Macquarie vs ING vs ubank vs Up Savings Accounts Australia 2026

This afternoon, 29 September 2026, the Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Board lifted the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 4.60 percent, effective tomorrow, the fourth increase this year after February, March and May took it from 3.60 to 4.35 percent, per the RBA's cash rate table. Governor Michele Bullock had told Parliament that upside inflation risks appeared to be materialising, underlying inflation was sitting at 3.6 percent in July, and all four major banks had forecast exactly this. For borrowers it is another A$40-odd a month per A$250,000 of mortgage. For savers it is the fifth repricing of the year, and the moment to check whether the account you opened in a 3.60 percent world is still the right one.

So this is a snapshot of where Macquarie, ING, ubank and Up stood on the eve of the decision, with every rate dated, what each pays on three realistic balances, which monthly conditions people genuinely fail, and which account fits a renter building an emergency fund, a couple saving a deposit, a retiree with a lump sum and a student with a few thousand dollars. All four will announce new rates in October; the structure of each account, which is what actually decides your return, will not change.

The four accounts at a glance

Persona for the table: a 31-year-old in Melbourne with A$20,000 in savings, salary paid monthly, who uses a debit card for groceries and coffee and occasionally needs to pull A$500 out mid-month.

	Macquarie Savings Account	ING Savings Maximiser	ubank Save	Up Saver
Headline rate (dated)	5.00 percent ongoing, no conditions (Macquarie, rates current 22 May 2026)	5.50 percent (Finder, 11 September 2026)	5.85 percent intro for 4 months, then 5.10 percent (Finder, 14 September 2026)	5.35 percent Grow rate (Finder, 14 September 2026)
Base rate if conditions missed	Not applicable	0.01 percent	0.00 percent	0.00 percent
Monthly conditions	None	Deposit A$1,000 or more from an external source; 5 or more settled card purchases on Orange Everyday; grow the Savings Maximiser balance excluding interest	Hold a ubank Spend account; grow combined Save balance by at least A$1, interest excluded	Hold an Up everyday account; 5 or more Up debit card purchases; no withdrawals or transfers out of the Saver that month
Bonus balance cap	5.00 percent to A$2 million; 2.75 percent above	A$100,000 on one account	A$1 million per customer	A$250,000 combined across Savers; lower above
Year-one interest on A$20,000, all conditions met	A$1,000	A$1,100	About A$1,070 (A$1,020 from year two)	A$1,070
Cost of one missed month on A$20,000	A$0	About A$92	About A$85	About A$89
Intro or welcome rate	Withdrawn for accounts opened after 14 September 2026	None on Maximiser (Accelerator had a 5.65 percent 4-month intro in May 2026)	5.85 percent for 4 months, new customers only	None
Linked account required	No	Yes, Orange Everyday	Yes, ubank Spend	Yes, Up everyday
Who stands behind it	Macquarie Bank Limited	ING Bank (Australia) Limited	National Australia Bank (ubank is a NAB division)	Bendigo and Adelaide Bank
Exit	Transfer out any time, no fee	Any time, no fee, but a shrinking balance costs the next month's bonus	Any time, no fee; no BPAY or direct debits from Save	Any time, no fee, but any withdrawal costs that month's Grow rate
The catch	Lowest headline of the four	Three hoops and a A$100,000 cap	Intro is one-off; Save cannot pay bills	No-withdrawal rule punishes emergencies

Sources: Macquarie's savings account page (rates current 22 May 2026, welcome rate notice dated 14 September 2026), Macquarie's 17 March 2026 press release, ING's savings interest rates page for conditions, and Finder's ING review (11 September 2026) and ubank versus Up comparison (14 September 2026) for the rates. All read in September 2026. Interest figures are simple annual interest on a flat balance and ignore compounding, which adds a few dollars.

What each account actually is

Macquarie Savings Account

Macquarie's product is the one with no monthly test. Its page shows an ongoing rate of 5.00 percent on balances up to A$250,000 and the same 5.00 percent from A$250,000.01 to A$2 million, then 2.75 percent above that, with the rates stated as current at 22 May 2026. There is no deposit requirement, no card-purchase requirement and no balance-growth requirement, and no linked transaction account is needed, although Macquarie's transaction account itself paid 2.50 percent from 2 April 2026, per the bank's 17 March 2026 release. That release also shows how Macquarie behaves after an RBA move: the March hike produced a 4.75 percent ongoing rate and a 5.10 percent welcome rate from 2 April, and by late May the ongoing rate had reached 5.00 percent. Two things changed in September: the welcome rate was withdrawn for accounts opened after 11:59pm AEST on 14 September 2026, and the bank has given notice that the balance brackets on the account will change from 1 November 2026.

The catch is purely the headline: 5.00 percent is the lowest of the four on paper. The case for it is that it is the highest of the four in practice for anyone who misses a condition twice a year or holds more than A$100,000.

ING Savings Maximiser

ING's flagship pays a standard variable rate of 0.01 percent plus an additional variable rate that takes it to 5.50 percent in months when three conditions are met, per ING's own rates page for the conditions and Finder's 11 September 2026 review for the rate: deposit A$1,000 or more from an external source into the Orange Everyday or Savings Maximiser, make five or more card purchases on the Orange Everyday that settle (not just pend) in the month, and grow the nominated Savings Maximiser balance, excluding interest. The bonus applies on one account on balances up to A$100,000. ING's second product, the Savings Accelerator, has no conditions and pays tiered rates on balances up to A$5 million; in May 2026 its top ongoing tier was 4.60 percent up to A$2 million with a 5.65 percent four-month introductory rate on balances up to A$500,000, per savings.com.au's 1 May 2026 report.

The catch is the growth rule. A single mid-month withdrawal that is not fully replaced by month end, or a fee debited from the wrong account, costs the entire bonus on the entire balance for the next month.

ubank Save

ubank, a division of National Australia Bank, has rebuilt its Save account's conditions over the past two years. In July 2024 the rule was a A$500 external deposit each month with bonus interest capped at A$100,000; by 2026 the rule is to hold a ubank Spend account and grow the combined Save balance by at least A$1 by month end, interest excluded, with bonus interest on balances up to A$1 million per customer, per Finder's January and September 2026 pages. The ongoing bonus rate is 5.10 percent with a 0.00 percent base, and new customers who have not held a Save account in the previous 24 months get 5.85 percent for the first four months. The trade-off ubank introduced with the simpler rule is that external payments such as BPAY, PayTo and direct debits cannot be made from Save; money moves to Spend first.

The catch is the intro. It is generous, it is one-off, and the ongoing 5.10 percent is the number to compare against the others from month five.

Up Saver

Up is a digital bank built on Bendigo and Adelaide Bank's licence, and its Saver uses a structure it calls Grow and Flow. The Grow rate, 5.35 percent as of mid-September 2026 per Finder's comparison, is paid on a Saver in a month where the customer has made five or more successful purchases with the Up debit card (including Apple Pay and Google Pay) and has made no withdrawals or transfers out of that Saver; a lower Flow rate applies in any month where money leaves the Saver. There is no deposit requirement and no growth test. The Grow rate applies on combined Saver balances up to A$250,000, with a lower rate above that; a September 2026 rates listing shows the maximum above A$250,000 at 4.00 percent, and the base rate in all tiers at 0.00 percent.

The catch is the no-withdrawal rule, which is the strictest condition on this page for anyone whose savings double as their emergency fund. Up's answer is to run several Savers, so a withdrawal from one does not cost the Grow rate on the others, which works if you set it up that way in advance.

Which account is best for a renter building an emergency fund?

A 27-year-old in Sydney, A$8,000 saved, adding A$600 a month, who will probably need to pull A$1,000 out twice a year.

The emergency-fund saver's enemy is the condition that punishes withdrawals. Up's Grow rate dies for the month on the first transfer out; ING's growth rule survives a withdrawal only if the A$600 deposit exceeds it; ubank's A$1 growth rule survives almost anything short of a full drawdown; Macquarie does not care. At A$8,000 the dollar stakes are small: 5.50 versus 5.00 percent is A$40 a year. The sensible structure is ubank Save for the bonus with its 5.85 percent intro, because the A$1 growth rule is the easiest to meet while actually using the money, with the understanding that bills are paid from Spend. A renter who already banks with Up and never touches the Saver can use Up's multiple-Saver trick, keeping a separate "rainy day" Saver that is allowed to lose its Grow rate when needed.

Which account is best for a couple saving a house deposit?

A couple in Brisbane with A$150,000 saved, adding A$3,000 a month, planning to buy in about eighteen months, both paid into a joint account they use for groceries.

Here the caps decide it. ING's 5.50 percent stops at A$100,000, so A$150,000 at ING is A$5,500 on the first A$100,000 and either the 0.01 percent base or a second Accelerator account at a lower tiered rate on the rest, roughly A$7,800 a year all up with the Accelerator at its May 2026 rate. ubank pays 5.10 percent on the lot, A$7,650 ongoing, and about A$8,000 in year one with the four-month intro, with the A$1 growth rule met automatically by the monthly A$3,000. Up pays 5.35 percent on the lot, A$8,025, as long as nobody withdraws, which for a deposit fund that will not be touched until settlement is realistic. Macquarie pays A$7,500 with no conditions and no cap worries. ubank or Up win on the maths; the choice between them is whether the couple is certain the money will not move for eighteen months (Up) or wants a buffer against the unexpected (ubank). When the deposit is paid, the outgoing transfer breaks every conditional account's rule for that final month, which is a one-off cost of a few hundred dollars worth knowing about in advance.

Which account is best for a retiree with a lump sum?

A 68-year-old in Melbourne with A$400,000 from downsizing, drawing A$2,500 a month, no debit card spending habit.

The retiree fails ING's and Up's card-purchase conditions by lifestyle and fails Up's no-withdrawal rule by drawing income, so the choice is between Macquarie and ubank. Macquarie pays 5.00 percent on all A$400,000 with no conditions, A$20,000 a year. ubank pays 5.10 percent on all of it (within the A$1 million cap), A$20,400, with the condition that the combined Save balance grows by A$1 each month, which a A$2,500 drawdown breaks unless A$2,501 goes back in. The A$400 a year difference is not worth managing a growth rule around monthly income, so Macquarie is the pick, with one structural caveat: the Financial Claims Scheme guarantees A$250,000 per account holder per institution, so A$400,000 at one bank leaves A$150,000 outside the guarantee. Splitting A$250,000 to Macquarie and A$150,000 to ubank puts every dollar under the guarantee and costs a few minutes a month of topping ubank up by A$1.

Which account is best for a student with A$3,000?

A 20-year-old in Adelaide, A$3,000 saved, A$150 a month in, using the card for everything.

At A$3,000 the interest difference between 5.00 and 5.50 percent is A$15 a year, so the conditions should be the ones you would meet anyway. A student who taps a phone for coffee and groceries meets Up's five-purchase rule without trying, and if the A$3,000 is genuinely untouched, Up's 5.35 percent Grow rate is the easy pick, with a second Saver for anything that might be spent. ING's A$1,000 monthly external deposit is the hard condition at this income level and makes the Savings Maximiser the wrong fit, which is the one case where the highest headline rate on the page is the worst account.

What actually moves the return

Conditions met or missed. On A$20,000 one missed month at ING, ubank or Up costs A$85 to A$92; two missed months a year erase the gap to Macquarie entirely.

Balance caps. ING's bonus stops at A$100,000, Up's at A$250,000, ubank's at A$1 million, Macquarie's at A$2 million. Above the cap the headline rate is irrelevant.

Intro expiry. ubank's 5.85 percent lasts four months and cannot be repeated for 24 months. Macquarie's welcome rate is gone for new accounts since 14 September 2026.

The RBA. Four 2026 hikes to 4.60 percent have lifted every rate here by well over a percentage point since December 2025; each bank passed earlier moves through within about two weeks, and October 2026 will bring the next round.

Withdrawals. The hidden condition. Up punishes any withdrawal, ING punishes a net shrinking balance, ubank tolerates anything that leaves the balance A$1 higher, Macquarie ignores it.

Tax. Interest is assessable income at your marginal rate and reported to the ATO. A 5.50 percent rate is 3.85 percent after tax on the 30 percent bracket and 2.93 percent on the 47 percent bracket, which is why a mortgage offset account at a 6-plus percent home loan rate beats every account here for anyone with a loan.

The guarantee. A$250,000 per account holder per institution under the Financial Claims Scheme, shared across brands of the same bank (ubank with NAB, Up with Bendigo and Adelaide Bank).

When should you move, and when should you stay?

Move two to three weeks after an RBA decision, once all four have published their new rates, and move at the end of any introductory period. Stay if the gap at your balance is under A$100 a year and the move itself would break a condition. Never move on the day of an RBA decision, because the rate tables are half updated and the account that looks best at 3pm on decision day is often the one that has not yet announced its increase.

Verdict by saver type

Renter with an emergency fund under A$25,000: ubank Save, for the 5.85 percent intro and the A$1 growth rule that survives real life.

Couple saving a deposit, A$100,000 to A$250,000, untouched: Up Saver at 5.35 percent with no withdrawals, or ubank at 5.10 percent if a buffer matters; ING only up to the first A$100,000.

Retiree or anyone drawing income from savings: Macquarie at 5.00 percent with no conditions, split with a second bank above A$250,000 for the guarantee.

Student or low balance under A$10,000: whichever account's conditions you meet by default; Up for card users, Macquarie for anyone who wants to forget about it.

Balance over A$250,000: Macquarie for the bulk, with ubank's A$1 million cap as the alternative if the growth rule is easy to meet.

Anyone with a home loan: the offset account, not any of these.

Where cashback fits

None of Macquarie, ING, ubank or Up is a ShopBack Australia merchant for savings accounts as of September 2026, which is why all four are compared editorially and no cashback claim is attached to opening any of them. Where cashback via ShopBack fits in a savings routine is the spending side of the conditions. ING and Up both require five card purchases a month, and those purchases can be made at ShopBack merchants: open the ShopBack app or the Cashback Buddy browser extension, click through to the retailer, and pay with the linked Orange Everyday or Up debit card in the same session so the purchase both counts toward the bonus condition and earns cashback via ShopBack at the merchant's published rate that day.

The cashback is a rebate confirmed after the merchant reports the sale, and it lands in your ShopBack balance, not in the savings account, so it has no effect on the interest rate, the bonus conditions or the balance-growth test. Think of it as the five purchases paying you twice: once in bonus interest unlocked, once in cashback. It is never a reason to spend more than you would have, and it is never a reason to pick a conditional account over Macquarie if you would not otherwise meet the conditions.

FAQ

What is a bonus rate and how is it different from the base rate?

Almost every high-interest savings account in Australia is built as a tiny base rate plus a large bonus that you earn only in months when you meet conditions. ING Savings Maximiser pays 0.01 percent base and a bonus that takes it to 5.50 percent (Finder, 11 September 2026) if you deposit A$1,000 or more from an external source, make five or more settled card purchases on the linked Orange Everyday account, and grow the Savings Maximiser balance (excluding interest) that month. ubank Save pays 0.00 percent base and 5.10 percent ongoing bonus if you hold a ubank Spend account and grow your combined Save balance by at least A$1 by month end, with a 5.85 percent introductory rate for the first four months for new customers (Finder, 14 September 2026). Up Saver pays 0.00 percent base and a Grow rate of 5.35 percent if you make five or more purchases on your Up debit card and make no withdrawals from the Saver that month. Macquarie's savings account is the exception: 5.00 percent ongoing with no conditions, per its rates current at 22 May 2026. Miss a condition and you earn the base rate for that whole month, which at ING, ubank and Up is effectively nothing.

How did the RBA's September 2026 decision change savings rates?

On 29 September 2026 the Reserve Bank raised the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 4.60 percent, effective 30 September, its fourth increase of the year after moves to 3.85 percent in February, 4.10 percent in March and 4.35 percent in May, according to the RBA's cash rate table. Banks reprice savings accounts in the days and weeks after each decision rather than on the day. The pattern earlier in 2026 was a full pass-through within a fortnight: Macquarie, for example, announced on 17 March 2026 that its ongoing rate would rise to 4.75 percent and its welcome rate to 5.10 percent from 2 April after the March hike, and by 22 May its ongoing rate was 5.00 percent. The rates in this article are the published rates on the eve of the September decision; expect each of the four to announce an increase during October 2026, and treat any rate you see quoted without a date as unreliable.

How much interest do these accounts actually pay on A$20,000?

Assuming every condition is met every month and the balance stays flat, over twelve months: ING Savings Maximiser at 5.50 percent pays A$1,100. Up Saver at the 5.35 percent Grow rate pays A$1,070. ubank Save pays about A$1,070 in year one (5.85 percent for four months, then 5.10 percent for eight) and A$1,020 a year after that. Macquarie at 5.00 percent with no conditions pays A$1,000. The whole spread between the best and the worst is A$100 a year, before tax, on A$20,000. One missed month at ING, ubank or Up costs roughly A$85 to A$92 of bonus interest, which means a single failed condition in the year erases the entire advantage over Macquarie. Interest is taxable at your marginal rate and the bank reports it to the ATO, so a saver on the 30 percent bracket keeps A$770 of ING's A$1,100.

Is Macquarie's no-conditions 5.00 percent better than ING's 5.50 percent with conditions?

For most people with more than A$100,000, or anyone who has ever forgotten a condition, yes. ING's 5.50 percent applies on one account on balances up to A$100,000; above that you are on the base rate or into a separate Savings Accelerator account at a lower ongoing rate (4.60 percent at the top tier in May 2026). Macquarie's 5.00 percent, current at 22 May 2026, applies with no deposit, no card purchases and no balance-growth test on balances up to A$2 million (dropping to 2.75 percent above that), and it has no linked-transaction-account requirement. On A$150,000, ING pays A$5,500 on the first A$100,000 and next to nothing on the rest unless you open the Accelerator, roughly A$7,800 all up; Macquarie pays A$7,500 for doing nothing. On A$20,000 with perfect compliance ING wins by A$100 a year. Macquarie also withdrew its welcome rate for accounts opened after 14 September 2026 and has announced new balance brackets from 1 November 2026, so the comparison is between ING's hoops and Macquarie's simplicity, not an intro teaser.

Is ubank cheaper to run than Up for someone who dips into savings?

Yes, and it is the clearest structural difference between the two. ubank Save's ongoing condition is to hold a Spend account and grow the combined Save balance by at least A$1 by the end of the month, interest excluded, so you can withdraw A$3,000 for a car repair on the 10th and still earn the 5.10 percent bonus if the balance is A$1 higher on the 30th than on the 1st. Up Saver's Grow rate of 5.35 percent requires no withdrawals or transfers out of the Saver in the month; touch it once and the whole month drops to the lower Flow rate. Up's five-card-purchase condition is easy for anyone who uses Up as a daily account; the no-withdrawal rule is the one that bites. ubank's trade-off is that external payments such as BPAY and direct debits cannot be made from the Save account, so money has to pass through Spend first, and its 5.85 percent intro rate is only for new customers who have not held a Save account in the previous 24 months.

When does the ubank introductory rate end and what happens then?

Four months after the first account is opened. For that period a new ubank customer earns 5.85 percent on balances up to A$1 million, provided the monthly condition is met, and from month five the rate steps down to the ongoing 5.10 percent bonus (Finder, 14 September 2026). On A$50,000 the intro is worth about A$125 more than the ongoing rate over the four months; on A$500,000 it is worth about A$1,250. The intro is not available to anyone who has held a ubank Save account in the previous 24 months, so it cannot be churned. Macquarie's welcome rate, which was 5.10 percent for four months on balances up to A$250,000 from 2 April 2026, is no longer offered to accounts opened after 11:59pm AEST on 14 September 2026, so as of this article ubank is the only one of the four with a live introductory rate. ING's Savings Accelerator carried a 5.65 percent four-month intro on balances up to A$500,000 in May 2026, but that is the no-conditions tiered product, not the Savings Maximiser.

When should I move my savings after a rate rise?

About two to three weeks after the RBA decision, not the day of it. After each 2026 hike the four banks announced their new savings rates on different days and with different effective dates, so a comparison run on 30 September 2026 shows the old rates at some banks and the new at others. Wait for all four to publish, then compare the ongoing rate at your balance with the conditions you will actually meet. The other trigger is the end of an introductory period: diarise the date ubank's four months end, or the date any future welcome rate at the others ends, and re-check that week. Moving money between these accounts is same-day or next-day by bank transfer and there is no exit fee at any of the four, so there is no cost to switching other than the month of bonus you can lose at ING or Up if the move itself breaks a condition (an outgoing transfer from an Up Saver, or a shrinking ING balance).

Can I hold savings accounts at all four banks at once?

Yes, and for balances above A$100,000 it is often the best structure. There is no rule against it; the Financial Claims Scheme guarantees deposits up to A$250,000 per account holder per authorised deposit-taking institution, so spreading A$400,000 across Macquarie, ING, ubank and Up puts each slice under the government guarantee, where a single A$400,000 balance at one bank would leave A$150,000 above it. Note that ubank is a division of National Australia Bank and Up is a product of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, so the A$250,000 cap is shared with any NAB or Bendigo accounts you hold. The cost of holding four accounts is the conditions: ING wants A$1,000 in and five purchases every month, Up wants five purchases and no withdrawals, ubank wants the balance to grow by A$1. Most people can realistically meet the conditions at one or two of them, so the usual structure is one conditional account for the first A$100,000 to A$250,000 and Macquarie for everything above it.

Does cashback via ShopBack apply to opening a savings account?

Only where the bank is a ShopBack Australia merchant for that product, and as of September 2026 none of Macquarie, ING, ubank or Up is listed as a ShopBack merchant for savings accounts, so the four are compared editorially here with no cashback attached to any of them. Where cashback via ShopBack does belong in a savings plan is on the spending side: the five card purchases a month that ING and Up require can be made at ShopBack merchants through the ShopBack app or the Cashback Buddy browser extension, so the condition that unlocks the bonus interest also earns cashback via ShopBack at the merchant's published rate. The mechanism is to activate ShopBack first, click through to the retailer, and pay with the linked debit card in the same session. The cashback is a rebate paid after the merchant confirms the purchase and has no effect on the savings rate itself.

What happens to my ING bonus if my balance goes down because of fees or a mistaken transfer?

You lose the bonus for the following month, on the whole balance, and there is no partial credit. ING's growth condition is that the nominated Savings Maximiser balance at the end of the month must be higher than at the start, excluding interest credited, so a A$0.50 international transaction fee charged to the wrong account, a scheduled transfer that fires on the 31st instead of the 1st, or a A$200 withdrawal with only A$150 deposited back all break it. On A$100,000 the lost month is about A$458 of bonus interest. Three defences: keep the Savings Maximiser as the destination for all external deposits and never the source of payments; set the monthly A$1,000 transfer to land on the 2nd, not the last day of the month; and if you must withdraw, deposit the same amount plus A$1 before month end. ubank's equivalent rule is the gentler A$1 growth on the combined Save balance. Up has no growth rule but has the stricter no-withdrawal rule. Macquarie has none of these, which is the whole case for it.

Key takeaways

On the eve of the RBA's move to 4.60 percent, the four accounts spanned 5.00 to 5.85 percent on paper and about A$100 a year on A$20,000 in practice, which is less than the cost of two missed conditions. Pick by structure, not headline: Macquarie if you want no rules or hold more than A$250,000, ubank if you want a high rate that tolerates withdrawals and a one-off 5.85 percent intro, Up if the money will not move and you already tap its card five times a month, ING only for the first A$100,000 and only if the A$1,000 deposit and the growth rule are automatic for you. Re-check all four about three weeks after today once the October repricing has landed, keep every balance under the A$250,000 guarantee per institution, and let the five card purchases that unlock the bonus earn cashback via ShopBack on the way through.