Commbank or ANZ Plus - Home Loan and Preferably All Other Banking Too

DingoBlue on 30/05/2025 - 15:28

I'm about to shift all my banking

Commbank Digi Home Loan 5.59%

'+ Offset/redraw (offset is effectively free)
+ Well regarded app (doesn't seem anything special to me though)
- takes 24 hours to pay a new contact
+ Ultimate awards credit card is free (effectively)
- Ultimate awards credit card (the best they offer) is very underwhelming
~ Commbank Yello?

ANZ Plus 5.59%

+++ $2,000 bonus
+ Offset/redraw (offset is $10/m but I can probably just use redraw as PPOR)
+ I actually really like the app and they're spending billions on it as the future single platform
+ Open banking is great
- No native credit card, no particularly appealing credit card option
+ Native credit cards are in the pipeline, apparently

Others

I'd consider upbank but I really struggle with their aesthetic. Ubank, Unloan, and Westpac Online Refinance are all similar rates to the above but I don't think they really make the cut.

Macquarie might be worth a look?

Summary

5 years ago I would have leaned to CBA but I feel like they've lost their premium/tech advantage.

I am leaning to ANZ Plus. I know they've had a bad rap but I am really liking the app.

Any other thoughts?

Financial Home Loan Loan

Comments

  • DingoBlue on 30/05/2025 - 15:33

    The 24 hours thing on Commbank really irks me.

    Also I forgot ATMs. Does ANZ have cardless cash?

  • Drakesy on 30/05/2025 - 16:03

    Neither,

    The big 4 can get stuffed.

  • juicyj on 30/05/2025 - 16:06
    +3

    I refinanced from Westpac to ANZ Plus last week, what I have noticed is the redraw is quite poor vs Westpac.

    1. You have to wait 24 hours to be able to access your redraw funds when you transfer them, not a big issue once you have done an initial transfer and you have surplus funds but if you move money in and out alot that and don't have a big stash might be an issue.

    2. With Westpac I could make payments from my home loan to other payees accounts, with ANZ Plus you can only transfer between your ANZ Plus accountw.

    3. You can't even set up auto payments to take money out of your redraw to pay a bill from your account the day prior, there is no option to schedule the payment you just need to remember/set a reminder to do it the day prior.

    4. I have a joint home loan and joint account, the app defaults to my personal account which you need to setup a joint account and home loan, it's pretty annoying as I mostly always use the joint account and the personal account has minimal funds and I always get an insufficient funds when I forget to change it before hitting pay.

    Those are my issues I have found in my first week, if I am missing something please let me know but as of now I'm considering just setting up the offset for $10/m so I don't miss a credit card or another bill.

    There was a hiccup during settlement where I couldn't see the loan for four days, I complained as I could not put funds into my redraw and they offered to not charge me interest for five days which I was happy with.

    Other then that it was super easy to setup the loan through the app, I got $2k a few days after the loan opened and I went from 6.29% from Westpac to 5.84% (now 5.59%).

    Westpac weren't willing to move my rate until I sent the discharge form and what they offered for me to stay wasn't even close to what I got from ANZ.

    • DingoBlue on 30/05/2025 - 16:56
      +1

      payments from my home loan to other payees accounts, with ANZ Plus you can only transfer between your ANZ Plus account

      Really appreciate you pointing this out. I actually asked them about this - they couldn't give me a straight answer and wanted to talk on the phone ergh. Back in the day I was with OneDirect which didn't have an offset but the "lifehack" was that you could just use the loan itself as a transaction account.

      As you say I guess we just need to pay the $10 for an actual offset.

    • GangGang on 30/05/2025 - 21:36

      I haven't had any issues with transferring the redraw amount. It goes instantly.

      It does mention in the t&c it could take time to transfer, it's always been instant.

      • juicyj on 30/05/2025 - 21:48

        When you are transfering money from your loan to your account it's instant but the other way around it take 1BD before the funds are available as "redraw". Test it, pay attention to your funds your loan balance will go down but the redraw amount won't go up until the next BD. Anyways like I said it's not an issue if you have a large sum in there, it's just something I noticed on day one as I couldn't pull any money out as redraw was showing $0.

        • GangGang on 31/05/2025 - 06:35

          I understand.

          I also have something similar with my offset/savings that's linked with my home loan. When you spend it takes a day for the balance to match what you have available.

          Never had it with westpac as it just says balance

  • Gdsamp on 30/05/2025 - 16:11
    +2

    as a shareholder of ANZ and CBA i say whichever

    • askbargain on 30/05/2025 - 16:16
      +1

      He even wants to be loyal to a big 4 bank!

      • DingoBlue on 30/05/2025 - 17:08
        +1

        I'm as surprised as anyone.

        Credit where credit is due - I'm not aware of any other facility that has embraced open banking in the way ANZ Plus has.

        • Gdsamp on 30/05/2025 - 17:34
          +3

          Optus' embrace of data sharing with third parties comes to mind

  • sumyungguy on 30/05/2025 - 16:23

    Are there better fee-free cards than CBA Ultimate Awards? CBA Yello homeowner (promo) discounts for mobile, NBN & Kayo are better than nothing

    • parisian on 30/05/2025 - 16:42

      I've found the CBA Yellow homeowners cash back offers paired with the Ultimate Awards pretty good lately (coles + Flybuys offers at the same time) + paired with More for our NBN and mobile services - no complaints here.

    • DingoBlue on 30/05/2025 - 17:02

      I have a bunch of much better fee-free cards (such as the trusty Citibank Platinum) but I guess they're all grandfathered.

      Would be nice to have something all in one but no big deal I guess.

      The great thing about ANZ Plus is that I can see the Citibank card acct and it feeds into my overall balance.

  • Puglife on 30/05/2025 - 17:27
    -3

    Commonwealth are still light years ahead of all the banks when it comes to digital banking.
    Even my ANZ normal home loan took days to show up in my account which cost me a few days of excess interest as I couldn't put my redraw $$$ back into it.
    However the cashback is the reason I switched to ANZ.
    $2000 cashback. Its a no brainer.

  • Doboman on 31/05/2025 - 14:06

    I switched to ANZ a year ago. While the app is decent, the security has been quite poor. From day one, I ran into serious issues — my credit card was stolen, and the thief was somehow able to log in to my account and withdraw funds. Shockingly, the automated system allowed them to activate the card.

    Compared to CommBank, ANZ’s notification system is lacking. CommBank sends me an email and SMS for every transaction, which gives me peace of mind. ANZ talks about their “Hawk” security system, but to me, that just feels like marketing spin.

    After that initial struggle, things have been okay, but I’m still looking for an opportunity to switch banks. ANZ even tried to blame me for losing the card (f air enough ) , as someone stole my mail. But my real concern is: how was someone able to activate the card and access my account when I had the app and login details — not them? After escalation after 2 months they cannot tell me how the card got activated but said someone know my details. When I asked what details they provided , activate the card .They cannot tell me.

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