Heartland bank accounts any good?
Hello,
Is it worth the trouble setting up bank accounts with Heartland Bank for storing and accessing emergency funds?
I'm looking to setup a YouChoose and Digital Saver account with Heartland Bank for their 0.5% and 2.05% p.a. interests.
I am currently with Westpac and am aware of their 32-day notice saver PIE, but wondering if going with Heartland to store some of my emergency funds would be worth it. For now I am using Kernel's Cash Plus fund to store roughly $10K of my emergency funds despite slightly lower interest rate (2.97% vs 3.00%) and also thinking of using their Smart Save (2.25% + DCS) for a more accessible kind of emergency funds, but I'm not sure if making another account with a different bank and slightly lower interest rate (2.05% p.a.) with better accessibility/transfer time (e.g. Digital Saver to YouChoose vs 1-5 business days with Kernel) is worth it with a bank that has BBB credit rating and tiny number of branches.
I understand that BBB credit rating means the bank is more likely to be at risk of defaulting than an AA- and there exists Depositor Compensation Scheme that guarantees $100K to be returned to you in case the bank collapses. But for day to day stuff and like transferring money to family and paying for groceries/utilities, I'm not sure how this rating plays e.g. does higher rating mean they are more reliable when I need to pay for stuff or access my funds online?
Happy for anyone to give me perspective on their experiences with this bank. So far I have not experienced anything bad with Westpac (don't own have any loans + live with parents) except for that one time where I forgot my pin and password when I was at year 9 lol. I'm just not very happy with their Everyday Account that give a tiny 0.05% and Bonus Saver accounts earning 1.25% p.a. provided you do not miss transferring $20 every month to keep you balance up by that amount and virtually never withdraw (if I understand this correctly?). I'm thinking their their PIE 32-day notice (3%) is very slow to take money from when you can get almost the same returns with Kernel's Cash PIE (both not DCS covered, I believe).
I'm also keen to hear from people who have experiences with similar banks that have low credit ratings and don't have a lot of branches but give decent rates e.g. are you happy banking with them and do you miss not having branches to fallback on?
I feel I should just keep things simple and stick with Westpac + Kernel for my emergency funds. e.g. Keep ~$5-$10K on hand with Westpac and store the rest in Kernel's save/cash funds, as I already have a good amount of money with them, but I'm open to suggestions too.
Thanks