High Interest Savings Accounts

Why you should consider opening a High Interest Savings Account

For Australians in-particular, there has never been a better time for applying to a high interest savings account, particularly with new bank offers such as Commonwealth Banks 'Netsaver' and Bankwest's 'Telenet Saver'.

With such fierce competition in the Australian bank market, banking firms have no choice but to keep offering and releasing new savings accounts with consistently better features.

Regardless of your socio-economic background and situation, having even a minor sum of funds in a savings accounts can compound relatively fast. It also provides less incentive to spend, as commonly, these accounts are not accessible from ATM/Eftpos machines.

Having a separate high interest account comes down to greater efficiency of storing your money over a traditional transaction account, from higher interest payments.

They also include extra savings bonus's, such as extra interest if no withdrawals have been made in a certain time frame.

According to research by the Investment and Financial Services Association, Between 1990 and 2006, Australian's statistically saved an average of approximately 2.88% of their disposable incomes - the lowest of all westernised countries. This is far inferior amount to France for instance at 12.1%, who is not even the leader in disposable savings.

Be wary of the Fine Print

Be very careful and make sure you analyze the terms and conditions of your new potential high interest savings account closely.

Although most are authentically beneficial, some have negative features such HSBC's 'Serious Saver account', which only compounds and adds interest when there have be no withdrawals throughout the month.

Apart from nuisances like that, make sure not to avoid paying fees and regular payments, to avoid more serious fines, or dishonoured, bad credit rating.

Do you have enough Discipline to Save your Money?

Like many, the incentive of excess funds mixed with the impulses of sudden spending are hard to ignore. For the majority of savings account (particularly online savings accounts), it takes effort withdrawing your funds, reducing the chance that you will unnecessarily withdraw funds.

If you believe you can efficiently control the amount of money you withdraw and save, then a Cash Management Account, which allows money withdrawn at hand any time, would be more suited for your lifestyle.

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