ING ROUND UP: BANK LOOSE CHANGE
What is it?
It is a digital savings tool, available to those with an ING Orange Everyday account, which lets you round up your purchases and have that money automatically deposited into your Savings Maximiser account. P& N Bank offers a similar automatic feature called Pay& Save on its transaction account.
How does it work?
Every time you use your card to make a purchase (this includes transactions made using Visa payWave, Apple Pay and Android Pay and when you use your card details on file to make an online purchase such as a Netflix subscription) any leftover change will automatically be transferred to your linked savings account.
You can choose your round-ups to be set to the nearest $1 or $5. If you bought something for $2.50 then 50¢ will be transferred to your account if you have chosen to round up to the nearest $1, or $2.50 would be saved if you had opted to round up to $5. If you bought something that was exactly $2, though, there would be no round-up – it only applies when cents are involved.
A round-up will not be debited if doing so would reduce your Orange Everyday balance to below $20.
You can earn up to 2.8%pa interest on your savings in your Savings Maximiser. To get that rate you’ll need to deposit your pay of at least $1000 each month into your Orange Everyday account. If you don’t the interest rate is only 1.5%pa.
What are the pros?
It’s such an easy way to save some money without even having to really think about it and you’ll probably barely notice the money has gone. You don’t have to empty coins out of your wallet every night and it is all done for you.
What are the cons?
There’s not much to fault, other than the fact that you are tied to the one institution for your everyday account and savings.
The interest rate on the Savings Maximiser account isn’t the highest on offer but, that said, it is still quite competitive. You do need to deposit at least $1000 a month to get that higher rate of 2.8%pa though.
What are the fees involved?
There’s no fee to use the round-up tool. There are some fees associated with the Orange Everyday account, including an international purchase fee of 2.5% of the transaction amount and a $2.50 charge for any international ATM withdrawals. The Savings Maximiser is fee free.
How has it performed?
It’s very new so it’s too early to say how effective it will be and how much extra money people will save using the round-up feature. The interest rate on the Savings Maximiser has been consistently competitive over the past few years.
How safe is it?
Your savings are covered by the federal government guarantee on deposits which applies to amounts up to $250,000.
How do I get started?
You will need an ING Orange Everyday account as well as a Savings Maximiser to get started. You can apply for both, or either, online if you don’t have an account already.
You then need to switch on the round-up feature on the ING website or by using the app in account settings or the Everyday account page. You can switch it off just as easily.