UBank is "enhancing" their savings account - Where to now?

[tdimdad]

UBank will "enhance" their Save account product from 1 July. The key changes are listed below.
1) Eligibility criteria for monthly bonus interest will be raised from $200 deposit to $500.
2) Interest rates become tiered: Tier 1 interest paid for balances up to $100k, balanced between $100K - $250 get Tier 2, and above $250k Tier 3 interest.
3) Payments out directly from the Save accounts are turned off. Payments will need to go from your transaction accounts.

With the fee-free & FX free debit card and high interest rate, this has been an excellent place for travel funds. To me, the change in interest rates will probably kill the joy from this account.

--> What other similar accounts are there where you get an fee & FX free card and high interest with very low-key conditions. With low-key conditions I mean something very easy like UBank's [one deposit of >=$200 a month]?

Changes to Save accounts - ubank

We’re introducing new bonus interest tiers, bonus rate criteria and changing some functions of Save accounts. Find out more

www.ubank.com.au

 

[jkbaus]

One of the main issues will be the interest earned on each of the tiers.
been a lot of discussion on Whirlpool for the cast couple of days.
i only got the email today.

 

[asterix]

UBank will "enhance" their Save account product from 1 July. The key changes are listed below.
1) Eligibility criteria for monthly bonus interest will be raised from $200 deposit to $500.
2) Interest rates become tiered: Tier 1 interest paid for balances up to $100k, balanced between $100K - $250 get Tier 2, and above $250k Tier 3 interest.
3) Payments out directly from the Save accounts are turned off. Payments will need to go from your transaction accounts.

With the fee-free & FX free debit card and high interest rate, this has been an excellent place for travel funds. To me, the change in interest rates will probably kill the joy from this account.

--> What other similar accounts are there where you get an fee & FX free card and high interest with very low-key conditions. With low-key conditions I mean something very easy like UBank's [one deposit of >=$200 a month]?

Changes to Save accounts - ubank

We’re introducing new bonus interest tiers, bonus rate criteria and changing some functions of Save accounts. Find out more

www.ubank.com.au

I received the email late last night. I was using their savings account as my main transaction account. I opened an account with Macquarie last night as their transaction account earns 4.75% interest for the moment. I've already moved my direct debits over to Macquarie.

 

[luckypierre]

One of the main issues will be the interest earned on each of the tiers.
been a lot of discussion on Whirlpool for the cast couple of days.
i only got the email today.

Ubank are yet to announce the actual tiered interest rates that will be applied to the Save accounts. Interest is calculated on a daily basis on the Save account balance x applicable interest rate. This would seem to suggest that you will need to transfer in to Ubank the $500 required deposit on the first day of each calendar month to earn the bonus interest rate for the entire month ?

 

[SYD]

Ubank are yet to announce the actual tiered interest rates that will be applied to the Save accounts. Interest is calculated on a daily basis on the Save account balance x applicable interest rate. This would seem to suggest that you will need to transfer in to Ubank the $500 required deposit on the first day of each calendar month to earn the bonus interest rate for the entire month ?

It doesn’t work that way at the moment, so I suspect they’ll tally it up at the end of each month.

I’m annoyed by the now direct spend from the Sav acc. Before they merged, the old UBank had a sweep function - you could pay from the spend account with a zero or low balance and it would automatically draw down from the Sav acc but that was enhanced away.

I’ll wait and see what the tier interest looks like. At the moment, I park my excess dollars beyond the ING bonus int limit. If I’m worse off than say MacBank, I might switch to that. I have existing Super with the Mac Wrap account.

 

[tdimdad]

This would seem to suggest that you will need to transfer in to Ubank the $500 required deposit on the first day of each calendar month to earn the bonus interest rate for the entire month ?

You have been able to deposit on any day of the month. I usually do it about a week after the month change.

 

[tdimdad]

I’m annoyed by the now direct spend from the Sav acc. Before they merged, the old UBank had a sweep function - you could pay from the spend account with a zero or low balance and it would automatically draw down from the Sav acc but that was enhanced away.

Oh, I really wished that sweep function could have been deactivated and was pleased when they enhanced that one. Perhaps I'm in the minority but I found it distracting and used it purposefully only a few times. I'd rather have manual control over my funds.

 

[SYD]

Oh, I really wished that sweep function could have been deactivated and was pleased when they enhanced that one. Perhaps I'm in the minority but I found it distracting and used it purposefully only a few times. I'd rather have manual control over my funds.

Yeah, it was probably seen as a hacking threat. Someone just keeps sweeping away your cash…

But at the time, I never used the card or spend account otherwise. It was just an additional high interest account. It’s going to be a pain to double transfer to pay bills now.

I have that joy with a Nabtrade account. They come with a High Interest savings account (4.75% no hoops or jumps) that I setup for my company’s spare cash. I have to transfer from the HI acc to the Nabtrade transaction acc and then to my company NAB transaction acc.

 

[luckypierre]

You have been able to deposit on any day of the month. I usually do it about a week after the month change.

My deposit was scheduled monthly for the 15th, just changed my payment schedule to the 1st of the month and increased the amount to $500 in readiness for the changes. All of these little tweaks by Ubank (NAB), designed to catch people out and increase their bottom line.

 

[Askance]

Ubank has been my main savings for years but i moved a fair chunk to Virgin Boost Saver (5.35%) and Amp (5.4%) when Ubank stopped keeping up with the top interest rate offerings. If this tiered offering provides less interest i'll move the rest once i find a backup for overseas transactions fee free.

 

[asterix]

Ubank has been my main savings for years but i moved a fair chunk to Virgin Boost Saver when Ubank stopped keeping up with the top interest rate offerings. If this tiered offering provides less interest i'll move the rest once i find a backup for overseas transactions fee free.

Ubank is my main transactional bank, but my main savings bank is ME Bank (5.55%) followed by ING (5.5%).

 

[serfty]

It doesn’t work that way at the moment, so I suspect they’ll tally it up at the end of each month

My deposit was scheduled monthly for the 15th, just changed my payment schedule to the 1st of the month and increased the amount to $500 in readiness for the changes. All of these little tweaks by Ubank (NAB), designed to catch people out and increase their bottom line.

What is the change in relation to when the deposit happens (other than the amount)?

From the FAQ's

To earn our bonus interest rates on your Save accounts from July 1st 2024, you must have a Spend account and deposit at least $500 each month into any of your Spend, Bills or Save accounts before 11:30pm (Sydney time) on the last day of each month.

The $500 deposit must come from a non-ubank account (internal transfers between ubank accounts won’t qualify).

 

[luckypierre]

What is the change in relation to when the deposit happens (other than the amount)?

From the FAQ's

Also from the FAQ

How is bonus interest calculated?
From July 1st, you are eligible for bonus interest this is calculated daily and paid monthly based on the combined balance of your Save accounts up to $250K. Each day, we’ll check your account balances and calculate the interest using the following formula:
Daily closing balance x (applicable interest rates / 365 days) = Interest accrued on that day.
At the end of the month, we’ll add them up and deposit your earnings into your eligible Save
At ubank, your savings are divided into different tiers each with its own interest rate. This means that parts of your total savings will earn different rates, depending on which tier they fall into. (For example, if you have $250,000 in total savings your interest will be made up of 100,000 on Tier 1 + $150,000 on Tier 2).

 

[n7of9]

Where are the Tiered interest rates listed? I couldn't see anything for post 1 July

 

[SYD]

Where are the Tiered interest rates listed? I couldn't see anything for post 1 July

They haven’t announced them yet.

 

[Gold Member]

All of these little tweaks by Ubank (NAB), designed to catch people out and increase their bottom line.

What makes it all the more deceptive is the way they casually emailed these major changes as "Upcoming changes to your uBank General Terms". Most people (including myself) would've just deleted the email thinking Oh, just another T&C update that I don't need to worry about. And that's exactly what they were hoping.

Last year's uBank Savings/Saver account migration SNAFU, and now this? They're quickly becoming the Qantas of online banking.

As a matter of principle, I'm changing banks, even if it is a slightly lower interest rate.

 

[SYD]

What makes it all the more deceptive is the way they casually emailed these major changes as "Upcoming changes to your uBank General Terms". Most people (including myself) would've just deleted the email thinking Oh, just another T&C update that I don't need to worry about. And that's exactly what they were hoping.

Unfortunately, they all do it. ING has had successive changes, Coles MC recent clanger and many others.

Last year's uBank Savings/Saver account migration SNAFU, and now this? They're quickly becoming the Qantas of online banking.

Fortunately I had no issues and the new platform is actually better than the old.

As a matter of principle, I'm changing banks, even if it is a slightly lower interest rate.

I’m waiting to see what the interest rates look like before making any changes. They might actually increase the top tier to catch up to ING. It’s been over 6mths I think and UBank haven’t matched ING.

Besides, you can switch to something better looking only for them to “enhance” it later…

 

[Askance]

I was on the phone to ubank earlier today to get a temp increase for transfers out, and the guy said he'd been doing nothing but talking to people about the upcoming changes. I mentioned i was going to a higher interest with a different bank and he said watch out for banks that make you work for the higher rate. Funny that, when ubank had just made it harder for its customers!

 

[BOwens]

Ubank is my main transactional bank, but my main savings bank is ME Bank (5.55%) followed by ING (5.5%).

I was on the phone to ubank earlier today to get a temp increase for transfers out, and the guy said he'd been doing nothing but talking to people about the upcoming changes. I mentioned i was going to a higher interest with a different bank and he said watch out for banks that make you work for the higher rate. Funny that, when ubank had just made it harder for its customers!

Yes indeed. I rang them yesterday too, they have released all this information on the internet promoting their new spin and conveniently leave out the interest rate per tier. That’s what everyone needs to know.
Tier 1 $0-$100,000 will probably be 5.6% (including bonus)
Tier 2 will be less than tier 1
Then over $250,000 will be the base rate which is useless.
Anyone with balance over $100,000 will get worse off.
I’ve already moved some of my money to Rabo @5.7% for 4 months. I did that last night.

 

[BOwens]

Where are the Tiered interest rates listed? I couldn't see anything for post 1 July

They haven’t released them yet. I rang UBank yesterday.