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Top five personal transaction accounts
A personal transaction account is your regular account that you’ll use for everyday banking, direct depositing money and withdrawing via automated teller machine (ATM), EFTPOS (debit card), and at the branch. You probably won’t get much interest from a regular transaction account, but the thing to watch out for is fees – especially fees for extra transactions or special transactions, such as branch deposits or withdrawals. There are many institutions offering personal transaction accounts, each varying their account features, so it’s worth looking at as many as possible, but here are a few examples:
Bank of Queensland: Reverse Charges Account
Bank of Queensland’s Reverse Charges Account is a full-service transaction account with unlimited free Bank of Queensland withdrawals, including cheque book and BPAY transactions. It has a small monthly fee of AU$4 for accounts with balances below $2,000 and this fee is waived for accounts over $2000.
NAB: Smart Direct
NAB’s Smart Direct is a range of bank accounts with varying features, some accounts with a monthly fee of between AU$4 and AU$12, and some accounts having no monthly fee. The NAB eBanking account offers unlimited electronic transactions (NAB ATMs, EFTPOS, phone and internet banking), with fees applying for cheque and branch access, whereas the NAB Classic Banking account provides an unlimited service for branch transactions as well as electronic transactions (with a slightly higher monthly fee).
ANZ Bank: Access Advantage
ANZ’s Access Advantage has a small monthly fee of AU$5 for unlimited transactions, whether from ANZ branches, ATMs, cheques, EFTPOS or phone and internet banking.
BankWest: Lite Transaction Account
BankWest’s Lite Transaction Account has a low monthly fee of AU$2.99 and unlimited electronic transactions. You can chose a slightly higher monthly fee of AU$5 for unlimited electronic and branch transactions.
Commonwealth Bank: Streamline Account
Like Bankwest, the Commonwealth Bank has two options – Streamline e-Access which provides unlimited free electronic transactions (monthly fee of AU$4), or Streamline Unlimited with branch withdrawals included (monthly account fee of AU$6)
Top five online savings accounts
Online savings accounts give you internet and (usually) phone access to your money and generally much higher interest rates than regular transaction accounts. You’ll still need to link your online savings account to a personal transaction account to access your funds, via ATM, EFTPOS, online banking, and so on. The best online savings accounts have zero fees, no minimum balance and high interest rates.
Westpac Max-i Direct
Westpac’s Max-i Direct savings account covers all of the relevant criteria, with no fee, no minimum balance, and a reasonable 5.25% interest rate for savings between AU$0 and AU$20,000 (higher rates apply for larger balances). Westpac conveniently allows instant online banking transfer of funds between the Max-i Direct account and a related Westpac regular transaction account for easy management.
BankWest Telenet Saver
BankWest’s Telenet Saver has one of the highest interest rates of any online savings account, 6.50%p.a., plus no fees and no minimum deposit. There’s also a special improved introductory interest rate, of 7.00%p.a., for the first 12 months for new customers.
dragondirect: directsaver
dragondirect is a division of St. George Bank, and the directsaver account offers no fees or minimum opening balance and one of the highest available interest rates, 6.25% p.a.
Members Equity Bank: ME Online Savings Account
Members Equity Bank’s online savings account offers a high interest rate of 6.45% p.a., no fees and no minimum or opening balance.
ING Direct: Savings Maximiser
One of the originals savings accounts, ING Direct’s Savings Maximiser promises “no bank fees, ever”, a high interest rate of 6.15% p.a. (with a promotional rate of 7.00% p.a.), and no minimum deposit or balance.
NAB: iSaver
NAB’s iSaver has a rate of 6.30% p.a., no matter what balance you have, and no account keeping or transaction fees.
The above lists offer only a few examples of regular everyday transaction accounts and savings accounts. There will be other institutions offering both types of account, and other specific accounts, possibly with features greater suited to your banking needs. If you can avoid fees where possible, having convenient and straightforward transfer of money between an everyday account and a savings account is wise money management indeed.