Mobile banking is one of the most exciting spaces for innovation because it’s all about how we manage money every day. Whether you want to pay without your wallet or you need to cancel a lost credit card, mobile banking apps and digital wallets are quickly becoming our go-to for banking.
In fact, the latest survey of more than 2,000 Australians by Canstar Blue found that around 1 in 4 Australians (23%) check their mobile banking app or online banking platform every single day.
As part of our 2017 expert star ratings of mobile banking apps and online banking platforms, Canstar has analysed what’s on offer when it comes to digital wallets and mobile banking apps in Australia.
Digital wallets
Forget about carrying around a bulky wallet! Digital wallet apps such as Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay allow customers to capture, store, and scan their credit cards, debit cards, and loyalty cards within one app on their smartphone.
Thankfully, institutions in Australia have largely jumped on board (despite some initial controversy around Apple Pay) and many banks have made their cards compatible with at least one digital wallet.
Check our latest list of which institutions are compatible with which digital wallets and get started paying with your smartphone.
Cardless cash from your phone or smartwatch
Looking for a smartwatch app for your mobile banking? You’re not alone, and many banks are responding to the growing desire for wearable technology such as smartwatches and Fitbits.
Which institutions offer a smartwatch app for mobile banking? Here’s our list as of May 2017:
| Smartwatch apps for mobile banking |
|---|
| AMP Bank |
| ANZ |
| Bank of Melbourne |
| BankSA |
| Commonwealth Bank |
| ING DIRECT |
| NAB |
| Regional Australia Bank |
| St.George Bank |
| Westpac |
| Source: www.canstar.com.au as of May 2017. |
Until now, smartwatch banking apps have largely been able to merely view an account balance and sometimes receive certain notifications. But CommBank’s smartwatch banking app took the technology one step further, letting customers make ‘cardless cash’ ATM withdrawals on both Apple and Android smartwatches. This is the first mobile banking app for a smartwatch in Australia that enables transactions.
Source: CommBank
Personalised alerts and notifications
Bankwest won a 2016 Canstar Innovation Award for the Easy Alerts function on their mobile banking app. Customers get a push notification on their phone (rather than an SMS) to let them know when:
- Low balance: The current account balance has fallen below a set amount or is not enough to cover a scheduled payment.
- Success: The current account balance has reached your savings goal.
- Payday: A deposit has been made to the customer’s transaction or savings account.
- Fraud: Transactions or credit card payments have been made overseas.
- Fees: Customers should transfer some more money into their transaction account to avoid the monthly account-keeping fee.
A low balance type of alert can be particularly useful, as the latest Canstar Blue survey found that 32% of Australians have let their account run dry and failed to meet payments for bills at least once.
14% said this happens to them a couple of times a year, while 4% say this happens every week for them, living payday to payday.
Other institutions also have similar notification systems enabled for certain types of alert, although these are mostly sent via text message rather than in-phone push notifications.
Alerts available include:
- Low Balance
- Withdrawal
- Deposit Received
- Dishonour Warning
- High Balance
- Credit Card (a reminder when your monthly bill comes due)
Various alert types are now available from the following institutions:
| Customised banking alert | Overdrawn fee alert | Fee incurring alert |
|---|---|---|
| B&E Personal Banking | Bank Australia | Bank of Melbourne |
| Bank Australia | Bank of Melbourne | BankSA |
| Bank of Melbourne | Bank of Sydney | Beyond Bank |
| BankSA | BankSA | Citi |
| Bankwest | Bankwest | Commonwealth Bank |
| bcu | Beyond Bank | Community First CU |
| Bendigo Bank | Big Sky Building Society | Defence Bank |
| Beyond Bank | Citi | Easy Street Fin Services |
| Big Sky Building Society | Commonwealth Bank | First Option Credit Union |
| Citi | Community First CU | P&N Bank |
| Commonwealth Bank | CUA | Regional Australia Bank |
| Community First CU | Defence Bank | Select Encompass Credit Union |
| CUA | Easy Street Fin Services | St.George Bank |
| Defence Bank | ING DIRECT | The Mutual |
| Easy Street Fin Services | P&N Bank | |
| ECU Australia | People’s Choice Credit Union | |
| First Option Credit Union | Regional Australia Bank | |
| Heritage Bank | St.George Bank | |
| Holiday Coast CU | Teachers Mutual Bank | |
| Horizon Credit Union | UniBank | |
| HSBC | ||
| ING DIRECT | ||
| Newcastle Permanent | ||
| P&N Bank | ||
| Queenslanders CU | ||
| Regional Australia Bank | ||
| Select Encompass Credit Union | ||
| St.George Bank | ||
| Suncorp Bank | ||
| The Capricornian | ||
| The Mutual | ||
| UBank | ||
| Victoria Teachers Mutual Bank | ||
| Source: www.canstar.com.au as of May 2017. | ||
Forget the PIN
Sick of having to remember different PIN numbers for each card, and then another for your mobile banking app? It’s probably why 39% of Australians told the Canstar Blue survey team that they never change their online banking passwords, with another 22% saying they change their password just once per year.
PIN numbers and passwords are a relatively secure method for logging into our mobile banking, but most of us find it difficult to store that many numbers in our memory.
Customers with many institutions now have one less PIN to remember. You can log into their mobile banking app by swiping a pattern, or using a fingerprint, voice recognition, or other biometric technology. This is now available with the following institutions:
| Fingerprint verification | PIN passcode |
|---|---|
| ANZ | AMP Bank |
| Australian Military Bank | ANZ |
| Bank Australia | Australian Military Bank |
| Bank of Melbourne | Auswide Bank |
| BankSA | B&E Personal Banking |
| Bankwest | Bank Australia |
| Bendigo Bank | Bank of Melbourne |
| Beyond Bank | BankSA |
| Big Sky Building Society | BankVic |
| Citi | Bankwest |
| Commonwealth Bank | Bendigo Bank |
| Defence Bank | Beyond Bank |
| First Option Credit Union | Big Sky Building Society |
| IMB | Commonwealth Bank |
| ING DIRECT | Community First CU |
| Macquarie Bank | CUA |
| ME | Defence Bank |
| My Credit Union | Easy Street Fin Services |
| NAB | ECU Australia |
| People’s Choice Credit Union | G&C Mutual Bank |
| Police Bank | Heritage Bank |
| Select Encompass Credit Union | Holiday Coast CU |
| St.George Bank | Hume Bank |
| Suncorp Bank | IMB |
| UBank | ING DIRECT |
| Westpac | Macquarie Bank |
| ME | |
| My Credit Union | |
| NAB | |
| People’s Choice Credit Union | |
| Police Bank | |
| QBANK | |
| Qudos Bank | |
| Queenslanders CU | |
| RaboDirect | |
| Regional Australia Bank | |
| Rural Bank Limited | |
| SCU | |
| Select Encompass Credit Union | |
| St.George Bank | |
| The Mac | |
| Transport Mutual Credit Union | |
| UBank | |
| Victoria Teachers Mutual Bank | |
| Westpac | |
| Woolworths Employees CU | |
| Source: www.canstar.com.au as of May 2017. | |
Budgeting and savings goals
Want to save more or spend less? Many institutions have a function in their mobile banking app that lets customers set specific savings goals.
For more help with saving money, the following institutions offer useful features in their mobile banking apps:
| Savings calculator | Set savings goal | Graph projected savings |
|---|---|---|
| AMP Bank | AMP Bank | Bendigo Bank |
| ANZ | Bank of Melbourne | Citi |
| Australian Military Bank | BankSA | |
| Auswide Bank | bcu | |
| B&E Personal Banking | Bendigo Bank | |
| Bank Australia | Catalyst Money | |
| BankVic | Illawarra CU NSW | |
| Bankwest | Regional Australia Bank | |
| bcu | St.George Bank | |
| Bendigo Bank | Suncorp Bank | |
| Beyond Bank | The Mutual | |
| Big Sky Building Society | Victoria Teachers Mutual Bank | |
| BOQ | ||
| Catalyst Money | ||
| Citi | ||
| Commonwealth Bank | ||
| Community First CU | ||
| CUA | ||
| Defence Bank | ||
| Easy Street Fin Services | ||
| ECU Australia | ||
| FCCS Credit Union | ||
| First Option Credit Union | ||
| Gateway Credit Union | ||
| Holiday Coast CU | ||
| Horizon Credit Union | ||
| HSBC | ||
| Hume Bank | ||
| Illawarra CU NSW | ||
| IMB | ||
| ING DIRECT | ||
| Macquarie Credit Union | ||
| My Credit Union | ||
| MyState | ||
| NAB | ||
| Newcastle Permanent | ||
| P&N Bank | ||
| People’s Choice Credit Union | ||
| Police Bank | ||
| QBANK | ||
| QT Mutual Bank | ||
| Qudos Bank | ||
| Queenslanders CU | ||
| Regional Australia Bank | ||
| Rural Bank Limited | ||
| Select Encompass Credit Union | ||
| Suncorp Bank | ||
| Teachers Mutual Bank | ||
| The Capricornian | ||
| The Mutual | ||
| UBank | ||
| UniBank | ||
| Victoria Teachers Mutual Bank | ||
| Westpac | ||
| Woolworths Employees CU | ||
| Source: www.canstar.com.au as of May 2017. | ||
It’s worth downloading an app and giving it a go, as studies have shown that tracking your spending in a mobile app such as the TrackMySpend app by ASIC is an excellent way to build your savings and stick to a budget.
To take it a step further, some mobile banking apps use machine learning technology (a basic form of artificial intelligence or AI) to automatically categorise users’ spending and tell them where they need to cut back. It’s not quite SkyNet, but it’s certainly making it easier than ever before to save money.
Some banks offer the ability to graph spending by category within their mobile banking app. A great example of this functionality is the Beyond Bank mobile banking app, which graphs your spending and can track all your expected upcoming expenses and expenses already paid that month on the app’s calendar.
Split the bill
In the past year, we’ve seen the launch of new options for splitting the bill. No more friends around the bar asking you to shout them every drink because they didn’t bring any cash, or housemates “forgetting” to send you their half of the sharehouse rent.
The Cashper app, an Australian app launched in 2016, only needs a person’s mobile phone number or email address to make splitting the bill with cardless payments easy.
In 2015 we saw the launch of Australia’s first integrated bill sharing and mobile payment app: the BillSplitter app by Suncorp Bank, which won a Canstar Innovation Excellence Award in 2016. Within its first year, BillSplitter saw 5,295 bills split, with a total of $1.4 million have been shared and paid by users using the app (Suncorp).
Then there’s the Splitwise app, which launched in 2011 and has recently been gaining in popularity.
Pay your bill by taking a photo
In 2016, CommBank followed in the footsteps of the big European banks by launching the Photo-a-bill function. Apple smartphone users can now use the CommBank mobile banking app to BPAY a bill simply by taking a photo of the invoice with their smartphone’s camera.
Pay someone with their mobile number
Need to pay someone but don’t have their BSB number and account number? Never fear – if you have their mobile number, you could be all set.
Pay-to-mobile functions are becoming more common via the big banks’ mobile banking apps, with many other institutions also offer this function these days:
| Pay via mobile number |
|---|
| ANZ |
| Bank of Melbourne |
| BankSA |
| BankVic |
| bcu |
| Big Sky Building Society |
| Commonwealth Bank |
| Community First CU |
| Defence Bank |
| Easy Street Fin Services |
| FCCS Credit Union |
| NAB |
| People’s Choice Credit Union |
| Police Bank |
| QBANK |
| St.George Bank |
| Suncorp Bank |
| Teachers Mutual Bank |
| The Capricornian |
| UniBank |
| Westpac |
| Woolworths Employees CU |
| Source: www.canstar.com.au as of May 2017. |
If you’re not with a big bank, there are other free apps available for pay-to-mobile, such as PayPal.Me, PayMate, eWay and POLi, and Pingit.
Many freelancers use alternative payment methods such as PayPal.Me or PayPal Pay Anyone because it has many advantages over using bank account details:
- Secure: PayPal keeps your bank details secure and you don’t have to list your personal bank account numbers at the bottom of every invoice you send.
- Convenient: There’s less risk your client will send money to the wrong person by mistyping a bank account number.
Automatic favourite transfers
Thanks to the latest machine learning technology, many mobile banking apps can now analyse your spending and saving behaviour and automatically create common transfers for the moves you make regularly.
At present, there are just a few institutions that offer this, but we expect the number who offer this functionality to grow in the years to come.
| Auto-categorised spending behaviour |
|---|
| Beyond Bank |
| Citi |
| Macquarie Bank |
| Source: www.canstar.com.au as of May 2017. |
For example, Bendigo Bank’s Common Transfers function makes recurring transfers easier with their mobile banking app. Customers don’t need to do anything; the app analyses their behaviour and identifies the most common transfers they use.
Bendigo Bank’s research showed that overwhelmingly, customers with credit cards made a common transfer every month to repay their credit card balance using a savings or transaction account. So the app will automatically create a “Savings > Credit Card” transfer as an easy way for you to avoid a late payment fee on your credit card.
In the first month following the release of this function in early March 2016, Bendigo Bank saw over 15,000 common transfers made by customers.
In app identity verification
Don’t you hate having to go through ten thousand questions every time you phone your bank? Please list your full name, your date of birth, your home address…
Oh sorry, you’re on the bus and don’t want to answer all those personal questions? You’ll have to phone back later – but during business hours, of course.
At last, the solution has arrived! St.George Bank has developed the Connect call verification method. Once you’ve logged into the app, you can call St.George directly using the app and the person answering your call will already know who you are.
St.George Bank says this saves at least 2 minutes in being identified, and you don’t have answer those annoying questions.
| Auto-verification over the phone |
|---|
| ANZ |
| Bank of Melbourne |
| BankSA |
| Big Sky Building Society |
| Commonwealth Bank |
| nabtrade |
| SERVICE ONE Alliance Bank |
| The Mutual |
| Source: www.canstar.com.au as of May 2017. |
Face-to-face video call app
When you need financial advice but you live far from any bank branches, or you just don’t have time to go in person, a face-to-face video call may be the option.
Member-owned institution Defence Bank have become the first to introduce face-to-face banking through the Video Call App. The face-to-face function means that Defence members posted or transferred to remote locations can access financial advice across a range of banking services whenever they have reception.
Token-less secondary authentication
Remember when you used to have to carry around a physical Security Token for secondary authentication wherever you went, just in case you needed to make a payment or transfer? Now that is one less device you need to carry around.
Many banks including the Bank of Queensland allows customers to simply use the mobile banking app to generate a secondary authentication code.
Take a photo
Most insurance claim apps now let you take a photo within the app to submit with your claim, and the banks are taking note! Many mobile banking apps, such as HSBC’s, now allow you to take a photo within the app to submit paperless documentation to go with your online applications for products.
This can make applying for products that need a lot of documentation, such as credit cards and home loans, much quicker and easier.
Keeping work life and personal life separate
Want to be able to view your business expenses and your personal expenses in one mobile banking app – but still want to be able to keep them separate? No biggie.
Thanks to customer feedback, IMB’s mobile banking app now allows customers who manage multiple “entities” with IMB to switch between entities within the app. This means that business owners or those who operate work credit cards can now switch easily between viewing their work accounts and personal accounts.
And if your business and personal accounts aren’t already kept separate, here’s a few reasons why they should be.
Make an appointment
Using online banking, customers can set up an appointment at a branch or with a BankVic financial planner entirely online. The system will send the customer a confirmation of the appointment and a reminder text the day before the appointment.
Find an ATM
For the occasional days when you need cash, most mobile banking apps now offer a location services tool to help you find the nearest ATM or branch. So you’ll never need to pay the fee to use someone else’s ATM again.
At the time of writing, different institutions allow you to search for the nearest ATM or branch by either your current location or a particular postcode or suburb:
| Search by current location | Search by postcode/suburb |
|---|---|
| AMP Bank | AMP Bank |
| ANZ | ANZ |
| Australian Military Bank | Australian Military Bank |
| Auswide Bank | Auswide Bank |
| B&E Personal Banking | B&E Personal Banking |
| Bank Australia | Bank Australia |
| Bank of Melbourne | Bank of Melbourne |
| Bank of Sydney | Bank of Sydney |
| BankSA | BankSA |
| BankVic | Bankwest |
| Bankwest | bcu |
| bcu | Bendigo Bank |
| Bendigo Bank | Beyond Bank |
| Beyond Bank | Big Sky Building Society |
| Big Sky Building Society | BOQ |
| BOQ | Commonwealth Bank |
| Citi | Community First CU |
| Commonwealth Bank | CUA |
| Community First CU | Defence Bank |
| CUA | Easy Street Fin Services |
| Defence Bank | ECU Australia |
| Delphi Bank | FCCS Credit Union |
| FCCS Credit Union | First Option Credit Union |
| First Option Credit Union | G&C Mutual Bank |
| G&C Mutual Bank | Gateway Credit Union |
| Gateway Credit Union | Heritage Bank |
| Heritage Bank | Holiday Coast CU |
| Holiday Coast CU | Horizon Credit Union |
| Horizon Credit Union | HSBC |
| HSBC | Hume Bank |
| Hume Bank | IMB |
| IMB | Macquarie Credit Union |
| ING DIRECT | ME |
| Macquarie Bank | My Credit Union |
| ME | NAB |
| MyState | Newcastle Permanent |
| NAB | P&N Bank |
| Newcastle Permanent | People’s Choice Credit Union |
| People’s Choice Credit Union | Police Bank |
| Police Bank | QBANK |
| QBANK | QT Mutual Bank |
| Qudos Bank | Qudos Bank |
| Regional Australia Bank | Queenslanders CU |
| SCU | Regional Australia Bank |
| Select Encompass Credit Union | Rural Bank Limited |
| St.George Bank | Select Encompass Credit Union |
| Suncorp Bank | St.George Bank |
| Teachers Mutual Bank | Suncorp Bank |
| The Mac | Teachers Mutual Bank |
| The Mutual | The Capricornian |
| The Rock | The Mac |
| UBank | The Mutual |
| UniBank | UBank |
| Victoria Teachers Mutual Bank | UniBank |
| Westpac | Victoria Teachers Mutual Bank |
| Woolworths Employees CU | Westpac |
| Woolworths Employees CU | |
| Source: www.canstar.com.au as of May 2017. | |
Oh, and here’s how to avoid other types of ATM fees, as well – and while we’re at it, our guide for how to get fee-free banking in Australia.
Find the mobile banking app that’s right for you with Canstar’s latest star ratings:
Discover more trends everyone needs to know about when it comes to online banking in 2017, with our latest star ratings report: