Neobank, Up crowned Mozo Everyday and Savings Bank of the Year

From being able to tap and go with your phone to paying off an online shop in installments, we’ve witnessed the emergence of a number of financial innovations in the past few years.

But one innovation that might be at the very top of your radar are neobanks, the app-only financial institutions that are giving the traditional banks a run for their money. 

And judging by the latest results of the 2020 Mozo Experts Choice Bank Accounts and Savings Awards, they’ve already managed to cause quite a stir. 

Up has taken out the major gong as the 2020 Mozo Experts Choice Award Everyday and Savings Bank of the Year. 

The neobank was the only financial institution to receive a 2020 Mozo Experts Choice Award in the Exceptional Everyday Account, Regular Saver and Best Mobile Banking App categories, all of which Mozo’s Expert Judge, Peter Marshall says, are the makings of a winner. 

“Up was the first neobank to open its doors to customers and they’ve really hit the ground running ever since,” he said. 

“When you consider the fact that Up charge no foreign transaction or overseas ATM fees, plus have one of the most competitive ongoing savings accounts rates in the Mozo database at 2.25%, it’s not hard to see why they’re our Everyday and Savings Bank of the Year.” 

Up are no strangers to the Mozo Experts Choice Awards either, taking out the same two account awards for Exceptional Everyday Account and best Regular Saver in 2019 for its Everyday and Saver accounts. 

Marshall went on to say that Up also offers Aussies a few handy features to help them reach their savings goals. 

“Up send out a weekly spending notification that tracks how much you spent in the previous week as well as how many transactions you’ve made, which could be a helpful insight if you’re trying to cut back and save,” he explained. 

“You’ll also be able to open multiple savings accounts and receive the 2.25% interest rate on all accounts to a maximum balance of $50,000 on each account, so long as you make five card purchases a month.” 

“Additionally, Up provides customers with merchant IDs and merchant spending tracking, so they can take things one step further by not only seeing the stores they’re spending at, but also how much they’ve spent at specific stores.” 

How Up came out on top 

To uncover this year’s winners, Mozo compared 510 personal banking products from 80 providers and aimed to award the top 10% of providers who met certain criteria in their relevant category. 

For instance, to receive an award in the Exceptional Everyday Account category, a provider must offer extra value above and beyond basic fee-free electronic banking. This year the the judges awarded those accounts that either offered fee free banking for overseas transactions or paid rewards points on the account balance.

And in the case of the Regular Saver category, an account needed to have no monthly service fees and allow unlimited free internet transactions to be eligible. 

Who is Up? 

Founded in 2017, this Melbourne-based digital bank is filled with snazzy features and functions that’ll easily win the hearts of the digital-savvy Aussies. Up also proudly carries the title of being the first neobank to launch in Australia! 

In terms of product range, Up only has a transaction and savings account available at present, but that’s not to say the neobank won’t launch other products in the future. 

So if you’d like to find out how Up stacks up to other neobanks in the market, check out our neobank comparison tool.

Or if you want to find out who else made it onto our winners list this year, head on over to our winners list page.