News Archive for September 2019

A new app is taking the Buy Now, Pay Later sector by storm, promising to let Aussies make delayed payments for any products, anywhere - all while avoiding interest and fees.

In this week’s banking recap, we look at ME ditching credit card plans, ANZ’s interest rate cuts on savings accounts, smaller lenders taking on the big banks with home loans and whether the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will cut rates in October.

Aussie long-term savers, you’re in for some bad news: in light of multiple Reserve Bank cuts this year, term deposit rates have tumbled once again, with big bank NAB today announcing another series of cuts between 10 to 20 basis points.

Whether you’re about to enter the market and buy your first investment property, or you’re locking in the deal on your fifth property, the risks involved with handing over the keys to a renter are quite significant either way.

Whether you’re already a happy home-owner, or a house window-shopper saving for a deposit, if you’ve put more thought into home decor than home insurance, then it’s time to get your priorities sorted.

If, as the old saying goes, your home is where your heart is, then chances are you’ll want to make sure it’s insured for worst case scenarios from fire damage to theft. Of course finding the best home insurance policy to suit you can be tricky. Luckily the Mozo Experts Choice Home Insurance Awards are back for 2019!

For some Aussies, their car is their pride and joy, and for others it’s just a tool to get them from A to B. But regardless of how you feel about your wheels, car insurance is something that cannot be overlooked.

With nearly 20 years of experience in providing Aussies with affordable insurance, it’s no wonder Budget Direct have been crowned the Mozo Experts Choice Insurer of the Year for 2019.

Aussie savers can’t catch a break as banks across the country continue to slash rates on savings accounts.

The Reserve Bank’s monthly meeting is just around the corner, and financial markets are confident that we’ll have another rate cut on our hands.

Just in time for the Spring property season, we’re seeing a new trend of smaller lenders on a mission to take on the big banks in the investment loan space with a number of investor interest rate drops.

If you’ve got some spare cash you’d like to invest, locking it away in a term deposit is a surefire way to see it grow. But did you know that setting up a term deposit can sometimes come with hidden costs?

CommBank pulled out the big guns today by cutting most fixed rates across its home loan options.

Whether you take the bus, train, ferry or light rail to work, you can now pay for that whole journey with your smartphone.

ME Bank has abandoned its plans to expand its credit card range, with growing frenzy around Australia’s buy now, pay later sector being cited as a key driver of this decision.

Even though the RBA made no change to the cash rate earlier this month, Aussie home loan lenders haven’t stopped slashing fixed rates.

More staff, higher pay, better conditions? Sounds like a win-win for both employers and employees.

In this week’s banking recap, we look at Westpac’s recent mortgage interest rate cut, why more and more Aussies are choosing customer owned banks over the big four, Enova Energy rolling out to Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong and Judo Bank's new term deposit.

If you’re looking to purchase property or refinance your home loan, you may have to start worrying a lot more about missing the occasional repayment on your credit card.

Australia’s largest credit union has just given Aussies one more reason to get on board. CUA recently unveiled its brand new Everyday Snap account, which sports a number of nifty features that travellers and savers alike are sure to appreciate.

If you’re planning to take out a mortgage with a big bank for the sake of their $2,000 cashback, it might be time to rethink your options. New research from Mozo has found Aussie home loan borrowers hopping onto the cashback bandwagon could be ripped off $37,294 over the life of their loan by not shopping around for a more competitive deal.*

In a move that's sure to disappoint dedicated savers, ING informed customers it will be cutting the bonus rate for its Savings Maximiser account by 0.10%, bringing it down from 1.80% p.a. to 1.70% p.a.

Australia's home loan market is heating up for the Spring property season as lenders fight it out to win over new borrowers with a bumper crop of sharply priced home loan specials, from discounted rates to cashback deals and fee waivers.

If the climate crisis, fires in the Amazon and news of fracking in the Northern Territory have you worried about where your energy is coming from, then you’ll be happy to hear that as of October 1st 2019, Enova Energy will be servicing Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong.

HSBC has today slashed the rate on its Home Value Loan by 10 basis points, bringing its new variable rate to a low 3.17% (3.19% comparison rate*) for borrowers who plan to make principal and interest repayments and are looking to borrow up to 90% of the property’s value.

Westpac recently cut as much as 130 basis points off several of its fixed and variable home loan interest rates from its Premier Advantage package loans and Flexi loans. We’ve crunched the numbers to see how it’s new rates stack up against other home loan options around.

Aussies are continuing to jump out of bed with the big four and are instead getting cosy with customer owned institutions for their banking products.

According to recent figures released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), there was a 12.6% decline in the number of new home loans approved in the 12 months ending 30 June, 2019.

Just two months on from the rollout of the new energy pricing regulations, close to a million Aussie households across New South Wales, South Australia, south-east Queensland and Victoria have already started to see a difference in their electricity bills, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

In this week’s banking recap, we look at the launch of new Australian neobank 86 400 on Tuesday, Westpac’s potential 35-year home loan and Kogan.com officially becoming an energy retailer.

When it comes to sending money overseas, many Aussies aren’t shopping around for the best deal. Instead, they’re sticking with the big four banks to make International Money Transfers (IMT), wasting unnecessary dollars on a poor exchange rate.

What do nine million Australians have in common? They’ve all dreamed about becoming their own boss by starting a small business.

Every week it feels as if a new ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL) platform reaches Aussie shores, and it looks like there’ll be room for one more.

Whether you’re thinking of following your dream to start up your own business or are already running your own, the thought of taking out a business loan to keep the momentum going may have crossed your mind.

Since the first cut in June, 79 providers in the Mozo database have dropped savings account rates, and many of the major banks’ ongoing rates are creeping closer and closer to 0%.

The nation's savers are withdrawing their money from the Big 4 Banks in search of higher yielding alternatives, as the RBA's rate cuts start to bite and the big bank's savings rates drop to miserly levels.

With the warmer spring months just around the corner, you might be starting to think about throwing open the windows and turning off the heater. But although the bitterly cold days are on the way out, chances are they’ve left you with an equally bitter aftertaste, in the shape of a large energy bill.

Thinking of making the switch before summer sets in? Your timing could not have been more perfect because as of this morning, online retailer, Kogan is officially open for business.

The wait is finally over as the much-anticipated neobank 86 400 finally launches, after, well let’s just say more than 86,400 seconds of planning!

How long would you expect your mortgage to last? 25 years? Maybe 30? Well word on the street is that big bank, Westpac, is planning to start offering a 35-year home loan to borrowers under 35 years old.

Australia officially has its newest, fully-licenced bank: Xinja Bank!

If you haven’t done anything about your home loan since the June and July RBA rate cuts, you could be missing out on some serious savings.

Home loan rates, savings account rates, term deposit rates - they’re all dropping, spurred on by two consecutive Reserve Bank cuts in June and July. But what about personal loan rates?

In this week’s banking recap, we look at Tuesday’s RBA decision, the circular economy, and the ways that loyalty to the big banks is costing Australians.

Australian borrowers chasing lower rates and more flexible lending terms are starting to desert the big banks in droves in favour of more competitive smaller lenders.

Online lender ME has today announced rate cuts of up to 0.30% on its variable home loans, for both investors and owner occupiers, effective 6 September 2019.

Good news, Australia! The Clean Energy Regulator (CER) have confirmed that we’re guaranteed to hit our large-scale 2020 renewable energy target of 33,000 gigawatt hours of additional renewable energy.

The ACCC has weighed in on the state of foreign currency conversion services, revealing that Australian consumers are losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars each year by not shopping around.

Let’s face it, being eco-friendly sometimes feels like the more expensive option. Buying organic food, investing in renewables and choosing to buy ethical can set you back more than a few dollars. But being green doesn’t have to cost you the earth. In fact, there are lots of ways you can help make a difference to the planet and your savings account.

Let’s face it: finding the best deal on your home loan can be a real headache, whether you’re a first-time buyer or an investor. If you don’t know where to look it’s a time-consuming process with a lot of fine print to wade through.

It’s September! And do you know what that means? …we officially have an excuse to spontaneously belt out the Earth, Wind and Fire classic at any given moment for the next month?

Spring has finally arrived and with it, the 2019 spring property season! And if the latest sentiment is anything to go by, home hunters are hitting the market again - especially in Sydney and Melbourne.

It looks like the Reserve Bank will be taking another breather this month. Following its September meeting, the board announced it won’t be making any changes to the cash rate, opting to keep it at 1.00%.