Club Plus Superannuation has begun offering term deposits at high guaranteed rates to its pensioner members, who together have $66 million in super savings, at no extra cost.

The $1.6 billion industry fund uses Macquarie Bank to provide its 420 pensioners with term deposits at interest rates guaranteed to exceed the average set by the five largest domestic banks: Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac, ANZ and St George Bank.

Pensioners choosing one or more term deposits, which mature at three-, six-, nine- or 12-month intervals, must invest at least $10,000 in the products. They can invest up to 80 per cent of their savings in deposits without incurring additional fees and have enough money left to fund pension payments.

Club Plus members, drawn from the clubs industry, expressed appetite for the stable income provided by term deposits in the fund’s annual member satisfaction survey in August 2011, says Andrew Inwood, founder and principal of CoreData, the financial services researcher that conducted the survey.

“Club Plus is at the bottom range of medium-sized super funds. That they did this so quickly speaks to their intent to help members,” says Inwood, whose company also provides marketing services to Club Plus.

The fund’s member administrator, Australian Administration Services, enables pensioners to transfer super savings into term deposits online.

Club Plus aims to offer term deposits to other members from 1 July.

Other superannuation funds that provide term deposits are AustralianSuper, through its Member Direct investment option, and Colonial First State, through its FirstRate Saver product.