How much do you need to deposit to get the best savings rate?

Most of the highest rate savings accounts are bonus rates, meaning that you must fulfil certain conditions to get the highest rate possible. One of the common requirements is to contribute a certain amount of cash monthly. While this amount isn’t the same across all accounts, there are some commonly offered monthly deposit conditions. 

What does your account require? 

One of the advantages of deposit requirements is that, over time, your balance will grow much faster with a set goal amount. However, it’s also important to make sure that your monthly requirement isn’t too high or you’ll never get the full benefit of its higher interest rate. 

Since not all accounts have the same monthly deposit requirements, we’ll categorise and analyse what each account type requires.

Undefined monthly deposit

• Account examples: CommBank GoalSaver, NAB Reward Saver, Westpac Life 

Generally, the rule for this kind of account is that your balance needs to grow from the previous month. It’s important to note that NAB’s Reward Saver requires that no withdrawals are made, while GoalSaver and Life only require that the account grows from the previous month (meaning that a withdrawal can be made as long as you end the month with a higher balance than the previous month).

$200 monthly deposit 

• Account examples: Suncorp Growth Saver Account, ubank High Interest Save Account, Bankwest Hero Saver

Like the previous category, accounts that require a $200 deposit have a variety of additional conditions that need to be met. Bankwest’s Hero Saver requires that no withdrawals are made in the month while Suncorp allows for one withdrawal per month. On the other hand, Ubank doesn’t limit withdrawals, but it does stipulate that you need to deposit $200 from an external account.

$1000 monthly deposit 

• Account examples: ING Savings Maximiser, AMP Saver Account, Hiver Target Saver

$1000 a month would either require a high wage or a carefully planned budget. However, being able to deposit this amount would result in some pretty hefty savings over the long term ($12,000 in one year would go pretty far). 

Out of the example accounts, ING has the most conditions. It requires $1000 a month from an external account, 5 eligible transactions, and your account balance grows each month. AMP requires that $1000 be deposited in the previous month to get the highest possible rate. Meanwhile, Hiver requires that you make no withdrawals and keep a positive balance in addition to monthly deposits

How to take advantage of a high interest savings account 

It’s important to read the fine print so you know exactly how to make the most savings account interest possible. You’ll also be able to better analyse whether or not the provider’s conditions work for your financial situation. One way you can do this is by utilising a comparison site like Mozo. 

You can check out some high interest savings accounts on our hub page or read through the best savings accounts here. Alternatively, you can check out some of the providers in the tables below…