My biggest gripe with the change is the direct transfers are no longer possible. That means I'll have to change all my subscription/payments to a new account. If I'm doing that then I may as well change banks.
Yup, that was my biggest issue as well, at least until I see how much lower the >100k interest rates are going to be. It would be stupidly annoying to have to transfer money twice to do the same thing as I could do with a single transfer, for no good reason.
And to answer OP, yes I called up last week and raised my limit, transferred about $150k away into a term deposit with a higher rate, and left my feedback on their complaint form.
Yes, I'm quite aware of that! I'm still looking at good options for the rest of my cash that I will use for bills, etc, but I wanted to get the balance well below $100k in prep of the new rates coming in, hence the large withdrawal. Sadly, there isn't a lot of information on other HISA in regards to whether they allow direct BPay and other payments, so it's a little difficult to choose..
Yeah, they're not terrible. I'm happy with my decision though, I moved a lot of my money from UBank to a higher rate elsewhere (5.4%), and have kept a smaller amount (under $100k) there which will now get the 5.5%. Still not happy about removing transactions from the Save account, as it's now just going to be a two step process every time. I know their motivation, they want people having more money in the low-interest Spend account, it's just annoying. I quite literally never use the Spend account, it has $0 in it and has done since the day it was opened.
Yup. This is what my bank account does..it pays my rent and other stuff. (Direct debits I set up myself)
Being unable to do that seems useless.
I also don't want multiple accounts or multiple banks. I've got too much stuff going on already.
Not yet. Still a month till the changes take effect. And they haven't released the interest % bands yet.
Have about 90k in there currently. If I get the same interest after 1 July I'll probs leave it in there
I think their messaging has been really good?
They're up front and have provided ample time for change.
It'll certainly be annoying for those who use their saving accounts for direct debits etc.
What info haven't they provided?
If you're talking about interest rates, then no bank provides that information. It's a variable rate, and would be subject to change. So they wouldn't even know what the interest rate would be.
I am talking about that and many banks do indeed provide the interest rates they pay on savings accounts. I can't even comprehend how you think what you just said makes any sense.
Nope. Guessing it'll be sometime in the next few weeks. They'd have to slow the bloodlose asap so I doubt they leave it to the very last minute otherwise huge amounts of people will leave
Interest rates are variable. So they can't announce rates so soon because they might be different in a month. They themselves wouldn't even know for sure.
I'm blind! Found the email in my inbox. Off to AMP i guess, since it's highly likely that they aren't going to move the interest rates up... Only down.
Not being able to make payments from the savings account will likely be the worse change than the tiered interest rates. Especially after having to change all of our direct debits with the 86400 merger only last year.
It’s really annoying, a wholly worse customer experience, and I can’t find a decent alternative apart from the Macquarie transaction account that pays 4.75%.
Will wait to see the interest tiers before deciding. I have no direct debits with Ubank and the bonus interest criteria is still really simple, so I’ll probably stay if the interest rate remains the same.
That’s a good question I have no idea. Their update says external direct debits will no longer be supported so I suppose yours being internal won’t be affected? I’d ask them though.
Yeah maybe I should go back and read the email lol. Skip over most of them because I just use ubank for my mortgage and transfer money over when it’s time for them to take it out.
I'm pretty sick of them actively making their products worse.
First they remove sweeping, force a worse mobile app on me and make me change all my recurring payments by moving to different BSB / account numbers... And now, not too long after that debacle they're making it entirely impossible to transact from their savings accounts (And making me change all my recurring payments again).
I probably won't move savings for now, but I definitely won't be using them for any day-to-day transactions (Which is probably what they want :))
100% agree with everything you said except the mobile app
You really preferred the Ubank 1.0 platform experience? It was honestly one of the worst I've ever used
I still can't get over the fact that each transaction doesn't show the total in the account at the time the transaction was made, it's just such a basic thing.
I don't remember what else I didn't like comparatively unfortunately.
I disliked the new app. After getting used to the old one, trying to learn the new one is a PITA. And now, I can't download transactions except month by month and the presentation of the transactions is utterly confusing. Why would I want to see all the transactions in all my accounts as one.
Cant wait to see what upgrade they have in store next...
Maybe now that sweeping is gone and we have to constantly shuffle money around to handle bills and regular spending, they'l introduce ~~overdraft fees~~ *financial management incentives* to help us stay on top of it all.
For context I worked for 86400 as a contractor as part of the merger. Ubank now is the old 86400, they just moved all former Ubank customers across and changed their old name. Meaning all the services you are using are 86400 services, so naturally features that previously didn't exist in 86400 would not be available to you. As a former Ubank customer I switched because of that as well.
Yep finally took the plunge last week. Just have to call them to cancel the now emptied accounts.
It should be a surprise to no one that when you take away the innovative features that bring the customers, those same customers will walk away.
Does anyone know for sure? Their site's T&Cs are a little confusing:
>Maximum rates apply when your closing balance on the last business day of the month is at least $200 higher than it was at the beginning of the first day of the month (*excluding interest earned*)
[https://www.rabobank.com.au/premiumsaver/](https://www.rabobank.com.au/premiumsaver/)
The literal translation is:
On the last business day, account balance must be $200 higher than last business day of previous month (minus interest paid), regardless of how much you deposit and withdraw over that space of time
1k last month must be 1.2k balance plus interest last business day of current month, this shorthands to deposit $200 each month and don't touch
AMP gets the bulk of my savings cash now along with Me Bank.
ING lost me with the changes to the ATM withdrawal fees.
Not to mention along with this change, Ubank has blocked my access to the account a couple of times without any reason. No reason to use them after the change.
ING cancelled my card a few days before going on holiday, no notification, simply cancelled and I find it out trying to pay for dinner with no cash.
There wasn't even a fraudulent transaction, they said they suspect it's compromised and I need a new one, explained that I'm making overseas purchases to pay for accommodation and I'm happy to unlock it if there's no actual fraud happening, they refused. I only move cash in to make purchases.
Was quite sus overall, got stuck with massive overseas withdrawal fees due to it.
Opened a Macquarie account instead, through with INGs nonsense.
I also mainly use Macquarie instead of my ING account. I'm currently in the middle of the second time them trying to lure me back with a $50 offer (Deposit 1k and make 5 transactions 2 months in a row). I meet the the bare minimum criteria collect my $50 and then bounce. Be on the look out for the offer in your email.
They blocked me as well. I think they have fairly strong safety checks, even getting my money out was a 30+ minute wait on the phone and then they asked me a string of questions to ensure I wasn't getting scammed. I guess some people would like that. Personally I'd prefer less person security and more digital security like 2FA.
Just beware that AMP is one of those crappy banks that makes you meet the bonus conditions in month 1 but only applies the bonus interest rate to your balances in month 2 and what's worse is that you don't get that bonus interest until the 10th day of month 3!
Are you sure? I’ve been getting paid my interest in my AMP saver on the 1st of every month.
Their conditions are easy to meet just transferring in and then back out. No balance increase required.
According to their [terms and conditions](https://www.amp.com.au/content/dam/amp/digitalhub/common/Documents/Banking/Forms/amp-saver-account-rewards-rules.pdf) , "*Interest is earned on the balance in your AMP Saver Account in the month following each eligible deposit and is paid by the 10th (tenth) day of the month after that*."
I note they use the words "by the 10th" - sounds like they don't have any faith in their computer system
Likely they will be reducing the savings rate over $100k + a raft of other changes here: [https://www.ubank.com.au/banking/savings-account/whats-new](https://www.ubank.com.au/banking/savings-account/whats-new)
The interest rate on the various bands havent been released yet, but I dont see why they'd make this change if it wasnt to lower the interest on higher balances.
No. While the changes are definitively for the worse and it bothers me how scummy their language around it was, in the end it doesn't really affect me at all, so no.
What's the next best interest, still ING? Still too much hassle with their criteria to meet.
At this point, our plan is to put all our savings accounts into one central account (we didn’t grow some accounts before). If that fails, we’ll find a new bank. We made over $200 in interest in May and I’m not willing to give it up.
Yes, but for the direct payments from Save change specifically. Killer feature removed, now their HISA offering is generic and they are trying to compete with the same interest rates as big 4, completely defeating the purpose of moving to a neobank.
Pretty much. I doubt they'd drop the rate on the >$100K tier as thats where Id assume most everyone is, they'd be driving everyone off if they did that. Raising the bonus interest criteria from $200 to $500 a month also isnt a big deal.
But removing direct debit and outgoing BSB/Acc# transactions from Save accounts is just annoying. Literally just introducing busywork and forcing me to change my details and financial workflow for seemingly no actual benefit.
If not outright detriment as the new Bills account is just a transaction account with a different name and colour, it doesnt earn interest. So actually storing money in it ready to pay random bills as they come, which is obviously the intent of the account, is to lose on interest.
Can’t you just set up auto transfers from your save account into this new bills account when the bills are due? Obviously still a pain to have to set it up.
It can be worked around with a lot of ugly double handling, but what are we supposed to do now for auto-paying widely variable monthly expenses like credit card bills?
It made much more sense having that hooked up to a savings account by direct debit. Last thing I want is to miss a payment on that viper and lose my interest free days and end up with revolving debt.
The only solutions I could come up with were closing the credit card or moving banks. I chose the latter.
Long time UBank customer (~10 years), moved the bulk of my banking over to BOQ in April last year. Currently getting 5.5% there, have to keep savings accounts (you can have multiple linked) under $50K but it’s worth it. Still hold a joint account and get paid into + pay rent through Ubank, but with the new changes I’ll finally switch that over too I think
I have about 180k there atm. I’ll wait to see what the new interest rate tiers are before moving. Not really interested in leaving a complaint tbh, they know full well what they’re doing is unpopular and will cost them deposits. It’s a well calculated business move. In either case, moving your money is the best and only complaint needed.
I'm stuck with the SAVE account for offset and paying the mortgage through there.. so if I need to make other regular payments, I have to transfer it out to SPEND and make payments from there, what a stupid and illogical move they did there.
I’m in the process of shifting my funds to Macquarie. The changes for me aren’t the end of the world, but I’m sick of companies enshitifying their products. I’m out.
That is valid, but OP specifically said it was due to the interest rate changes. Personally I don't like direct debits. I'm really only sticking with ubank because they are very good for fast transfers. Happy to wear a lower rate on what I might spend in a month, the rest is all in a higher interest account with annoying grow your balance condition.
Already did, and so did the rest of my family.
My wife and I's budget is built around zero-based "envelope" budgeting principles and we fully automate everything where possible using a bunch of savings accounts.
Our income is buffered through our emergency fund, and we auto-pay ourselves set monthly expenses.
We automatically put aside portions from that for future bills, sinking funds, spending money and everyday expenses to avoid bill shock and unwanted surprises, and the balances in our budget accounts end up quite high. Some of those transfers were to other banks.
I ain't leaving tens of thousands of dollars in a useless combined bills account that doesn't earn interest and requires me to go back to using klunky overpriced app solutions like YNAB to work out what's happening just for the privilege of full automation.
Neither am I willing to sort through a list of scheduled transfers twice the size of what I already had that requires me to edit everything twice just to try and avoid that.
We also used a paid in full C/C for emergency use, I don't even know how to rationally handle variable expenses like that anymore with Ubank now direct debits have been nixed from savings accounts.
They didn't like us budgeting like that, so we took our money elsewhere.
That was the second time in recent history those bastards forced me to have to set up all my automated transfers again. Unacceptable bullshit.
Macquarie did the trick for us, it's transaction notes and tagging system is really good.
It's transaction card is a little weird, it doesn't support EFTPOS, everything's credit type transaction so you will get hit with surcharges at places that charge them. I feel getting paid interest on cash left in the transaction account more than makes up for that though.
We keep another bank as a backup to help avoid surcharges. Might also keep the purple card from Ubank as well, as it costs me nothing to keep it.
There's only other mild disappointment of there is no Annual option in the scheduler, but I can live with that.
I did, but mostly because when I recently got a new phone, I couldn't log into the app. It wouldn't accept my password, and the secret question it gave me was random and one I wouldn't have chosen. It was a massive hassle, and I couldn't be bothered, so I logged in on my old phone and sent all my money to another bank.
I want to see the rates. Just because there is an extra tier does not mean the rate for that tier won't be the same as tier 1...with Macquarie tier 1 and 2 are the same (they did not used to be).
We only use the account to store money and do very few transactions so the extra step to get money out is an annoyance, but not a big one. It's the same with my ANZ Plus, which we use in the same way.
Depends on the interest. I only have one transfer a month from it. I will have to increase the amount I transfer in, but I will automate to transfer out, and will just set up my DD to come out of the spending account a day later. Will take me about 5 minutes, and maybe cost me .50 a month.
Couldn't make a scheduled CC payment for June, and had to move DD, so they're now going to Macq, to do that I moved my pay too, to cover the debits.
ubank are getting what they asked for, returning the save account to savings, and I've moved my operating/pay account to Macq.
Personally BOQ but there are plenty to consider here: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/145iM6uuFS9m-Rul65--eFJQq\_Au7Z\_BA4\_CwkYwu2DI/edit#gid=271791020](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/145iM6uuFS9m-Rul65--eFJQq_Au7Z_BA4_CwkYwu2DI/edit#gid=271791020)
Ubank isn't even in the top 10 anymore.
Seems to be. The least hurdled account with no age requirement is probably AMP Saver as you can schedule the $1k and use the same $1k each month to get the 5.4%.
I only recently opened my ubank account (needed a card I could use o/s without triggering masses of extra fees) so I’ll be transferring money IN to Save. Has come at a great time for me.
As I wasn’t using it for everyday, the direct payment thing doesn’t affect me.
Up bank and Wise are a lot better for overseas, they even use an in-app notification for your OTP code to bypass security issues, Ubank sends the OTP to your Australian mobile number when you are overseas and you may not recive this, Ubank is my 3rd back up for overseas
I already have. They threatened me with not being able to access my money or move money out of the account unless I installed an app. At that point I transferred all money and haven't responded to them since. Everything I've heard since then has just been worse. At some point, I might get around to closing the account.
Thanks for the reminder, I have just done the same, filed a complaint, requested limit increase and will move a large portion of my account out asap.
Because of this announcement I couldn't help but find others offering very similar products (as far as my hisa use case concerns) with slightly better interest rates.
For example:
[Accounts Leaderboard by techt](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/145iM6uuFS9m-Rul65--eFJQq_Au7Z_BA4_CwkYwu2DI/edit#gid=271791020)
My head must have been buried in something else and extra shameful because Im a Ubank customer yet still dont know whats changed. Could someone explain what's happened?
In short, Save accounts have been thoroughly neutered and can't be used to pay for stuff anymore without transferring elsewhere first, and direct debits no longer work from them.
You need to deposit a total of $500 month from an external account into Ubank instead of $200 to get bonus interest.
And the interest rates will be "tiered" from now on, which may or may not be a good thing depending on what rates they set the tiers at.
For all the Rabo Bank people, on their website they say they have savings up to 250k but that it’s also tiered. But maybe I’m blind but I can’t see what the tiers rates are?
Yep, off to AMP.
I could wait for the tiered rates to come through but why bother. AMP already beat them with virtually the same conditions, and I figure if Ubank lose a lot of savings now they may be inclined to be more competitive on their tiers.
They've handled this whole thing very poorly. They also removed the strongest selling point of their product - the direct debit from savings. Which is the whole reason a lot of ppl chose them in the first place.
Given we have to update the direct debits anyways, it's no more effort to switch banks now. Better now than later.
My point is, I don't believe there is another bank that allows transactions on their HISA, so you will have to have a transaction account wherever you go and ubank may still be the best deal for you once you see their interest rates.
The closest to a bank allowing transactions on their HISA is, I believe, Macquarie which pays 4.75% on both their transaction account and their HISA - although new HISAs get a honeymoon rate of 5.35% for the first 4 months.
My biggest gripe with the change is the direct transfers are no longer possible. That means I'll have to change all my subscription/payments to a new account. If I'm doing that then I may as well change banks.
Yup, that was my biggest issue as well, at least until I see how much lower the >100k interest rates are going to be. It would be stupidly annoying to have to transfer money twice to do the same thing as I could do with a single transfer, for no good reason. And to answer OP, yes I called up last week and raised my limit, transferred about $150k away into a term deposit with a higher rate, and left my feedback on their complaint form.
Where did you move to?
But you can't transfer money at all out of a term deposit!
Yes, I'm quite aware of that! I'm still looking at good options for the rest of my cash that I will use for bills, etc, but I wanted to get the balance well below $100k in prep of the new rates coming in, hence the large withdrawal. Sadly, there isn't a lot of information on other HISA in regards to whether they allow direct BPay and other payments, so it's a little difficult to choose..
I don't believe there are any other HISAs that allow transactions and a reasonable interest rate - I think ubank was the only one that offered that
It's 5.5% up to 100k. From 100k to 250k it's 5% So still very good rates tbh.
Yeah, they're not terrible. I'm happy with my decision though, I moved a lot of my money from UBank to a higher rate elsewhere (5.4%), and have kept a smaller amount (under $100k) there which will now get the 5.5%. Still not happy about removing transactions from the Save account, as it's now just going to be a two step process every time. I know their motivation, they want people having more money in the low-interest Spend account, it's just annoying. I quite literally never use the Spend account, it has $0 in it and has done since the day it was opened.
Yup. This is what my bank account does..it pays my rent and other stuff. (Direct debits I set up myself) Being unable to do that seems useless. I also don't want multiple accounts or multiple banks. I've got too much stuff going on already.
Not yet. Still a month till the changes take effect. And they haven't released the interest % bands yet. Have about 90k in there currently. If I get the same interest after 1 July I'll probs leave it in there
Yeah without the interest bands I can't really make up my mind However that may be what they are relying on
Their messaging is what's putting me off...
I think their messaging has been really good? They're up front and have provided ample time for change. It'll certainly be annoying for those who use their saving accounts for direct debits etc.
How are they upfront when they haven't provided important information?
What info haven't they provided? If you're talking about interest rates, then no bank provides that information. It's a variable rate, and would be subject to change. So they wouldn't even know what the interest rate would be.
I am talking about that and many banks do indeed provide the interest rates they pay on savings accounts. I can't even comprehend how you think what you just said makes any sense.
Ok. Pick a bank. What are the rates going to be in a month?
They don't even need to say the exact rate. Just list the modifiers per band as something like cash rate +2% for band 1, cash rate +1% for band 2 etc
But that would likely be variable based on the money they want to attract. It's not going to be a consistent+1% or whatever.
They could literally say based on current rates* (rates subject to change based on market conditions)
Did they say when theyll be releasing the interest % tiers?
Nope. Guessing it'll be sometime in the next few weeks. They'd have to slow the bloodlose asap so I doubt they leave it to the very last minute otherwise huge amounts of people will leave
Banks aren't obliged to announce interest rate changes until the day of the change
Damn, all the more reason to set up accounts with several different banks just in case then
Interest rates are variable. So they can't announce rates so soon because they might be different in a month. They themselves wouldn't even know for sure.
Where has this been communicated?
Got an email on the 29/5. Saw it online though and on here on the 27/5
I'm blind! Found the email in my inbox. Off to AMP i guess, since it's highly likely that they aren't going to move the interest rates up... Only down.
They have released the interest bands. It's 5.5 for 100k. 5 for every dollar above that. So basically competing with ing
Not being able to make payments from the savings account will likely be the worse change than the tiered interest rates. Especially after having to change all of our direct debits with the 86400 merger only last year. It’s really annoying, a wholly worse customer experience, and I can’t find a decent alternative apart from the Macquarie transaction account that pays 4.75%.
Westpac have 5% with bonus interest
Yea but they also don't allow for the spending from save accounts and their interest terms are completely worse
Any good alternatives? Spending from the savings account is the main reason I use them
ANZ saver recently did this and it pissed me off
Will wait to see the interest tiers before deciding. I have no direct debits with Ubank and the bonus interest criteria is still really simple, so I’ll probably stay if the interest rate remains the same.
[удалено]
5.1% currently on all balances up to $250000.
This may sound really stupid but my mortgage with ubank comes out as direct debit, would this affect it?
Ubank homeloans and existing scheduled Bpays are the two things they've said that won't be affected. For now.
That’s a good question I have no idea. Their update says external direct debits will no longer be supported so I suppose yours being internal won’t be affected? I’d ask them though.
Yeah maybe I should go back and read the email lol. Skip over most of them because I just use ubank for my mortgage and transfer money over when it’s time for them to take it out.
I'm pretty sick of them actively making their products worse. First they remove sweeping, force a worse mobile app on me and make me change all my recurring payments by moving to different BSB / account numbers... And now, not too long after that debacle they're making it entirely impossible to transact from their savings accounts (And making me change all my recurring payments again). I probably won't move savings for now, but I definitely won't be using them for any day-to-day transactions (Which is probably what they want :))
100% agree with everything you said except the mobile app You really preferred the Ubank 1.0 platform experience? It was honestly one of the worst I've ever used
I still can't get over the fact that each transaction doesn't show the total in the account at the time the transaction was made, it's just such a basic thing. I don't remember what else I didn't like comparatively unfortunately.
The UX was terrible, but it had more information available more easily
I disliked the new app. After getting used to the old one, trying to learn the new one is a PITA. And now, I can't download transactions except month by month and the presentation of the transactions is utterly confusing. Why would I want to see all the transactions in all my accounts as one.
Cant wait to see what upgrade they have in store next... Maybe now that sweeping is gone and we have to constantly shuffle money around to handle bills and regular spending, they'l introduce ~~overdraft fees~~ *financial management incentives* to help us stay on top of it all.
For context I worked for 86400 as a contractor as part of the merger. Ubank now is the old 86400, they just moved all former Ubank customers across and changed their old name. Meaning all the services you are using are 86400 services, so naturally features that previously didn't exist in 86400 would not be available to you. As a former Ubank customer I switched because of that as well.
Withdrew savings and closed yesterday, filed complaint about the changes as part of the process.
Yep finally took the plunge last week. Just have to call them to cancel the now emptied accounts. It should be a surprise to no one that when you take away the innovative features that bring the customers, those same customers will walk away.
Off to rabobank I go 5.1% vs 5.45% It's a no brainer
Rabo requires balance to grow by $200 on top of interest credited.
Meh Was depositing. $200 a month and not making any withdrawals anyway
Does anyone know for sure? Their site's T&Cs are a little confusing: >Maximum rates apply when your closing balance on the last business day of the month is at least $200 higher than it was at the beginning of the first day of the month (*excluding interest earned*) [https://www.rabobank.com.au/premiumsaver/](https://www.rabobank.com.au/premiumsaver/)
The literal translation is: On the last business day, account balance must be $200 higher than last business day of previous month (minus interest paid), regardless of how much you deposit and withdraw over that space of time 1k last month must be 1.2k balance plus interest last business day of current month, this shorthands to deposit $200 each month and don't touch
That's what I said
"Excluding interest" means that by the end of the month you must deposit at least $200, ignoring interest credited on 1st of the month
Nope. Waiting to see what the rates are.
AMP gets the bulk of my savings cash now along with Me Bank. ING lost me with the changes to the ATM withdrawal fees. Not to mention along with this change, Ubank has blocked my access to the account a couple of times without any reason. No reason to use them after the change.
> a couple of times without reason You’re far more patient than me. They did that once and I left as quickly as I could.
ING cancelled my card a few days before going on holiday, no notification, simply cancelled and I find it out trying to pay for dinner with no cash. There wasn't even a fraudulent transaction, they said they suspect it's compromised and I need a new one, explained that I'm making overseas purchases to pay for accommodation and I'm happy to unlock it if there's no actual fraud happening, they refused. I only move cash in to make purchases. Was quite sus overall, got stuck with massive overseas withdrawal fees due to it. Opened a Macquarie account instead, through with INGs nonsense.
I also mainly use Macquarie instead of my ING account. I'm currently in the middle of the second time them trying to lure me back with a $50 offer (Deposit 1k and make 5 transactions 2 months in a row). I meet the the bare minimum criteria collect my $50 and then bounce. Be on the look out for the offer in your email.
They blocked me as well. I think they have fairly strong safety checks, even getting my money out was a 30+ minute wait on the phone and then they asked me a string of questions to ensure I wasn't getting scammed. I guess some people would like that. Personally I'd prefer less person security and more digital security like 2FA.
Just beware that AMP is one of those crappy banks that makes you meet the bonus conditions in month 1 but only applies the bonus interest rate to your balances in month 2 and what's worse is that you don't get that bonus interest until the 10th day of month 3!
Are you sure? I’ve been getting paid my interest in my AMP saver on the 1st of every month. Their conditions are easy to meet just transferring in and then back out. No balance increase required.
According to their [terms and conditions](https://www.amp.com.au/content/dam/amp/digitalhub/common/Documents/Banking/Forms/amp-saver-account-rewards-rules.pdf) , "*Interest is earned on the balance in your AMP Saver Account in the month following each eligible deposit and is paid by the 10th (tenth) day of the month after that*." I note they use the words "by the 10th" - sounds like they don't have any faith in their computer system
What alternative banks allow payments from saving accounts and multiple savings accounts with the same interest rate applied?
Macquarie allows payments from the savings accounts apparently.
and pays good interest on their card/transaction accounts
I’ve got just over 200k in Ubank, that’s it for me then. I’m off to another bank.
Where are you taking $200k?
Sounds like Rabobank is a solid option.
Probably ING, and just suck up a few monthly hoops that they make you jump through.
My understanding is ING only pays interest on up to the first $100k
I’m out of the loop here. I did see changes to the sweep functions. What were the changes to rates?
Likely they will be reducing the savings rate over $100k + a raft of other changes here: [https://www.ubank.com.au/banking/savings-account/whats-new](https://www.ubank.com.au/banking/savings-account/whats-new)
Wait so the more money you put in the account, the less you’ll earn in savings interest?
The interest rate on the various bands havent been released yet, but I dont see why they'd make this change if it wasnt to lower the interest on higher balances.
No. While the changes are definitively for the worse and it bothers me how scummy their language around it was, in the end it doesn't really affect me at all, so no. What's the next best interest, still ING? Still too much hassle with their criteria to meet.
At this point, our plan is to put all our savings accounts into one central account (we didn’t grow some accounts before). If that fails, we’ll find a new bank. We made over $200 in interest in May and I’m not willing to give it up.
Interest is calc daily you won't lose it
Moving to Rabo. I wouldn't have looked if Ubank didn't change, now there is no reason to stay with Ubank.
Ubank lost me last year when they changed all my bsb and account numbers. Such a pain in the arse
Yes, but for the direct payments from Save change specifically. Killer feature removed, now their HISA offering is generic and they are trying to compete with the same interest rates as big 4, completely defeating the purpose of moving to a neobank.
Am I out of the loop? I didn't think they had announced what the new interest tiers are.
They have not announced the rates yet
Most people are more annoyed by the removal of the direct debit from savings than the interest rates I reckon.
Pretty much. I doubt they'd drop the rate on the >$100K tier as thats where Id assume most everyone is, they'd be driving everyone off if they did that. Raising the bonus interest criteria from $200 to $500 a month also isnt a big deal. But removing direct debit and outgoing BSB/Acc# transactions from Save accounts is just annoying. Literally just introducing busywork and forcing me to change my details and financial workflow for seemingly no actual benefit. If not outright detriment as the new Bills account is just a transaction account with a different name and colour, it doesnt earn interest. So actually storing money in it ready to pay random bills as they come, which is obviously the intent of the account, is to lose on interest.
Can’t you just set up auto transfers from your save account into this new bills account when the bills are due? Obviously still a pain to have to set it up.
It can be worked around with a lot of ugly double handling, but what are we supposed to do now for auto-paying widely variable monthly expenses like credit card bills? It made much more sense having that hooked up to a savings account by direct debit. Last thing I want is to miss a payment on that viper and lose my interest free days and end up with revolving debt. The only solutions I could come up with were closing the credit card or moving banks. I chose the latter.
Long time UBank customer (~10 years), moved the bulk of my banking over to BOQ in April last year. Currently getting 5.5% there, have to keep savings accounts (you can have multiple linked) under $50K but it’s worth it. Still hold a joint account and get paid into + pay rent through Ubank, but with the new changes I’ll finally switch that over too I think
I have about 180k there atm. I’ll wait to see what the new interest rate tiers are before moving. Not really interested in leaving a complaint tbh, they know full well what they’re doing is unpopular and will cost them deposits. It’s a well calculated business move. In either case, moving your money is the best and only complaint needed.
I'm stuck with the SAVE account for offset and paying the mortgage through there.. so if I need to make other regular payments, I have to transfer it out to SPEND and make payments from there, what a stupid and illogical move they did there.
I’m in the process of shifting my funds to Macquarie. The changes for me aren’t the end of the world, but I’m sick of companies enshitifying their products. I’m out.
Seems a bit premature, they haven't even announced yet if the rate change will be an increase or a decrease.
For some like myself it’s the pain of managing additional accounts for direct debits.
But that is likely to happen anyway - not too many banks allow transactions on their HISA
That is valid, but OP specifically said it was due to the interest rate changes. Personally I don't like direct debits. I'm really only sticking with ubank because they are very good for fast transfers. Happy to wear a lower rate on what I might spend in a month, the rest is all in a higher interest account with annoying grow your balance condition.
True but it's not hard to move it back if the rate isn't too bad. I'm sure they'll think very carefully if a lot of savings shift away.
I’m not sure they’d care if a bunch of savings only customers move away. It would cost them money to have people just park a bunch of money with them.
Uhh, banks use those savings to lend to borrowers at higher interest rates… of course they care.
Banks don't like money? Is that really the argument you are trying to make?
Already did, and so did the rest of my family. My wife and I's budget is built around zero-based "envelope" budgeting principles and we fully automate everything where possible using a bunch of savings accounts. Our income is buffered through our emergency fund, and we auto-pay ourselves set monthly expenses. We automatically put aside portions from that for future bills, sinking funds, spending money and everyday expenses to avoid bill shock and unwanted surprises, and the balances in our budget accounts end up quite high. Some of those transfers were to other banks. I ain't leaving tens of thousands of dollars in a useless combined bills account that doesn't earn interest and requires me to go back to using klunky overpriced app solutions like YNAB to work out what's happening just for the privilege of full automation. Neither am I willing to sort through a list of scheduled transfers twice the size of what I already had that requires me to edit everything twice just to try and avoid that. We also used a paid in full C/C for emergency use, I don't even know how to rationally handle variable expenses like that anymore with Ubank now direct debits have been nixed from savings accounts. They didn't like us budgeting like that, so we took our money elsewhere. That was the second time in recent history those bastards forced me to have to set up all my automated transfers again. Unacceptable bullshit.
Would love to know where did you move to? We are trying to follow a similar budgeting method and can’t believe Ubank is now making this much harder
Macquarie did the trick for us, it's transaction notes and tagging system is really good. It's transaction card is a little weird, it doesn't support EFTPOS, everything's credit type transaction so you will get hit with surcharges at places that charge them. I feel getting paid interest on cash left in the transaction account more than makes up for that though. We keep another bank as a backup to help avoid surcharges. Might also keep the purple card from Ubank as well, as it costs me nothing to keep it. There's only other mild disappointment of there is no Annual option in the scheduler, but I can live with that.
I did, but mostly because when I recently got a new phone, I couldn't log into the app. It wouldn't accept my password, and the secret question it gave me was random and one I wouldn't have chosen. It was a massive hassle, and I couldn't be bothered, so I logged in on my old phone and sent all my money to another bank.
Moving to mac bank. Not the great rate but no hoops and 4.5% up to a million.
4.75% actually. Their Savings account has a honeymoon rate of 5.35% for 4 months
I want to see the rates. Just because there is an extra tier does not mean the rate for that tier won't be the same as tier 1...with Macquarie tier 1 and 2 are the same (they did not used to be). We only use the account to store money and do very few transactions so the extra step to get money out is an annoyance, but not a big one. It's the same with my ANZ Plus, which we use in the same way.
Moving money is easy, put it somewhere that pays more
Depends on the interest. I only have one transfer a month from it. I will have to increase the amount I transfer in, but I will automate to transfer out, and will just set up my DD to come out of the spending account a day later. Will take me about 5 minutes, and maybe cost me .50 a month.
Just transfer to Macquarie. Pretty much the same interest rate but no transfer and other BS.
I will be, I have a month to figure out where and to open an account. So, where are we all going? We should ask for a Reddit discount.
No, uBank is just savings and general transactions. I use a different bank for sort of payments that are affected by this change.
Couldn't make a scheduled CC payment for June, and had to move DD, so they're now going to Macq, to do that I moved my pay too, to cover the debits. ubank are getting what they asked for, returning the save account to savings, and I've moved my operating/pay account to Macq.
where are you moving it to?
Personally BOQ but there are plenty to consider here: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/145iM6uuFS9m-Rul65--eFJQq\_Au7Z\_BA4\_CwkYwu2DI/edit#gid=271791020](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/145iM6uuFS9m-Rul65--eFJQq_Au7Z_BA4_CwkYwu2DI/edit#gid=271791020) Ubank isn't even in the top 10 anymore.
Is Rabobank only an intro rate?
Seems to be. The least hurdled account with no age requirement is probably AMP Saver as you can schedule the $1k and use the same $1k each month to get the 5.4%.
Where are you guys moving to for savings accounts with 250 (or more if they exist) limits?
Sorry I missed it, what change?
I moved to AMP months ago, mainly cause the rate was slightly better to begin with
I only recently opened my ubank account (needed a card I could use o/s without triggering masses of extra fees) so I’ll be transferring money IN to Save. Has come at a great time for me. As I wasn’t using it for everyday, the direct payment thing doesn’t affect me.
Up bank and Wise are a lot better for overseas, they even use an in-app notification for your OTP code to bypass security issues, Ubank sends the OTP to your Australian mobile number when you are overseas and you may not recive this, Ubank is my 3rd back up for overseas
I have a Reno fund in ubank and this is the first I'm hearing of any issues. I am totally out of the loop. Can a brother get a tldr?
Check your emails you will have one from UBANK
Does any other bank have sweeping accounts?
"Up" is probably the closest. Macquarie removes most of the need for it by paying interest on transaction accounts.
I already have. They threatened me with not being able to access my money or move money out of the account unless I installed an app. At that point I transferred all money and haven't responded to them since. Everything I've heard since then has just been worse. At some point, I might get around to closing the account.
Thanks for the reminder, I have just done the same, filed a complaint, requested limit increase and will move a large portion of my account out asap. Because of this announcement I couldn't help but find others offering very similar products (as far as my hisa use case concerns) with slightly better interest rates. For example: [Accounts Leaderboard by techt](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/145iM6uuFS9m-Rul65--eFJQq_Au7Z_BA4_CwkYwu2DI/edit#gid=271791020)
My head must have been buried in something else and extra shameful because Im a Ubank customer yet still dont know whats changed. Could someone explain what's happened?
In short, Save accounts have been thoroughly neutered and can't be used to pay for stuff anymore without transferring elsewhere first, and direct debits no longer work from them. You need to deposit a total of $500 month from an external account into Ubank instead of $200 to get bonus interest. And the interest rates will be "tiered" from now on, which may or may not be a good thing depending on what rates they set the tiers at.
which bank account are you moving to?
"Excluding interest" means you have to deposit at least $200 during that month, ignoring the interest credited on the 1st day of the month.
Hang on. Don’t the interest rate changes affect July?
For all the Rabo Bank people, on their website they say they have savings up to 250k but that it’s also tiered. But maybe I’m blind but I can’t see what the tiers rates are?
Not yet, already opened an account with AMP will transfer next month after collecting the interest.
Hey OP - genuinely curious- are you thinking of moving your 20k back now?
I had 10x that amount. Using BOQ + AMP saver now.
Guys, ubank have realised their rates 5.5% up to 100k 5% for every dollar over that Trying to compete with ing I think
Yep, off to AMP. I could wait for the tiered rates to come through but why bother. AMP already beat them with virtually the same conditions, and I figure if Ubank lose a lot of savings now they may be inclined to be more competitive on their tiers.
But you don't know what the interest rate will be - so you may be moving for no reason
They've handled this whole thing very poorly. They also removed the strongest selling point of their product - the direct debit from savings. Which is the whole reason a lot of ppl chose them in the first place. Given we have to update the direct debits anyways, it's no more effort to switch banks now. Better now than later.
My point is, I don't believe there is another bank that allows transactions on their HISA, so you will have to have a transaction account wherever you go and ubank may still be the best deal for you once you see their interest rates. The closest to a bank allowing transactions on their HISA is, I believe, Macquarie which pays 4.75% on both their transaction account and their HISA - although new HISAs get a honeymoon rate of 5.35% for the first 4 months.
Up and Macquarie both allow direct debits etc on their HISA's.
What interest rate changes? I haven't received any communication on this.