News Archive for August 2016

The trend towards contactless payment apps continues as ANZ announced its Mastercard customers can now start using Apple Pay for tap-and-go transactions.

Well, I don’t know what’s going on at Australia’s Cheapest Wedding headquarters, but I noticed two things straight away this week:

Sydney’s booming property market has shown no signs of slowing, evidenced by strong auction results, when the unofficial start to the spring selling season began last weekend.

Time-consuming home loan applications may soon be a thing of the past, as Australia moves towards a more fast paced solution for prospective homebuyers.

Car loan repayments make up the largest portion of what Australian households spend on transport each year, revealed the Transport Affordability Index.

The biggest of Australia’s banks, the Commonwealth Bank, has slashed discounts across a range of its new home loan products by up to 0.15 basis points.

NRMA Insurance has reiterated and defended its position on sea erosion damage to homes in Collaroy following June’s intense storm.

Supermarket giant Woolworths has reunited with Qantas for a rewards program revamp, just ten months after it dumped the airline in place of an “orange ticket” system that proved unpopular among customers.

Welcome, ladies and gents to the newest sensation of reality TV: Australia’s Cheapest Weddings!

The answer is yes if a recent report by energy economist Bruce Mountain is anything to go by. The study prepared for the GetUp! Group, which campaigns on issues that affect everyday Australians, looked at how much energy retailers are charging households for their services and whether deregulated retail markets are actually working in the interest of consumers.

Qantas and Tourism WA have joined forces to boost the state’s number of inbound visitors through a $7.2 million dollar marketing deal. Over three years, the initiative will involve special airfares, promotions and events.

Pet lovers are spending millions on their energy bills each year by leaving on TVs, radios, lights, heaters and fans to ensure their animals feel comfortable even when they’re home alone, research from the UK has shown.

When I first started writing for Mozo in 2011, term deposits were all the rage with interest rates sitting at as high as 6%. But as the years have passed and the RBA’s official cash rate has continued its downhill slide to record lows, term deposit rates have quickly tumbled to near the 2% mark.

Australian credit cardholders paid almost $3 billion more over the last five years, due to banks failing to pass on the interest rate cuts advised by the RBA. The data, uncovered by Mozo, revealed a widening gap between official rates and reality.

It was good news for borrowers when the Reserve Bank slashed the official cash rate to a record low 1.50% at its August board meeting.

AMEX has introduced a feature that allows cardholders to spread payments for large purchases into small monthly installments on a 0% interest rate. The new facility dubbed “Pay your Way” was created in response to customers who wanted more control over their finances.

If predictions by NAB ring true, Australian homeowners could see their mortgage rates drop even lower when we enter the new year.

The Australian millennial generation, who roughly range in age from 18-34, seem to be big spenders when it comes to overseas holidays, splashing out the most out of any other age group.

With feed-in tariffs set to fall in South Australia, one of the biggest concerns for solar households, is losing excess power back to the grid instead of using it at home.

A Flight Centre backed digital wallet for jetsetters that combines essential journey details with travel money from MasterCard has hit the market today in an industry first.

Retirees are increasingly accessing their superannuation funds through an income stream method in comparison to adopting lump sum payment habits, according to fresh ABS statistics.

A Melbourne suburb is on its way to become the first town in the world where every house will be powered by solar panels, inverters and Tesla’s battery storage solutions.

Update 04/11/2016: The term deposit rate increases that were introduced by the big banks in August 2016 are all but gone. For full details read our article "Major banks quietly slash term deposit interest rates". With the Reserve Bank slashing the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 1.50%, savings account and term deposit rates were expected to take a hit this month. However, the big banks have gone against the grain, by failing to pass on the full rate cut to home loan customers, but pumping up rates attached to term deposit accounts.

Big four bank customers with variable rate home loans are set to lose hundreds of dollars annually after their lenders failed to pass on the full rate cut suggested by the RBA yesterday.

For homeowners across the country things are about to get exciting, after the Reserve Bank slashed the official cash rate to a record low 1.50%, at its August board meeting.

Property owners across the country are surely cheering at the news the Reserve Bank of Australia has slashed the official cash rate to a new low of 1.50%, at its August board meeting.

As the dust settles from Brexit and the Australian Federal Election, the Reserve Bank is shaking things up yet again, by cutting interest rates to an unprecedentedly low 1.50%.

Consumers who plan to buy a new or used car can download a free government funded app that calculates the true cost of their vehicle over time.

The value of property across Australia has largely weathered the effect of inflation since the start of this century, showing strong capital growth in the past two decades, Mozo’s recent research has shown.