Saving money always makes economic sense, whether it’s for a short-term goal, such as a holiday, or for long-term financial stability. And Canstar’s latest research reveals the best savings products in New Zealand can be found at Heartland Bank.
For the ninth year in a row, Heartland Bank is the winner of Canstar’s Bank of the Year Savings Award.
What is Canstar’s Bank of the Year Savings Award?
Our Bank of the Year Savings Award uses a sophisticated rating methodology that is unique to Canstar. The award is presented to the NZ financial institution that delivers its customers savings accounts that offer the best features, tools, flexibility and, of course, interest rates.
Because savers want different things from their savings accounts, our award covers two profiles:
Flexible Saver: for bank customers who want to maximise their savings while retaining easy access to their funds.
Regular Saver: for more active savers who are willing to meet stricter conditions to achieve higher levels of interest.
The award also assesses an institution’s term deposit products. Extra weighting is given to term-deposit performance over shorter fixed periods, from one to 13 months.
Why is Heartland Bank Canstar’s Bank of the Year Savings Award winner?
Our research team was, yet again, impressed by Heartland Bank’s market-leading suite of savings accounts and term deposits, which deliver some of the most competitive deposit rates in the market across notice and on-call accounts.
In the Regular Saver category, its 32 Day Notice Saver and 90 Day Notice Saver accounts earned top positions by offering meaningful returns for customers willing to plan their withdrawals in advance.
In the Flexible Saver category, Heartland Bank’s Digital Saver and Direct Call accounts were recognised by Canstar’s research team for pairing competitive returns with immediate, penalty-free fund access, a combination that can be difficult to find.
Which banks were considered for our Bank of the Year Savings Award?
To be eligible for our Savings Award, an institution must have a credit rating of at least Standard & Poor’s BBB, or an equivalent with another agency.
The financial institutions included in our award research included: ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Heartland Bank, Kiwibank, Rabobank, SBS Bank, The Co-operative Bank, TSB, Westpac.
Canstar’s Outstanding Savings Accounts Awards
In addition to our Bank of the Year Award, our researchers also present Outstanding Value Awards to the savings accounts that deliver the best levels of interest and features to consumers.
This year, our expert team researched accounts from the following financial institutions: ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Heartland Bank, Kiwibank, Rabobank, SBS Bank, The Co-operative Bank, TSB, Unity and Westpac.
The different accounts from each financial institution were rated across a wide range of features – including fees, interest, customer service and support – across the customer’s total journey with the account, from opening it, to closing it.
And the awards are broken down into our two saver categories: Flexible Saver, and Regular Saver.
Flexible Saver Winners
Heartland Bank: Digital Saver & Direct Call Account
In addition to its Bank of the Year Savings Award Heartland’s Digital Saver and Direct Call Accounts are both Outstanding Value Award winners.
The two accounts are tailored for consumers who require flexibility, allowing them to deposit or withdraw cash instantly without facing penalties or notice periods.
Heartland Bank’s Digital Saver account offers:
- Manual cash withdrawal from a Heartland branch incurs $10 fee
- No minimum balance or monthly fees
- Unlimited withdrawals to a nominated account
Heartland Bank’s Direct Call account offers:
- Control and manage account through internet banking
- Immediate access to your money
- No account management or transaction fees
- No minimum balance or deposit
Kiwibank: Online Call
Kiwibank’s Online Call Account retains its Outstanding Value Award for 2026. The account provides standard interest with full liquidity, operating without deposit rules or withdrawal penalties. The account features:
- Control and manage your account through internet banking
- Immediate access to your money
- No account management or transaction fees
- No minimum balance or deposit
- PIE tax option that caps your tax rate at 28%
Rabobank: RaboSaver
A highly flexible savings option, RaboSaver offers one of the more competitive rates in the market for flexible, completely on-call savings accounts in New Zealand.
Rabobank’s RaboSaver offers:
- $0 account fees
- Immediate access to your money via app or internet banking
- Unlimited withdrawals
Regular Saver Winners
Heartland Bank: 32 Day Notice Saver, 90 Day Notice Saver
Heartland’s 32 Day Notice Saver & 90 Day Notice Saver accounts secured their Outstanding Value Awards due to their consistent performance offering some of the highest rates in the market.
The accounts are designed to maximise interest growth, offering competitive rates in exchange for customers providing advance notice prior to making a withdrawal.
Heartland Bank’s 32 Day Notice Saver & 90 Day Notice Saver accounts offer:
- Choose 32 days’ notice, or 90 days’ for an even higher rate
- Great interest rates
- Interest calculated daily and paid monthly
- No fees
- Partial sum withdrawal
Rabobank: PremiumSaver
In this year’s award, Rabobank’s PremiumSaver retains its Outstanding Value Award for its bonus conditional interest rate, which rewards consistent saving habits by requiring a minimum monthly balance increase of $50.
Rabobank’s PremiumSaver offers:
- Extra interest for regular savers
- Immediate access to your money via app or internet banking
- No account fees or minimum account balance
- Unlimited withdrawals
The Co-operative Bank: Step Saver
The Co-operative Bank’s Step Saver Account retains its Outstanding Value Award for rewarding users with a bonus interest tier when they meet specific monthly deposit growth and low-withdrawal conditions. The account’s maximum interest rate is one of the highest offered in the NZ deposits market.
The Co-operative Bank’s Step Saver Account offers:
- Bonus interest rate every month your balance increases and you make no more than one withdrawal
- Immediate access to your money via app or internet banking
- No account management fees, but ATM and manual transaction fees apply
About the author of this page
Bruce Pitchers is Canstar NZ’s Content Manager. An experienced finance reporter, he has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in Australia, the UK and NZ, including ACP, Are Media, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. As a freelancer, he has worked for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority and major banks and investment companies on both sides of the Tasman.
In his role at Canstar, he has been a regular commentator in the NZ media, including on the Driven, Stuff and One Roof websites, the NZ Herald, Radio NZ, and Newstalk ZB.
Away from Canstar, Bruce creates puzzles for magazines and newspapers, including Woman’s Day and New Idea. He is also the co-author of the murder-mystery book 5 Minute Murder.
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