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Wednesday, 16 August 2006

Esanda online savings account is no more...

Well, it had to happen. With the proliferation of online savings accounts all offering the same high interest rates, some of them are struggling and going under.

I'm not too fussed as I also have an ING direct online account which I tend to use more anyway. The Esanda one gave me $25 when I opened the account - the main reason I opened it. Probably a lot of other folks did the same thing.

When announcing the closure they informed me that their parent company (ANZ bank) has already opened an ANZ online account for me! But I'll NOT be taking up their kind offer to activate this account by taking in 100 pts of ID to an ANZ bank to open a regular bank savings account with them - they charge $5 per month in fees!

As the ANZ online account ONLY works with an ANZ bank account, it's not really competitive with ING, which lets you link to ANY existing bank or credit union account that you have.

1 comment:

enoughwealth@yahoo.com said...

I hope you've got your money back by now - if you didn't accept ANZ's "kind" offer to open an account with them (and pay $$$$ fees each month!), the Esanda online saver automatically transferred your closing balance back into your "linked" bank account. My money came back out without any problem.

ps. If you need an online account, I've had one with ING Direct, and have had no probs. As they are a LARGE international bank, and ONLY have an online presence in Oz, they are less likely to close the online account than the other ones available. They also let you link to any existing bank or credit union account.