Built a Smarter Way to Find The Best Savings Account in Australia

AssociatedLStroopVI @ bankmate.app on 30/10/2025 - 21:25
Last edited 31/10/2025 - 10:50 by 1 other user

Hey everyone đź‘‹


I’ve been working on a small side project called Bank Mate (https://bankmate.app/) - a web app that helps you find the best savings account in Australia based on your personal circumstances (like your balance, age, debit card usage & savings habits).


I was originally inspired by this fantastic community spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/145iM6uuFS9m-Rul65--e…) that tracks savings account rates and conditions. 

It’s an incredible resource - but I found it a bit tough to navigate when I just wanted quick answers. 

You have to manually read through all the details and can’t easily filter for your situation.


So I built Bank Mate to offer a smoother, more interactive experience. It automatically filters accounts based on your details, helps you understand which ones you actually qualify for, and shows which would earn you the most interest - without all the scrolling and fine print.


It’s just a web app for now, but I’d really love your feedback:

  • Anything confusing or missing?

  • What extra features would make it more useful (e.g. term deposits, business accounts, intro rate alerts)?

  • Would you actually use something like this?

Appreciate any feedback (or tough love!) from this community 🙏

Financial Bank Account Savings Account

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  • simplystu on 31/10/2025 - 00:32

    Your byline at bottom … "Trusted by thousands of savers".
    Care to share how you came up with that ???

    ESP - since so new to market/etc.

    Where is the data to back that up ???
    Or just a marketing speil?

    • 3
    • Daniel Plainview on 31/10/2025 - 08:41

      Only on OzB can you put of something like this website in your own time etc - to benefit folks and get whiteanted just because your pretty meaningless blurb/tagline is needing to be supported. i.e since when do we expect sites to provide data to back up vlaims of this very soft and generic nature?

      I mean should he have been like every other site and said the impossible to define/prove, "..the best.." - gone the Trump angle and run with,"..a lot of people are saying.." etc.

      It would be likely that the OP has had thousands of clickthroughs and use of his site - by definition alone, they have placed a degree of trust in his site therefore it would meet that very low standard to support that statement IMHO.

      Maybe we give the OP and their site the benefit of the doubt until they have reason for us to do otherwise? :-)

      • 1
      • tenpercent on 31/10/2025 - 19:26

        Only on OzB can you request someone to not lie on a website (where they're asking visitors to provide sensitive financial information) and then be told you're whiteanting.

        • 1
    • coffeeinmyveins on 31/10/2025 - 08:28

      made up marketing spiel. Just like any website that says this sort of stuff.

      • 0
  • noz on 30/10/2025 - 22:30

    I had a quick play … and I think it's quite promising. Simple to use. Good work.

    • 2
  • blldzd on 31/10/2025 - 08:39

    Great site! Spat out my current bank/account after doing the quiz so it made me feel like a bloody winner

    • 1
  • cashless on 31/10/2025 - 08:57

    Good site OP, I like the google spreadsheet as well as it shows everything together, but for help selecting personalised accounts, yours is a winner

    • 1
  • geek001 on 31/10/2025 - 09:02

    Tried it out, looks good, I can see the site being useful as a second opinion. The only thing is that the "optimal" bank account in my result had a condition to grow the bank balance every month, that was a deal breaker for me. Not sure I missed a checkbox or something during the questionnaire. Great work!

    • 1
    • AssociatedStroopVI @ bankmate.app on 31/10/2025 - 11:29

      Hey geek001, since you probably entered deposits that are larger than your withdrawals, the app assumes your balance will grow each month. Even though you didn’t specifically say you wanted to grow your balance, the app made that assumption. I might need to find a better way to make this clearer - thanks for the feedback!

      • 0
      • geek001 on 31/10/2025 - 11:51

        Oh ok, I guess that makes sense. Although, for my use case, the deposits may not be regular or the deposit amount the same every month. It is the same for withdrawals. Not sure if you want to cater for that, as I would imagine this wouldn't be a large proportion of your user base.

        For my use case, I have salary going into my main bank acccount and the same as expenses, whatever that is left over is swept into the savings account before the next pay cycle. This amount will vary depending on what expenses I incur during the month, sometimes 0 as I want to keep a buffer. From time to time, I dip into the savings account to buy, say a new coffee machine, or stock up on giftcards. :)

        • 0
  • AssociatedStroopVI @ bankmate.app on 06/03/2026 - 19:40
    Merged from The Smartest Way to Find a Savings Account in Australia Just Got Better

    Hey Ozbargain đź‘‹

    Quick follow up to my original post back in October - I’ve been working on a passion project called Bank Mate (https://bankmate.app) that aims to make it as easy as possible to find the best interest savings accounts based on your circumstances.

    It’s had quite a few updates since then, so if you’re looking for a better savings rate, it might be worth taking another look.

    What’s new since 30/10/2025:

    • Live data - Many accounts now show live rates via Open Banking (CDR). Rates are synced daily from the bank’s feed, so you see current numbers instead of manually updated snapshots. Look for the green “Live” badge on accounts.

    • Split optimiser - New tool that works out the best way to split your savings across 2–3 accounts to maximise interest. Enter your balance and habits; it suggests an optimal split and shows how much extra you’d earn per year vs putting everything in one account.

    • Behaviour tips to earn more - In your results you’ll see notification-style prompts when a small change would unlock a better rate (e.g. “Use debit card 5Ă—/month to get 5.25%” or “Deposit $1,000/month to get 5.50%”). You can apply the suggestion in one click to see updated recommendations – no need to re-enter everything.
      Rate history & comparison – See how rates have moved over time and compare accounts side by side.

    • Many UX/UI improvements - Updates to pretty much every aspect of the app to make it easier to use & understand.

    As always, I’m aiming to make this as useful and user-friendly as possible.

    Any feedback, positive or negative is welcome, so please send it my way. I’m all ears.

    • 1
  • haemolysis on 30/10/2025 - 22:14

    Beautiful app. People will hate it though, because they’ll assume you’re saving their data. I’d say put a privacy policy, but people will ignore it anyways, really.

    • 0
    • Nillionaire on 31/10/2025 - 11:34

      People will hate it though

      Only on OzBargain and Reddit, normal people don't freak out over data and privacy like that

      • 0
  • Mokr on 30/10/2025 - 22:16

    Yeah spreadsheet already does what i need.

    And using the questionnaire didn't get best rate.

    For an over 35

    • 0
    • ragrum on 30/10/2025 - 23:12

      What did you answer for the questions, which account did it show, and which account do you think it should have shown?

      • 2
      • AssociatedStroopVI @ bankmate.app on 30/10/2025 - 23:15

        @Mokr If you could share what you got vs what you were expecting I would be more than happy to take a look.

        • 0
        • Mokr on 31/10/2025 - 10:00

          Look you got to make it simpler - 3 selections low meid high - people dont like entering a ton of details,

          • -3
  • Nillionaire on 30/10/2025 - 23:55

    What did you use to build the site? Pretty cool

    • 0
    • AssociatedStroopVI @ bankmate.app on 31/10/2025 - 11:36

      Front end it using Next.js & Back end is running on Supabase.

      • 1
  • coffeeinmyveins on 31/10/2025 - 08:27

    Good job having a go at this stuff.

    some feedback:

    1) Having 3 ways to enter my current savings amount is confusing. a Slider, pills, and an "exact amount" text field that doesn't let me actually input anything (is this a bug?)
    2) The dollar signs that explode are a bit much anytime you slide
    3) The progressive nature of the slider based on the pills is way too bad of a UX
    4) Changing options on subsequent pages pushes the CTA's down, which isn't a great experience.
    5) There's some weird choice of UX elements here, like the cards that have checkmarks in random spots when you select them
    6) The flow is a bit confusing, do you need a seperate page to ask for each of these items?

    • 0
    • AssociatedStroopVI @ bankmate.app on 31/10/2025 - 11:44

      Appreciate the feedback - will look to implement

      • 0
  • Daniel Plainview on 31/10/2025 - 08:34

    Terrific website - much credit to the OP.

    • 0
  • carlJack on 31/10/2025 - 14:40

    Thanks. That was helpful.

    • 0
  • liquornoodlescabbage on 31/10/2025 - 15:09

    Another day another vibe-coded and vibe-posted app/website that doesn't offer anything we couldn't do already, at least it's not another supermarket price checker.

    • 0
  • tenpercent on 31/10/2025 - 19:21

    What's your profit model?

    • 0
    • AssociatedStroopVI @ bankmate.app on 31/10/2025 - 19:54

      Not a for-profit venture atm.

      • 1
  • tenpercent on 31/10/2025 - 20:07

    I put in details for a hypothetical 80 year old (defaulted back to 76… no one older allowed?) with $69k in savings, who does use their linked card for spending each month, who does more than 15 transactions per month, who plans to add over $5000 per month to their savings, and who might need to withdraw $420 on occasion. The correct result ING Savings Maximiser was given.

    When I change the age to any value from 36 up to and including 64 it gives an incorrect answer, specifically BOQ Smart Saver (36+).
    There are three better choices: ING Savings Maximiser (higher interest), Rabobank PremiumSaver (higher interest), and ME Bank HomeME (fewer conditions, same interest).

    • 0
    • AssociatedStroopVI @ bankmate.app on 31/10/2025 - 20:28

      Ive pushed a fix to the sorting logic, it should show ING and Rabo above BOQ in the above circumstance.

      • 1
  • jjjaar on 31/10/2025 - 22:55

    This is brilliant, great stuff.

    My only comment would be maybe adding a quick age filter to the leaderboard page? I guess almost like a hybrid of how it works now and the compare page, but with those categories you already have that shows the top 5. Maybe it’s just the UI of the leaderboard page is more appealing than the compare page.

    • 0
    • AssociatedStroopVI @ bankmate.app on 01/11/2025 - 12:41

      Fair point! Thanks for the feedback!

      • 0
  • bbinc on 01/11/2025 - 09:25

    Very useful. Easy to use. Showed options I’ve never heard of in less than a minute of perusing. Great range of filters.
    Likely to follow through on some of its suggestions.
    Thanks OP.
    And as for the data privacy concerns above anyone can put in so many different situations there would be no way to identify the real situation of any user who is using basic security tools.

    • 0
    • AssociatedStroopVI @ bankmate.app on 01/11/2025 - 12:41

      Glad to hear you like it!

      • 0
  • doctordv8 on 03/11/2025 - 09:30

    Finding most things and comparing ourselves if quite easy already with comparison sites.

    Can we not just think for ourselves again?

    When it fails and you lose 1, 5 or $500 from an App based choice who will you blame?

    Why do we need another piece of software competing with AI and Robotics to make the world a useless lazy bunch of hasbeens?

    Something new and different…maybe, but this is not rither.

    • 0
  • doctordv8 on 26/09/2026 - 12:04

    Selection screen is too small.
    Question at the top uses half the screen…wasted.
    Difficult on a phone screen.
    Incorrect/missing highest rate being UBank's bonus rate.
    So it is not giving correct seatch responses.
    I already had the highest.
    This App did not.

    Can't see any benefit compared to simple comparrison sites ehich are correct.

    • 0
    • doctordv8 on 26/09/2026 - 12:38

      Edit. I now see Ubank has dropped its Bonus Rate, apologies, your App was correct.

      • -1
    • AssociatedStroopVI @ bankmate.app on 29/09/2026 - 13:21

      Hi @doctordv8, we are actively looking at ways in which we can optimise the experience on mobile even further. Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback.

      • -1
  • AssociatedStroopVI @ bankmate.app on 10/05/2026 - 12:24

    With the recent RBA rate changes flying around, probably worth checking whether your bank is actually passing them on properly… or quietly pocketing the difference 👀

    I've updated BankMate with the latest lender movements (including those that have flagged changes in the no so distant future), so you can quickly compare rates and see if you’re getting a decent deal - or getting absolutely rinsed by loyalty tax.

    Might save yourself a few hundred bucks

    Check it out if you’re curious.

    https://bankmate.app/

    • -1
  • AssociatedStroopVI @ bankmate.app on 25/09/2026 - 15:08

    Hi OzBargain, just an update: I've made a number updates to BankMate

    New

    • Much cleaner UI: one question per screen, a simpler compare page and faster loads
    • More savings account, covering more of the market.
    • Intro rates show as "5.50% for 4 months, then 4.75%", with a new sort and leaderboard
    • Blended rate over the bonus cap: ranked on what your whole balance actually earns
    • "vs yours": every account shows the difference from your current one (+$150/yr vs ING)
    • Split optimiser rebuilt: best split across 1–5 accounts, plus exactly what to do

    https://bankmate.app/savings/compare

    • -1
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