ING Direct Saving Maximiser - Interest Rate Reduced to 3.75%

Lsqueeb on 01/04/2015 - 20:04
Last edited 01/04/2015 - 23:20

ING Direct today reduced the interest rate on Savings Maximiser accounts to 3.75% (previously 4%) - 1 April 2015

I was pretty annoyed with this as there was no notification. I happened to see it on their internet site.

Currently the best online saver interest rates are:

ME Bank Online Savings Account 3.85%

RAMS Saver 3.8% (no withdrawals and need to deposit $200/month)

UBank USaver Ultra 3.77% (need to deposit $200/month)

RAMS also reduced the interest rate today but I did receive email notification of this.

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Comments

  • ujwols on 01/04/2015 - 20:12

    That's pathetic!!!!

    Glad I got a home loan and have an offset account. So these rate drop won't bother me any more

  • Mad Max on 01/04/2015 - 20:54

    Is the ME Bank Online Savings Account as good and easy to use as ING Savings Maximiser?

    • Stingo on 01/04/2015 - 22:29

      Pretty clumsy/ugly UI if I remember but it does the job. I don't think it gives you access to interest earned. It does give you a session summary at the end though. You need to send MeBank a form for any payments over your daily limit. They probably don't have a 1800 number for telephone banking either.

      Of all those listed above ING is my preference. The sweep feature at UBank is good if you can't be bothered transferring money between accounts and don't care about any ATM access,

      • jaybmate on 02/04/2015 - 10:06

        you can withdraw from atms with ubank

        • Stingo on 02/04/2015 - 20:15

          They all offer that capability. Apart from RAMS its essential to open a savings account with them to get the maximum rate.

  • TheAviator on 01/04/2015 - 21:46

    Interesting. After the last rate cut they increased their 'bonus rate' for depositing $1000 into Orange Everyday from 1.25% to 1.5% in order to maintain the 4% rate. Now they've just dropped the bonus rate back to 1.25%.

    Not really a fan of this bonus rate moving around, as compared to UBank's fixed bonus and a variable standard rate.

  • CheapandUsed on 01/04/2015 - 21:54

    Quite annoyed, I'd just jumped through all the hoops to open an account and move my Ubank money into this account, finally get it done and the rate drops below Ubanks'.

    Starting to think i'm better off just swapping it into USD and waiting for the AUD to 'return to the long term average'.

    Pretty sure the RBA is doing it's job, lowering the interest rate so that there is no point having deposits and everyone just loads up on debt (because debt adds to GDP apparently)

    • squeeb on 01/04/2015 - 22:02

      Same here. I was watching their rates and decided to open the account at the end of March to take advantage of the bonus interest come 1 April. It would have been nice to receive notification of their intention to drop the rate. The interest rate reduction is ahead of any announcement from the RBA so it wasn't exactly expected.

      Now I am also going back to UBank. Annoyed at ING for the wasted time and lost interest!

    • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2015 - 23:17

      Ditto with the hoops and Ubank thing. I got nearly a week out of them.
      Thinking lightweight sharetrading has to be better than another decade of watching reducing rates.
      Where do people recommend sharetrading these days with low costs. Havent done any for years.
      Netwealth isnt cheap anymore I think. Is Belldirect a good/bad/ugly place to trade lightly. Anywhere better?

  • Unorthodox on 01/04/2015 - 22:26

    Really disappointed…

    Could have at least kept it for the bonus…

  • omghi on 02/04/2015 - 01:07

    I'm also disappointed but at the same time I still think ING is the best choice for me for the time being as I just want a single bank.

    In my circumstances, the MEBank rate is about $45/pa better due to today's ING changes. Not worth the bother of opening another account and moving my money around again, especially when MEBank might lower their rates next week. With higher savings YMMV.

    With ING at the moment I also get about $10/mth back on paywave purchases which makes my return with ING higher than the likes of UBank. MEBank also offer 5% cashback for 6 mths at the moment which might be worth chasing if you have any time/patience left for switching banks.

  • shortgum on 02/04/2015 - 01:55

    I just park mine in Ubank 3.77 now then wait whats happen next tuesday

  • Stingo on 02/04/2015 - 02:54
    +3

    It sucks to be a saver. As a work colleague once said, "the only way to survive in a capitalist society is to live in debt."

  • wannagrababargain on 02/04/2015 - 13:18
    +3

    Bait and switch! Held their rate above UBank for just enough time to snag some customers then boom.

  • CVonC on 07/04/2015 - 15:41

    i was about to move from citibank too.. now i'm gonna move it to mebank for 3.85% + 5% cashback

    RAMS is still 3.91% on their website.. where did you get 3.8%? It's annoying that they don't allow withdrawals too

    • squeeb on 08/04/2015 - 15:33
      +1

      @CVonV
      I received an email from RAMS stating that the rate is dropping to 3.8% on 9 April.

      Interesting that both ING and RAMS decided to drop the savings interest rate ahead of any RBA announcement. At least the rate is on hold for another month.

      Not sure if ME Bank has plans to drop its rate but it is currently the highest rate online saving account that I can find.

      • Steptoe on 08/04/2015 - 20:05
        +1

        Interesting that both ING and RAMS decided to drop the savings interest rate ahead of any RBA announcement

        ING was lagging with the last rate cut from what I understand.

  • Lukian on 11/05/2015 - 12:16

    3.5% now

  • ebayer007 on 11/05/2015 - 16:31

    It will be 3 % soon with the budget. An annual levy of 0.05% on bank deposits of up to $250,000 in order to fund a Financial Claims Scheme, raising about $500mn pa;

    http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2015/05/whats-whats-budget/

    • tomclancy on 11/05/2015 - 16:58

      3.50% minus 0.05% does not equal 3.00%

    • squeeb on 12/05/2015 - 09:18

      That is a loss of $125 per annum on $250,000.

      They really are discouraging savings.

      • Stingo on 12/05/2015 - 10:26

        That's the idea. Savings doesn't stimulate the economy. Relatively higher interest rates over the rest of the world are also bad for our exporters because it raises the value of the AUD. However, encouraging risky behaviour and creating asset bubbles is not a good idea. If you think you are getting screwed now lets see how much inflation out paces interest rates on the way back up. Lose now, lose later.

        Someone remind me why the Government is not borrowing to build infrastructure when interest rates are cheap if they think borrowing is such a good idea.

        For once in my life time I want to see deflation and high interest rates.

        Curse their meddling.

    • squeeb on 13/05/2015 - 09:46

      Sigh of relief. The bank deposit levy (just another tax) did not make it into the budget this year. It would have been grossly unpopular.

      • Stingo on 14/05/2015 - 03:54

        Probably not something you want in a potential election budget particularly with a other moves against people who happen to be savers, namely many pensioners.

        But, to put that into perspective if interest rates drop to 1% that levy would reduce the interest you receive by a twentieth in gross terms, in net terms it would be less for anyone paying tax and have less of an impact on those on higher marginal rates. Much nastier though if rates drop further or even currently on accounts that pay piddling or no interest.

        Anyone with more than $250000 could or would be immune to it (on a portion perhaps) in exchange for no deposit insurance. What's more troubling perhaps is the amount of the levy. Is there really a 1 in 2000 chance of losing all of my capital in a bank over the year? Or to put it another way, will 10000 Australian lose all their capital in an ADI this year or more Australians in an event every few years? Assuming the levy was properly costed its instructive to compare it with the optional levy for larger deposits previously available to ADIs that ends in October this year. That was priced at 0.7 percent for AAA to AA- rated institutions. That may be because of different capital controls.

        Since when did the Government care about savers? They don't want savers, at least now they don't. The last (and only aside from superannuuation) pro-savings measure I remember was the First Home Saver accounts essentially abolished in last years budget.

        Personally, I'd like to see savers receive a comparable taxation concession as that which applies to capital gains. Something like concessionally taxing the amount of interest equivalent to the inflation rate works for me though allowing any interest retained in the account for more than 12 months to be treated as a capital gain rather than normal income would be a real boon to savings.

  • squeeb on 12/05/2015 - 08:45

    In response to the RBA's decision to lower the cash rate by 25 basis points to 2% on 5 May, interest rates offered are heading further south.

    Rams (currently offering 3.8%) is lowing the interest rate to 3.6% on 22 May 2015.

  • markis on 22/06/2015 - 20:55

    It's now 3.5%
    https://www.ingdirect.com.au/savings/savings-maximiser.html

    It's a variable account after all…

  • Stingo on 23/06/2015 - 05:18

    UBank has really slipped back into the field, currently 3.37% with a linked Ultra, effectively less since there's at least $100
    they don't pay any interest on. I can't remember the last time ING was ahead of UBank. Will be interesting to see whether RAMS goes further down or UBank comes back up.

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