Quote:
Originally Posted by Jules76
I think the choice is simple, if you don't like what your bank or any bank has to offer, go find a "better" one.
I did this and went with ING Direct who have paid me to bank with them. I get no account keeping fees (the thing which drove me away from the Commonwealth after 20+ years), plus they give me incentives to bank with them. When I signed up they had a promotion where you would get $20 for opening an account plus various lots of $20 for performing simple transactions, making first deposit, using your VISA debit for the first time etc. In all across my two accounts I opened, I received $120. 
Then just last year they ran a promotion where you had to deposit (I think it was $2000 minimum?) for each month for 3 consecutive months and you would receive a $100 bonus at the end. I was doing this already with my salary so I didn't have to do anything to claim the cash.
Then there's my high interest savings account I have with ING which gave me a $50 bonus for signing up. And from time to time they run promotions where any money you deposit between a certain time frame will receive a bonus interest rate.
I worked out that all this bonus money ING has given me, is the equivalent of roughly 5 and a half years of monthly account keeping fees the Commonwealth slugged me to play with my cash!
So I'm going to stand out like I sore thumb here and say, I love my bank!  |
ING has good interest rates for new customers but after a couple of month it reverts to the standard variable rate which is very average. True though that there aren't any fees. Also if you withdraw more than $200.00 at a time they pay back the $2.00 ATM fee. From any ATM that is. I moved my personal and savings from St George to ING and never looked back. Another good one for savings is UBANK. They're part of NAB. No card - only internet banking. Again no fees but you can get between 5.5% and 6% interest on your savings so better than ING.