Best Internet Savings Account to hold cash

[serp]

Heya, just wonder where is considered to be the best online savings account these days? (Best being top interest earning rate, and no fees, I don't care about lots of features) It use to be ING direct but what is it now? I hear that Bankwest do 6% ? What about the new commonwealth bank account? What accounts do you use and what are your experiences, please share!

 

[RichKid]

There are some accounts which have higher headline rates than the trusty ING Direct but there are catches, you MUST read the fine print, you'll be surprised. But then again it may suit your personal situation. Some accounts give you bonus interest if you keep a minimum of $5k for a number of months, others have various fees attached. I personally find ING to be the only one with high interest and no strings, that's probably because I bank with them. The new CBA one looks good but not sure of transaction costs and miniumum levels etc. Glad to see the competition hotting up- you can say it is when the big banks start to to offer no frills accounts with great interest. This is not a recommendation, let me know how you go with the terms of each offeror.

 

[doctorj]

CBA, for a limited time, are offering Term Deposits at a rate of 6.1% (simple or compound interest options) for a term deposit of $10,000-$100,000 for 1 year. A customer may open up to 4 of these each. Those with wives/companies/trusts may wind up with more.

A small note on TD's. All banks will have a headline offer and an "under the counter" offer they can use to win business. Like shopping for cars, never settle for the advertised rate as they can always do better. This is especially true for amounts in excess of $100,000.

Also, branch managers are often able to exercise discretion when dealing with larger sums of money in order to win business. The key is to have a competitor offer. Like all bartering processes, they can be real or made up. If you are going to make them up, ensure you claim they are from a bank with an equivolent or better credit rating than the bank you are approaching (ie. say the offer was from CBA/NAB/WBC/Citi) and make the offer believable. Say for instance, you're looking for a $500k TD for 1 year, you could go to CBA and say that NAB offered you 6.15% for 1 year on the whole sum but you liked CBA and you wanted to see what they could do. Retail banking is becoming extremely competitive, chances are that you will score.

Remember 6.1% on what is really no more than soveriegn risk is not to be sneezed at - particularly if your bearish and not keen or comfortable with the various approaches to profiting in a bearish market. You can always come back in a year with a modest return on your funds while many traders and investors will have had their wealth eroded by losses over the period.

 

[bvbfan]

What about the new commonwealth bank account?

5.4% on balances over $5,000
nothing on balances below that
No transaction fees on the account, but need to link to existing CBA account, where fees may apply
Also the net special won't qualify for relationship totals, which incidently are going to $50,000 in September which I think will anger quite a few customers

DISCLAIMER:
I work for CBA

I personally have BankWest account on the 6% due to no minimum balance, they have a maximum of $999,999 I think

 

[GreatPig]

I use mostly ING and BankWest.

Last time I looked, BankWest was still offering 6% for 12 months then 5.25%, and ING 5.4%. Both are for personal accounts only.

ING was still offering 5.25% for business accounts.

GP

 

[money tree]

here is what I do to get 10.565% p.a

Open an account with Oanda (forex broker)

deposit funds....say $10k

earn 5.5% on the balance = $550 p.a

also go long 10,000 AUDJPY using same funds = AUD (5.2%) minus JPY (0.135%) = 5.065%

total = 5.5% + 5.065% = 10.565%

 

[serp]

here is what I do to get 10.565% p.a

Open an account with Oanda (forex broker)

deposit funds....say $10k

earn 5.5% on the balance = $550 p.a

also go long 10,000 AUDJPY using same funds = AUD (5.2%) minus JPY (0.135%) = 5.065%

total = 5.5% + 5.065% = 10.565%

I take it there is more risk involved with this

 

[serp]

I use mostly ING and BankWest.

Last time I looked, BankWest was still offering 6% for 12 months then 5.25%, and ING 5.4%. Both are for personal accounts only.

ING was still offering 5.25% for business accounts.

GP

Can you elaborate with your experiences with BankWest? Are there any conditions on the BankWest account or is it a carbon copy of ING Direct?

 

[GreatPig]

Can you elaborate with your experiences with BankWest? Are there any conditions on the BankWest account or is it a carbon copy of ING Direct?

Well I mostly use ING, since most of my cash is in a business account, but to all appearances, the BankWest one is identical except for the interest rate and the cap on the amount of cash you can put in - and that BankWest doesn't allow business accounts. Internet access, transferring cash, etc. are all pretty much the same.

GP