Transaction Accounts Comparison

Your transaction account is your everyday account and this is why it is so important to make sure you choose the best transaction account for your needs. A transaction account will allow you to do everything from withdraw money from an ATM, make EFTPOS purchases, make online payments with a linked credit card and pay your bills in person or on the phone. Therefore, because you are using your transaction account for all of your everyday banking needs, using the wrong account can easily attract mountains of fees.

Featured Bank Account

The HSBC Day to Day Transaction Account is a revolutionary financial product. Earn an incredible interest rate, pay no fees if you deposit just $2,000 or more each month (i.e. salary). On top of that receive $10 every month.

• Maximum Rate: 2.75%
• Standard Variable Rate: 2.75%
• Bonus Rate: 0.00%
• Monthly Account Fees: $0
• Minimum Balance: $0
• Minimum Deposit: $0

Read the HSBC Day to Day Transaction Account terms and conditions

No Fee Transaction Account Comparison

	Description	Monthly Account Fees	Debit Card Access	ATM Withdrawal Fee	Interest Rate p.a.	Details
NAB Classic Banking	No overdrawn fees. Press Credit when you shop and get complimentary 3 months Purchase Protection Insurance.	0	Yes, Visa	0	0.01%	No minimum deposits required to get $0 monthly service fee.
Citibank Plus Transaction Account	Transfer funds instantly between Citibank accounts in more than 25 participating countries.	$0	Yes, Visa	0	0.00%	No ATM fees using Citibank, Westpac, BankSA and St .George branded ATMs

Transaction Accounts Comparison

Savings Account	Account Details	Maximum Variable Rate p.a.	Standard Variable Rate p.a.	Bonus Interest p.a.	Fees	Min Balance/Min Deposit
HSBC Day to Day Transaction Account	Get $10 every month, No monthly account keeping fees, plus unlimited ATM withdrawals and EFTPOS transactions	2.75%	2.75%	0.00%	$0	$0 / $0
NAB Classic Banking	Zero monthly fees and no minimum deposit required. Receive the NAB Visa Debit card at no extra cost.	0.01%	0.01%	0.00%	$0	$0 / $0
ANZ Access Advantage	$5 per month for Unlimited transactions	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	$5	$0 / $0
Citibank Plus Transaction Account	No monthly fees and unlimited transactions free of charge.	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	$$0	$0 / $0

Different Types of Transaction Accounts:

Personal Transaction Accounts

These are the typical kind of transactional accounts that most people use. In many cases, this account allows you to perform an unlimited amount of transactions with other banks, and your bank, with a monthly flat fee. Some banks may give you the option of paying for each transaction separately.

All-in-one transaction accounts

These accounts are for day to day activities and are attached to a savings account that offers a high rate of interest. Money transfers between these two accounts will be done as soon as you put in the request since they are linked.

Basis transaction accounts

These transaction accounts are best suited for people that have limited income, such as people receiving Welfare or pensioners. They only offer a small amount of transactions that can be performed for free, but do not have any monthly fee to pay.

ATMs

ATMs can be used for a large variety of banking services, such as purchasing a phone credit that has been pre-paid, checking your balances or depositing checks or cash. They are available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

They are a convenient way to do your banking, but you should be aware that if you use an ATM that belongs to another financial institute other than the one you are currently using, that you will usually be charged a service fee of up to $2.50. If you do this quite often, it would be best to find an account that does not make you pay this charge.

You can get access to the EFTPOS system network with almost any ATM card that is issued from a transaction account in Australia.

It is best to consider what kinds of transactions you will be performing the most before choosing your account. The other transactions include:

1. Cheques
2. Bpay
3. EFTOS
4. An overdrawn account
5. Direct deposits
6. ATMs from other banks

How to Choose and Compare the Best Transaction Accounts

With so many different transaction accounts to choose from, you can find yourself navigating a maze of fees, fine print and access options to find the best transaction account for your needs. However, it is important to remember that there is such a range of transaction accounts because everyone uses their money differently, at different times in their life. Therefore, even if you opened a transaction account which suited your needs two years ago, take the time now to consider whether your needs have changed, and whether there is a transaction account which is better suited to your current situation.

To choose and compare transaction accounts:

• Review your bank statements and assess your spending habits This will help you determine your spending style as you can see in black and white where and how you are spending your money, as well as the fees these transactions are attracting. Knowing whether you make more EFTPOS transactions than credit card purchases or whether you pay your bills at the post office or use BPAY online will help you determine which features to look for in a new transaction account.
• Decide whether you could use your transaction account differently Choosing the best transaction account is not only about finding an account which suits the way you spend and save. It is also about finding out about new products and features available to you as a banking customer. For example, if you have been being penalised for paying your bills in person, perhaps it is time to look for a transaction account which extra security features such as a Digipass or text message notification system, to make you feel more secure in paying your bills online.
• It’s alright to have more than one transaction account There are many transaction accounts which have very low, or no, monthly account keeping fees, so if you want the freedom of having several accounts where you can pick and choose the features which best suit you from each account at the time you are paying a bill or making a purchase, then compare and contrast more than one account.
• Don’t be distracted by promotions or gimmicks, look closer. Some transaction accounts will offer special promotions such as free gift cards when you sign up for an account, and these promotions will always have a deadline to encourage you to sign up now and read the fine print later – well, don’t be fooled. Also avoid being taken in by gimmicks such as the ability to put your choice of image on your access card, because you may get an ATM card with your favourite wedding photo on it, but is it linked to the best transaction account for your needs?

The Use of Debit Cards

You can use funds directly from your account with a MasterCard or Visa debit card. They are great for people that can’t control their spending habits with a regular credit card but still need to pay with a Visa or MasterCard for their purchases.

There are a lot of transaction accounts you can choose from, but now you can understand the benefits of each and decide which account would work best for you.

Transaction accounts, saving accounts, and general banking accounts. These are all financial products we use on a daily basis. What changes have been brought in over the last couple of years, and how good are the deals available to the Australian consumer?

No More Fees If You Please!

The amount of money that financial institutions had been making from customers in the form of bank fees were beginning to spiral out of control. It was said that Australian consumers had paid in the region of $1.9 billion in transaction accounts fees back in 2008, and the profit from fees was growing at a stupidly rapid rate of around 8% per year.

Penalties were the biggest earner for the banks, with default, bank dishonour, and overdrawn transaction fees being the biggest culprit. In fact the total income from such charges reached a massive $490 million in mid 2008.

It was beginning to feel like we were being charged unfairly and in excess. Consumer group CHOICE took on the banks in regards to the rising bank fees, and with the support of the public the major banks bowed under the pressure, and began reducing their fees. In fact giant NAB decided to completely eradicate banking accounts penalties.

We took a look at some of the transaction accounts on the market from some of the biggest banks, credit unions and building societies, and looked at how good the offers were now compared to the way they were.

Now the Australian public can have bank accounts that do not come with a monthly account upkeep fee, does not charge for run of the mill transactions, and doesn’t hit them with excessive penalties

These are also standalone bank accounts, which means they do not come tied in with any other product. You do not have to deposit money in one account in order to obtain a certain rate of interest in another account for example. If you do currently hold an account that still charges for all these things, then by moving to a low cost transaction account, or keeping fee free, you could save hundreds of dollars each year.

Below are some of the average costs you may face if you hold a fee ridden high cost transaction account:

• Overdraft penalties of around $95 and transaction fees of $30 p.a
• $60 per year in account upkeep fees- $5 per month
• Rough cost of withdrawing money at a foreign ATM $40, although with more and more ATMs appearing at bars, and clubs that figure could now be greatly increased.

Although official figures have not been published up until now, industry experts predict that the yearly savings made collectively if we all switched accounts, could be somewhere in the region of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The best transaction account:

• Is one which doesn’t penalise you for the way you receive and spend your money.
• Is one which allows you access to your money in a way which suits you without penalty, whether that is online, over the phone or in person.
• Is one which is simple to open and use.
• Is one which works in conjunction with your other savings accounts, loans, credit cards and investments.
• Can be found right here.

Best Transaction Accounts

There are two main providers of accounts that come with the double feature of no monthly fee as standard (in other words you do not have to make a minimum deposit to have the no fee benefit), and the ability to carry out as many day to day transactions as you wish for free, plus no penalty fees to pay.

Those accounts are:

The ING Direct Orange Everyday Bank Account

Because ING Direct does not have any ATM’s of it’s own, it will allow you to make withdrawals from other banks ATM’s with no charge, however they will still charge you for transactions on 3rd party machines, for example the type you may see in a bar or club. What they will do however is repay your $2 fee if you withdraw more than $200 at any one time.

They will also credit you with 50 cents every time you use a retailer to take out cash over the amount of $200.

There are no penalty fees charged for going overdrawn, however you will still be charged overdraft interest.

Up until recently ING were also giving customers a bonus of $20 when they had their salary paid into the account, they also gave $20 when customers first used their direct debit cards, and finally another $20 when they set up a direct debit on the account. A total of up to $60 worth of bonus payments to customers

NAB Classic Banking Account

Again no monthly account upkeep, penalty fees or transaction fees to be found here, and there is also the benefit of not having to make any sort of minimum deposit in a month for these fee waivers to be accessed.

One small charge customers face with this bank account is a small fee of between $1.80, and $5.40 per transaction if customers have a member of branch staff arrange and set up a periodic payment for them. What NAB do to combat this charge is to help customers set up these transactions for themselves using telephone or Internet banking, so they do not have to pay the fee.

Other means of automatic payment such as direct debits, or bill payments made online remain free. NAB also led from the front, by being the first bank to wipe out charges and fees when customers went overdrawn on transaction accounts. This had been a major issue for the bank, and was said to be one of the major causes of customer complaints.

What Else is Out There?

Transaction accounts from Bankwest

There are a couple of useful accounts from this bank. One is called the Bankwest Hero bank account. This account does require a minimum monthly deposit of at least $2000, but comes with no monthly fees. It also has a reasonable rate of interest of 4% up to a balance of $5000 and then no interest after that.

It also tries to make it easier for customers to avoid overdraft fees by having a safety net of $100. This means a customer can go up to $100 overdrawn without facing a penalty charge.

Then there is the Bankwest Zero Bank account. This account is the same as the Bankwest Hero except that it replaces the interest feature, with rebates of any ATM fees charged to customer’s when they use machines belonging to the other major banks.

Societies

Remember that you also have the option of credit unions, and building society accounts, although they do charge some fees, but counter them by offering rebates depending on the value of “membership”.

Some of the credit unions will offer fairly low rates, although they will often achieve this by asking you to buy a package of products to unlock this lower fee.

The important thing to remember is that when it comes to bank accounts you have a massive range of choice. Look at your financial personality, look how much you will deposit and withdraw each month, work out what features of a transaction account are important from you, and from there you should be able to make a more informed choice about which type of account will suit you best.

How to Benefit From the Best Transaction Account

Finding the best transaction account for you and your financial needs is like finding a tailor-made pair of boots – you’ll wonder how you ever went without it when it’s so comfortable and easy to use.

Benefits of finding the right transaction account:

• You can save on transaction fees and account costs Without having examined your spending habits and bank statements you probably don’t realise just how much of your hard earned cash is going to fees. However, once you open a transaction account which suits your spending habits, you will find you have more funds left at the end of each month.
• You can find complimentary banking products Upon examining both your spending habits and financial needs you may have realised you need to set up a savings plan or an investment program, and with clear financial goals you will be able to find a transaction account which allows you to easily transfer funds to a high interest savings account, or allocate funds to a secured term deposit investment. Or perhaps you will choose a transaction account which can be linked to a credit or debit card which allows you to transfer all of your funds to a high interest savings account, while you spend on your credit card for the month.
• You’ll have access to your funds when and wherever you choose If you travel overseas then you will be able to benefit from a transaction account with international access and low international fees. Or if you are a busy mother then you will be able to pay your bills late at night online without needing to trek into a branch.

Opening a transaction account which suits your lifestyle can truly change your life as you find you have the banking facilities you need to make your life easier, you have the transaction account features to keep track of your funds and you can hold onto your funds because you’re not being penalised by transaction fees which don’t suit you. Make your comparisons of the transaction accounts available to you right here, and find out more or sign up now through our secure link transfers.

Fee-free transaction accounts are not exactly new. But previously, they were hedged about with special conditions, restrictions or available only to the select few. Now the banks are chasing more customers by offering a much expanded range of fee-free products.

National Australia Bank set the trend by abolishing fees on their Classic Banking account. Suddenly, NAB had a product that really got the attention of the customers. After all, who could say ”No” to an account that had no fees attached to it and, furthermore, gave you unlimited access to your account via the phone, ATMs, any bank branch and the Internet?

Fee-Free Transaction Accounts That Pay You

But wait, there’s more! ING DIRECT takes fee-free transaction accounts a step further. They have an Everyday account that can actually make you money, provided you take special care with the way you deal with your cash.

You know that irritating 50 cents you get charged every time you use an ATM owned by another bank? ING will now waive that fee if you take $200 or more from any ATM. Even better, if you take out $200 or more in an EFTPOS transaction, ING will actually payyou the 50 cents.

Bankwest also offers fee-free banking through their Zero transaction accounts, but their rules are slightly different.

If you have a Zero account, and you put in a minimum of $2,000 every month (which can include your pay), Bankwest will waive all transaction fees, including transaction fees at ANZ, NAB, Westpac and CBA.

Fee-Free Transaction Accounts That Keep On Giving

Many banks, both regional and national, have plans that will waive all transaction fees if a specified minimum amount is deposited every month.

This opens up a moneymaking opportunity for the canny customer. If you deposit your monthly pay and that is well above the minimum you have to put in, you can simply take all the money above the minimum and place it in a high interest savings account, often online. That way, you get the fee-free transaction account plus a savings account that earns you interest.

Fee-Free Opposition

Credit unions offer the main competition in the field of fee-free transaction accounts. In the past, when credit unions felt they knew you well enough – they called it a certain level of ”banking relationship” – they provided you with fee-free banking. Of course, that usually depended on the number of the credit union products you had or how much money you had deposited with them.

Related Resources

• Best Transaction Account
  Keep your everyday banking cheap and convenient by finding the best transaction account to suit your lifestyle and spending needs. Whether currently studying or looking to start a family, finding the right account will not only maximise your earnings but keep your banking stress free. Discover what to look for in a transaction account and what is the best one for you.

Related Posts

• Fee-Free Transaction Accounts Normal
  Can it be true?! Your bank will give you a free lunch?! Something that looks very like that is coming your way with the expanded wave of fee-free transaction accounts.