Best Australian Transaction (Day to Day) Account for 2023

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Question

What is the best Australian Transaction Account for 2023?

Transaction accounts are a basic day-to-day use account that everyone should have: It's an account you typically use to spend money with, such as paying for basic expenses and bills.

However, these accounts can attract fees in various different forms: such as

  • Monthly account keeping fees
  • ATM fees (for using an ATM that belongs to another bank). Many banks however, have now ditched local ATM fees.
  • Phone, or Internet banking fees
  • EFTPOS and Branch fees
  • Foreign transaction fees and Overseas or International ATM access fees

Some of these accounts also offer it's members benefits, such as:

  • Support for contactless Mobile payment platforms such as Apple or Google Pay
  • Being able to earn some interest
  • Joint accounts
  • Fee-free money transfers to other banks
  • Ability to earn rewards points such as FlyBuys, and cashbacks
  • Extra bonuses when you refer friends and family to join the same bank

Last year, most of you voted for the Up Everyday Account, followed by the Macquarie Transaction Account. ING Orange Everyday took third place.


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This is part of What Should I Buy poll for 2023. Check out other recommendations from the OzBargain community.

Comments

  • Suggested Bankwest Everyday Transaction Account

    Bankwest Everday Transaction Account: A great allrounder

    • Until you need support. All branches closed, with a few exceptions in WA. Reduced hours. Phone support queue is stupid long, support via app is craphola.
      Too bad we can't downvote in a poll.

      • +2

        All digital banks basically have no branches so not a big deal by comparison. Bankwest at least still has Bank@Post as an option.

        • -3

          But bankwest was never a digital bank. During covid they have moved in this way.

          Bankwest at least still has Bank@Post as an option.

          I don't think this is a positive.

          • @Lord Fart Bucket: They clearly want to be a digital bank now, hence them not keeping any branches opened on the east coast. Its different in WA where they are one of the majors there.

            Bank@Post - It is a decent substitute to branches for getting cash out, and depositing cheques/cash.

            • +1

              @silenthillrocks:

              Bank@Post - It is a decent substitute to branches for getting cash out, and depositing cheques/cash.

              Have you dealt with auspost? An ATM is a more pleasurable experience.

              • @Lord Fart Bucket: Except that you cant deposit cash/cheques in an ATM unless its owned by your bank. So try deposit cash with Macquarie or Ubank, who have no ATMs owned by them.

    • Note that you cannot open a joint account anymore unless you are in WA, as told by two consultants over the phone. This is due to no physical branches being available to be ID'd in person anymore. Bank@Post is not available for this either.

  • +1

    under da pillow?

  • +3

    ING has gone to trash. Been loving Up so far.

    • Not agreeing/disagreeing with you but what's your reasoning?

      I've had no issues with them

      • The app is barely updated. Push notifications that used to be there were simply removed. You still have to call a phone number to close an account. There are no comprehensively tracking\planning tools. Significant delays with funds appearing in accounts compared to other banks. Regular downtime on weekends.

        • Push notifications that used to be there were simply removed.

          I don’t remember it implemented for iOS but at least the SMS is available as an option. In fact I prefer receiving an SMS more than notifications.

      • They lock your account as inactive after 6 months. You can look at your balances, this is not a transaction. Do a transfer in and see the balance change on the app, then log to do a transfer, 0.00 available is shown, necessitating a phone call. There is no value there for me. Used to be Free ATMS overseas.

        • Yup - this is an annoying feature, not really sure who benefits from it.

          • @Daniel Plainview: Not even ing benefits from this. They had to deposit money into my inactive account to close it. (I did not deposit the cash).

            Stupid bank.

    • ING have definitely reduces their support headcount. I traditionally have enjoyed the fact that they have a local callcentre but now it typically takes approx 45mins - 1hr of waiting to speak to someone. A lot of their processes (lodging transaction disputes and whatnot) could be modernised to be an online process, further increasing their call loads.

  • Just signed up for a Macquarie account and saw that it comes with a concierge service? Anyone have any experience using it?

  • +1

    ubank:
    good interest rate (4.1% today - it.will.change)
    payments directly to/from the save account
    no fees
    eftpos or visa access via card or apple pay

    • +2

      Tbf the interest rate isn't actually relevant to the transaction account

      • The 'Save' account functions as a transaction account.

        You really don't need to use the 'Spend' account – I've literally never put a cent into it. (Though I guess you'd need to put money in it to withdraw from an ATM if you stlil use cash for anything?)

        • +1

          It doesn't automatically sweep does it? If I use my debit card?

        • How exactly do you pay directly from the Saver?
          I just opened my account and tried making a payment using both "via up" and "via payid" but I get an error saying that the transfer amount exceeds the amount available although I have enough in the saver.

          To me it looks like you need the money in the spending account to be available for payment.

  • +1

    Macquarie everyday transaction account for anyone who has any money leftover after paying all their monthly bills.

    • +2

      Yeah good account. Only issue is no eftpos on the card

      • Why is eftpos more important than everything else Mac offers?

        • Who said it was ?

          • @finbar: I was just wondering if there was something Eftpos was especially good for - it’s just the Vibe

            • +5

              @Debt Free: eftpos required for Beem It and no fees at aldi and instant Medicare reimbursements and instant refunds at retail shops and also cash withdrawals when purchasing at supermarkets. It's just something to be aware of. The account has many positives which can be seen listed on the website.

  • Macquarie customer service is useless. I ran into an error signing up and called them up. They routed me to the call center and all they could to was to ask me to use a different device.

  • Gonna go with Up Everyday Account. Been using CommBank for a while

  • Suggested Virgin Money Everyday Go

    Recently switched to Virgin Money to use in conjunction with their savings account. Not the greatest app in the world, but far from the worst. Free ATMx usage if you use cash a bit. Rewards program - 8 points per transaction, about 9000 points to redeem for $50 in supermarket gift cards. Not so great chat support but decent phone support.

    • @aidenh37

      Interesting suggestion. Seems they're part of Bank of Queensland. Is interesting that they have a reasonable rewards program built in (at present the only one we access is via a Citibank CC, which stinks as it's 1pt/$1 spent - so to get a $100 supermarket GC you need to spend $20,900.

      Virgin's 8pts per $ activation seems easy enough - how many points do they require for a $100 WISH card? 18,000 seems a tad low.

      The other banking aspects of their accounts seem quite good - their bundled Boost Saver account, seems to have near best in market rates - 4.85% at present once criteria met (easy enough to do) and using the 'LOCK' feature which is an extra 0.3% for 32 days (like mini term deposit).

      Osko, PayID and seems no ATM fees for major banks nor other basic fees. Interested to know what their exact pts to $$$ conversion is to equate to other programs - say for $100 in cash or supermarket GCs. :-)

      • +1

        It's not points per dollar spent. Read the website for more info. You get 8 points per transaction no matter the size of the purchase

        • +1

          OH! Thank you for pointing out my massive mistake. That makes an epic difference. Gawd how daft of me.

          8pts per transaction is shockingly poor. Ok scratch that from the list then.

          Tend to be leaning towards a Macquarie Transaction account with one of their bundled savers off it - as I put any spare $$$ straight into a range of ETFs, so not that fussed on chasing the absolute highest interest rates but don't want to be getting 0%.

          Then have a HSBC account for the everyday purchases in person - to get the 2% cashback on sub $100 tap&go buys. This won't cover everything but much stuff and is vastly superior to using the Citibank Rewards on a CC, which is horrendous (spend $21,000 to get a $100 GC).

  • +1

    from this list for everyday txns - virginmoney & hsbc are my vote

  • Suggested Westpac Choice

    A nice app which does push notifications on a joint account when using Google Pay. Nice branch network as well with friendly staff. Access to deposit facilities and other in branch facilities which are taken for granted when you need it the most.

  • Suggested ANZ Plus

    Have been using this for a month or so and loving it.

    • I don't like that as a Neo Bank it doesn't even support payid.

      • Does now

  • which banks have it's own Mobile payment? NAB use to have it but got rid of it..combank have it but those fees. aware about Google Pay but privacy reasons reluctant to use it.

    • Pretty much all the big, four banks and others have gotten rid of their own mobile payment apps.

  • I am switching from ING to macquarie for sure, they rejected my ing credit card (apply for only 3k credit limit) and they send me an email that because I didn’t meet creteria of min income, like WTF. My payslip clearly meet of their criteria. They don’t even bothered to pull out my credit score, there is no history of them pulling out my credit score.

    • +1

      You're switching banks purely out of spite because they rejected your credit card application?

      I don't think they care.

      • Yeah, for an obvious issue like that, the customer should contact the bank for sure.

  • +1

    HSBC is great for the 2% back but my god how do they not have payid in this day and age. Not to mention their signup process was actually autistic.

    • If HSBC's software development team actually made everything good, then they would probably start cutting back or completely eliminating the cashback scheme.

      The 2% cashback is purely so they get more people using it as their main spending account. Essentially bribing people to put up with their deficiencies elsewhere.

      Think about what would happen if a bank with good IT also offered low interest rates for borrowing, high interest rates for saving, cashback for spending, etc. Everyone would flock to them and they would find themselves falling behind in the profit race compared to their peers.

    • Is there still that condition of having to deposit 2000$ every month to have the 2%?

  • Suggested Bank of Melbourne Complete Freedom

    Also available as St George Complete Freedom and Bank SA Complete Freedom. No fees for anyone, ever. No contracts. Easy to use app and website.

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