Raiz and Up Bank: How Australians Save $1,000/Year From Spare Change

Your Coffee Habit Is Secretly Building Wealth

Every time you tap for a $4.50 flat white, a round-up app moves $0.50 into savings or investments. Over dozens of daily transactions, those coins stack up fast.

The average Australian makes 30-40 card transactions per week. At an average round-up of 50 cents, that's $15-20 per week — roughly $780-1,040 per year — saved without any effort.

The Two Best Options in Australia

Raiz (formerly Acorns Australia) — The original round-up investing app. Links to your bank account, rounds up transactions, and invests the spare change into a diversified portfolio. You choose from six portfolio options ranging from Conservative to Aggressive, plus a Sapphire option with Bitcoin exposure.

Raiz costs $3.50/month for balances under $15,000 (0.275% per year above $15,000). That means you need your balance to grow before the fees become efficient — but the automation makes it easy to build up.

Raiz also offers a superannuation option (Raiz Super) and a rewards program where partner brands invest bonus amounts when you shop.

Up Bank — A neobank hugely popular with younger Australians. Up doesn't invest your round-ups — it saves them into high-interest "Savers" (their name for savings accounts). The round-up feature is called "Round Ups" and sends spare change to a Saver of your choice.

Up is completely free — no monthly fees, no account fees. Their savings accounts pay competitive interest rates. The app is beautifully designed and makes saving feel genuinely satisfying (complete with animations when you hit savings goals).

Raiz vs Up Bank: Which Is Better?

Choose Raiz if you want your spare change invested in the stock market for long-term growth. Better for wealth building over 5+ years. The investment returns should outpace savings account interest over time, but there's market risk involved.

Choose Up Bank if you want a safe, simple savings pot with no fees. Better for building an emergency fund or saving for a specific short-term goal. No market risk — your money is protected by the government guarantee (up to $250,000).

Or use both: Up for your emergency fund round-ups, Raiz for long-term investment round-ups.

Supercharging Your Round-Ups

Multiply your round-ups. Raiz lets you set multipliers — 2x, 5x, or 10x. A 50-cent round-up becomes $5.00 at 10x. Aggressive, but effective if your budget allows.

Add recurring investments. Raiz lets you schedule weekly or fortnightly investments on top of round-ups. Even $10/week adds up to $520/year — which, invested at 7% average returns, compounds to over $7,500 in 10 years.

Use Raiz Rewards. When you shop at partner brands through the Raiz app, they invest bonus amounts into your portfolio. It's free money for shopping you'd do anyway.

Setting Up in 5 Minutes

For Up Bank: Download Up from the App Store, sign up (takes 5 minutes with your driver's licence), and enable Round Ups in the app. Choose which Saver to send round-ups to.

For Raiz: Download Raiz, link your bank account via Open Banking, choose a portfolio, and enable round-ups. You can start with as little as $5.

Both apps work with any Australian bank account. You don't need to switch banks.

The Bottom Line

Round-ups are a starting point, not a complete financial strategy. They're brilliant for building a small emergency fund ($500-2,000) or getting started with investing when the idea of "investing" feels intimidating.

Once you've built the habit, layer on regular contributions — a percentage of your pay going straight to savings or investments. But round-ups are the easiest first step, and the best financial habit is the one you actually stick with.