$20 Free Joining Esanda Online Saver
Scott on 2005-07-27 at 4:33 pm, filed under Banking
Not as good as $123 bonus from joining INGDirect a while ago, but Esanda Online Saver is giving you $20 bonus for signing up their online saving account product. The promotion has actually been running for a while, but now it has been extended to 31st of July 2005.
It has the usual online saver - high interest, no fee, easy to access, etc. 5.55% might not be as good as DragonDirect’s 5.60% special offer. But it is your call - $20 or 0.05% p.a. more. I have not used Esanda nor DragonDirect so I have no comment about the ease of use of their online system.
I have been a holder of an Esanda Online Saver account for the past 15 months or so and have found it to be a fantastic thing. It has allowed me to effectively save for what I want, including a great overseas holiday and some home renovations. One of the beauties of the account was the linked account facility, linking my Esanda account and normal savings account (not Esanda or ANZ).
Imagine my surprise when I received a letter from ANZ Bank (the parent company behind Esanda) stating that my Esanda Online Saver account was going to close and would be replaced by the ANZ Online Saver. The propaganda put forward by ANZ was that they were able to provide a better, more flexible banking environment, including the ability to use BPay from the account. They assured me in the letter that there was no fees and charges associated with the new arrangements and that the interest rate would remain the same.
I was asked to ring ANZ to register for Internet and telephone banking, which I dutifully did. When I spoke with the call centre operator, I was informed that I was no longer able to link to my existing non-ANZ savings account, and that I would have to start an ANZ account. The operator went on to tell me that there would be a monthly fee associated with the account, however ANZ was graciously waiving this fee for the first 12 months.
I told the operator that I would take advantage of the new arrangements for 12 months and would then reassess my situation. The operator then told me that the creation of a new account could not be completed automatically and that I would have to go into a branch to open an account, providing the 100 point check to do so.
I told the operator (along with a few choice expletives) that this was a major imposition and that I previously had a perfect arrangement set up that was being arbitrarily changed by ANZ Bank. I asked the operator why there was no facility to link to a non-ANZ Bank account and was told “…that’s no longer an option”. I informed the operator that I wanted to close my account and to give me my money back. I was directed to send a fax to Esanda stating that I wanted my money put into my non Esanda Banking account.
Once again one of the Big 4 have stuffed up a totally good thing, on the ever-hungry grab for the customer dollar. So much for “No Fees and Charges” and “More Convenient Banking” - Bull$hit! For those of you thinking of opening an account similar to this, think hard before going with one of the big banks. They will screw you. I suggest you look at ING’s Savings Maximiser account as an alternative.
I was in the same situation Eddie, but I didn’t bother sending a fax to Esanda. They just transfered all my money into my linked account. However I was still stuck with the ANZ account, which had a $0 balance. I figured I may as well use the account, but had the same issues when I called to get internet banking set up. I moved recently and asked if I could change my contact details. The woman said no, not before I do the 100 point check. Fair enough, they can keep sending me their $0 statements to the old address til the end of time for all I care.