News

Changes to our Terms & Conditions and Fees & Charges

We have updated our Account & Access Facility Terms & Conditions and our Schedule of Fees & Charges documents, effective 22 February 2024. To help you understand the changes that may affect you, we’ve provided a summary of the key changes below.  

 

Account & Access Facility Terms & Conditions 

We have reformatted this document to make it easier to read and clearer to understand: 

• What transaction and savings accounts are available and how they work,  
• What access facilities are available to each account, how you use them, daily transaction limits and any specific conditions, 
• Your obligations to protect your accounts, and 
• How we’ll communicate with you about any changes.  

More specifically, we’ve highlighted that cheques will no longer be available as an access facility, including bank cheques, from 29 March 2024. We’ve also updated the term deposit early withdrawal fee calculation to the benefit of our members, by introducing additional tiers for how much your interest rate will be reduced based on the term remaining.  

 

Schedule of Fees & Charges 

Military Rewards Account 

We have removed the $4 monthly account keeping as well as the EFTPOS, BPAY, Direct Debit and External Transfer transaction fees from our Military Rewards account.  

Cheque Facilities 

Highlighted the cheque related fees that will no longer apply from 29 March 2024, once cheques are no longer available as an access facility. 

Overseas Telegraphic Transfer Fees  

The fee for telegraphic transfers in Australian Dollars has been updated. 

Term Deposits 

We’ve included the term deposit early withdrawal fee calculation, which was previously only documented in the Account & Access Facilities Terms & Conditions.  

Home and Investment Loans Fees 

New home loan processing fee will be reduced, whilst selected other home loan related fees such as loan variations have been updated to reflect our fee and highlight when third party costs may be incurred. We have introduced two new fees for new home loans:  

• Rate Lock fee (to lock in a fixed rate interest rate between formal contract approval and your settlement), and 
• Document Re-issue fee (if you make changes to your home loan application after formal approval and we need to re-issue your home loan contract again).  

The early loan repayment fee for variable home loans taken out prior to 1 July 2011 has been removed. We have included the fixed rate home loan break cost calculation for your reference (which is also included in your home loan contract). 

 

What do you need to do? 

There is nothing you need to do now; however we encourage you to read the updated documents on our website here as you are bound by these Terms & Conditions by continuing to operate your accounts. 

 

Any questions? 

If you have any questions, please call us on 1300 13 23 28 (Monday to Friday, 8.00am – 6.00pm and Saturday 9.00am – 12.00pm AEST) or email us on service@australianmilitarybank.com.au. 

Important changes to cheques

The use of paper cheques has significantly declined in Australia, with the Australian Payments Network reporting that cheque use has dropped by 83% over the last 10 years. With the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating the use of digital banking and the decline of paper payment methods, electronic payment alternatives are being utilised.

Like many banks, Australian Military Bank (AMB) uses the services of a third-party payments aggregator to process cheques. Our provider recently announced that due to this lessening demand, alongside increasing costs, they will no longer be able to offer a cheque processing service. 

From 29 March 2024, the following changes to cheque services will apply: 

• AMB will no longer be issuing bank cheques 
• Cheques will no longer be able to be deposited over the counter in AMB branches 
• Existing AMB cheque books will no longer be able to be used (and new cheque books cannot be ordered)
• Any unused cheque books in your possession should be destroyed

You will still be able to deposit a cheque into your AMB account by using the Bank@Post cheque deposit service for free via the Australia Post Network. Please visit the Bank@Post website to find your closest participating post office, and refer to our Cheque FAQs for further information about the service. 

To support our member's needs, we do have a range of digital alternatives to cheques, including: 

• Credit and debit cards 
• Electronic funds transfer (EFT) via internet banking and the AMB mobile app 
• Direct Debit – Setting up regular bills using your account number and BSB to debit your account 
• BPAY – Paying your bills using a BPAY biller code 
• PayID – Sending and Receiving payments using your mobile number or email address
• PayTo – for real time direct debit payments 

We understand these changes may be hard to navigate and inconvenient. If you have any questions, please visit a branch or call our team on 1300 13 23 28 (Monday to Friday 8am-6pm and Saturday 9am - 12pm AEST).  

Holiday Schedule 2023-24

We wish you and your family a happy and safe holiday season.  

Member Service Centre

Our Member Service Centre will be closed on the Christmas and New Year public holidays, 25th, 26th December, and 1st January 2024.

Other opening hours will remain the same during the break. You can contact us on 1300 13 23 28 between 8am and 6pm (AEDST), Monday to Friday and between 9am and 12noon (AEDST), Saturday.

Alternatively, you can email service@australianmilitarybank.com.au.

Read the full list of opening hours here.

Australian Military Bank Annual General Meeting 2023 - Results

Australian Military Bank's 64th Annual General Meeting was held on Wednesday, 29 November, 2023 in Sydney and via live audio cast with 63 members in attendance.

Two resolutions were carried by members and their proxies at the meeting. These resolutions were:

1. Directors’ Remuneration - Approval was given for the maximum aggregate remuneration of the Elected Directors to be $503,490 per financial year commencing in the current financial year ending 30 June 2024.  

2. Adoption of a new Constitution – The Bank’s new Constitution was approved

We would like to thank all those in attendance as well as all our members for their continued support for the Bank.

Detailed voting results are available here 

Australian Military Bank Interest Rate Announcement

Following the announcement by the RBA on 7 November 2023 to lift the cash rate, Australian Military Bank will be making changes to a number of loan and deposit products.

Variable home and investment loan interest rates (including DHOAS) will be increased by 0.25% p.a. effective 21 November 2023, with repayments to change from 19 December 2023. This will apply to all new and existing variable rate loans. Members with a change to their repayments will receive communication confirming their new repayments.

We will also be increasing the rates on selected savings accounts. New and existing account holders will be able to earn up to 4.50%* with our Online Saver and 4.15% with our DIY Super Saver. These changes will be effective by 1 December 2023 and 17 November respectively. We’ve also recently increased our term deposit rates, with members now able to earn 5.05% for 10-12 month terms.

We understand that successive increases to interest rates will impact our members with variable rate home loans. We encourage our members who may be experiencing difficulty in meeting their repayments to contact us on 1300 13 23 28 to discuss how we can assist.

* Online Saver accounts earn a base rate of 0.10% each month for balances between $0 and $500,000, with a bonus 4.40% earned if you don’t make any withdrawals during the month.

Australian Military Bank announces Alan Bardwell as new Chair of Board

Group Captain John Brooks (Retd) has made the decision to retire as the Chair of the Australian Military Bank Board effective 1 July 2023. The Australian Military Bank is pleased to announce that the Board has appointed Alan Bardwell as the new Chair.

Read media release here

 

Update to Terms and Conditions

We have updated our Terms and Conditions for Accounts and Access Facilities effective 13 June 2023.  The key updates include changes to how we may verify your identity, how we perform account monitoring, and how you may use cheques. We have also updated the Recruit Salary Saver account product on the account eligibility and the minimum opening balance required.

Australian Military Bank Interest Rate Announcement

Following the announcement by the RBA on 6 June 2023 to lift the cash rate, Australian Military Bank will be making changes to a number of loan and deposit products.

Variable home and investment loan interest rates (including DHOAS) will be increased by 0.25% p.a. effective 20 June 2023, with repayments to change from 18 July 2023. This will apply to all new and existing variable rate loans. Members with a change to repayments will receive communication confirming their new repayments.

We are also increasing the bonus rate by 0.25% on our Online Saver to a maximum rate of 4.25% (effective 1 July 2023), and our DIY Super Saver to a new rate of 3.90% (effective 15 June 2023), which will be passed on to our existing members. New Term Deposit specials of 4.90% for 12 – 17 month Term Deposits will be available from 15 June 2023.

We understand that successive increases to interest rates will impact our members with variable rate home loans. We encourage our members who may be experiencing difficulty in meeting their repayments to contact us on 1300 13 23 28 to discuss how we can assist.

Urgent scam warning for our members

AMB is aware of scam calls to our members where scammers pretend to be calling from the AMB Fraud Team and inform members that their account has been compromised. The scammers are also known to ask members for their account information, card details and one-time passwords. Please note this is a scam.

AMB will never ask a member for their account details or one-time passwords. The one-time passwords sent to a member’s registered mobile phone or emails must never be shared, even with AMB.

Please visit our Blog for more details on how to protect yourself.

Australian Military Bank Interest Rate Announcement

Following the announcement by the RBA on 2 May 2023 to lift the cash rate, Australian Military Bank will be making changes to a number of loan and deposit products. 

Interest rates for 2, 3 and 5 year fixed rate home and investment loans will be reduced by 0.55% p.a, 0.40% p.a and 0.20% p.a respectively, effective 9 May. This will apply to all new fixed rate home and investment loans. 

We are also increasing the bonus rate by 0.25% on our Online Saver to a maximum rate of 4.00% (effective 1 June), our DIY Super Saver to a new rate of 3.65% (effective 9 May) which will be passed on to our existing members. New Term Deposit specials of 4.50% for 5 to 9 month Term Deposits will be available from 9 May.  

Variable home and investment loan interest rates (including DHOAS) will be increasing by 0.25% p.a. effective 16 May, with repayments to change from 14 June. This will apply to all new and existing variable rate loans. Members with a change to repayments will receive communication confirming their new repayments. 

We understand that successive increases to interest rates will impact our members with variable rate home loans. We encourage our members who may be experiencing difficulty in meeting their repayments to contact us on 1300 13 23 28 to discuss how we can assist.