ubank Review 2025 (Spending + Savings + App Experience)

I've been using uBank for over a decade now, and it's been fascinating to watch its evolution.

When I first signed up, I was drawn in by their competitive savings rates, but the digital experience left a lot to be desired.

Everything changed in 2022 when uBank merged with neobank 86400.

This marriage combined uBank's excellent rates with 86400's slick digital interface—and the result has been impressive.

Since then I've ramped up my use of uBank and found that they are fast becoming a great alternative to the big banks and they're constantly looking to upgrade and improve the way you bank on a phone.

In this comprehensive review for 2024, I'll cover:

• What makes ubank different from traditional banks
• The key features of the app and how they work
• Who will benefit most from switching to ubank
• How ubank compares to other digital banks
• The pros and cons you need to know before signing up

But is uBank right for you in 2025?

With so many digital banking options now available, it's worth diving deeper into what makes uBank stand out (or fall short).

In this review, I'll share my real-world experience using it for everyday banking and help you decide if it's worth making the switch.

What Is ubank? The Digital Banking Revolution

ubank was created in the early 2000s by NAB (National Australia Bank) as a cheaper, faster, more digital-focused option of banking.

ubank's main perk for customers was their very competitive interest rates.

Their home loan rates were very low, and their savings account rates were high.

The problem I found as a customer was the interface was a bit lacking and while the product (rates) was fantastic, the experience was not as much.

It all changed in 2022 when uBank merged with the startup bank 86400.

Combining the great rates and offers of uBank with the beautiful digital experience of 86400, we now have one the two strongest offers of everyday banking in Australia.

uBank is a banking experience built for your phone, but also comes with all the features you'd expect from a traditional bank. It's modern, interesting, and helpful for those needing everyday banking.

Is ubank safe? Absolutely. As a subsidiary of NAB, one of Australia's “Big Four” banks, your deposits with ubank are protected under the government's Financial Claims Scheme up to $250,000.

Ubank in 2025: Review of features

For this review, I ran through some simple banking tasks on both the uBank app and desktop to see how it fares in comparison to popular alternatives like Up Bank, ING, and the Big Four.

I've been a user of uBank for nearly 10 years but got interested in being a regular user of their products once they merged with 86400.

From here on out, I'll share my experiences using the bank, as well as what I liked and didn't like along the way.

Spending: The bread and butter of ubank

uBank has been really well designed in that it knows you are going to be spending money so it tries to create as much ability for you to do that.

Once you open an account with them they instantly give you a digital card to use. This is good to go straight away via the app meaning you can copy the numbers if using it online or attach it to your Apple Pay for Google Pay accounts. No more waiting for a card to come in the mail.

Speaking of cards – it's a bright neon teal type colour, so you won't be confused about which one it is in your wallet (wallet app).

uBank also provides a simpler, clearer list of your recent transactions when you spend.

Logos appear next to the listed transaction, with a clear title. This means you're less likely to be seeing BUSINESS 123 PTY LTD in your list and actually know what you spent and where.

This seemingly small feature makes a huge difference when reviewing your spending.

Instead of trying to decipher cryptic merchant names, you immediately recognize where your money went—making budgeting and expense tracking significantly easier.

Another thing ubank will do to your spending is categorise it automatically for you.

Over time, each expense you make contributes to what's called the “spending footprint“. This is a summary view of your expenses broken down by category. What's neat is that it can be viewed weekly, fortnightly, or monthly starting at any date. You can align it with when you get paid so it can give you a snapshot of exactly how you spend during that period.

More on this later.

Bigger banks have tried to setup this kind of spending insights but I've found uBank does it in a way that makes it something you can quickly understand without overwhelming you.

Savings: Australia's best interest rates going around?

Many of us love to chase interest rates when deciding on which bank to use. If that's you then you would have heard of ubank.

The reason I signed up to uBank and the reason I've used them for years is their rates. Higher than most and on the cusp of top-tier interest. As of March 2025, uBank offers one of the highest interest rates for savings accounts at 5.25%.

There are some requirements to claim the full interest rate with uBank, but it isn't much. All you need to do is add $200.

Compare this to some competitors who require you to deposit $1000+ and complete multiple transactions each month to qualify for bonus rates.

uBank keeps it simple – just $200 a month, and you don't even need to use it as your primary spending account.

This makes it a great option for an emergency fund or side savings account you don't want to touch or have connected to spending.

Another aspect of ubank that I've consistently appreciated is that they typically adjust their rates nearly within 24 hours of RBA announcements. 

This quick response is something I've noticed consistently, whether rates are moving up or down.

Use Ubank's insights to finally understand what you do with your money

While most banks tend to just provide you with a summary of what transactions you've made, ubank tries to help you a bit further.

As mentioned, each expense is added to your “Spending Footprint” which is a way of categorising what you've spent.

I've tried several banks' spending categorisation features, and  it looks like ubank is doing it particularly well.

Considering it's a mobile-first banking experience, the spending footprint is quite easy to navigate.

The result is a different way to look at your spending. Rather than the stock standard chronological list of expenses in order of date, you can look at what you've spent based on three categories:

• Treat Yourself – the more impulse, non essential spends
• Essentials – like your fixed expenses for living
• Finance and repayments – for loans or repayments

This approach helps you quickly identify where your money actually goes. Many people are shocked to discover how much they spend on non-essentials—information that's crucial for effective budgeting.

It doesn't look like you can edit these main categories, meaning you have to stick with your money being aligned to what is in those groups. What you can do is move an individual expense to a different sub-category.

Over time the app will work out what you think is entertainment or transport spending for example and group those costs in the right place.

From there, you can simply tap on a category and find all the charges made in that area on one screen. 

A more effective way to find an expense or confirm what you spent as opposed to scrolling through a calender of spending.

See All Your Finances in One Place

Yep, you can connect your credit cards, home loans, or other transaction accounts into ubank so you can see a summary of them all in one place.

This combines some of those other tools like PocketSmith or a budgeting app to see that broad view of everything you own financially in one place.

Note that you can't actually do any banking with your external accounts, it's for viewing only but you can see all the transactions for those accounts in the ubank interface.

But is it any good? Well yeah it is.

The way I used it was to bring in my regular spending accounts from ING and my home loan from Macquarie.

Seeing all those accounts in one app makes it easier to quickly understand what's happening with my accounts.

This is all app experience exclusive but brings another dimension to ubank.

You could even use the bank as a clean way to look at your bank accounts, even if you never do any regular banking with ubank.

In terms of security – how does this work?

It uses Frollo which runs Open Banking API.

No data should be held by uBank or the service as it is only displaying what is showing in your source banking apps.

You will need to login to your other bank accounts to connect them via the ubank app.

The ubank app experience

ubank is an app-focused experience and is worth talking more about this.

This is different from the traditional banks that have a desktop experience plus an app.

An app-first experience means you will find more features on the phone than on the desktop version.

The spending insights, making payments, and scrolling through your transactions are all nicely viewed on the app.

Also prevalent are the notifications and updates you will receive. When opening an account you'll get notifications to set up your Apple Pay or Google Pay accounts if you like, creating your PayID for fast transfers or what you can customise in the app.

The app's intuitive design makes banking tasks simple. Whether you're checking balances, transferring money, or analyzing your spending patterns, everything is accessible within 1-2 taps. The interface uses large, readable text and clear visual cues, making it suitable for users of all ages and tech comfort levels.

In terms of customising the ubank app experience, there are a few handy features

• Personalise the home screen and what order things appear or whether they do at all
• Appearance – either default light or dark mode
• Push notification – toggle on and off things like messages for payments, updates, low balances etc
• Lock your card, change pin or report al lost/stolen card

These are all features only available with the app right now. The app options are not available in the desktop version (yet).

Moving around the app you will use the icon menu at the bottom. Most features are a tap or two away and the way space is used along with size of fonts makes it a really comfortable place to be banking.

As I've been using the app, there's never been a case of “oh I need to do this on the computer” when I'm banking. It feels natural to do everyday banking 100% on the app. .

One thing I think can be improved in the ubank app is the login experience. I have an account with Up Bank and they don't need you to login when using the app. It assumes when you unlock your phone your authorised. Compare that to ubank which needs a PIN or fingerprint to access and you find it not a perfectly fluent experience yet (but still very secure).

ubank on desktop

Using the desktop version of uBank after the app is a bit unusual.

Usually with banking you do all your setup over the counter at a branch or online via a web browser. With ubank you need to create and setup your account via the app.

The desktop experience comes second.

That means you can do only a fraction of what the app can do. Though you're probably not wanting to set notification on the desktop version so a few features are not applicable.

What you do need to do on the desktop version of ubank is authenticate with your phone. This means each time you want to login you need to enter a code they text you. Yes it's secure but also annoying if doing often.

The site itself is basically two pages – your main dashboard and a transactions page.

So its good to assess your payments, but the only real functions you can do is add an account and send money.

That might be helpful if you prefer a computer to look at bills and transfer in money. You can also setup scheduled transfers and export the data to a csv if you are a spreadsheet kind of person.

It's obvious that the desktop version is a work in progress, but the app is as well. It's that the team are focussing on the app based product first and foremost. Over time I imagine the build will add more features.

Is it a deal breaker?

Not really.

You can do all your basic banking with the app and this compliments it, but don't expect anything amazingly new or different.

While Up Bank offers a slightly more innovative interface with features like “savings jars,” ubank delivers superior interest rates and the ability to link external accounts. Traditional banks still maintain an edge in comprehensive desktop banking and branch services, but fall behind in mobile experience and interest rates.

What does ubank not do?

So while ubank is a pretty capable bank – they do the basics really well. There are some areas that are a bit limited.

Limits on shared accounts

uBank uses the term shared account rather than joint accounts. What I found is that you can only have 1 transaction account and 10 savings account shared as well as 1 individual account.

This is a limit but likely something you might be able to work with. For me I share multiple transaction accounts with my wife so find that ING is a bit better for that.

uBank and Up Bank appear to be really focussed on individuals and getting them to build their banking there. I would imagine they will grow the capabilities here as the technology is developed.

Allow all options on desktop

Currently the uBank desktop app is very limited in comparison to the uBank app. That's fine as the experience in the app is first class, but for those that prefer banking on a computer it might become limiting.

Fees

This is good. No fees for opening or holding an account. Fee free withdrawals at Nab ATMs. No foreign exchange fees.

Common Questions About ubank in 2025

Who is ubank owned by?

uBank is owned by NAB bank. They've been around since 2008 and you money is secure.

Many big banks are spinning off smaller, more agile and modern banks as a way to attract different types of people.

ubank Vs Big 4: What’s The Difference?

The difference for me is agility and speed.

While the big four banks – Comm Bank, ANZ, NAB and Westpac have hundreds of years of banking expectation, new entrants like uBank have the ability to do things differently.

They are building banking from the ground up digital rather than trying to replicate an over-the-counter banking experience online.

You will find there are no uBank physical branches, everything is done online. This makes is harder and slower to bank a cheque but all depends on how often you might do that.

What kind of person is suited to ubank?

Someone who operates their money individually, loves to do all their banking on their phone and doesn't need too many accounts.

Ideally it seems like ubank is setup for you to have one transaction account and a single or few savings accounts.

This is basic, but you can realistically operate like this.

Other reasons you might want to use ubank is for their great interest rates, using a savings account only.

Or you might want to connect all your accounts into the one place, which the uBank app can do.

Is ubank secure?

uBank operates under NAB’s banking license which means your deposits are guaranteed up to a single total of $250K under the Australian Government’s Financial Claims Scheme.

So whether you manage your money through uBank or NAB, it is secure.

Does ubank have ATM fees?

Not if you use a Nab branded ATM. If you take out money from one of those independent ones, you likely will have to cover the fee.

There is no reimbursement for ATM charges like some other banks have.

Is ubank an ethical bank?

This is up for interpretation. They are very transparent and you will need to visit their site to get an understanding of who they are and what the values of the bank are.

ubank used to have a green term deposit product that would put money into renewable energy projects but that looks to not be offered anymore.

I couldn't find an ESG statement or policy on the site but being backed by NAB they may follow what they do.

Can I use ubank internationally?

Yes, ubank offers fee-free international transactions when using your debit card overseas or for online purchases in foreign currencies.

There are no international transaction fees, which can save you the typical 2-3% charged by most traditional banks.

How does ubank's app compare to Up Bank's app?

Both apps offer excellent user experiences, but with different strengths.

Up Bank's app has a more playful interface with features like “savings jars” and a very conversational transaction feed.

Ubank's app focuses more on financial insights and management, with its spending footprint and the ability to link external accounts being standout features.

For a detailed comparison, check out my ubank vs Up Bank comparison.

Ubank review in summary

ubank is a vibrant, savvy platform you can use for everyday banking. It's packed with all the features you'd expect from a bank, but is able to make things easier and clearer to manage.

The agile approach ubank is taking to product development means the tools and options offered will only expand over time.

It's a front runner in an industry where banks are trying to do digital the best.

Should you switch to ubank in 2024? If you value high interest rates, excellent mobile banking, and insightful spending tools—absolutely. It's particularly well-suited for individuals who primarily bank through their smartphones and want to maximize their savings returns with minimal hoops to jump through.

If you are looking for an extensive desktop platform for banking or want to pop into a branch, then ubank might not be for you. If you love technology, using apps, customising notifications and understanding what you spend on then ubank can help.

It's a great option for everyday banking and with the interest rates available for savings accounts, one you should consider.