St. George Savings Accounts
St.George has continued to build its reputation from when it was founded in 1937 as a Building Society. It all came about as Australia was emerging from the Great Depression of the 1930’s only to be hit by a World War that started in 1939 and lasted through to 1945. They were indeed hard times economically as much as anything else, as hard as anyone could ever imagine, but the fledgling company survived to eventually become part of the great Westpac Group, one of Australia’s foremost retail and business banking organizations.
| Savings Account | Maximum Variable Rate p.a. | Standard Variable Rate p.a. | Bonus Interest p.a. | Fees | Min Balance/Min Deposit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 St.George Maxi Saver |
5.7% | 4.30% | 1.40% | $0 | $0 / $0 |
|
St.George puts much of this success down to the quality of service it delivers to its customers as well as the positive attitude of its staff. This, they contend, combined with the goodwill and loyalty they receive from their customers, sets them apart from all the other financial organizations in Australia – and they are determined to keep it that way.
The St.George Building Society was granted full banking status in 1992 and ever since has continued building on its previous achievements of setting industry benchmarks in superior credit quality, outstanding customer service ratings, product management and product innovation. Part of the product innovation St.George is proud to be associated with is their more than competitive savings products that include the following:
- Maxi Saver Account – The St.George top line Maxi Saver Account allows you to save online with industry high interest rates. These high rates are complimented by you not having to pay any monthly account service fee and you have the added advantage of easy unlimited access 24 hours a day 7 days a week through phone and online banking facilities. You can also watch your savings grow after you set up a complimentary Automatic Savings Plan that will have a part of your salary, or any other income such as dividends or rent from any investment property, paid directly into your Maxi Saver Account without you ever having to lift a finger ever again.
- Power Saver Account – You don’t have to worry about having to keep up any minimum monthly balance with the Power Saver Account to keep earning any interest. On top of that you won’t be charged any monthly account keeping fee either and you will have easy and complete access to your money at all times through fast efficient online services, phone banking, ATM, EFTPOS or by going to a branch for personal one on one service.
- St.George SENSE Account – This is a savings and transaction account rolled into the one account and called the St.George SENSE Account because it makes sense to do so. There is a flat monthly account keeping fee of $5 attached to this account but this fee is waived if you deposit a minimum of $2,000 into the account by the last business day of each month. This is not necessarily an impossible imposition as you can arrange to have your salary paid across each pay day to avoid the fee. You can manage all your withdrawal transactions online using the specially designed spending charts that are available.
- Incentive Saver Account – The Incentive Saver Account is especially designed to give you an incentive to save and keep saving for that goal you are trying so hard to save for. That’s why it pays bonus interest when you make regular deposits and can resist making withdrawals. It doesn’t require you to pay any monthly account keeping fees and for these reasons is an ideal savings account to use to teach your children the value of saving.
- Term Deposit – St.George Term Deposit will return you industry competitive interest rates for any term that suits you and your needs. Deposit terms can be anything from one month to five years. Term Deposits are available for individuals, business and self managed superannuation fund investors.
The St.George staff Star Awards for excellence
In designing its platform for future growth St.George has built a philosophy of continuous service improvement, this is supported with its consistent program of investment. Its excellent customer service does not stop at meeting needs but goes on to exceed all its clients expectations. This approach is assisted with the St.George Star Award program that rewards staff members who go out of their way with delivering excellent service, in other words those staff members who provide excellent service to clients are rewarded. The highest award for staff members to strive for is that of a St.George SuperStar award.
St.George and the community
St.George believes in playing a positive role in the community. This is achieved by giving support to charities, arts, sporting clubs, business programs and disaster relief. It also contributes to the community in providing a wide array of financial products to needy community members that includes no fee accounts for pensioners and students. Special accounts for concession card holders and special financial products for rural customers. On top of these innovations St.George also takes its part in the Australian Bankers Association’s Disabled Access Working Group to make sure all its branches, ATM’s and other facilities it provides are easily accessible to persons suffering from a disability. It is also has affiliation with the National Relay Service. An organization that assists deaf, hearing impaired and speech impaired clients with their banking.
Research on customer needs
To be able to continue improving customer service St.George needs feedback from the community. It does this by commissioning certain bodies who are experts in the field of research to ask you what you think about certain aspects of banking and to let St.George know how their supplying of this service could be improved. This aspect of St.George’s work is undertaken for them by the following companies:
- Jones Donald strategy Partners carries out customer satisfaction surveys.
- GfK blue moon, Vision Critical and I-view undertake polls, short surveys and discussion forums on online community’ website.
- Ipsos undertakes brand tracking and asks about what advertising you may have seen and what is your opinion on banks generally.
All these companies act as agents for St.George and work from a list of customers chosen at random. If you happen to be requested for an interview you can rest assured that only your name and phone number has been given. They do not have access to any information whatsoever pertaining to your finances.
St.George is an Australian banking success story, a bank that puts service to its customers foremost while at the same time strives to offer low or no fee accounts, that are industry competitive and offer sound savings opportunities to both the young and older members of the community.
