Swerv-o

Hi All,

Incase any body is interested, I hav just seen that Citibank have introduced a fee free transaction account. The details are:

• Fee free use of any ATM in Australia
• Interest rate of 6.0% on balances
• Visa debit card

There is usually a $5 monthly fee, but if you get your wages paid into the account on a monthly basis ($500+) then they waive the $5 fee, making it effectively a fee free account.

It seems like a pretty good deal to me, especially if you can access any ATM in the country for free.

The link is here:

www.citibank.com.au

Hope that helps,

S

stu:0

Thanks for that, we'r just looking at accounts at the mo!
Stu

esperanza

Looks like a good deal - especially the 6% on balances - it never ceases to amaze me how UK banks seem to expect people to just accept .75% or something like that on all their wages year in year out.... amazing!
Will certainly have a look at this one, cheers.

chels

Is it definitely fee free use of ATMs (any bank's ATM)?

Do you have to keep $500 in the transaction account?

Do you have to keep any money in the linked savings account?

Swerv-o

The add said:

• Free use of any ATM in Australia

It didn't specify if there was a minimum balance to maintain, but it did say that to avoid the $5 monthly fee you had to set up an ongoing salary credit to your account, and that the salary credit must be in excess of $500 per month.

Not sure about having to keep money in the linked account. The linked account still isn't as good as Bankwest (6.8% for first year) or HSBC (6.4%) so it will probably be better to link one of these accounts instead if you can...

S

Plug

Looks great, I can now kick ANZ into touch!! They are truly shite!!

mbike

Looks good. They don't have a branch network but you can service the account at the Post Office. The Free ATM thing is worth quite a lot (in terms of time and money) Our Police & Nurses is notionally fee free but we pay $1.50 a month for the visa debit card and we have to use credit union ATM's (few and far between).

The big banks should be worried - but they know that most consumers are usually too lazy to change. That's why they get away with what they can.

Mark

Swerv-o

That's why it is important that people vote with their feet and show these corporate monsters that they arn't willing to take it anymore. I have always been a big advocate of HSBC here because of the fee free banking, though they are let down by a small ATM network. In Sydney it's not a problem though.

It really irritates me the number of people that come on here and rant about not wanting to pay banking fees, then turn around twice and open a Commonwealth or Westback account covered in fees.

S

jon and alex

I reckon you can't go wrong with the citibank account. Looks like the best deal to me.

Swerv-o

For those of you that are interested, here is the link to the account details.

https://www.citibank.com.au/AUGCB/ap...G9Y7YU6AAYGAZM

S

Ian12

Interesting - unless I have missed something I could see nothing on the web page about free banking. Yes free ATMs but the account still had a $5 charge p.m. and no mention of exceptions for putting in salary.

mbike

Try about halfway down the page here:

https://www.citibank.com.au/AUGCB/AP...tibankplus.htm

Wilso16

I'm still in the UK, looking at the different bank accounts and was looking at ANZ and Westpac but I'm with First Direct which is an affiliation of HSBC and am really happy with them so thanks for the update on HSBC and Citibank.

Just one question - are you able to open either of these accounts from the UK?

Swerv-o

Under the red banner labelled 'Account Features' there is a sub heading, in red called 'No monthly fee' 'When you credit your salary+'

the + links to a small print bit at the bottom which says:

† To be eligible for the Monthly Fee Waiver you must open a new Citibank Plus account and organise an ongoing regular direct salary credit of $500 or more to the Transaction Account. Provided that your pay is paid into the Transaction Account by direct salary credit, Citibank will waive the $5 monthly fee.


So there it is in red, black and white...

S

Swerv-o

Yes, you can open an HSBC online savings account from the UK - and I've generally been very pleased with them and their service. They are let down a little by lack of ATMs, but you can access all banking services at the Post Office, so you just need to get into the mindset of thinking of a post office as a giant daytime ATM. You can also pay money in at the post office too.

For a fee free bank account that can be opened from outside of Aus, I can't fault the HSBC online savings.

I'm not sure if you can open the citibank account from the UK though. Maybe worth a try...

S