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CBA shaves savings rates again after a year of micro-cuts

CBA shaves savings rates again after a year of micro-cuts

15 Dec, 2021 - 3 min read

Australia’s largest bank, CBA, has today cut the rate on two of its popular savings accounts by up to 0.05 per cent.

CBA Netbank Saver

	Old rate	New rate	Change
Total intro rate (5 mths)	0.29%	0.25%	-0.04%
Ongoing rate	0.05%	0.05%	0.00%

CBA Youthsaver

	Old rate	New rate	Change
Max rate	0.50%	0.45%	-0.05%
Base rate	0.05%	0.05%	0.00%

Note: for max rate, balances must be below $50K and customers must grow balance each month.

To date in 2021, CBA has cut its Netbank Saver a total of six times, its GoalSaver account five times, and its Youthsaver account six times.

CBA savings rate cuts in 2021

	No. of cuts in 2021	Max rate – 1 Jan	Max rate - today	Change
Netbank Saver	6	0.55%	0.25%	-0.30%
GoalSaver	5	0.50%	0.25%	-0.25%
Youthsaver	6	0.80%	0.45%	-0.35%

Note: GoalSaver rate from 1 Jan is for balances of $50K and over.

RateCity.com.au research director, Sally Tindall, said: “While today’s cuts from CBA are minor, they round out a year of micro-cuts from the banks, despite no move to the cash rate.”

“The problem for the banks is they’re packed to the rafters with cash. A lot of banks aren’t willing to post competitive savings rates because they don’t want to attract more money that they’ll then have to pay interest on,” she said.

The most recent APRA statistics for October show Australian households have a total of $1.21 trillion in the bank – an increase of $108 billion from the year prior and the highest amount on record.

“It’s been a bumper year for deposits. The pandemic has encouraged people to save for a rainy day and, for many people, low-cost lockdown living has helped facilitate this,” she said.

“While we might collectively have more money stashed in the bank than ever before, the savings are bittersweet because for many people they’re earning next to nothing in interest.

“Next year looks equally bleak for savers. The banks aren’t likely to move their rates north until the RBA hikes the cash rate, and at this stage that’s not expected until 2023.

“It’s still worth shopping around. Some banks are offering ongoing savings rates of over 1 percent, but they’re getting harder and harder to find,” she said.

Big four bank: conditional savings rates

Bank	Account	Max rate
CBA	GoalSaver	0.25%
Westpac	Life	0.25%
NAB	Reward Saver	0.25%
ANZ	Progress Saver	0.20%

Source: RateCity.com.au. Conditions apply for max rate.

Big four banks standard savers

Bank	Product	Intro rate (3-5 mths)	Ongoing rate
CBA	NetBank Saver	0.25%	0.05%
Westpac	eSaver	0.25%	0.05%
NAB	iSaver	0.30%	0.05%
ANZ	Online Saver	0.20%	0.05%

Source: RateCity.com.au. Intro rate terms - CBA & Westpac 5 months, NAB 4 months, ANZ 3 months.

Highest ongoing savings accounts (no age restrictions)

Bank	Max rate
ING	1.35%
Virgin Money	1.20%
86 400	1.20%

Source: RateCity.com.au. Conditions apply for max interest rate.

Young Adults: highest ongoing savings rates

Bank	Account	Max rate
Westpac Life	Ages 18 to 29 (up to $30K)	2.50%
BOQ Fast Track Starter	Ages 14 to 24 (up to $10K)	2.00%

Source: RateCity.com.au. Conditions apply for max interest rate.

Disclaimer

This article is over two years old, last updated on December 15, 2021. While RateCity makes best efforts to update every important article regularly, the information in this piece may not be as relevant as it once was. Alternatively, please consider checking recent savings accounts articles.

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This article was reviewed by Research Director Sally Tindall before it was published as part of RateCity's Fact Check process.

Laine Gordon

Money Editor

Laine Gordon is the Money Editor at RateCity and an experienced journalist and research specialist. With a background in news and feature writing, covering finance, media and even food (a passion of hers) at Reed Elsevier publications, Laine brings almost two decades of experience to the team. Having covered major areas of interest to the general public from hip pocket issues to rising and falling interest rates and the impact to mortgages, credit and saving in Australia, she is passionate about researching and telling people’s stories to help others make better decisions about their own finances.