I was having a look at NAB's Gold Banking and it only charges $12 with unlimited withdrawals from any ATMs locally and overseas. For my trip to SEAsia/Hong Kong, I think this may be good....no ATM fees and it gives u a Visa Debit Card which can use in more places (including over the counter purchases) than say a regular debit card which can only be used at Cirrus and Maestro ATMs. Though I wonder what the exchange rate charge will be like???? Also, if you deposit $5000 each month, it's free. Though can someone tell me, do you need at least $5000 in there during the month....what prevents someone from depositing $5000 in there to get the no monthly fees and then withdrawing $5000 a day latter back to a high interest online savings account??? Do you think there's any catch with this Gold Banking?
$12 per month is pretty expensive - but if you are likely to be doing more than 3 OS withdrawals per month, you'll be ahead anyway. I'm not sure about the $5000, but NAB will happily set you up with one of their linked iSaver high interest accounts (this is what I use since I bank with NAB), and I'm sure they won't care about you moving the money there. You'd need to read the terms and conditions in full to work out whether there are any catches.
I've read the terms and conditions but it doesn't seem to say you can't do it. It says it could be your salary, share income, dividends, interest....but not including refunds, prepaid interest...etc. It doesn't say u can't transfer money from another account. Also it says any "regular deposit"....that can be from anything.
