Great Southern Bank has increased a range of savings accounts by between 0.60% and 0.70% to remain competitive as one of the market leaders.
The Advantage Saver account is significant, given it is for savers with larger balances from $100,000 to $750,000 simply requiring a balance increase of $250 per month.
Applicants must be over the age of 18. Available to new and existing customers. Only one account per customer. Interest is calculated daily on whole balances and paid monthly. Rate applies on a stepped basis. Refer to the interest rate schedule for current interest rates. Bonus interest is applied on top of the base rate if the balance of the Advantage Saver account increases by $250 by the end of each calendar month (excluding interest payments, withholding tax and fees).
Read more: https://www.savings.com.au/news/gsb-savings-account-increase
right, just rang to get clarity…the ASA you need to grow by $250+ anytime in the month from the balance on the 1st of the month (more than the last day of the previous month….interest is credited on the last day of the month….so that will give you the amount you need to grow your account by) This will then trigger your bonus interest for THIS month (same as Ubank)…the stepped interest. Don't grow your account by $250+ that month, get base rate, grow it by $250+, you get the bonus rate of 4.4% total ON THE FIRST $100k, THEN any higher amounts you have are at the bonus rate of 4.5%…..so it is not 4.5% on the whole amount if you have more than $100k but only the amount ABOVE first $100k
there is nothing at this point to alert you that you have triggered the bonus rate (like Ubank)….which is annoying….as you have to keep the balance at least $250+ above the starting balance at 1st of the month until the last day of the month.
You can also open a Home Saver account and $100k there gets 4.65%, as long as you transfer $2000 from an outside source to the Edge transaction account and do 5 card transactions per month….again this just needs to be done for the current month to get the bonus….card transactions like ING (I just do 5 x $0.01 taps at Woolies or Coles to get that done for ING early in the month to get it out of the way) and must be settled before the end of the month….so best to get them done early in the month to be sure
Transfer limit if you ring for them to do it $250k per day…so if you need to transfer large sums, that is the way to do it
souths123 Do you agree that a $250 auto deposit 15th of every month and never withdrawals would work? Thanks. Le Peck
as long as the last day of the month you are up by at least $250 compared to the opening balance on the first day of the month, you will be fine. You can use the account and it can dip lower but just ensure it is up by $250 last day
Pro tip - Given this and the fact that interest is calculated daily, you can avoid locking in the bulk of your funds and the need to inject fresh funds monthly by:
1) opening month - deposit $X
2) last day of the opening month - move $X-$250 (call it $Y) to another account
3) first day of the second month - move $Y back into this account
4) rinse and repeat. (until your "movable" amount drops below $250)
Positives -
1) No need to keep injecting new funds into this account
2) you are free to use this "movable" amount (i.e. you can grow or reduce it from month to month)
Negatives -
1) no second chance if you forget to move the funds out on the last day of the month
2) cannot set and forget the monthly withdrawal/deposit (i.e. recurring transfers) since amount is different each month (but you CAN set many single future transfers in advance)
3) you loose one day of interest on the bulk of your savings (can be minimised by moving it to another interest bearing account like Ubank save)
Thanks for the info. Do you know if it's instantly accumulating interest if I signed up now and deposited $250, or does it start accumulating from next month?
Cause bank of Queensland seems to be the instant model whilst ING is applicability for the next month
as long as you add at least $250 to a new account, it will count (as you are starting the account with $0) As far as I know it is for the current month, not the next month