Thank you! for the link to Choice input. Will be interesting to read. Thanks.
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In having a quick scan – it’s sad (criminal?) that almost 12 months after the Enquiry – bank behaviour (from my perspective) is just getting worse and wore – more games, more hoops.
The reason being that customer/account holder didn’t meet the conditions of the account. The bank’s didn’t forego the payment of interest. If the conditions of the account to receive the bonus had been met, then the bonus interest would have been paid.
Bonus interest accounts are not for everyone as they do have conditions which need to be met continuously. Other savings accounts such as term deposits may be more suitable to those who don’t understand or can’t meet bonus interest conditions. The disadvantage of term deposits is money is locked into for the term (noting if the term is broken early there are often reductions in interest rate applied).
One has to realise that the investigations were done at a time where there was some of the lowest interest rates on record, which followed those being set by the Reserve bank of Australia…and the very early stages of the current interest rate increase cycle. Many banks lagged increasing interest rates (the increased home loans almost immediately but took weeks to months to have corresponding increases in interest rates for saving accounts).
Since the investigations were carried out, many banks and financial institutions offer interest rates greater than the cash rate nominated by the RBA. Current the RBA cash rate sits at 4.35%, whereby many financial institutions are offering interest on savings significantly higher than the cash rate. It is possible to get saving interest rates in the fives. This means that the banks are using their income (margin from their borrowings and RBA cash rate above lending rates) to pay additional interest, to keep and attract money within their banks.
