The biggest advertised rate may depend on what you do each month.
- Base rate in this made-up offer
- 1% p.a.
- Total rate if conditions are met
- 5% p.a.
- Total rate if conditions are missed
- 1% p.a.
Illustrative offer only. Real products have their own conditions, caps and rate structures.
Find the rate you actually qualify for
A savings advertisement may lead with the largest available percentage, but your account may earn a lower amount when conditions are missed. A base rate is the ordinary rate for the relevant balance and account. Bonus interest depends on additional conditions. An introductory offer applies for a limited period or to a specific group, such as new customers. A useful comparison starts by identifying which of those rates applies to your situation.
A hypothetical offer, unpacked
Imagine an account with a 1% base rate and a 3% additional bonus when you satisfy its conditions. The eligible total could be 4% for that period. If the bank instead describes a 4% total bonus rate, adding another 1% would be wrong. The wording matters. Public product feeds can contain multiple rate components and tiers, so a list of percentages is not automatically a final customer rate. Howloop does not blindly add every rate in the feed.
Turn conditions into a monthly checklist
Read the provider’s rules for deposits, balance growth, transactions, withdrawals and eligible linked accounts. Check when the bank measures each condition: calendar month, statement period or another window. If balance growth is required, find out whether interest credits count. If card transactions are required, verify which transactions qualify and when they must settle. A reminder is only helpful once it reflects the actual product rules.
Watch the balance limits
A rate may cover the whole balance when you are inside a band, or only the portion inside each tier. Those two structures can produce different interest. An advertised ceiling can also apply to combined balances across several accounts with the same provider. Entering one account into a calculator does not establish that the entire balance qualifies. Read the full product documentation if you have multiple accounts.
Put a missed bonus into dollars
Using the hypothetical 1% base plus 3% additional bonus above, a constant $20,000 balance earns about $66.67 for one month at a 4% total rate, compared with $16.67 at 1%, under a simple annual-rate-divided-by-twelve calculation. Missing the bonus changes that month's interest by roughly $50. This is only an illustration: real products may use daily balances and different eligibility periods. Check whether meeting a condition this month affects this month's interest or the following month's rate. The highest advertised rate is only useful to your plan for periods when its conditions are met.
A short promotion needs two calculations
Suppose $20,000 earns a hypothetical 5% a year for four months, followed by 2% for eight months, with monthly compounding and no deposits or withdrawals. The first period ends at $20,335.42; carrying that balance into the second period gives $20,608.15 after a year. Using 5% for the entire year gives $21,023.24, overstating this particular scenario by $415.09. These are invented rates, not a current offer. For supported whole-month or whole-year introductory offers, Howloop can model the welcome period followed by the base rate. A custom rate still stays constant for the full term.
Two tier structures can share the same headline
Imagine a $120,000 balance. A hypothetical account paying 4% on the first $100,000 and 1% on the remaining $20,000 would earn $4,200 over a year before compounding or balance changes. A different account that pays 1% on the whole balance once it exceeds $100,000 would earn $1,200 on that same simple basis. The word 'up to' does not tell you which calculation applies. Find the treatment of balances above the limit, and check what happens when an interest credit itself pushes the balance across it.
Make a comparison note you can update
For each account, record its exact product name, the date checked, the rate after any introduction, the maximum eligible balance, the conditions you must meet and any linked-account costs. Save the provider's product URL alongside that note. Use the same opening balance and deposit plan for every calculation. If one offer requires card spending you would not otherwise do, record that practical requirement separately instead of treating the interest result as a complete comparison. A provider page and its terms are the place to resolve a discrepancy with a dated feed.
Use the explorer with the right expectations
The Howloop bank explorer presents dated public CDR snapshots, alphabetically. It is not a ranked list of best accounts and does not cover every bank or product. The calculator starts with a supported base-rate model. Where an unambiguous bonus or introductory adjustment can be modelled for the whole plan, it shows a second balance for comparison. You must check the provider conditions and explicitly choose that scenario. Welcome offers end after their supported duration, then revert to base. This assumes eligibility; it does not verify it. Stacked, incomplete, stale or unsupported offers need manual checking.
A 5% total rate includes a bonus. Should you assume 5% every month?
Sources & update record
Added explicit base and conditional scenario guidance, including expiry of supported introductory rates.
Published 18 Sept 2026 · Updated 18 Sept 2026. These dates do not guarantee rules are unchanged.
Published by Howloop. AI assists preparation. This lesson has not been reviewed by a licensed financial adviser. How we check our content →