Banking sure has come a long way in a few short decades. I still remember opening a chequing account and reconciling the stubs at the end of the month and having to fill out a deposit or withdrawal slip each time I visited the bank. Recently, my kids saw a credit card being manually imprinted and had no idea what they were looking at.  Do you remember those old machines that clunked one way and then the other, over the credit card with the slip of paper on top? These days we pay by tapping without giving it another thought. In fact, sometimes I’m annoyed if I have to enter into my credit card pin let alone line up in a branch to see a teller…. What a waste of time….

Just like everything in life, banking options certainly don’t stand still, and once again, things have changed.

Everyone knows about the big four banks in Australia, but did you know new players are entering the Australian market? They are called Neobanks, and one of these new players is UP bank.

UP bank launched in 2018 and is doing things a little differently in banking-land (that doesn’t sound like a fun place does it…. I’d prefer gin-land… but that’s just me.)

What makes UP bank different:

The app has some pretty nifty features. It makes it easier to track your money. Firstly, you get instant notification whenever you spend or receive money. You’re always in the loop.

The second superstar feature is the way they display the name of the merchant. Gone are the days when you see some random legal trading name that has no obvious link to the name of the store. Up crowdsources the name of the store so you can more easily recognise the transaction when you look back weeks later. This is a big deal for us, not having those embarrassing moments where you are wondering has your card been jeopardised and should you query the transaction only to spend ages on the phone with your bank until the awkward moment you realised it was you after all.  

When it comes to spending, you can use any of your smart wear devices, apple, google, Garmin and Fitbit pay, as well as the usual tap and go feature on your physical card. The app also automatically categories your spending, so you can see where your money is going.

One of its strengths is that it encourages savings by including some fun gamification features that make you want to round up and put additional money into your savings account. The pull to save function is novel and fun.

They have also just added a feature which allows you to split your wages the moment it hits your account, no need to set up transfers as Up will do it for you.

Oh, some suckers might be impressed by cool features, but what I really want to know is; Is Up Bank competitive?

There are no monthly or annual fees and no ATM fees. If you use your card overseas, you do pay a $5 fee on ATM withdrawals. However, there are no fees for overseas purchases if you are shopping online. And you will be charged the Mastercard exchange rate, with no mark-up. If you do buy things overseas, it will display your purchases in both local and foreign currency.

You can have as many UP savings accounts as you like and you can set savings goals for each.

You also get bonus interest if you have more than five transactions a month. No need to deposit a minimum amount each month.

So what are the downsides?

Well, UP Banks doesn’t have any branches, but they’ve designed that way, you simply download the app, and your bank account can be set up in less than 3 minutes. You can control your accounts via the app (you will also get a debit card sent to you in the mail). There isn’t a consumer helpline to call. Instead, they offer a 24-hour messenger service to help you within the app.

At this stage, UP doesn’t yet offer a full suite of products. For example, credit cards and home loans aren’t available. So, it’s a great place to save and do your everyday transactions from, but if you like to keep your credit card and mortgage in the one place, you won’t be able to move your whole banking to UP.

It might be cool, but is it safe?

UP bank is a bank and has the same government guarantees that cover all banks in Australia.  That means deposits up to $250,000 are protected.

Who likes free money?

When you sign up and start using your account, you can refer a mate. Both you and your mate will get $5.

If you are interested in giving UP bank a try, listen to our Money Madams podcast, episode 6, where we interview UP bank. It airs Monday 21^st October 2019. Instead of us receiving the $5 referrer bonus, we want you to benefit, so UP Bank has arranged a unique promo code for our listeners, and if you sign up to UP using our promo code, you will get the full $10 into your new UP account.  

Full disclosure:

We haven’t been paid to write this blog or received any incentive or fee. We do believe in making managing your finances easier and helping our listeners. That means sharing info we think would be of interest to you. However, you need to be your own judge as to whether you think this is right for you.