Deposit Accounts
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Mozo Experts Choice Research Report Product Category: DEPOSIT ACCOUNTS 15 January 2016 Who is Mozo? Mozo Pty Ltd (“Mozo”) provides a financial comparison service that was launched in 2008 by a team of passionate financial services enthusiasts with the goal of creating an online service that helped consumers to make their own financial decisions and save money. Mozo offers consumers a comprehensive product comparison service that covers the retail banking market, general insurance, life insurance, business banking and more. Currently around 300,000 Australians a month use Mozo’s financial comparison service. Mozo’s comparison technology and expertise is used by some of Australia’s largest online publishers. Mozo holds an Australian Financial Services Licence and an Australian Credit Licence. Mozo’s management team have experience in consumer credit and financial services in a variety of roles from executive management, marketing, and actuarial services to product development, and technology. Mozo’s team are often called upon to provide expert media commentary in relation to retail financial services. Our Experts Choice Awards analysis is carried out by our Research & Insights Director and our Product Data Manager, who between them have over 50 years of experience in financial services and 21 years in online financial services comparison. Andrew Duncanson is our Research & Insights Director. Andrew has worked in financial services for over 21 years in Australia and the UK and is a qualified actuary. Andrew is a Responsible Manager for Mozo’s Australian Financial Services Licence. Peter Marshall is our Product Data Manager. He has over 30 years’ experience in financial services, including managing product data at other financial comparison sites before Mozo. Peter is also a Responsible Manager for Mozo’s Australian Financial Services Licence. Page 1 of 24 Mozo Experts Choice Awards The Mozo Experts Choice Awards are an initiative from Mozo that recognises Australia’s best value financial products and helps Australians to save money by choosing better products. The Mozo Experts Choice Awards are designed to complement the popular Mozo People’s Choice Awards, which are voted by customers and recognise banking and insurance institutions with the highest customer satisfaction levels. For the Mozo Experts Choice Awards Gold medals are awarded to the top 10% of products that meet the selection criteria in each awards category. A maximum of 10 individual products are awarded gold in each category. Award recipients are listed in alphabetical order, the Mozo Experts Choice Awards are awarded to each product equally and the list of winners is not ranked in any other way. Further information about our awards methodology can be found below. What Deposit Account products do we consider? Mozo considered at call savings accounts, transaction focused bank accounts, and fixed term deposits. Awards have been awarded for each of these product types. In carrying out the Mozo Experts Choice Deposit Awards research report we analysed 376 deposit products from 72 Australian providers based on data contained in Mozo’s product database as at 31 December 2015. Rates, fees and features in Mozo’s database have been confirmed as correct between 4th December 2015 and 31st December 2015 by contacting the relevant providers or from publically available sources. These awards take into account interest rates at 3 dates in 2015: 31 October, 30 November, and 31 December. Savings Account and Term Deposit Products must have been consistently available at each of those dates to be included in the awards. We aim to include most products in the market in each category of the Mozo Experts Choice Awards. However, not every product on the market will be included in our review, nor is every feature compared that may be relevant to you. Page 2 of 24 The Mozo Experts Choice Deposit Account Award Winners 2016 [ 1 ] PERSONAL SAVINGS ACCOUNT - BASE RATE PROVIDER PRODUCT AMP Saver Account Arab Bank Australia Online Savings Account Bank of Sydney SuperRate Account Citibank Online Saver Heritage Bank Online Saver ING Direct Savings Maximiser Police Bank Online SuperSaver Queenslanders Credit Union GoSaver Online Account RaboDirect High Interest Savings Account Rural Bank ONE Saver UBank USaver [ 2 ] PERSONAL SAVINGS ACCOUNT - INTRODUCTORY BONUS RATE PROVIDER PRODUCT AMP Saver Account RaboDirect High Interest Savings Account [ 3 ] PERSONAL SAVINGS ACCOUNT - ONGOING BONUS RATE PROVIDER PRODUCT Bankwest Hero Saver CUA eSaver Reward ING DIRECT Savings Maximiser ME Online Savings Account RAMS Saver Account UBank USaver with Ultra Transaction Page 3 of 24 [ 4 ] KIDS SAVINGS ACCOUNT - BASE RATE PROVIDER PRODUCT Bank of Sydney Student Savings Account Beyond Bank Junior Savers Club Account Gateway Credit Union Dollaroo Savings [ 5 ] KIDS SAVINGS ACCOUNT - ONGOING BONUS RATE PROVIDER PRODUCT BCU Scoot’s Super Saver Greater Building Society Life Saver Hume Bank Clancy Koala Junior Saver [ 6 ] SMSF SAVINGS ACCOUNT - BASE RATE PROVIDER PRODUCT Arab Bank Australia Online Savings Account ME Business Online Savings Account RaboDirect DIY Super High Interest Savings Account [ 7 ] SMSF SAVINGS ACCOUNT - INTRODUCTORY BONUS RATE PROVIDER PRODUCT RaboDirect DIY Super High Interest Savings Account [ 8 ] SMSF SAVINGS ACCOUNT - ONGOING BONUS RATE PROVIDER PRODUCT CUA eSaver Reward Page 4 of 24 [ 9 ] PERSONAL TERM DEPOSIT - SHORT TERM PROVIDER Bank of Sydney Citibank ING DIRECT ME P&N Bank UBank Victoria Teachers Mutual Bank [ 10 ] PERSONAL TERM DEPOSIT - MEDIUM TERM PROVIDER Big Sky firstmac ING DIRECT ME P&N Bank People’s Choice Credit Union Rural Bank ONE Teachers Mutual Bank/Unibank [ 11 ] PERSONAL TERM DEPOSIT - LONG TERM PROVIDER Arab Bank Australia BOQ Specialist Greater Building Society Maitland Mutual Building Society ME People’s Choice Credit Union RaboDirect Page 5 of 24 [ 12 ] SMSF TERM DEPOSIT - SHORT TERM PROVIDER Citibank ME Victoria Teachers Mutual Bank [ 13 ] SMSF TERM DEPOSIT - MEDIUM TERM PROVIDER Big Sky ING DIRECT ME QANTAS Credit Union Rural Bank ONE [ 14 ] SMSF TERM DEPOSIT - LONG TERM PROVIDER Greater Building Society ME RaboDirect [ 15 ] FEE FREE BANK ACCOUNT PROVIDER PRODUCT AMP Access Account BOQ Specialist One Account Citibank Plus Transaction Account Gateway Credit Union Edge Account HSBC Day to Day Account Macquarie Platinum Transaction Account Macquarie Transaction Account ME Everyday Transaction Account Page 6 of 24 Classic Banking Account Action Account Everyday Basics NAB Classic Banking Account RAMS Action Account Suncorp Everyday Basics [ 16 ] SAVINGS BANK OF THE YEAR PROVIDER ME Page 7 of 24 How the Mozo Experts Choice Awards are determined Mozo Experts Choice Awards for Deposit Accounts are awarded in the following categories and based on the following methodology: PERSONAL SAVINGS ACCOUNT CATEGORIES [ 1, 2, 3 ] Aim: To identify the savings accounts for personal customers that have the best interest rates. Method: To qualify for these awards the savings account must: • be available for adults; • have no monthly service fee; • allow unlimited free internet transactions; • accounts requiring a linked account to transfer funds must be able to nominate a bank account at any institution ; and • have no notice period to withdraw funds. Base, Introductory Bonus, and Ongoing Bonus rates that apply for each account for a deposit amount of $10,000 were extracted at the end of October, November and December 2015. For the Base and Ongoing Bonus categories the rates relevant to each category at each of the 3 dates were averaged. For the Introductory rate category the effective annual rate that would apply in the first year was calculated at each of the 3 dates and these were averaged. Where different interest rates apply for different portions of the account balance the effective rate for $10,000 was calculated to determine ranking. While conditions for earning Ongoing Bonus rates vary, we assumed that those conditions were met for each account. Conditional Ongoing Bonus rates were not taken into account in the Introductory rate category. The top 10 products, to a maximum of 10% of all products considered, were given awards in each category. Page 8 of 24 KIDS SAVING ACCOUNT CATEGORIES [ 4, 5 ] Aim: To identify the savings accounts for children that have the best interest rates. Method: To qualify for these awards the savings account must: • be available for a child aged 8 years; • have no monthly service fee; • allow unlimited free internet transactions; • have no automatic sweep of funds from the account; • accounts requiring a linked account to transfer funds must be able to nominate a bank account at any institution ; and • have no notice period to withdraw funds. Base and Ongoing Bonus rates that apply for each account for a deposit amount of $10,000 were extracted at the end of October, November and December 2015. For the Base and Ongoing Bonus categories the rates relevant to each category at each of the 3 dates were averaged. Where different interest rates apply for different portions of the account balance the effective rate for $10,000 was calculated to determine ranking. While conditions for earning Ongoing Bonus rates vary, we assumed that those conditions were met for each account. SMSF SAVING ACCOUNT CATEGORIES [ 6, 7, 8 ] Aim: To identify the savings accounts for self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) customers that have the best interest rates. Method: To qualify for these awards the savings account must: • be available for SMSF customers; • have no monthly service fee; • allow unlimited free internet transactions; • accounts requiring a linked account to transfer funds must be able to nominate a bank account at any institution ; and • have no notice period to withdraw funds. Page 9 of 24 Base, Introductory Bonus, and Ongoing Bonus rates that apply for each account for a deposit amount of $10,000 were extracted at the end of October, November and December 2015. For the Base and Ongoing Bonus categories the rates relevant to each category at each of the 3 dates were averaged. For the Introductory rate category the effective annual rate that would apply in the first year was calculated at each of the 3 dates and these were averaged.