Bank account for under 18

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  Xanthorrhoea semipl… on 23/04/2010 - 20:16

  Get a student freedom card (for under 18 with student identification at BANK SA in south australia. It has no charges, no interests (includes the annual interest you get from the amount in the account :P).

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  [Deactivated] on 26/04/2010 - 11:22

  with all that stuff you are buying lately from here - how the hell do you have any funds to save?

  Joking aside, what is your objective, interest rates or convenience?

  Account fees are an issue if you have very little funds, not so if you have lots of dough. However lots of dough under 18 could hit you hard with tax, as "minors" get impacted by interest earned over a certain amount. Designed to catch families using kids accounts to spread money around, to save being caught in higher tax brackets. Unfortunately the "family" focus of the government hasn't meant that this "loophole" has even been adjusted for inflation.

  Like most people with any spare funds, the banking system isn't designed to make it easy for you. It hopes people are lazy or can't be bothered with the details like storing funds in a higher savings account and transferring it back when needed to their transaction account, even with the internet this requires constant monitoring.

  Without knowing details sounds like having a free transaction account like ANZ or some other banks student account would be the way to go. There are online banks like Citibank or AMP, but you wont have branch convenience.

  Bankwest offers a free account, if you deposit $2000 a month into the account, you can transfer in and out for this to occur, but again requires attention. Other banks probably offer the same.

  NAB has a free account for everyone.

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    Trance N Dance on 26/04/2010 - 12:12

    haha buy? sorry too poor to buy, more like window shop.

    but yeah highest interest rates possible, don't need constant access, as im just gonna use it to dump my money there and make it work, branch access would be a positive to deposit some cash (if not then i can just get my dad to transfer money over from his account on the net and i give him the cash)

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      swimmingtoad on 26/04/2010 - 19:20

      +1

      You should just put the money into a term deposit and just have it roll over automatically

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  pais on 26/04/2010 - 21:35

  You should also be able to claim back 100% of the tax rate you've been paying on your interest.

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    POWERevolution on 27/04/2010 - 00:11

    Mind to show us how?

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      pais on 27/04/2010 - 01:24

      It's a deduction/credit on your return. I wasn't aware when I switched from a credit union to NAB that they were witholding tax on my savings account's interest until about 9 months in… Just claimed it back at the end of the fiscal year.

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  inherentchoice on 27/04/2010 - 11:17

  Does the fact that you're under 18 really change what's available? If anything you would be looking at the same term deposits and savings accounts, but they would actually waive any fees.

  My suggestion would be to have a look at www.mozo.com.au and www.infochoice.com.au which can compare what the different banks and institutions are offering. Personally I use suncorp's everyday options with a ~5% savings account that you can access instantly (and I mean instantly). The downside with Suncorp is that they don't really have any ATMs outside of QLD, but that's not a problem if you are organised and get cashout at the supermarket/McDonalds etc, or just use it as a secondary bank account.

  Also if you find a quote on a term deposit often other banks will offer to beat it by 0.25%!

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    Trance N Dance on 27/04/2010 - 18:08

    yeah for instance I can't get a ubank account
    and usually for being under 18 there are accounts that don't have any fees