How Savings Planner compares products.
This page explains which products the site includes, how rankings and shortlists are framed, what sources support the data, and where the limits of the methodology sit.
Coverage and product inclusion
Savings Planner focuses on Australian savings products that are actively tracked in the site's published product dataset. Inclusion depends on whether the product can be identified, reviewed, and represented with enough confidence using the site's current data model.
This is not a whole-of-market guarantee. A product may be excluded if it is inactive, cannot be modelled cleanly, or is still being verified.
How estimated interest is calculated
Every product is stored as a rate model, not just a headline number. For a bonus-rate account the model has a base rate, a bonus rate and a bonus cap, and the estimate for a 12-month period is: estimated interest = balance × base rate + min(balance, bonus cap) × bonus rate. The base rate applies to the whole balance; the bonus applies only up to the cap.
Worked example: a product with a 0.05% base rate, a 5.45% bonus rate and a $100,000 bonus cap, holding $150,000 for 12 months, earns $150,000 × 0.05% + $100,000 × 5.45% = $75 + $5,450 = $5,525. That is an effective rate of 3.68% p.a. on the full balance, even though the advertised rate is 5.50% p.a. This gap between advertised and effective rate is the main reason the planner ranks by estimated interest rather than by headline rate.
Tiered accounts are calculated slice by slice when the bank pays each tier on its own portion (marginal), or on the whole balance at the rate of the tier reached (whole balance). The two are never collapsed into one another. Cashback and other promotions are shown but never added to interest.
Intro rates are pro-rated, never stretched
An introductory rate counts only for the months it actually runs, capped at the period you asked about. For a 4-month intro on a 12-month view, the estimate is the intro model for 4 months plus the ongoing model for the remaining 8, each scaled by months ÷ 12. An intro that is limited to new customers is ignored when you tell the planner you already bank there.
Bonus caps and tiers
When a balance exceeds a bonus cap, the portion above the cap earns the base rate only. That is why, above the cap, a split across two accounts usually earns more than leaving everything in the account with the highest advertised rate. The planner tests that split explicitly rather than assuming one account is always best.
How the planner builds a setup
For your balance, age and time frame, the planner first removes products you are not eligible for, then applies any condition filters you set (for example, no monthly deposit rule). It then searches combinations of at most two products, allocating your balance between them, and keeps the combination with the highest total estimated interest. A second, simpler plan prefers fewer accounts, and a no-hoops plan only uses products with no monthly conditions.
Rankings assume every bonus condition is met for the full period. A product that pays its bonus one month after the condition is first met is estimated with that lag in the first year.
What a missed month costs
If you miss a monthly condition, that month usually earns the base rate only. On the example above, one missed month on $100,000 costs roughly $100,000 × (5.45% − 0%) ÷ 12 ≈ $454 of bonus interest. That single month can outweigh a whole year's advantage over a slightly lower rate with no conditions, which is why the site shows both the top rate and the top no-conditions rate side by side.
How often the data is refreshed
A pipeline re-reads the official bank product pages of every tracked bank every day and flags anything that changed. A person reviews each flagged change against the bank's page before the published dataset is updated; nothing is written to the live dataset automatically. Every product carries the date it was last verified, and every guide states the date of the data it was built from.
The verification date shows when our record was last confirmed, not a guarantee that the bank has not changed the product since. The official bank page is always the final source of truth.
Tax, deposit protection and what we do not model
All estimates are before tax. Interest on savings is taxable income in Australia at your marginal rate, and the planner does not know your tax position. Deposits with Australian ADIs are protected by the government's Financial Claims Scheme up to $250,000 per account holder per ADI; the business planner can cap allocations at that limit, the personal planner shows the setup and leaves the choice to you.
The planner does not model fees on linked transaction accounts, the time it takes to open an account, interest credited on a different day than it accrues, or changes a bank makes after our last verification. Methodology summaries are general information only, not personal financial advice.