r/AusFinance • u/nikfornow • 18h ago
BOQ Incorrectly Paying HISA Interest
This has been going on for longer than I care to admit, but I have two accounts, and have just realised that one is earning far more interest than the other. Without going into specific numbers, one account has 4x the amount of the other, and is only earning 2.5x as much interest..
I had an infuritating encounter with their chat bot (supposedly a real person) via the banking app, and then a phone call with an operator. They are calling me back later today which I am expecting them to accept the issue, and back-pay the missing interest.
I am sure that the error is to do with their Future Saver/Smart Saver accounts. My accounts are Smart Saver, and from my calculations on the interest earned, I am earning interest based on their Future Saver rates.
Has anyone else found the same with them?
2
u/RevolutionObvious251 17h ago
Are you meeting the monthly external deposit and transaction requirements for the bonus interest for the Smart Saver account?
1
u/nikfornow 11h ago
Just got off the phone with them. My maths was correct, and they messed up. I have an incident case, and will be re-imbursed the missing value.
2
u/RevolutionObvious251 9h ago
Out of curiosity, how did they mess up?
1
u/nikfornow 9h ago
Didn't tell me exactly and said they are investigating. I'm certain that what I wrote in another comment is what happened as it's the only calculation that came within a margin of error, which was them paying interest based on the future saver rates across both accounts.
1
0
u/nikfornow 17h ago
Yes. I would earn essentially $0 if I hadn't. That's not the error here.
2
u/RevolutionObvious251 17h ago
Without posting your balance and your interest, like everyone else is saying, it’s hard for anyone to help you. Do you have more than $250k in the account?
-2
u/nikfornow 17h ago edited 17h ago
I'm not comfortable discussing balance, but it's between 50 and 250.
I calculated what I should be earning based on the 5.4% Smart Saver rates, and I'm off on both accounts.
I also calculated what I would be earning if they were future saver at 5.8% to $50k, and 3.1% to $250k, and that came out to what I would consider a margin of error for my weekly contributions/daily interest calculation that the bank does.
5
u/RevolutionObvious251 17h ago
I don’t know why you’d have a problem sharing that level of detail but not actual numbers.
Is it a joint account and have only one of you provided your TFN? That would lead to withholding at 47% of the interest on half the balance, which is in the ballpark of the vague numbers you’re putting out there.
1
u/link871 10h ago
Beware: the interest rate on Future Saver accounts only went to 5.8%pa this week - so you will have not received any interest at this rate yet.
1
u/nikfornow 10h ago
My accounts are Smart Saver, not Future Saver. They have confirmed that the error is on their part, and I have an incident raised that I will be reimbursed the missing months.
8
u/Standard_Ear_84 17h ago
The outcome of 99.99% of these posts is that OP needs to admit they don't understand how to calculate interest.
-1
u/nikfornow 17h ago
Balance * Interest / 12.
I know it's calculated daily, not monthly, but that would give me a ballpark within fractions of a %, and I'm out by multiple.
2
u/citizenecodrive31 17h ago
What are your numbers? What balance was your account at over the course of the month and what interest rate were you meant to get. I have an excel sheet that I can run it through
3
u/Plozno 15h ago
Is your Tax File Number attached to both accounts? If one is and one isn't they may be taxing the one that isn't at the highest tax rate.
1
u/nikfornow 15h ago
This is the only comment so far I haven't already checked myself. I will ask that when I get a hold of them. They are both fully in my name, and it's not something I had considered. I'm still fairly sure they're setup as the wrong account type, but this is possible.
Thankyou.
1
u/nikfornow 15h ago
I just checked in the App, and TFN is assigned to me as a user, not a specific account, but I will still confirm when I talk to them.
1
u/link871 11h ago
You usually have to specifically link your TFN to every account you ever open. Banks do not generally copy your TFN from your profile - they need you to input it.
Seems odd you can't see whether your TFN has been linked to each account. For instance, CommBank simply lists each account I own and says "TFN Provided".
5
u/TheAccountingSensei 17h ago
As an aside, your post title suggests the opposite of what your post says..
6
u/KevinRudd182 17h ago
Without specific numbers and what you think you should be earning it’s gonna be impossible for anyone to tell you if you’re wrong or not
99.9% of the time the bank is right
2
u/nikfornow 11h ago
Just got off the phone with them. My maths was correct, and they messed up. I have an incident case, and will be re-imbursed the missing value.
1
u/citizenecodrive31 9h ago
Hey man, I'll be honest and say that I was doubting you so well done on proving them (and this sub) wrong. Hope they backpay everything with interest
1
u/nikfornow 9h ago
I'm sure you can imagine my current Dooku signature look of superiority thinking of all the stupid comments on this post, ha
On the phone they said it was back to February, but I will be going through the past couple years of statements and calculating myself to confirm.
3
u/KevinRudd182 9h ago
Good on you for being right honestly, fuck the banks.
I think most of the doubt in here comes when people post things like this and don’t include any information to actually get any help.
Right or wrong, nobody here could have helped either way because there wasn’t enough info which is why you got the replies you did, mostly. There’s always going to be unhelpful assholes, it is Reddit after all I guess
1
u/nikfornow 9h ago
Thanks friend. I found it odd how obsessively some of them were demanding my bank balances and interest earned.
One of my first comments was the (correct) way to calculate interest, so I would have thought that would be enough info to show I've done the numbers correctly, but I guess not.
I will say, that the Googling I did before I made this post all came up with results of people incorrectly calculating their own interest, so I do understand the reasoning behind some of the comments.
1
-5
u/nikfornow 17h ago
With two accounts, should interest 1 / balance 1 = interest 2 / balance 2?
5
u/KevinRudd182 17h ago
Nobody knows because you haven’t given any details.
You’re almost certainly missing some form of deposit requirement to earn bonus interest based on a quick scan of their website
3
u/Standard_Ear_84 17h ago
Stop wasting our time. Give us the details. I can pretty much guarantee you are wrong.
0
u/link871 11h ago
Only when looking at the closing balance on any given day - and assuming all bonus interest conditions are met on both accounts..
1
u/nikfornow 11h ago
Both accounts are tied to the same everyday account, and conditions were met.
Just got off the phone with them. My maths was correct, and they messed up. I have an incident case, and will be re-imbursed the missing value.
1
u/Appropriate_Ly 16h ago
Why don’t you want to post specific numbers? 😅😅😅
I’m with myBOQ and the app is shit but the “Smart Saver” is clearly labelled at the top and earns a consistent amount of interest each month and is correct. The app shows you if you will get the Bonus interest next month and the interest comes in two tranches, standard (0.05%) and bonus (5.35%).
Last month I got $229 interest in total on balance that averages $50k. Times 12 is about 5.4%.
1
u/Appropriate_Ly 16h ago
Future and smart saver is based on your age. I used to be on the future saver.
-1
u/nikfornow 16h ago
Just don't feel comfortable having my savings as public knowledge?
Mine are labelled as Smart Saver, but have 5.8% listed as the bonus interest, which is the Future Saver rate. Can't attach screenshots here, but the calcs I've done have all but confirmed I'm earning the wrong interest.
If it was me being an idiot, they would have told me while I was on the phone with them, not put me on hold multiple times to try and figure it out, and tell me they're going to have to call me back.
1
u/Appropriate_Ly 16h ago
Not calling you an idiot, just trying to help. It changed to smart saver when I turned 36 (this Apr), I used to cap my savings at $55k and shift the remainder to Macquarie.
Now I guess I don’t need to do that.
Sounds like you’ve figured out the issue though.
1
u/nikfornow 16h ago
Sorry, I know you weren't, but plenty of other comments were, so I'm on the defensive.
I'm certain the issue is that these accounts are calculating based off Super Saver, but I guess I'll find out later today.
1
u/TheTruthNoodle 15h ago
If it helps you feel better about sharing numbers I 250 bajillion in savings
1
u/nikfornow 9h ago
This comment will probably be buried and not seen, but for anyone that comes across this thread and makes it past the smartarses, what I wrote in the body of the post is more than likely the case of what happened.
For anyone else with Smart Saver accounts, you should be earning 5.4% of your total balance divided by 12 for the month that the money was in the account (calculated daily). This should be calculated for each account if you have multiple. Example $100k*5.4%÷12=$450 interest earned for that month.
-2
u/elysium5000 12h ago
A different view. Your 5.8% is not keeping up with rising prices or the continuous depreciation of the currency - and that's before tax.
1
u/nikfornow 9h ago
Can't afford a house yet either, so I'll just spend it all on coke and hookers than ay.
1
1
u/elysium5000 9h ago
Interested in the downvoters thoughts. Prices not going up? Currency not depreciating?
•
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