account is about $1, but you can just withdraw an larger amount when you want to.

    • Cheaper and easier way seems to be buying off eBay.

      • The benefit of TransferWise is it takes about 1 min to complete the purchases through the app. Just make sure $25 ($25.25 :P) is in the account, done.

        • Sounds good that there is another option. Cheers

    • Xinja bank's instant topup feature should work.

      • This might count as an Eftpos cash transfer but do let me know if you have success with it.

        • +1

          It doesn't go through eftpos as I've had it blocked by visa protect a few times and shows as pending for a few days with my other bank accounts.

          • @archiexyz: Excellent. Thanks for this. Seems like you just do 5 X $25 topups then. Easier than Transferwise and Afterpay.

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