How Australian Women Should Make Savings Account Comparisons

Australian women have more choice and independence than ever before and even though you have options open to you that your mother and grandmother may never have dreamt of, it doesn’t mean that all of those options are the right one. Therefore it is important to make considered comparisons of your choices and this is especially important when it comes to your finances.

Financial independence is one of the main reasons women are more powerful and self-sufficient than ever before, so you want to make sure you are making the right choices when it comes to your savings, because you want to know your finances will be secure now and into the future.

How to Make Savings Account Comparisons

There is a wealth of information out there about the variety of savings accounts available, so how do you know which information you need and which is just advertising filler? Following is advice about how you should compare savings accounts to decide which features are best for you and which ones you don’t need.

How to compare savings accounts:

• By their interest rate, but dig a little deeper than the surface promotion. Many banks will offer promotional interest rates on savings accounts for a period, or for the first few months your account is open. While it can be beneficial to take advantage of a higher introductory rate, it is important to compare both the promotional and the standard rates of the savings accounts you are considering before starting your savings plan.
• Choose the fee free savings account options. It is possible to operate a high interest savings account entirely fee free, but you will need to compare how the deposits and withdrawals from the account are made. The online savings account itself will be fee free, however, it is the linked account you have to be careful of and check whether there are fees from transfers in and out, and whether you have a limited number of transactions available in a month. To avoid fees on your savings all together, you may want to consider opening a transaction account with the same provider, as often transfers between a provider’s accounts are free.
• Compare savings accounts according to your savings goal. If you have a long term savings goal choose a savings account with a high ongoing rate and rewards when you don’t make a withdrawal. If you plan to use your savings sooner, look for ways to boost your savings by being rewarded with bonus interest for regular deposits and taking advantage of high promotional interest rates.

Savings Account	Account Details	Intro Rate + Base p.a.	Base Rate p.a.	Intro Rate p.a.	Fees	Min Balance/Min Deposit
St.George Direct Saver	Bank offers personal, business and commercial banking as well as wealth management solutions.	6.15%	4.60%	1.55%	FREE	$0/$0
HSBC Serious Saver	The HSBC Serious Saver.	5.00%	5.00%	0.00%	FREE	$0/$0
NAB iSaver	One of the largest financial institutions and banks in Australia.	6.00%	4.25%	1.75%	FREE	$1/$1

Why Australian Women Need More Savings

Australian women have more opportunity than ever before but that does not mean that you can relax, because there are still cases where women’s finances are lacking compared to men’s.

Women’s finances don’t compare:

• Women have to work longer to earn the same as men. Equal Pay Day is a day which marks the point in the financial year when a woman’s pay reaches that of a man; that is, if women earned the same amount as men, Equal Pay Day would be on 30 June each year. However, in 2009 it took women until 1 September to earn the same as men had in the previous financial year.
• Women’s wages are only slowly narrowing the gap. In 2008, census statistics showed that the gap between women’s and men’s earning closed less than one per cent from 2006 to 2007, going from 76.9 per cent, to 77.8 per cent.
• Women will earn less in their superannuation fund. Typically a woman’s working life is more disrupted than a man’s as she is likely to take leave to have children and remain the primary caregiver and will therefore need to take more time off if her children are sick or need to be picked up from school. The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia has found that average retirement funds for women are $73,000 compared to men’s $155,000.
• Women have a smaller percentage of assets. The Association report also found that women have 34 per cent of superannuation assets, where men have 66 per cent.

Savings Account Comparison Benefits

Just because women’s finances may be falling behind, it doesn’t mean there aren’t things you can do right now to get your finances working just as hard are you are to overtake the mens’.

Benefit from savings accounts:

• A high interest savings account accrues benefits from the beginning. Even if you’re thinking that it’s too late to open a savings account to build up your finances, it’s not. A high interest savings account calculates interest daily so from your first deposit you can be earning interest and from every day after that you will be earning compounding interest.
• Women can invest their savings and financial grants for the future. Paid maternity leave was announced earlier in 2009 to come into effect in 2011. This means with some clever investments in a high interest savings account, you can be providing everything your child could ever need.
• Investing and saving can boost government grants. Paid maternity leave will offer most Australian parents the current minimum wage payment, for 18 weeks, a total of $9,672. Plus, new parents also receive a baby bonus of $5,000 so if you started a family you would be receiving a total of around $14, 672. If you invested this money in a high interest savings account earning 4.50% (a very conservative interest rate at the moment) you would have over $25,000 by the time your child was a teenager; if you had been adding just $50 a week, that amount would be over $63,000.
• You can save for your family’s financial future. If you left the $14,000 in a high interest savings account until your child finished high school, there would be over $32,000 which would go a long way to paying for university, TAFE or trade studies. If you left your baby bonuses in a high interest savings account until your baby’s 21st birthday there would be almost $40,000 in the account which could help your child to secure their first home.

You don’t have to necessarily invest the funds granted to you when you have a baby, but the example shows what a difference a high interest savings account can make to your family’s future financial security. You may be investing a long service leave payout or a redundancy package but wherever the funds are coming from, they’ll be safe, secure and substantial in a high interest account.

For more comparison advice and to compare the interest rates available on savings accounts at the moment, use our comparison tables or interest rate calculators to plan for your future.