UBank drops savings rates in response to March RBA cut

UBank customers who logged onto their banking app today might be dismayed to learn the online bank will be cutting rates across its range of deposits.

Effective 9 March, base rates for the Personal USaver, USaver SMSF and USaver Reach will be reduced by 0.25%. Bonus rates will remain unchanged.

That means the maximum rate customers will receive when pairing the USaver with the Ultra Transaction Account will drop to 1.85% p.a., assuming account holders are able to meet the monthly bonus rate criteria.

UBank savings account changes - 9 March

• Rates for the Personal USaver have been cut by 0.25%. It will now offer interest rates of 0.79% p.a.
• Rates for the USaver SMSF have been cut by 0.25%. It will now offer interest rates of 1.05% p.a.
• Rates for the USaver Reach Account have been cut by 0.25%. It will now offer interest rates of 1.30% p.a.

With UBank announcing it will be passing on the full 0.25% cut to its variable rate home loan customers following last week’s RBA decision, many have been bracing for savings accounts to be cut in kind.

Thankfully, rates for the USaver with Ultra Transaction Account are still much higher than the average ongoing savings rate across accounts tracked by Mozo, which currently sits as 0.98%. Among the big banks it’s even lower — 0.57%.

What about term deposits?

Unfortunately, UBank’s term deposits haven’t been spared either. The online bank will be cutting rates for personal and SMSF customers by 0.10%, save for 6 month investment options, which will see a reduction of 0.15%. Once in place, UBank’s term deposit rate sheet will look like this:

Term	Cut	New rate
1 Month	-0.10%	0.95%
2 month	-0.10%	1.10%
3 month	-0.10%	1.60%
4 month	-0.10%	1.60%
5 month	-0.10%	1.55%
6 month	-0.15%	1.55%
7 month	-0.10%	1.55%
8 month	-0.10%	1.55%
9 month	-0.10%	1.55%
10 month	-0.10%	1.50%
11 month	-0.10%	1.50%
12 Months (Interest paid at maturity)	-0.10%	1.50%
12 Months (Interest paid monthly)	-0.10%	1.40%

To see how those rates compare to other offers on the market, be sure to visit our term deposit comparison page. And if you want to see how the USaver now stacks up against other high interest savings accounts, have a browse of our savings account comparison page.