Rate-hunters may be poking their noses into all sorts of nooks as the slide in interest rates on term deposits makes keeping up with inflation via saving through a bank an unreachable goal.
It's currently not possible for a depositor with the Commonwealth Bank to be earning the inflation rate (1.60 per cent) from any deposit product, unless they have A$250,000 or more.
There are very few savings products (accounts and term deposits) now paying 1.6 per cent pa or more from a Big Four bank.
Three of the four big banks have 'special offer' deals on term deposits but most term rates are well under inflation.
NAB and Westpac trimmed savings rates again last week. NAB's intro saver rate came down to 1.70 per cent, still the highest advertised rate from a big four bank.
The Commonwealth Bank GoalSaver's strict savings rules and low maximum rate on balances under $50,000 make it the miser of the Big Four. The GoalSaver's headline rate of 1.60 per cent pa applies to balances over $250,000.
The contrast between the unforgiving CBA rules and the fairly generous rules and base rate of Westpac's Life account is stark.
"Savers need to be active in managing their money if they don't want it to lose value over time," said Vadim Taube, CEO of InfoChoice, whose comparison website supplied the data for this article.
"ME Online Saver is paying up to 2.20 per cent, UBank is paying up to 2.1 per cent and Suncorp is paying up to 2.15 per cent."
NAB announced new term deposit rate cuts on Friday of up to 0.25 per cent. NAB's top TD rate is now 1.30 per cent pa.
"Term deposit rates have also fallen significantly over the last few months," Taube said.
Neobank Judo Bank's six-month term deposit rate is 20 basis points clear of the second top rate (as listed on InfoChoice yesterday). Judo's 12 and 24-month rates are 15 bps ahead of the rest.
"Judo Bank has sliced rates over the weekend but is still ahead of the market for rates on six, 12 and 24-month terms, " Taube said.
Meanwhile micro-investing apps Raiz (200,000 accounts) and Spaceship Voyager (48,000) are spruiking double digit annual unit price growth over last 12 months.
More austere and way more familiar non-bank investment options easily clear the inflation hurdle.
Of the five mortgage fund options promoted by La Trobe Financial, the La Trobe 48-hour notice account returns 2.4 per cent "after fees", the one-year 5.05 per cent while the group's "peer-to-peer" account - with risk centred on a single borrower - is paying a flat 6 per cent.
Elsewhere in P2P land SocietyOne promotes an "Investor Portfolio Target Return" of 6 per cent to 7 per cent on personal loans.
On "Livestock Loans" SocietyOne promotes a rate of 7.75 per cent.
At Marketlend, which funds only business loans, returns on recent listings at its marketplace are not as an extreme an outlier as they were a few months ago, but still rank among the highest returns on any non-bank savings product going, for those with the risk appetite.
Rates beginning with a 9 are more common now than they were in the Marketlend Marketplace, with some SMEs willing to borrow on terms beginning with a 12 and a handful at 16 per cent.