My current bank isn’t super useful with internet banking, and with branches being as rare as hen’s teeth, accessing service is too much of a hassle. So thinking to shift. Interested to know what you all think about these banks I’m thinking about shifting to.
- Bank Australia
Pro: Love the ethical/environmental stance, like that they trade under their own licence
Con: Not really sure how good their internet banking is.
- Ubank
Pro: certainly seems like the best for internet banking
Con: trade under NAB licence (is this really much of a problem though)
- Beyond Bank
Pro: only bank run for members, because it’s an old credit union, have personal recommendations
Con: Don’t know if they have better internet banking than even my current provider.
- Mystery Bank suggestions??
Pro: Perfect bank for me!
Con: Don’t know about it yet.
Comments, not financial advice ;), are very welcome!
Hubby and I have been increasingly using our Up accounts. Up is a subsidiary of Bendigo Bank, and the app is the only way to do things.
Their setup is: Each of us was given our own account when we signed up. We’ve got physical debit cards for these accounts. You have the option to create a joint account with another user. By default this account only has a digital “debit card” but I think there’s an option to request a physical card. From your two accounts (solo and joint), you can subdivide into “savers” which look and feel like separate savings accounts but on your statement they’re rolled into the main account. You can have lots of savers if you want to. These can’t have cards attached but earn interest. We use them to hold money for different purposes. I’ve never tried closing a saver so I don’t know how that goes. I’m honestly not sure what the use would be in regularly opening and closing them. Just change the labels as you need to. Leave one empty while it’s not needed; repurpose it next time you need a new one.
Everything is done through the app, and everything I’ve needed to do has been straightforward.
Tbh, it doesn’t cost anything to open a bank account. If a bank you’re considering doesn’t have any monthly fees (Up doesn’t, UBank didn’t when I tried them a few years ago; maybe your other options don’t either) then you can just make an account and try them out. A bank that is online like you want will let you sign up online. See if you can do the things you need to do online/in the app. If yes, you have a winner. If no, keep looking.
I use Macquarie as my mortgage ended up with them due to beat deal. Pretty happy with their online banking. Their agents have been average.
Inalsonuse revokut for overseas travel and transactioans. Pretty happy with the privacy features.
I use common bank as a back up as it allows me to use graphene os without Google service and still make payments with my phone.
I’m with Bank Australia, their Internet banking is fine, the app is decent. 7.5/10.
What services do you want? Transactions? DR card? CR card? Savings? International transactions? FX?
Also, you mentioned opening and closing accounts. How often do you do this? Some banks have a partitioning or savings goals that lets you subdivide accounts.
Normal use accounts, no credit cards necessary, maybe savings accounts options would be a good idea, I think they would be.
Yeah it’s the Scott Pape partitioning thing ,that’s the main thing really. Anything else like what Ubank offers would be interesting bonuses. We don’t open and close accounts often, it’s just so hard to get hold of the current bank to change anything. We’ve got to somehow be in the same place, for a phone call during business hours in the week. That’s hard to coordinate, or even remember to coordinate for people working and with kids.
You have gone from ‘my’ to ‘we’. Single to joint account?
Bot much?
Yeah okay No1 you got me, after three years of sharing the same server the cats out the bag, I’m a bot and hot to trot. ;)
It’s me understanding I’m on the internet and not wanting to give too many personal details away, only to follow along and completely forget that ‘sage’ advice 5 minutes later.
With ING, happily their app works on graphene OS.
I would drop them as fast as possible if that changes.
Lol, you and Graphene OS, you’ve talked about it so much these last few months. Did you switch to it this year? I haven’t gone down that road because I didn’t want to get a Pixel, looks like those options are expanding though. I looked at Sailfish OS with a Jolla phone, but maybe for the next phone they’ll be less rarefied, or I’d go fairphone.
Hadn’t considered ING, are they easy to open and close accounts?
Been using it since 2023.
I thought it was one of the traits of the fediverse along with Linux.
Yes as easy to make an account as others I’ve tried in the past. (CBA, NAB, ANZ)
Bank Australia is also a member owned bank formed from a credit union.
What internet banking features are important to you?
Yeah, that member owned part is a serious ‘Pro’ for me. But I don’t know much else about them.
The key one is being able to open and close accounts far easier.
With my current one you have to call them, and they’re only available to call on the third moon phase, while Saturn’s rings are aligned with Pluto. It’s ridiculously unavailable.
Edit: oh wait, I didn’t read you’re comment correctly. Bank Australia and Beyond Bank are both member owned and formed from credit unions? Interesting!
People First Bank is a relatively new member owned bank formed from the merger of People’s Choice Credit Union (mainly SA/NT) and Heritage Bank (QLD/NSW). Not sure how their internet banking compares to others.
Hmm, I’ll have a look at them.
I use NAB, they’re shit. It’s 2026 and they’ve only just started enforcing 2fa on me.
