Bankwest Hero Transaction Account - No fees!
Provided that you make a deposit of $2,000 per calendar month (eg your salary?), Bankwest’s Hero Transaction account gives you:
- No account fees and no minimum balance
- Interest rate of 5%p.a. on all balances up to $5000, paid monthly
- BankWest / MasterCard Debit Card access
- Cheque book access
- Online & Phone Banking
Bankwest ATM transactions are free, and if you live on the east coast you can use Commonwealth (NSW/ACT/TAS), Westpac (VIC) or Bank of Queensland (QLD) ATMs for free!
It looks like Bankwest are serious about bringing some competition back into Australian banking!
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A problem with citibank’s offer (I assume you mean the Citibank Plus account) appears to be that (and I quote) “The current $500 Citibank Plus Monthly Fee waiver offer is valid until 31 December 2007.”. Also the 7.25% bonus interest only applies if you hold a minimum of $5000 in the no-interest citibank plus account.
Even so I hope that offers like these are putting pressure on all aussie banks to lower their fees.
Yes their online banking appears to be created by amateurs. That said it is functional.
Better yet, the HSBC Online Savings account has
- no monthy fees
- A high 5.10% p.a interest rate on amounts between $5,000 to $499,999
- unlimited HSBC ATM transactions
- Five free ATM transactions per month, at any bank ATM
- Minimum opening deposit of AUD2,000 - No minimum balance after opening
- get provided with a rsa token to login with (added security)
have been using this for 5 years without trouble, just dont try and phone them (offshore where engrish probably isnt their first language)
Some things to consider about HSBC Online Savings account:
- does it come with a Visa/Mastercard debit card?
- interest for amounts up to $4,999 is only 0.5%. you won’t need amounts more than that in your everyday account. you can transfer them in some high interest earning accounts(like TeleNet or Raboplus to earn at least 6.7% pa).
- brach withdrawal: $5 what if you need cash in one day more that your daily limit? you have to go to the branch and pay $5?
unsure about the debit cards, never really had a need/want to get one, had a bit of a poke around their website though and couldnt find anything of use
never been to a hsbc branch (none where i live), guess you would be paying $5 for a branch visit, work around would be increase ur daily limit on the phone and then to it electronically hehe
Just for the record, I had a HSBC online savings account once. The major problem I had with it is that they had a daily eftpos withdrawal limit of $1000. After talking to them on the phone they said that there was absolutely no way to get this increased. If I wanted to withdraw more than $1000 of my own money I had to go to a branch! The other suggestion was to get a credit card. I personally hate credit cards - give me a debit card any day.
For HSBC Online Savings account … do this account allow you direct debit?
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Citibank might be worth considering too. Their minimum deposit is $3000 from memory to avoid fees but you can use ANY ATM in Australia with no charge. You also get a high interest savings account (>5%) which is automatically linked to your current account.