Online Accounts offering incentive to Save

Online Accounts offering incentive to Save

Financial service researchers, CANNEX, reviewed over 75 deposit accounts in their latest deposit account star ratings report released today. The third report since its launch last year now reviews deposit accounts from over 30 institutions and showcases more than 25 five star products.

Popularity of online banking continues but it is just one of the categories covered by CANNEX in the deposit account star ratings report. The report utilises five CANNEX profiles that reflect consumer behaviour. Competition was fierce in the online account space, with the report containing a number of online accounts offering 7.0% or over.

CANNEX Financial Analyst, Anthony Sexton, highlighted that these online accounts are offering incentive to save. Sexton said, “For those looking to save, online accounts are offering good returns, and there are a number available. Compared to somewhere like Australia, where online accounts offer around 6.0%, 7.0% becomes even more attractive.”

HSBC’s Online Account continues to perform strongly with a five star rating across four categories. Bankdirect’s Savings Account and National Bank of NZ’s Thoroughbred Saver also performed strongly across the board.

Sexton noted the healthy competition, “It is great to see most institutions have a five star product. There is value being offered across the whole retail finance sector.”

ANZ, National, PSIS, BNZ HSBC and Kiwibank have multiple five star accounts.

The additional categories include High Transactor and Low Transactor, as well as High Saver and Low Saver. The ratings look at an enormous range of account features as well as fees and interest rates. Account keeping fees, number of free transactions, eftpos fees, online access, phone banking, international ATM access, minimum balances, Billpay, interest rates on balances, cheque facilities are among the many fees and features taken into account in the ratings process. Five stars are only awarded to the accounts that offer consumers superior value for money.

The full report, released every six months, is free to download from the CANNEX website – http://www.cannex.co.nz/starrate.html

ENDS

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