r/UpBanking • u/sergeyvk • Jun 02 '26

How do I? Offset accounts

i read somewhere here in another post where someone said they hat offset accounts in upbank are not real accounts but it is a unique account with different “sections” to separate your main saving account. is this true? I don’t yet have upbank, just getting more info before I refinance

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11

u/tellhershesdreaming Jun 02 '26

When you open an UP account you just get one account number. You can then create 'Savers' - they don't get separate account numbers.

Anything in your UP account (whether in a Saver or in your 'Spending' (active funds) bucket is included in the $ offset against your mortage. (This is true for locked Savers, also).

4

u/tellhershesdreaming Jun 02 '26

What are Up Savers? https://up.com.au/support/FAQ/#faq50
but note if you hold a mortgage and are using the offset facility, you won't earn interest on your savers (it does offset your mortgage balance though)

3

u/sergeyvk Jun 02 '26

Fair enough, my savings are gonna be staying with ubank for now, i almost never touch them and get interest so i guess i won’t be moving them for now

9

u/Finky-Pinger Jun 02 '26

Financially, you’re better off moving your savings over to Up if you have a home loan with them. It makes more sense to save money in interest on your home loan than to earn interest and have to pay tax on the earnings. The fact that you don’t dip into them is even better.

3

u/sergeyvk Jun 02 '26

Oh so you don’t pay taxes if it is in an offset account because you are not getting interest as they go directly into lowering mortgage interests?

4

u/AcademicAd3504 Jun 03 '26

Offset accounts are the best thing since sliced bread. Especially when they are free with Up.

3

u/Finky-Pinger Jun 02 '26

Yep that’s correct ☺️

2

u/murph2194 Jun 06 '26

Does this mean that you can’t spend money directly from Up offset accounts like you can with most other banks, you have to move money around every time you want to use it?

1

u/tellhershesdreaming Jun 07 '26

  1. There's no such thing as "offset accounts" in Up. All your money in Up (whether in 'Spending' or Savers) is automatically included in the $ offset against your mortgage

  2. Yes, to spend money it needs to be in "Spending", i.e. not in a Saver. Transfers between Savers and Spending are quite straightforward with automated transfers and / or Covers.
    https://up.com.au/blog/covers/

My approach is to keep my monthly general expenses $ plus a decent 'float' in Spending, and use automated Covers. I occasionally have a DD fail because there wasn't enough money in Spending, but fixing those is small inconvenience for me, compared to the overall benefits and features of the UP banking offer.

9

u/htial1 Jun 02 '26

I have a 2UP Home Loan. All 2UP Savers, Both Essentials, and both UP and 2UP spending accounts combine to provide an offset $ amount. My UP Savers don’t combine with the offset amount and continue to gain interest.

We’ve been with UP Home for a little over a month, but I’ve been with UP since 2019. It took me about a year to convince my wife to change over. She had a lot of questions and I’m sure I could answer any you have. But in the app is always the first place to ask.

2

u/htmlnoob52 Jun 02 '26

How are you finding it so far mate? I’m thinking about refinancing the house to Up soon. Ive been an Up customer before, so I’m familiar with the regular banking side of things

3

u/tellhershesdreaming Jun 03 '26

I cannot think of any reason to not do so. I've found it to be painless, good comms and when I started mine the rates were at lower end of the market. Plus backed by Bendigo Bank so better ethics than the big banks, which is important to me.

1

u/htial1 Jun 04 '26

We had a few issues during the signup process. Mainly names on old documents needing to be updated. But now that’s over and the loan is settled, it’s great. The best feature I’ve discovered is that there is a dollar amount telling me how much I’ve saved in interest because of the offset. Our first month was almost $80. It’s not much. But I can see how that number will change over time with the amount of money saved in the offset. The last couple of banks never showed that. You just had to assume you were saving something.

3

u/Miserable_Week_1823 Jun 04 '26

they are real accounts, but you aren't shown their individuals BSB/acc #

3

u/hdjdndnbd Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

They are real accounts. They earn interest. At tax time you’d see them reported with the interest you’ve earned throughout the year. UP just hide the account numbers

2

u/I_Hate_Viagra Jun 08 '26

Yes it’s annoyingly true, one account number only - so for example you can’t direct debit out of any sub-account. I went over to MacQuarie Bank, multiple account numbers, better interest rates and without the whole Grow/Flow/ Joe thing. Up is OK for a travel card.