Well, it had to happen. With the proliferation of online savings accounts all offering the same high interest rates, some of them are struggling and going under.
I'm not too fussed as I also have an ING direct online account which I tend to use more anyway. The Esanda one gave me $25 when I opened the account - the main reason I opened it. Probably a lot of other folks did the same thing.
When announcing the closure they informed me that their parent company (ANZ bank) has already opened an ANZ online account for me! But I'll NOT be taking up their kind offer to activate this account by taking in 100 pts of ID to an ANZ bank to open a regular bank savings account with them - they charge $5 per month in fees!
As the ANZ online account ONLY works with an ANZ bank account, it's not really competitive with ING, which lets you link to ANY existing bank or credit union account that you have.
Esanda online savings account is no more...
November 16th, 2006 at 02:14 pm