From 12 May, Westpac customers aged between 18-29 will be able to earn up to 5.00% p.a with the 'Spend and Save' bonus savings offer.
This is a 30 basis point jump, and comes in response to the RBA's decision earlier this week to increase the cash rate by 25 basis points.
Westpac passed on the heightened rates to its other savings accounts, which moved up by 25 basis points.
The likes of ING and BOQ have already breached the 5% mark for high earning savings accounts, but Westpac will be the first of the big four to do so.
The highest bonus rate at CBA is currently 4.15% p.a, while the highest rate on bonus accounts offered by both NAB and ANZ is 4.25% p.a.
@savings.com.au Westpac is the first big-four bank to offer a savings account rate of 5% p.a. Westpac’s Spend&Save account for 18-29 year olds will increase by 0.30% offering eligible customers a total variable rate of 5% from 12 May. #fintok #fintokaustralia #ausfinance #savingscomau #savingsaccount #westpac #moneytok #money #banking #bankingnews ♬ original sound - Savings.com.au
How 'Spend and save' works
The base rate for a Life savings account with Westpac is 1.60% p.a.
Each month the amount in the account grows, an additional bonus rate of 2.65% p.a. applies.
With the spend and save offer, only available to customers aged between 18 and 29, if the debit card on the linked transaction account is used more than five times in a month, there is also an extra interest payment.
Prior to today's announcement, this was 0.45% p.a, pushing the overall rate if all criteria are fulfilled to 4.70%.
Today's increase is likely to apply to the spend and save bonus, which would now be worth 0.75% p.a.
The maximum balance this applies to is $30,000.
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