Summary: Opening a UBank savings account (USaver) and linked Ultra transaction account and automating all income being paid immediately into the USaver will ensure you are always paid the maximum on-call interest rate permanently available on the full amount of your liquid funds.
A median Australian wage earner (~$60,000/yr before tax) will gain around $500 each year just on the flow of their wage payments by having all of their available money earning interest for the maximum time at the maximum rate. When interest rates for savings are high (USaver has been over 6% in the past), the gain is much higher. And the gains also increase as you grow your total cash savings earning this higher rate.
There are also major benefits to having UBank Usaver and Ultra accounts and a NAB Classic transaction account. This combination of accounts provide all common banking services needed in Australia with virtually no fees.
Finally, there are the gains from not missing bill/regular payments and paying late fees or interest. I estimate this at ~$100/yr.
Gain: ~$650/year
Time Required: ~5 hours once-off to open UBank and NAB Classic accounts and configure them optimally.
Time Saved: ~10 hours a year having to move money between various transaction and savings accounts.
How to optimally automate saving and earning interest in Australia
The simple solution to automate saving and earning interest is to have all of your income paid directly to the best interest-earning on-call account available which you can then link necessary expenditures to (rent, bills, debt payments). Discretionary purchases can still be made, but these should always be from an on-call savings account.
In Australia, you don't need to do any research or regular switching to find the best solution, there is just one: A UBank Ultra Transaction Account linked to a UBank USaver high interest account and which comes with a free Visa debit card, enables full automation of payments, and has no fees or tricky catches.
(While other banks like ING and Rabodirect may offer better rates for ~4 months for new accounts. this doesn't last. Banks like ME Bank sometimes offer slightly better rates but require onerous conditions like weekly Paywave transactions.)
To ensure you always earn the Ultra Bonus Rate (~1.06%) you can automate a monthly scheduled $200 transfer out to another local bank account (I recommend a NAB Classic transaction account) and then back in a couple of days later. I do the outgoing transfer with a Funds Transfer out and the incoming with what's known as an Automatic Savings Plan.
The NAB Classic transaction account is the best full-service bank transaction account as it eliminates virtually all fees. You need another bank account to get the Ultra Bonus Rate anyway plus for occasional services like cashing cheques that can't be done with an online-only bank like UBank.
After you set it up completely online you can simply have your full wages paid directly to the USaver account (which is always at or very close to the highest rate available). Any spending you do with the Visa debit card does not require separate funds to be managed in the Ultra transaction account as these are auto-recharged (known as "sweeps") from the USaver account so that the balance is always kept at a minimum level.
I recommend changing the minimum Ultra level to $100* and changing the maximum Ultra level to $1000 so that you minimise the amount of money not earning interest. (Do this via: UBank > My Money > Managing Accounts > Manage Sweeps)
*Note: If using the Ultra Visa debit card then you will need to set the Ultra minimum level above the amount of your desired purchases, otherwise Visa debit transactions will be declined. This limitaition does not apply to direct debit, BPay, EFTPOS or ATM withdrawals which all allow instant sweeps up to the normal daily/transaction limit that may apply.
E.g. I have my minimum Ultra level set to $100. If my Ultra balance is only $120 I can still BPay $20,000 to a biller (UBank daily limit) and $19,980 will be instantly swept from my USaver account to my Ultra account to bring the balance back to the minimum of $100.
You can also set up recurring direct debits, transfers or BPay on the Ultra account. There are never any tricky fees or "exceeded balance" charges as the auto-linked recharging means you are essentially using a high interest savings account with the full flexibilty of a transaction account.
Naturally, you should never have most of your savings earning very low rates (as of July 2016 the interest rate is 3.12%) for significant periods. For higher-yielding investments (term deposits, Ratesetter P2P lending, shares) than the rate available from USaver you can simply fund these from the USaver account or link it directly as a funding source (e.g. to settle stock market purchases). This avoids having to keep significant savings in any other holding accounts (e.g. broking) paying minimal interest.
Further Info:
Whirlpool
> UBank - Complete FAQ
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