Commonwealth MISA minimum deposit

[Jake D]

This is a pretty specific question for anyone who knows or uses Commonwealth Bank and their MISA product.

I have a mortgage with CBA on my PPOR which I was planning on setting up a MISA with. I went to the branch, had a chat, took home paper work to sign, then after about a month of forgetting to take the paperwork with me when i left home in the morning, decided I couldn't be bothered with it and never proceeded.

Yesterday, Netbank was down temporarily. When it came back online, using my phone to browse, a MISA account showed up in my available "to" accounts for transferring. This weren't visible in netbank via a desktop web browser. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I transferred $1. Voila, the account now shows up on the desktop browser with a balance of $1.

Everything I can find on CBA's website tells me they have a minimum transaction of $500 in or out, and a minimum initial deposit of $1000, so this shouldn't really have been possible.

Does anyone have a MISA account and have experience depositing less than $500? Or making an initial deposit less than $1000? I don't want to make a larger deposit straight away to test in case it disappears. I imagine holding a small balance is OK, as they have a line on their productr information that says something like "balance must be over $1000 for offset to take effect"

What is the likelihood of CBA realising their error and closing the account? Probably more likely to just let it slide and/or make me fill out the paper work again, right? (slight pain in the bum as I need 4 signatures)

If it hangs around for a while without disappearing with my $1 I'll dump a bunch of savings in there.

 

[Jonril]

When we set ours up there was no option on netbank until we had activated the misa's with $1000 intial branch/phone transfer from another account.

Don't know if this has changed since we established them 1-2 years ago.

We always make transfer's in the $1000's so haven't tested the minimums.

 

[Jake D]

I just dropped into the branch on my lunch break. The kid I spoke to had no idea why it suddenly opened. He also didn't seem able to confirm whether I would be able to continue to make <$500 deposits. Although he did give me the confidence that it wasn't going to close just as suddenly.

I get paid on a weekly basis, after bills and budgeting, I have an excess of a couple of hundred bucks which I drop into savings each week. If I could drop them straight into the MISA without having to hold them somewhere until I have $500 that would be pretty convenient.

 

[jonmardell]

this is one thing i dont like about the cba package. there are much better transactional offset accounts out there with no minimums.

I just dropped into the branch on my lunch break. The kid I spoke to had no idea why it suddenly opened. He also didn't seem able to confirm whether I would be able to continue to make <$500 deposits. Although he did give me the confidence that it wasn't going to close just as suddenly.

I get paid on a weekly basis, after bills and budgeting, I have an excess of a couple of hundred bucks which I drop into savings each week. If I could drop them straight into the MISA without having to hold them somewhere until I have $500 that would be pretty convenient.

 

[Jake D]

Yes but for the forseeable future I'm stuck with my mortgage at CBA, so I'm making the best of a bad situation.

 

[Jake D]

Oh hey, look what I just found.

https://www.commbroker.com.au/Net/D...edge/edge-2012/June-2012/edge-june-130612.pdf

It would be awesome if the bank staff had known about this when I went in to enquire. Can't expect too much from a customer service officer on minimum wage though, I guess.

Edit: Don't know it didn't turn up in my googling before lunch. I don't think I changed the search terms that significantly.

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

It's a new thing they're doing with the MISA account as the document you found indicates. In the past, the initial deposit and branch process needed to open the account was a big roadblock to brokers being able to set one up (dispite it being reasonably easy for us to set up everything else).

Notice that the website is 'commbroker', not 'cba'. Shouldn't make a difference to the borrower though.

 

[Jake D]

Well I'm glad it happened.
How bad is it that it's only my laziness that stopped me already having one?

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

Not as bad as the fact that brokers have been asking CBA for a real offset account for over a decade.

 

[Jamie M]

The MISA is a bit of a pain but with a little creativity you can get around the minimum transfer amounts. It also has it's own BSB and Account # so you can arrange for funds to be deposited into it. I've used one for years without too many dramas.

Cheers

Jamie

 

[Jake D]

According to that pdf, it just got slightly less painful. The requirement for a minimum deposit has been removed. (Now all I need is no minimum withdrawal and b-pay and I'm set.)

 

[The Fence]

I didnt know that $1000 or more balance is required in MISA to get full offset...!!

 

[pb344]

According to that pdf, it just got slightly less painful. The requirement for a minimum deposit has been removed. (Now all I need is no minimum withdrawal and b-pay and I'm set.)

just withdraw $500 and deposit back what you don't use. i do it through kaching and the transfers happen straight away.

would be nice if they just made it a full transactional offset account though

 

[matto_]

I think the account is there, but you only"see it"when it had over 1k in it?

 

[SuiCid3]

I was always under the impression that the MISA account WAS the home loan account....

And it still is I believe... the account numbers are exactly the same as each other..

 

[Jake D]

I can't log in to check right now but I believe they have different BSB numbers.