Bigbank's New Savings Account Lets Your Money Stay Liquid While You Earn 2.5% Interest
Bigbank's new savings account is a flexible solution that allows customers to earn the market's best interest rate of 2.5% on their savings and, with three days' notice, withdraw all their money without losing the interest earned so far.
According to Jonna Pechter, head of Bigbank Estonia, the new savings account was developed for private individuals to offer customers an attractive solution that would combine the opportunity to earn reasonable interest on their deposits without having to lock their money into a fixed-term deposit for a longer period.
"With the new savings account, we want to draw people's attention to the fact that most Estonian private clients' deposits are still held in large universal banks in regular accounts, which mostly pay no interest at all," Pechter explained. "At the same time, many people are forced by circumstances to be quite conservative about locking their money into fixed-term deposits for longer periods, because you never know when you might need money in difficult economic times. Or conversely – you might be looking for a suitable new home, for example, but don't want to let the down payment money just sit idle," he added.
With Bigbank's innovative savings account, a customer can, with three days' notice, withdraw all their money without any additional costs if needed, while also keeping the interest earned so far. Compared to a fixed-term deposit, the customer also doesn't have to worry about getting the best offer – if interest rates rise, they rise for everyone equally and automatically, and the customer doesn't have to do anything on their part. Opening a savings account with Bigbank does not incur any service fees or costs for the customer, nor is there a minimum amount required to open the account. Like all bank deposits in Estonia, the savings account is also insured up to 100,000 euros by the state Deposit Guarantee Fund.
Bigbank has been offering savings accounts in the German, Austrian, and Dutch markets since early 2020. The product has been popular with customers and has received considerable positive feedback as a good opportunity to earn significantly better interest on money that is essentially sitting in a current account compared to what "home banks" offer. As of May this year, the bank is also offering the savings account product in the Finnish market.
As of the end of the half-year, Bigbank's deposit portfolio totaled 1.6 billion euros, with savings accounts accounting for 721 million euros of this, growing by 94 million euros in the last six months (+15%).
