High-interest saver accounts

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  bevisaurus on 06/03/2008 - 09:41

  I use RaboBank's RaboPlus. It is very good and lets you also dabble with share funds easily too.

  Only negative is the secure id which I find annoying if I am at work and want to move some money out or check how much I have in my account.

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  HueyData on 08/03/2008 - 15:01

  ING has stumped up for 6.90% effective from 17 March, but that's still not enough.

  Only negative is the secure id which I find annoying if I am at work and want to move some money out or check how much I have in my account.

  Thanks for mentioning that as I did want to ask about the Digipass. It sounds like the device is not convenient to carry around with you at all times? Is it too big to be a keyring attachment?

  That aside, RaboPlus is still looking good to switch to.

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    scotty on 08/03/2008 - 18:42

    The box it comes in measures 8cm x 5cm x 1.3cm so it is not that portable. You usually need to trade convenience with security so I guess it is really up to you. With Digipass the "password" never gets transmitted over the wire, encrypted or not so in theory it is safer against man-in-the-middle.

    Also an inconvenient device like Digipass is also good against social engineering where someone tries to phish the password from you, because a password is useless without the device.

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  kcyw on 08/03/2008 - 15:22

  I personally like the Digipass. It's bigger than your normal VPN key, but not that big, and I like the added security it provides as well.

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  POWERevolution on 08/03/2008 - 16:19

  Raboplus seem to be the best choice at the momment but I'm not happy with their current rate 7.3% (at least 7.5%). Their security is good but it's inconvenience if you & your partner share only 1 digipass & have it with you at all time if you need to transfer/ withdraw funds.

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    HueyData on 11/03/2008 - 20:12

    The box it comes in measures 8cm x 5cm x 1.3cm so it is not that portable.

    Yeah, that doesn't sound like something you'd want to carry around in addition to wallet, mobile phone, bunch of keys, etc.

    You usually need to trade convenience with security so I guess it is really up to you.

    I never considered ING's security insufficient, despite its comparative shortcomings. But I certainly won't hold the Digipass against RaboPlus even if I'd prefer something more convenient. The more security-minded the place holding your money is, the better :)

    Raboplus seem to be the best choice at the momment but I’m not happy with their current rate 7.3% (at least 7.5%).

    Is it possible to get more than 7.30% outside of a honeymoon rate? (And with the standard desirable characteristics - no fees, no minimum balance, interest calculated daily, etc.) If so, let me know before I switch to RaboPlus shortly :)

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      scotty on 11/03/2008 - 21:18

      Members Equity seems to be the one offering 7.50% standard rate (i.e. not honeymoon) at the moment.

      http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/3237

      I have no experience with ME although I think some people might.

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  [Deactivated] on 12/03/2008 - 03:51

  Bankwest has 7.25 outside of the honeymoon rate, and they do have advantage of having branches available - depending on where you are. East coast expansion is now on. So is the advantage of having branches a benefit to you. StGeorge offers 7.00 after teaser and has many more branches.

  The higher your deposit amount the better even a small rate difference is.

  Note also the trends - Rabo 7.3% has been cutting back on its leading position. Over the past two RBA rate hikes they ended up passing on .25% (.10 and .15) instead of .50% whereas the others ING 6.9% BW 7.25% AMP 7.05% ME 7.5% STG 7% all passed on the full .50%

  So what defines a teaser rate as NONE guarantee to keep the same competitive position vs the other banks next rate hike.

  And as Scotty said ME offers the best non teaser rate of all the online only banks.

  So the with the hassle of changing banks, bear in mind with banking the only true static is that things change all the time. Because most don't like the idea of changing, so they can get away with it. So no matter what you plan, changing might still occur.

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  HueyData on 24/03/2008 - 22:15

  Good discussion and information. It's now unlikely that I'm going to switch in the near future, however RaboPlus still appears most suitable for my preferences. I'm cautious about Members Equity even though I know you can't rely entirely on credit ratings.

  Over the past two RBA rate hikes they ended up passing on .25% (.10 and .15) instead of .50% whereas the others ING 6.9% BW 7.25% AMP 7.05% ME 7.5% STG 7% all passed on the full .50%

  One way to manage the different rates on offer would be to have all of the fee-free accounts and keep your money in whichever offers the highest rate at the time. Another possible approach would be to set up rolling term deposits, although there may not be enough financial benefit to justify the administration and inconvenience.

  In any event, I still prefer to have just one account for simplicity, although this type of saving is probably going to be less important for me in time.