Tuesday marked the Reserve Bank’s decision to raise interest rates for the 12th time in 14 months. This brought the cash rate to an eye-watering 4.1 per cent – a significant climb from the historically low of 0.1 per cent that many Australians basked in over the past two years.
In response to this news, another major banking institution within Australia’s big four institutions has acted to keep their customers in line with the raising rates.
For 12 months, mortgage owners have suffered the harshest repercussions of the record-breaking financial tightening cycle as rates have been escalated by 400 basis points – the greatest cash rate raised in 11 years. This is the twelfth rate increase from the bank and it has been remarked as one of the swiftest rate hikes in history, even as inflation remains inflexible.
“In light of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) decision to raise the official cash rate by 0.25% p.a., CBA will be raising its interest rates for multiple savings products, as well as its home loan variable interest rates by 0.25% p.a.,” a spokesman said.
The NetBank Saver standard variable interest rate will rise to 2.20% p.a., a 0.25% p.a. increase. The 5-month introductory variable interest rate, too, will increase by 0.25% p.a, bringing it up to 4.75% p.a. Lastly, the GoalSaver rate consisting of a standard variable rate of 0.40% p.a. and bonus interest rate of 4.25% p.a. will climb to 4.65% p.a., marking a 0.25% p.a. raise.
On Tuesday afternoon, Westpac became the first bank to offer a rate increase of 0.25% p.a. on its Youthsaver, raising the bonus interest rate from 2.40% p.a. to 4.75% p.a., consisting of a standard variable rate of 2.35% p.a. and bonus interest rate of 2.40% p.a. to its customers.
Effective June 9, some customers will have access to a special term deposit offer of 4.50 per cent for 12 to 23 months, while new and existing customers of home loan variable interest rates will see an increase of 0.25 per cent effective June 20.
