Bendigo Bank Takes Over RACQ Bank - What Changes for Your Home Loan, Savings and Cards
Around 90,000 RACQ Bank customers move to Bendigo Bank over the weekend of 13 to 15 November 2026. Your interest rate carries over, but your BSB, account numbers, card, PayID and some loan features do not. Here is what changes, what stays the same, and what to do.
On this page
Reference only. This article summarises public information released by Bendigo Bank, RACQ and the ACCC, and the Bendigo Bank change booklets issued to RACQ Bank customers. It is general information, not financial, credit or legal advice. Your own letters from RACQ Bank and Bendigo Bank are the documents that actually apply to you; where anything here differs from them, they prevail.
The short version
On 4 December 2025, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank agreed to buy the retail loan and deposit book of RACQ Bank (the trading name of Members Banking Group Limited). At 30 June 2025 that book held about $2.7 billion in loans and $2.5 billion in deposits, belonging to more than 90,000 customers.
The transfer happens this weekend. All RACQ Bank services stop at 12pm (AEST) on Friday 13 November 2026 and the move to Bendigo Bank is due to be complete by 8pm on Sunday 15 November 2026. After that, RACQ Bank accounts are permanently closed and you bank with Bendigo Bank.
What carries over:
- Your interest rate. Home loan rates do not change on the transition date, and RACQ says deposit rates in place immediately before the transition "will be maintained or improved".
- Your loan term and monthly repayments. Same amount, same due date, same end date.
- Your RACQ membership. Eligible bank members keep it for 12 months after the transition, with a complimentary RACQ Lifestyle product. RACQ insurance and roadside assistance continue unchanged.
What does not:
- Your BSB (now 633 000) and account numbers
- Your card (RACQ Visa Debit becomes a Bendigo Debit Mastercard)
- Your PayID and any PayTo agreements (both cancelled)
- Your internet banking and app (replaced by Bendigo e-banking)
- Some loan and term deposit terms, which matter more than the headlines suggest and are covered below
Why this is happening
RACQ Group CEO David Carter said RACQ concluded it was "in the interests of our members to find a better banking solution", noting that "significant ongoing investment is needed to meet the growing demand for digital banking". Bendigo is paying book value, funded from its cash reserves.
For Bendigo, the deal lifts Queensland from 15% to 18% of its residential lending. The ACCC granted a merger notification waiver for the deal, published on 28 April 2026. After completion, RACQ will refer its members to Bendigo Bank for deposits, savings and home loans.
Key dates
| When (AEST) | What happens |
|---|---|
| Friday 30 October, 4:30pm | International payments from RACQ accounts stopped |
| Thursday 12 November, 1:45pm | RTGS (same day, high value) payments stop |
| Thursday 12 November, 4:30pm | RACQ Store cash services and incoming international payments stop |
| Friday 13 November, 12pm | Outage starts: cards, app, internet and phone banking all stop |
| Sunday 15 November, 8pm | Transition complete; Bendigo Bank sends a confirmation SMS |
| Monday 16 November, 8am | Bendigo Bank Customer Service Centre opens (1300 236 344) |
| Monday 16 November, 9:30am | Bendigo Bank branches open to former RACQ customers |
During the outage you cannot see balances, pay by card, use an ATM, use Apple Pay or Google Pay, make BPAY payments or receive incoming payments. Have cash or a card from another bank ready for the weekend.
What changes for home loan customers
RACQ home and investment loans move to one of three Bendigo products: a Bendigo Easy Home Loan, a Bendigo Flex Home Loan or a Bendigo Complete Home Loan. Your letter tells you which. Easy and Flex share one change booklet and Complete has its own, and some of the details below differ between them.
Your rate stays the same, but how it moves from now on changes
There is no change to your interest rate on the transition date. What changes is how a variable rate is set afterwards: from the transition date it becomes a Bendigo reference rate plus a margin, with the margin set so your rate is identical on day one.
The reference rate depends on how Bendigo's records classify your loan:
| Your loan | Reference rate |
|---|---|
| Owner occupied, principal and interest | Residential Variable Rate |
| Investment, principal and interest | Bendigo Investment Rate |
| Owner occupied, interest only | Residential Variable Interest Only Rate |
| Investment, interest only | Bendigo Investment Interest Only Rate |
In practice, future rate rises and cuts on your loan will follow Bendigo's pricing decisions, not RACQ's. Your letter confirms your reference rate and margin. Check the property is classified correctly, because an owner occupied loan recorded as an investment loan would track a different reference rate.
Fixed rate loans: a better prepayment allowance
A fixed rate continues unchanged until the fixed period ends, and the rules on when break costs apply do not change. What changes is how much extra you can repay during the current fixed period without a break cost:
- Easy and Flex Home Loans: rises from $10,000 to $20,000.
- Complete Home Loan: changes from $10,000 a year to 20% of the loan amount at the transition date, over the fixed period.
When the fixed period ends, the loan rolls to a variable rate based on the table above, and Bendigo will contact you beforehand.
Offset accounts: check this one carefully
This is the change most likely to cost someone money if they miss it.
- An RACQ offset only carries over if your loan moves to a Bendigo Flex or Bendigo Complete Home Loan and you meet the eligibility rules. It becomes a Bendigo Everyday Account linked at 100% offset. That account earns no interest itself; its benefit is the interest it saves on the loan.
- Every borrower must be an individual. If any borrower is a company or other entity, offset cannot be linked.
- Everyone who holds the offset account must also be a borrower on the loan.
- If your loan moves to a Bendigo Easy Home Loan, or the eligibility rules are not met, your RACQ offset is de-linked on the transition date and, in the booklet's words, you "will no longer receive offset account benefits". The money itself is not lost; Bendigo says it will tell you separately what happens to that balance.
If you rely on an offset and your letter says Easy Home Loan, or your loan sits in a company structure, raise it with Bendigo straight away and consider your alternatives.
Fees under the new terms
For Easy and Flex Home Loans, the booklet sets out the fees that apply from the transition date, including:
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Monthly service fee (Easy Home Loan) | $0.00 |
| Online or manual redraw | $0.00 |
| Bank cheque | $10.00 |
| Duplicate document or statement | $16.50 |
| Default fee (overdue $100 or more, payable every 30 days until fixed) | $35.00 |
| Variation fee (top-up, term change, switch to interest only, split, new security) | $250.00 |
| Discharge administration fee | $350.00 |
On a Flex Home Loan, you will not pay a monthly service fee if you were not paying a monthly fee before, unless you later ask for changes to the loan.
Complete Home Loans have their own fee schedule. If you were not paying a monthly fee before, none applies unless you later ask for changes. If you were paying a monthly administration or other monthly fee, it is replaced by a $15 monthly service fee for the life of the loan. Redraw, bank cheque, duplicate, default and discharge fees match the table above, but variation and consent fees are structured differently, so check the booklet.
The $350 discharge fee applies to all three products. It matters if you are thinking about refinancing away, so include it in any comparison.
Smaller changes that catch people out
- Repayment pauses end. If a repayment pause is in place, it stops on the transition date.
- Weekly and fortnightly automatic repayments are frozen. Monthly automatic repayments keep updating with your required repayment. Weekly or fortnightly ones carry over at their current amount and frequency and will not adjust if your required repayment changes. Bendigo makes it your responsibility to ensure enough is paid each month.
- Future dated payments out of redraw do not migrate, because Bendigo e-banking does not support them.
- Statements arrive at least every six months.
- Interest only periods end on the same date as before, then the loan switches to principal and interest at a variable rate.
Personal loans, personal overdrafts, home equity lines of credit and business loans also move across, each with its own change booklet on Bendigo's RACQ page.
What changes for savings and transaction accounts
RACQ accounts move to Bendigo Everyday, EasySaver, Reward Saver, Easy Retirement or Standard Term Deposit accounts. Your letter tells you which.
- Interest rates in place immediately before the transition are maintained or improved, according to RACQ.
- Fees now follow Bendigo's Schedule of Fees (15 May 2026). The $2.50 staff assisted fee is waived on Everyday, Everyday (Offset) and Easy Retirement accounts.
- Interest timing: where a Bendigo Everyday Account earns interest, it is credited half yearly on 1 April and 1 October. EasySaver and Easy Retirement accounts credit monthly.
- Reward Saver bonus rates depend on meeting monthly eligibility criteria, with a separate tier above $100,000. Check that your normal banking pattern still qualifies.
Term deposits
The booklet flags two changes as "Important":
- The grace period shrinks from 10 days to 7 days. That is how long you have after maturity to change or withdraw your investment. At maturity, Bendigo automatically renews for the same term unless you instruct otherwise.
- Early withdrawal terms change for any term deposit reinvested after the transition, which "may result in you receiving less interest" if you break it early.
Your current term runs out on its existing fees, which do not change until it matures or you withdraw early. If you tell Bendigo you do not agree to the new terms, they take effect only when the deposit matures and you reinvest with Bendigo.
If a term deposit matures in the next few months, put the date in your calendar now. You have three fewer days to act.
Cards, payments and banking access
- Card: your RACQ Visa Debit stops working at 12pm on Friday 13 November. Your Bendigo Debit Mastercard arrives before the weekend and works once activated after the transition. Bendigo issues one card per primary account; extra cards can be ordered on 1300 236 344.
- Subscriptions and card-on-file payments: give merchants your new card details. Bendigo says there is no redirection for card payments, so charges to the old card may simply fail.
- Digital wallets: remove the RACQ card and add the Bendigo card.
- PayID: cancelled. Create a new one in Bendigo e-banking.
- PayTo: cancelled. Set up new agreements with your Bendigo details.
- Direct debits and credits using your old BSB and account number are redirected for about three months (RACQ says up to 90 days). Update your employer, Centrelink, utilities and insurers before that ends.
- Saved payees and most scheduled payments, including BPAY, carry over to Bendigo e-banking.
- Fast payments are capped at $30,000 a day per Access ID. Larger Pay Anyone payments go as slower Direct Entry payments, which matters if you are paying a deposit or settlement funds.
- Logging in: your Access ID comes by letter, and a temporary password by SMS after the transition. The temporary password expires after 72 hours, so log in early in the week of 16 November.
The $250,000 government guarantee
Once the transfer completes, your deposits are held by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited. The Financial Claims Scheme covers $250,000 per account holder per authorised institution, not per brand, and APRA lists Bendigo Bank, Adelaide Bank, Rural Bank and Up Bank as brands of that one institution.
Until now, an RACQ Bank balance had its own separate cap. If you also hold money with any of those brands and your combined balance will exceed $250,000, the excess is no longer covered.
Watch for scams
Bank migrations attract scammers, and the messages are easy to fake because everyone is expecting them. Neither RACQ nor Bendigo Bank will ask for your password, PIN or one time code, or ask you to move money to a "safe" or "temporary" account. If in doubt, hang up and call Bendigo on 1300 236 344 or RACQ on 1800 637 013 yourself.
Should you stay or refinance?
For many RACQ Bank borrowers, staying put is a perfectly reasonable outcome. The rate carries over, repayments do not change, the fixed rate prepayment allowance improves, and Bendigo has more than 70 branches across Queensland.
A forced change of lender is still a good moment to check you are on a competitive deal, particularly if:
- your offset account is being de-linked;
- you have held the same variable loan for years, since existing rates are not always repriced to match what new customers are offered;
- your weekly or fortnightly repayments are now frozen and no longer track your required repayment; or
- your loan structure (company borrower, interest only) fits Bendigo's product rules less well than it fitted RACQ's.
If you want a second opinion on whether your new Bendigo loan still suits you, or what switching would cost once the discharge fee is counted, contact us. We will compare it against the market with no obligation.
Checklist
- Have cash or another card ready from 12pm Friday 13 November to 8pm Sunday 15 November.
- Read the change booklet for each product you hold, alongside your letter.
- Activate your Bendigo Debit Mastercard, and log in to e-banking within 72 hours of receiving the temporary password.
- Update card-on-file merchants, create a new PayID and set up any PayTo agreements again.
- Give your new BSB and account number to your employer and billers within the redirection period.
- Confirm your offset is still linked, or find out why not.
- Re-check any weekly or fortnightly loan repayments.
- Note any term deposit maturity date; you now have 7 days to act, not 10.
- Add up your deposits across Bendigo Bank, Up, Adelaide Bank and Rural Bank against the $250,000 cap.
Official sources
- Bendigo Bank - Bendigo Bank to acquire RACQ Bank loan and deposit book (4 December 2025)
- RACQ - RACQ announces sale of retail lending and deposit business to Bendigo Bank (4 December 2025)
- RACQ - Transition of RACQ banking services
- Bendigo Bank - Information for RACQ Bank customers and change booklets
- Bendigo Bank - Home Loan Changes Booklet (Easy and Flex Home Loans)
- Bendigo Bank - Complete Home Loan Changes Booklet
- Bendigo Bank - Deposit Accounts Changes Booklet
- ACCC - Acquisitions register: Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and RACQ Bank
- APRA - List of ADIs covered under the Financial Claims Scheme
This article is general information only and was prepared on 12 November 2026. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs, and it is not financial, credit, taxation or legal advice.
Details are drawn from public announcements and from the Bendigo Bank change booklets published for RACQ Bank customers. Product mapping, rates, fees and eligibility depend on your individual accounts, and the letters and booklets sent to you by RACQ Bank and Bendigo Bank are the documents that apply. Confirm anything you rely on with Bendigo Bank on 1300 236 344 or RACQ on 1800 637 013.
Levio Pty Ltd (ACN 618 540 775) is a Credit Representative (Credit Representative Number 563108). We provide credit assistance only. We are not licensed to provide legal, financial product or taxation advice, and nothing in this article should be taken as such advice. Any credit assistance we provide is subject to a full assessment of your circumstances, and lending is subject to lender approval, terms, conditions, fees and charges.