The online lists of bank savings accounts I’ve looked at are now mostly out of date.

The guardians for my grandmother recently got control of her CBA bank account (don’t worry this isn’t a horror story) and discovered it was all in an almost 0% interest account, so they’ve moved it to a goalsaver (4.65% at time of writing).

I have a CBA account, but moved my savings around a few years back first to Bank Australia (they had good interest for a while) then Credit Union SA (currently at 3.65%). I feel like I might end up with an account with everyone at this rate.

ING seems to offer 5.5% right now but they have a longer list of requirements attached than I expected (I’ll have to start using their cards if I join them).

Any thoughts or advice? EDIT: Also are fixed term deposits ever sane? I’ve always assumed that guessing the direction of interest rates is a gamble.

    • GroteStreet 🦘@aussie.zoneEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      That spreadsheet is very regularly updated by the community. The longest I’ve seen it being behind was by 2 days.

      Depending on how much money OP’s grandmother has, note that the majority of them have a limit on the amount of money earning interest.

      Also at a time where interest rates are this fluid, term deposits isn’t the wisest place to park your money. Unless they’re paying 10%, then maybe…

      • WaterWaiver@aussie.zoneOPEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Thankyou.

        term deposits isn’t the wisest place to park your money. Unless they’re paying 10%, then maybe…

        My best understanding is that term deposits are a gamble between you and the bank about which direction interest rates will go. I suspect their modelling (even if poor?) will always be better than mine, so I assume that on average it won’t be in my favour. But compared to normal savings accounts I don’t know.

    • Pilk@aussie.zoneEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Can someone tell them the ME Bank OSA + ETA rates are wrong?

      As of Thursday 22nd June 2023, the ME Online Savings Account bonus rate has increased to 4.20% from 3.95%. Base rate is the same.

      Though I will say their new app-only account types (SaveME and SpendME) might be the only ones that can be opened right now.

  • TassieTosser@aussie.zoneEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    Put it in an exchange traded fund. It’s essentially buying shares in a diversified portfolio. You can choose how much risk you’d like to take ranging from foreign growth markets to govt bonds.

  • Yeah_na_yeah@aussie.zoneEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I set up a transaction and savings accounts with ING some years ago, reimbursing atm and foreign exchange fees was a good draw and it became easy enough to hit the requirements for the bonus rate.

    I’ve since got a home loan and offset account but still keep the ING savings as a holiday fund account and i now have my personal savings (separate from my and my partners joint savings) in a Citi bank account for the introductory rate as you can only have one bonus rate saving account with ING.

        • notleigh@aussie.zoneEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          Ha, all good! I only noticed because I’d heard about Yotta a few years back and it just seemed like an interesting concept.

    • WaterWaiver@aussie.zoneOPEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      Looks like a gambling company. Smells like a gambling company. Says it uses “Gaming Labs” random number generators. Claims it’s not a bank.

      No thankyou, by definition for them to be profitable I have to put in more money than I get out.

      • notleigh@aussie.zoneEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        This is all a little irrelevant because Yotta isn’t in Australia, but anyway…

        I totally get the ick factor when looking at Yotta, because it is definitely using the same hooks as gambling. But it’s sometimes been referred to as a “No-Lose Lottery”:

        You get paid interest, but less than a traditional savings account. The trade-off is that the more you save into your account, the more “tickets” you get to win a larger amount.

        The key is they’re targetting a market that isn’t choosing between Yotta and a traditional savings account, they’re trying to encourage people who would spend on straight gambling to put their money in an incentivised account.

        Some more detail from the founders

        It’s definitely not as good as a proper savings account, but if it’s a way of redirecting money away from gambling and into savings then I figure it’s a net win for society.