News Archive for March 2022

Whether you’re buying a new home or refinancing, a cheap home loan rate is one of the best ways to save money on your mortgage.

Nowadays, more and more Australians turn to online lenders when taking out a home loan. With amazing perks like convenient applications, fast approval, and lower interest rates, it's not hard to see why!

How much does it cost to live in Australia? It’s not just a high school economics question. In fact, the cost of living has an enormous impact on your personal finances.

Differing to the typical home loan, which is designed for the purchase of a property, personal loans are more than a one trick pony. In fact, there are a range of circumstances where different types of personal loans could come in handy, such as a holiday, funding a wedding, doing a home reno or even consolidating debt Personal loans generally come in two types; secured (where you put up an asset as security) or unsecured (where you don’t). Secured loans often come with lower interest rates than unsecured options and like other loans, you’ll need to make regular repayments over the loan term, which is usually one to ten years.   So with that in mind, we’ve put together a personal loan matchmaker with some top options for each scenario.

HECS-HELP loans have empowered many Australians to go to university and achieve higher-paying careers. But can taking on student debt hurt your chances when applying for a home loan?

Everyone’s looking for an angle into the ridiculously competitive property market. But for those hoping to avoid the emotional stress and risk of auctions, conducting ‘secret’ deals behind closed doors could be the way to go. In other words: buy off-market.

Keeping track of your expenses and budget progress has advanced beyond spreadsheets, with the right tools being a huge asset to your financial goals.

Tenants and landlords both have rights and responsibilities in the aftermath of disaster. Since floods don’t discriminate, everyone should have a plan in place to protect their valuables – especially the 61% of renters whose valuables are at risk due to climate changes.

Over the past three years, Australia has been embattled with the effects of climate change. Droughts, bushfires, and flooding in rapid succession have each endangered millions of lives and cost us billions of dollars, not to mention driven up insurance premiums.

The current climate of uncertainty in Europe is making international money a bit tricky. But how does the conflict affect us here in Australia?

We love it when our favourite movie stars floor it in epic high-speed chases. The last thing we’d want is reality to get in the way of all that jaw-dropping action. And absolutely nobody is wondering what kind of car insurance those heroes would need. Nu-uh. Nobody. Not us.

As the impact of climate change becomes more difficult to ignore, a number of Australian home loan providers have responded by introducing discounted home loans for borrowers with eco-friendly homes.

For three years in a row, Australians on the east and north coasts have been deluged with unprecedented rainfall – mostly due to La Niña weather patterns and worsening climate change. This is especially impactful for the nearly one in five Australians at risk of flood damage.

Online lenders are back with a roar in 2022, taking on the banks with super low rates and responding to consumer demand for faster, more efficient approval and funding processes for home loans, personal loans and even business loans.

If you’re a NSW Resident over the age of 18, then you’re eligible for a $50 voucher which you can put towards booking accommodation. The vouchers are valid from February 21 2022, up until October 9 2022.

In positive news for home borrowers, some of Australia’s top mortgage lenders are slashing home loan rates to new lows in a bid to entice home buyers and growing numbers of bargain-hunting refinancers keen to secure a better deal on their mortgage as protection against future Reserve Bank rate rises.

For many, pets have given us so much during the pandemic. From companionship, to comfort, and both mental and physical wellbeing, 70% of Australians say that being a pet owner has improved their lives during the pandemic, according to Animal Medicines Australia. That’s why choosing a pet insurance policy that will do right by our companions is so important. After all, your best friend deserves the best.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg delivered the 2022/23 Commonwealth Budget last night. With a bit over a month before the next federal election, the government will look to cut down on national debt while also providing immediate support for the people that need it.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has released the latest federal budget ahead of a looming election. While renewables and real wages will receive little to no help, the budget outlines massive support measures for women and those struggling with mental ill-health.

The recent spate of floods on Australia’s east coast have presented unique problems for many, with people around the country both directly and indirectly affected.

If you’ve spent some time researching home loans lately, you’ll no doubt be aware that it can be a time-consuming and sometimes downright confusing task. With over 500 home loans from 80 plus lenders in the Mozo comparison database, you’d need more than a coffee break to research them all.

The 2022 Federal Budget will be delivered this week, and with a federal election not too far away, the government is hoping to recover some goodwill among Australians by tackling rising costs of living.

A study of 1,005 Australians commissioned by the online trader and conducted by research agency The Digital Edge found that 32% of millennials are better educated when it comes to finance.

Dude, 1991 was wild. NASA launched the Hubble space telescope, printed jumpers were king, and houses near Bronte Beach in Sydney only cost $307,729. Them’s were simpler times.

The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) is the latest in the lending pack to make changes on its home loan interest rates, lifting fixed rates by as much as 30bp while lowering variable interest by 10bp.

New Year seems like a lifetime ago. So it’s only natural that you may have forgotten about the resolutions you made at the beginning of the year. But now is a good time to reset and potentially reevaluate these resolutions.

HECK YES! As part of their latest attempt to supercharge the long-suffering tourism industry, the Victorian government launched a $200  travel voucher scheme this week.

After recently hitting the 250,000 customer milestone, Elon Musk has raised the prices on his satellite broadband service Starlink. In an email to customers, Starlink defended the decision to increase charges. Justifying the 10% increase to base costs, the company said: “The sole purpose of these adjustments is to keep pace with rising inflation.”While inflation is affecting the cost of living for many everyday needs, it's not limited to petrol and groceries. Starlink’s owner and founder recently took to twitter to announce that inflation pressures had affected the raw materials needed to produce Tesla’s cars, and SpaceX rocket launches.

You may have heard that the Chelsea Football Club is for sale. But if you're interested, you better get your bid in quickly as there's now a rather short shortlist of contenders.

If you are a credit cardholder stuck with a deal that isn’t working for you anymore or the card is costing you too much, and you’re just not satisfied, then it could be time to make a stress free switch to a more worthy and valuable piece of plastic.

Sometimes you’ve got everything in place: a pre-approved home loan, an agent, and a dream. But given Australia’s ridiculously competitive property prices, it’s easy to feel like young first home buyers have limited opportunities.

AMP Bank has announced new increases to its term deposit rates.

Whether your business is just finding its legs or already an established player in your industry, managing cash flow remains an ongoing challenge. This goes doubly so for businesses that invoice other businesses.

All in this week’s best banking news recap: editor’s pick.

New Data released by Commbank shows that Sydney and Melbourne residents are increasingly spending money on shopping in their CBD areas.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has officially confirmed what we all guessed in 2021: housing prices went kaboom.

While share trading remains a popular option, a growing number of investors are turning to Bitcon and other cryptocurrencies, and younger generations are leading the charge.

Digital lender OneTwo recently slashed rates on its variable home loan offer, putting it among the most competitive home loans in the Mozo database.

We’re back with our housing market crystal ball, deciphering the latest prophecies from Corelogic .

The 2022 NSW and Southeast Queensland floods have caused widespread damage and grief, with the Insurance Council of Australia reporting that 107,844 claims have been lodged in flood-stricken areas, totalling an estimated $1.62 billion from March-April alone.

Drivers around the country are letting out a collective groan, as the average price of petrol in Australia seems higher every day. The simple task of filling up your car has suddenly become a major expense as international tensions begin to hit home.The ACCC’s latest petrol monitoring report reveals that daily average retail petrol prices in all capital cities hit 182.4 cents per litre (cpl) in late-February 2022, which was the highest inflation-adjusted level since 2014. Prices have risen further in the first two weeks of March.Geopolitical manoeuvring over the supply of oil between the US and Russia has upset the global energy economy and the aftershocks are being felt here in Australia, even at the humble servo. At the pump, prices have regularly sat above $1.80/L, as the early-2020 slumps in oil seem like a thing of the distant past. Diesel, Ethanol based and Premium Unleaded petrol have all been feeling the pinch as the latest commodity to feel the pressure of global conflict.Since January 2022, the price of crude oil has remained steadily above $100 USD/barrel, even reaching historic highs of $120/barrel of crude oil. It usually takes about two weeks for major moves in the oil economy to translate to the buyer, so it's unlikely that prices will stabilise in the near future.

Throughout the pandemic period, Aussie borrowers have had access to some of the lowest fixed rates on record. But in the past few months lenders have been quietly removing those offers from the market.

New research by Toluna shows that 52% of Australians will never invest in crypto, compared with 10% globally. In addition, Toluna’s survey of 9,000 people across 17 countries also found that Australians were on average, more hesitant to invest than all of the other surveyed countries.

Housing affordability in Australia continued to worsen over the December quarter, with recent research putting the proportion of income required to meet home loan repayments at 37 per cent.

All the single ladies (all the single ladies) are getting into the Australian property market.

NAB is the latest bank to make changes across its range of fixed rate home loans, lifting rates by as many as 50 basis points.

New research from online bank ING has found that Aussies can save money by buying their groceries online.

Today is International Women’s Day and the theme for this year is #BreakTheBias. The aim is to raise awareness to the current inequalities faced by women worldwide, and to strive towards achieving a gender equal world - a world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination.

Finding a great value insurance policy with all of the coverage and features you need can be a real headache-inducer, with the result that too many Australians spend too little time researching the best options for car, home, life and pet insurance each year.

According to Telstra, their mobile network already reaches 99.5 percent of Australia's population. Now they're setting their sights on the final frontier to go even further.

New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that homeowners with mortgages still seem to be making the most of relatively competitive interest rates by switching their loans in considerable numbers.

A new report from online share trading researcher Investment Trends has found that online investor numbers continued to rise in the second half of 2021.

All in this week’s best banking news recap: editor’s pick.

Summer’s over, and Autumn’s finally here – It’s March, folks! And boy, let me tell you, we are in for a busy month ahead. With that being said, I give you your March 2022 Financial Checklist!

The cost-of-living continues to rise and a new NAB research says that many people find saving challenging due to debt repayments, bills and everyday spending.

Let’s be honest, when’s the last time anyone actually visited a bank? And it seems we’re unlikely to ever again, according to new research from Roy Morgan .

Last year was scarily lucrative for online scammers. According to Scamwatch , Australians lost a record-breaking $323 million in 2021 alone, with more than quarter-million reports filed describing different investment, romance, and shopping scams.

Westpac has become the latest in a string of mortgage lenders to hike interest rates on a number of its fixed home loans - the third time the major bank has lifted fixed rates in 2022.

For the first time in 17 months property values in the nation’s largest and most expensive capital city, Sydney, have fallen according to new figures from CoreLogic.

Are you finally ditching your share-house and setting up your own unit? Or just bought yourself a nice place to upsize and thrive? Before you settle into domestic bliss, one of the final boxes to check is your broadband internet. The kind folks at NBN co want to make this process as smooth as possible, so they’ve put together 5 helpful tips to ensure your new situation is perfect from day 1. Nobody wants to get stranded without the internet, so follow these tips to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Well it's finally happened! The international borders are open, masks and working from home mandates have lifted, sports and outdoor activities are back on–but what does that mean for your finances?

As we start a new season and look back on how personal loan interest rates have performed over the past few months, we saw several rate cuts.

The dangers of climate change could soon overwhelm both humanity and nature, says a new scientific report released Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Indeed, the effects from climate change could be more severe than originally predicted.

Apple has recently announced plans to launch new “Tap to Pay'' software in the US. This software allows merchants to accept “contactless” payment from the likes of Apple Pay and other digital wallets via smartphone. Tap to Pay makes the payment process easy by just tapping the selected contactless payment method to an iPhone with the new payment app open. This new software will only be available for iPhone XS (2018) and more recent models.

The Reserve Bank of Australia left the cash rate at 0.10% at its second policy meeting of the year, while admitting that ongoing developments in Eastern Europe are a new source of uncertainty.

Credit cards are staging a come-back in 2022, with a wave of fresh new card offers hitting the market that at first glance seem almost too generous to be true. But there’s a bigger story driving this wave of apparent generosity, and it’s one that cardholders are set to benefit from.

Credit cards are staging a come-back in 2022, with a wave of fresh new card offers hitting the market that at first glance seem almost too generous to be true. But there’s a bigger story driving this wave of apparent generosity, and it’s one that cardholders are set to benefit from.

Credit cards are staging a come-back in 2022, with a wave of fresh new card offers hitting the market that at first glance seem almost too generous to be true. But there’s a bigger story driving this wave of apparent generosity, and it’s one that cardholders are set to benefit from.

How quickly things change.