Home loans, solar power, Xinja: This week’s best banking news

• ING proves most satisfactory for home loan customers 
• Mortgage approvals at an all-time high 
• Home prices continue to creep up with regional markets at the forefront 
• Rooftop solar takes off in record numbers in ACT and Victoria 
• Xinja says goodbye and returns fund to customers 
• Credit card interest rate: 1 in 3 Aussies don’t know theirs 
  

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

Research finds ING is most satisfactory to customers when it come to home loans

Last week, Roy Morgan released its latest banking customer satisfaction data which revealed ING came out on top. 

The survey recorded the attitudes of home loan customers  from a wide range of Aussie banks between June and November of 2020. 

Figures showed that most banks increased their customer satisfaction levels compare to the same time in 2019, and online bank ING ranked the highest with a 94.4% rating (up by 2.1%). 

“The response of Australian banking and financial institutions to the COVID-19 pandemic has been rewarded with customer satisfaction ratings of home loan customers increasing for all ten leading banks compared to a year ago by an average of 4.8% points to 79%,” Roy Morgan CEO, Michele Levine said.

“Australia’s banks provided unprecedented support to home loan customers thrust into financial hardship during 2020 with a wide range of support measures. Roy Morgan research into the impact of COVID-19 on finances shows 10% of Australians who have had a negative employment impact from COVID-19 have had their mortgage payments put on hold for a period of time – and this translates into 21% of all Australians with mortgages.”

Read full article: ING tops on home loan customer satisfaction, says Roy Morgan to find out which challenger banks beat out the big players. 

Home loan approvals jump up to record high 

In November, the total value of new mortgage approvals increased to a record high of $24 billion, an increase of 5.6%, said the Australian Bureau of Statistics. 

Numbers showed that loan commitments for existing dwellings in November rose by 5.9% to $12.44 billion. 

And as for the value of construction loan commitments, it crept up by 5.6% to $3.01 billion. Since July last year, when the Government’s HomeBuilder scheme was introduced, these sort of loan commitments have increased by a massive 75%. 

Read full article: Home loan approvals at all-time high, says ABS and find out more about why first home buyers have flocked to the market. 

Property prices on the rise, with regional areas turning over more profit

Recent data from CoreLogic has shown that the rate of profit making sales in Australian capital cities and regional areas has increased over the September quarter. 

The firm revealed that the proportion of profitable sales throughout the country as whole was 88.1%, equating to an extra $24.8 billion. This is up from 87.2% ($19.8 billion), in the June quarter. 

For major cities, Hobart was the best performing, while Melbourne was the only city to report a decrease in the rate of profitable sales. 

CoreLogic Head of Research Australia, Eliza Owen drew attention to Australia’s regional areas. She said that locations like Geelong, the Illawarra and the Sunshine Coast outperformed capital cities. 

“The combined regional Australian market saw the rate of profit making sales increase 150 basis points, to 89.2% in the September quarter, while the rate of profitability across capital city markets expanded 30 basis points, to 87.2%,” she said.

Read full article: Home prices continue to rise, regional markets more likely to return a profit and discover why property values continue to rise. 

ACT and Victoria see uptick in solar energy 

Both the ACT and Victoria have reported increases in solar energy usage for households. 

The ACT Government’s 2019/20 annual feed-in tariff report showed there are more than 28,000 solar generators in the Territory, up by 17% on the previous year. 

Rooftop solar in the ACT produced more than 135 megawatts over the 2019/20 financial year. Plus, over 47,000 MWh came from more than 10,000 solar PVs that were provided by the ACT Government’s Feed-In Tariff (FiT) scheme. 

And it’s a similar story in Victoria, where it was reported that over half a million households in the state are now producing their own power as a result of using solar.  This increase could be a result of its Solar Home rebate program which discounts solar systems, batteries and hot water systems. 

Read full article: Rooftop solar welcomed in record numbers, thanks to rebates and interest-free loans for insights from Victoria’s Minister for Solar Homes, Lily D’Ambrosio.

Failed neobank Xinja returns deposits to its customers

At the end of last year, neobank Xinja discontinued its banking and savings accounts as it gave back its Authorised Deposit-Taking Institution (ADI) licence. 

This week, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) announced that over $252 million across 54,357 deposits were returned to Xinja’s 37,884 former customers. 

While customers were encouraged to withdraw their own funds from their Xinja account, for those who didn’t Xinja voluntarily transferred the remaining funds ($65,809) to new or existing NAB accounts. 

Both NAB and Xinja contacted customers to let them know the transfer had been done. 

Read full article: Xinja finalises all deposit returns: Where is your cash now? to compare new savings accounts to stash your stash! 

Do you know your credit card interest rate? 1 in 3 Aussies don’t! 

New research from Defence Bank has revealed that one in three Australian credit card users don’t know the interest rate attached to their plastic. 

On top of that, four out of five didn’t release their interest rate above 10%. While 60% of respondents admitted that they don’t pay much attention to the rate on their card at all. 

“It’s time to break the cycle of paying unnecessarily high credit card interest rates. Australian consumers need to stop paying 20% for the convenience of a basic credit card, when genuine low-rate options exist for half the cost,” said Defence Bank chief executive officer, David Marshall. 

The data also found that one in four Aussies keep a credit card balance throughout the year, while one in two believe rewards programs aren’t valuable any more. 

“We see from these results that Australians are frustrated by the rates they’re paying and the bells and whistles they either can’t use or don’t need,” says Marshall.

Read full article: 1 in 3 Aussies don't know their credit card interest rate for some tips on clearing your Christmas credit card debt. 

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