When was the last time you switched your everyday transaction account? If you’re like most Australians, the answer is probably never. You’ve most likely got an account with one of the big four Australian banks (ANZ, Commonwealth, NAB or Westpac). Maybe you still have the same account that your parents opened for you when you were a kid and you got a free piggy bank.
Australians are notoriously reluctant to switch transaction accounts, no matter how dissatisfied they are with their bank, and of course the banks know this. So when they’re trying to encourage people to switch business to them, they try to solve this problem by throwing money at it…
The banks are falling over themselves to offer you free cash — $50 here, $100 there — just for opening an account with them.
But I Don’t Want To Switch My Accounts. Wouldn’t I Have To Change All My Direct Debits?
The thing is, you don’t actually have to switch to that bank to get this free money. Of course you can if you want to, but there’s absolutely nothing to stop you from:
- opening a new account,
- doing whatever you need to do to satisfy the terms and conditions of the offer,
- collecting your free money
- and then closing the account.
Isn’t That Wrong? Taking Their Money Like That?
Ahem. The big four Australian banks made $27 billion profits last year. Twenty seven billion dollars! They really aren’t going to miss $50.
That Still Sounds Like A Lot Of Work…
Well, not really. You can typically do most of it online, although you’ll probably need to phone them to have the account closed, and you might need to go to a branch (or Australia Post) to do an initial ID check, if the bank isn’t able to confirm your identity online.
Even if it does take half an hour of your time, $100 for 30 minutes work isn’t a bad return on investment.
Here’s three offers that I’ve signed up for in just the last month:
$50 from HSBC
This one was pretty easy: $50 for opening an HSBC Day to Day account and making one purchase on the account’s Visa debit card (offer expires 30 September 2014).
The account opening process was straightforward — everything went through online, including the ID check, and it was all up and running in about 10 minutes, with the card arriving in the mail a few days later. Not a big fan of their account — in particular their internet banking seems to be stuck in the last century, with transactions taking up to 3 business days to post to the account. They also force you to use their physical security device for some parts of online banking, like transferring money, which would prove extremely annoying if you needed to do this and didn’t have it with you. I can’t say I’d want to use this as my main transaction account, but I’m quite happy to take their money and close it down.
Here’s the link to the offer.
$75 from ING
ING are offering $75 for opening an account with them (offer expires 5 September 2014). This time you need to deposit at least $1000 into the account, but that doesn’t mean you have to leave $1000 in the account. Simply transfer the money in and then move it straight back out again.
The account opening process was again straightforward, although their option to check ID online didn’t work for me and I had to pop to an Australia Post to sort that out. The account was open the next day, though.
Here’s the link to the sign up form.
$100 from ANZ
ANZ are offering $100 for opening an account with them and depositing $2000 (offer expires 31 August 2014). As with the ING offer, you can simply withdraw that money again once it hits the account. The extra catch with this one is that this account has a $5 monthly fee, which is waived if you deposit at least $2000 a month, so you’ll need to do a $2000 deposit once a month until you close the account to avoid that.
One catch with this one is that, according to the terms, the offer is only available when signing up in branches in NSW and ACT or via the promotional link. It’s seems that some people don’t see the offer in other states. I’m in VIC but I see the offer when I visit the link on my work computer, but not at home or on my phone. So, basically, if you don’t see the offer when you hit up the link, try another connection until you get one that works…
Here’s the link to sign up.
Ok. Great. Is There Anything Else I Need To Know?
Collecting free money from the banks is easy. Just remember the three golden rules:
1. Read the Small Print
Check those terms and make sure you do everything they ask you to, whether it be depositing a certain amount by a certain date, or making a specific transaction.
2. Don’t Pay Account Fees
If the account has fees, make sure you do whatever you need to do to avoid them, until you close the account.
3. Withdraw the Money, then Close The Account!
Once you’ve got the bonus (and this could take a month or two in some cases), it’s very important to close the account!
These accounts are always for new customers only. Each bank will have its own definition of “new customer” (in the case of the ANZ offer, for example, they say it’s only available to new customers who have not received a similar bonus in 2014). The best chance you have of making sure you are eligible the next time the same bank is running another offer is to make sure you close your account as soon as possible.
That’s it. Have fun…
Result: $225 Earned
Photo Credit: Image of Australian Money by Vagawi on Flickr used under a Creative Commons licence.