News and Features
12th November 2008
How transaction fees work?
16st October 2008
Switching bank accounts - a step-by-step guide
21st September 2007
Money in, money out
Hints & Tips
Make sense of it all with these Transaction Account hints & tips.
$ Basic Accounts - Designed to give pensioners, low-income earners and other welfare recipients such as health card holders' cheaper access to banking services. They will usually be an account with no monthly fee with limited free transactional ability.
$ Personal Transaction Accounts - Covering almost all transaction accounts that we use every day, these accounts offer access to a full suite of banking channels. These accounts can come in an "all-you-can-eat" structure where you pay one flat fee each month for unlimited own institution banking or pay as you go where you only pay for the transactions you use. It is for this reason that it is important that you assess how you transact before selecting your account.
$ All in One Accounts - An increasingly popular model, All in One accounts offer transactors a day to day account to transact with and an attached high interest savings account. The benefit of having the account as an all in one, rather then separate transaction/online saving account is that the time it takes for money to transfer between the two is almost instant.
Know your habits
Before you choose which account is best for you, write down the various ways you transact. Do you:
- Use Cash?
- Use EFTPOS?
- Use ATM's?
- Use other institution ATM's? (These are normally the most convenient)
- Use Cheques?
- Use Direct Debit?
- Use Bpay?
- Overdraw your account?
All of these options can lead to the fees piling up on your account. As a result of know how you use/would like to use your account you can then choose the cheapest account for you.
The A to Z of ATMs
ATMs make cash available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, ATMs don't just dispense cash. They can be used to check balances, deposit cash/cheques, even buy concert tickets and pre-paid phone credit!
Just about every transaction account opened
in
The main attribute of ATMs are their convenience and accessibility, however if you don't use your own institutions ATM then this convenience comes at a price. For the first time ever in 2006, other institutions ATMs were used more then own institution ATMs. These other institution ATMs can end up costing you anywhere up to $2.50 so it is important that if you rely on these, that you find an account that can accommodate this fee.
Debit Cards
The main advantage of debit cards is that they take advantage of global credit card networks like Visa and MasterCard, but allow you to transact directly from your cash account. As a result they are perfect for online purchases and using in stores without the hassle of worrying about credit.