Just got this email from ING stating:
from 1 March 2021 we'll be introducing one new additional requirement that you'll need to be aware of, and it's that your savings need to grow each month.
For me this is the last straw and i’ll be ditching these tools who have progressively made their account worse and worse over the years.
Any recommendations on who is now best these days?
Final straw for me as well. Yet another requirement, and a “growth” one at that: If you need to pay for an expense in a given month, then no interest for you.
I’ll be trying out one of the neobanks like Up or 86400 for a transaction account I think.
+1
time to switch bank
interest rates ain't that special
rebates were gone a long time ago
more hoops to jump through
= cya
Sounds like a bit too much admin now. Might just jump to Macquarie and leave it.
can I jump between banks to have new customer bonus interest for every four months? Just like mobile number port in/out between different providers and still considered as a new customer.
In the past all this took was a phone call. I successfully got New customer bonus interest applied to my NAB account for a few years before I moved to something else. This was a few years ago though, but I would expect the same still applies.
Agree, this will be last straw for me on ING. All got too hard.
yeah same maybe we all should create a petition online to show ING who is the boss.
too much work
If you have 100K+ in their max saving u get no bonus interest and at the same time they want you to grow your saving… haha.
Will seriously look for a switch closer to that day ING….
What a BS requirement?!?
Does any other financial institution do this?
Suncorp does
Unfortunately, yes. This seems to have become the real snag point on accounts over the last couple of years. Suncorp, BOQ are the ones I know of through personal experience, but I know they are plenty of others.
westpac
If your account does not go up what happens then?
you dont get the bonus interest (or maybe no interest at all) or they will take all money and run…. who knows
seriously who in here who doesnt increase their ing account ? probably minority, right? i have my salary goes to ing but if they start asking too many things i may just go.
i hate forcing
The problem is when you end up spending a decent chunk for a big purchase or investing.
yep
sometimes, sh!t happens and you will have no choice but to have to dip into your savings to pay for it, and now, and ING will give you another kick while you are down.
cya later ING.
A fair few are probably transferring in and out the same amount to meet the "deposit" requirement. This was more for the international fee rebate rather than the bonus interest rate.
It's that it must increase every month … a single big purchase and there goes the interest for that month. It's an awful condition that too many are jumping into recently.
Agreed.
But I see where they're coming from, and I can't disagree with ING on it. It might seem better to say increase "yearly" as that achieves what they're going for without the pitfall of large purchases (Rego, Xmas, Flights, Health related). But going yearly then presents lots of issues such as tracking the growth for such length of time. And the elephant in the room, that is 2020, being a cause for reduction of majority people's savings this year.
Most of my long term savings sits in my offset account. I use the ING savings account for short term savings (vacations, big purchases, presents etc.)
This change means I'll often not get the bonus interest. It sucks cause I like ING and it's set up perfectly for me but I will move if this decision doesn't change.
Whats the bonus interest rate? Aren't most interest rates lower than mortgage rates so the savings off the mortgage from the offset is worth more than having bonus interest?
Yes that's why the majority of the savings in the offset.
@AncientWisdom: Yeah fair enough - we've got multiple offsets so we could do the same and keep 'savings/spending' working to the mortgage too. Wasn't many banks offering that though
Any recommendations on who is now best these days?
Checkout this thread for options
Best Australian Transaction (Day to Day) Account for 2020
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/532073
Up Everyday Account
ING Orange Everyday
Macquarie Transaction Account
HSBC Everyday Global Account
UBank USaver Ultra
86400 Pay Account
i would cross hsbc.. the app is horrible
what i need is just decent interest, and free ATM, decent app. thats all.
hsbc is just shit. sorry
Can't believe how such a major global bank can't get its app right!
hsbc has $100 new user bonus and 2% cashback. that 2% cashback on anything < $100 makes it worthwhile for spending account, but nothing else.
the app is hot garbage, though. :)
ubank seems good for me. sweeps interest. but the transactions may be confusing.
How about Mystate?
1.35% interest rate (no mention of "introductry offer")
5 transaction per month on Visa debit
$20 deposit per month
bonus rates upto $250k
sounds good on paper, anyone know if there is a catch?
It's good. 5 transactions can be tap and go, no lower limit. I do 5 bottles sofa water 1 at a time each month.
20aud in can leave the account again, it just has to be deposited at some point.
Decent app. Aussie customer service iirc (might be wrong). Can't complain.
Pro tip for the 5 transactions, just do 5 split/part payments of $0.01 each on a bigger purchase. I do this at woolies for my ING transactions and don't have any issues.
@Haydos90: I just buy my first 5 coffees of the month on card to meet my requirement, yes, I don't drink the free instant coffee in the office, I will hand in my Ozbargainer badge in a moment :)
otherwise, as mentioned by someone else, Rabobank has an introductory offer of 1.75% for 4 months, might go with them first, then move to Mystate afterwards.
@Haydos90: pro tip, beem it's "Transfer" money between your own accounts counts as a transaction.
been doing this for ING's 5 transactions for a while now.
@[Deactivated]: haha thanks for info! but ive abandoned ING already leaving small bits of money in there only for travel purposes and ATM.
mmm cant rmb, do i need to still do 5 txn for free atm? damn i think i do
Do they use Android Pay?
Yeah boycott HSBC, dodgy bank and lousy service, and I say that even though I'm a customer of citibank. That's how bad HSBC are
Yep I don't like HSBC either, crappy app.
So far the main criteria, apart from the interest rate itself, for me has been waiver of international ATM and transaction fees. I know it's less important in 2021 given international travel situation but eventually it will be important again.
have they given any minimum amounts? seems like 1001 in 1000 out would hardly be any more effort than normal
I think the issue is that it’s yet another additional step they’ve implemented.
The requirement is “growth” between months. If you need to withdraw funds at some point to pay for an expense, then you lose out on the bonus interest.
Just pull out ALL your money on the last day. But then this means you will only get interest on 29/30 days a month. Keep $101 in the first month, $102 in the second and increment it like that.
It probably isn't calculated by days but by months i.e. withdraw more money than you put in that month and lose interest for the whole month.
@AncientWisdom: It strictly says balance at month's end. But I mean if you withdraw more money than you put in, your month's end balance will be lower.
I actually asked support and they said its the balance at the end of the day at AEDT, since the ING office is in Sydney.
@ATangk: Wouldn't the interest be calculated at months end too?
In any case I misunderstood the "pull out all your money"sentence, I know see what you meant.
@AncientWisdom: Interest is calculated daily. If it wasn't, I'd have banks around the globe and transfer money in before 12, transfer it to the next time zone after 12.
We're in the process of moving our savings out of ING. Just going to offset the mortgage with it instead, with the savings rates being what they are, the "return" ie. more money in the pocket is greater in offsetting the mortgage
Wouldn't that be the case regardless of prevailing interest rates (never known savings interest rates after tax to be higher than mortgage interest rates)?
And offset interest saved is tax free…
yep, correct
you should have done that a long time ago!
yep
Wont bother me. Its a minor thing.
Last straw LMAO!!! Bring on the drama classes.
They are still one of the best.
Just set up an automatic payment from your current account to your savings account of $0.01.
From my research, most savings accounts that offer bonus interest already require this. Happy to be proven wrong.
ING decreasing the bonus interest rate over the last 6 months has left a sour taste, but this minor change being the last straw is a bit over the top…
IMO that's the point though - ING was one of the last banks (possibly the only one) which did not require a minimum deposit per month to maintain the maximum interest rate. They've now lost the last point that made them a bit more convenient than the rest.
I don't even understand why they would do this - they already ask for a $1k deposit per month into the linked transaction account + 5 card transactions per month to maintain the maximum interest rate (both conditions that were added on over the years), so they're already getting a regular stream of money flowing in. Why make this last, seemingly petty change?
ING do require a $1k deposit to get their maximum interest rate…
Just to clarify, the $1000 deposit was for any personal ING account in your name. But people like me PayID $1000 out of the account and back-in 2 minutes later.
these banks they're all taking the mick in this country
A little, no where as bad as the thai banking system..
They charge you 20 baht about a buck to transfer money within the same bank in a different suburb.
Charge money to withdraw.
The list of shit charges goes on and on..
Using a foreign card to withdraw cash. Oh that will be $9-$12 please for the ATM owner. Oh and maximum $500 a time.
The "why" would probably be they want to be your main bank. Putting these barriers in to make you move money around is frustrating and deters people from just keeping the account open for no foreign transaction fee purposes…
Just took a look at UBank:
The only detriment is the bonus interest rate, but due to ING's lower balance limit, you would still earn more with UBank if you have a balance >$113,334
This is why some of us have both ING & UBank.
UBank has always been one of the better options IMHO.
Up until a month or so ago, they were 1.60%.
Sadly the Government has royally effed over non-mortgage holder [ie. the savers] by constantly cutting the rates.
Some financial professional have debated weather a 0.1% or 1.5% is going to make much difference in the end, and is this low interest rate artificially inflating the RE market???
Anyway, there are winners and losers in this and savers are copping it nicely at the moment, scrambling for a 0.2% better rate.
Does UBank have fee waiver on international ATMs and transactions if you qualified for the best interest rate?
Yes. You don't have to qualify as these are standard features of the transaction account.
"We don’t charge ATM withdrawal and foreign exchange fees when you access your USpend transaction account overseas, or for online purchases with overseas merchants."
virhlpool is talking about something ING does which is more than just a fee "waiver". As well as not charging any of their own fees, ING will actually pay you an amount equal to whatever the overseas bank charged for the withdrawal. E.g., if a Thai bank charges a fee of $10 to withdraw cash, ING will send you $10 to make up for that fee. Ubank doesn't offer that feature.
@ragrum: No he isn't. He specifically used the word waiver. What you are talking about is a rebate. I answered the question as asked.
Honestly if something went wrong with your bank while overseas I wont trust them to be fast to contact and reliable
ING bank was pretty fast and reliable - 24x7. I had to call them once from abroad and they fixed the issue right away. I don't see any reason why UBank customer support won't be similar.
@virhlpool: Don't remember were but when i joined ubank I remember reading that their customer service had really long wait times, I may be wrong
Warning: When you do move your money out to another savings account that is less restrictive, also consider how easy it is to get the money out. ING is super easy, one call and tadda limit raised to whatever you want.
Suncorp … 70k over the phone limit, for more - go into a branch :|. Internet limit I think is 7k ?
Bankwest, over the phone limit 100k, for more - go to a branch.
ING; no limit over the phone.
sucks if you want to earn interest to buy a house and then need the money for a deposit.
Absolutely agree. In terms of their service and internet/mobile app they are lightyears ahead of any other bank I have used
Suncorp is no limit if you have a SerureID Token or Suncorp Sercured App.
hmmmmm. they said to me that there was a limit with a token. Lying customer service people.
So, I can use a token app rather than a physical token? That's good.
Currently building a house and I need to make large payments to the builder. Customer service are useless. They don’t even know their own products. They suggested I go into the branch, however branch staff showed me I can do it myself with the token app. Never needed it before, but apparently it removes all limits.
@FoxJump: fyi - I recently read that Suncorp are closing 7 branches in North East Qld (not exactly sure), please take this with a (Massive?) grain of salt. Could be wrong, could be right.
When I log into my Suncorp internet banking the msg says I can transfer up to $5000 with a token / secured app (I believe they no longer issue the physical tokens). Limit without token is $3000 a day.
Suncorp issue a physical token if you want.
We need it when we want to access our accounts from outside Australia where we don't trust the functioning of the App.
@grips: Interesting - I'll look into this further, thanks. Could have sworn I got an email recently sayng that this was no longer available.
Thanks for the warning. I didn't get the email.
From my reading of the T&Cs, the only second that matters is at midnight? on the last day each month. So let's say your savings are dwindling and you want ING for that extra 0.15% (or whatever it will be compared to your other savings account). You can forecast the worst case scenario for your savings maximiser in the next 12 month window (say $3000), then on the last day of that month temporarily transfer $1000 via Okso to your Macquarie savings account (or whatever) and the rest ($2000 in the example) to your inferior connected ING savings accelerator in the first month. Then add a bit extra to the ING savings maximiser on the last day of each month (on top of the interest) to maximise your return and lose less than 1/30 of your potential interest. For 12 months…
Or you can just abandon ING. Whatever. Shame I can't get a Xinja savings account.
why you cant?
It's been paused to new accounts since March: https://xinja.com.au/news/2020/why-we-paused-new-stash-accou…
Hypothetical situation:
- January: $1000
- February: $2000 (earn interest)
- March: $3000 (earn interest)
- April: $2000 (buy a phone, no interest)
- May: $3000 (earn interest? or will have to be 3001?)
I would think 3000 is 1000 more than 2000
Well obviously. My point is, we'll only miss out on the one month where it was lower. It's not such a show stopper.
next year they may say "increase historically" means in the above scenario, May month has no interest, unless balance is more than the highest ie 3000
You'll also miss out on ATM rebate for 1 month.
@wombat1955: and international fee rebates?
Edit: Looks to just apply to savings maximiser, not to get the existing ATM and conversion fee rebates.
@SwarleyAUS: Yes, now that I've re-read the terms, it appears that it won't affect the ATM rebate if you don't manage to grow your Maximiser account. Mind you, that might be the next thing that their customers will be asking for.
@virhlpool: If you deposit $1000 per month and make 5 card purchases, you will get the ATM rebate anywhere. In order to get the bonus interest, you also have to grow your maximiser savings each month.
Indeed. This will be the last straw for me as well.
Following this post on who else to go to.