Australia’s newest bank is now launching in Australia with a suite of features designer to allow customers to keep track of their spending habits and how they manage their money.
86 400 is the first retail bank to launch in Australia since way back in the 1980’s.
There is also Volt Bank which is gearing up for launch in Australia. This digital bank has teamed up with Bendigo bank and Adelaide bank to take things to the next level.
These new digital banks, which have no physical locations in Australia are based around cloud computing and are looking to shake up the Australian banking industry the say way they have in the USA and the UK.
There has been a significant rise in digital banking and we all know it hasn’t been as easy as it is today to pay bills with Bpay and transfer money to another bank account instantly.
According to a J.D Power survey over 85% of banking customers used an app for their banking and to interact with their current bank, for example using customer support.
Existing banks are constantly rolling out new app features and online services to keep up with this current demand for the easiest and most convenient way to bank.
Neobank’s also know as digital banks are the first in line to deliver Australian consumers better service features.
Neobank 86 400 managing director Robert Bell stated – “The bank is trying to use smart technology to help customers stay on top of their finances, he sees this as an investment oportunity in Australia”.
Digital banks such as these are not asking customers to close their current accounts and switch to a new bank. Each digital bank such as 86 400 will allow customers to connect to their existing bank accounts and connect everything together on an app.
All digital banks in Australia will have apps which automatically scan through past transactions to spot recurring transactions from Australians top 200 merchants to give a snapshot of total payments. These can include things such as gym membership, streaming subscriptions and credit card payments.
Digital banks are using A.I to track all of your spending habits and even send you warnings on your phone if you run out of money before you next pay day, just so you can be sure to pay all of your bills on time.
The app for this digital bank will also have a prediction feature will looks at all of your previous transactions and tells you what and when your next payment would be due.
It also has some other cool features such as telling you how much more money you need to deposit into your savings account so you can earn bonus interest on your dollars.
New iPhone customers will be able to start using their new debit card immediately with apple pay once they have signed up and are registered with the digital bank as a customer.
Research has show that Australians waste about 2.7 billion on subscriptions that they rarely use or even know about.
These new digital banks are hoping that customers will give them a try, rather then using mainstream establish banks like NAB, Commonwealth bank and ANZ.
The pay account from your new digital bank if you choose to sign up will allow fee free card withdrawals at over 10,000 ATM machines in Australia and it also will support Osko payments which you may have already seen on your current banking app.
Customers can sign up in a few minutes by providing one piece of identification..
Each digital bank has a system that scans local electoral roles in Australia to identify new customers quicker and faster then traditional methods.
You may be asking yourself – Are digital banks safe?
This is a pretty good questions and I would be asking the same thing as well before i signed up and connected my financial details.
Each digital bank in Australia has to have the same banking and licenses an any other existing bank in Australia. All digital banks will be regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and ASIC the same way exisiting brick and mortar banks are in Australia.
What is the benefit or using a digital bank over a tradition bank?
We are unsure of the full spectrum here in regards to benefits to the customer, though we have found some points which are promised by digital banks.
It has been stated that with no physical branches digital banks allow Australians to entirely manage their banking by phone apps.
On top of this with no physical locations, each bank has been said to attend more savings and better interest rates to customers, as those savings in cut costs for running a business can be passed on.