This week in banking - MECA madness

As always, there were plenty of changes across the banking and energy landscape this week. Here’s our weekly recap to give you a rundown of all the ups and downs, as well as any stories you might have missed.

The Mozo Experts Choice Awards

Of course, the big news around the office this past week was the Mozo Experts Choice Awards. Our in-house team of experts has been busy at work these past few months, tirelessly scouring the market for the highest value products on offer in Australia, and on Thursday we finally announced the results. Here are the big winners:

• Long time Mozo Experts Choice Award winner ING was named Everyday Bank of the Year.
• Savings Bank of the Year went to UBank, the second year in a row it’s won the honour.
• AMP took home two awards. It was crowned both Small Business Savings Bank of the Year and SMSF Savings Bank of the Year.

For an overview of all the winning products, be sure to check out our 2019 Mozo Experts Choice Awards page.

Pay-on-time energy bill discounts face the chop

Has your energy bill left you feeling a bit perplexed lately? If so, you’re not the only one. The Australian government has urged the Australian Energy Regulator to crack down on ‘pay-on-time’ discounts offered by energy and gas providers, which have proven to be more trouble than they’re worth.

Variable home loans

Variable home loans saw a number of cuts this week. Bendigo Bank decreased its Basic Home Loan, Variable Rate Residential, and Variable Rate Residential Connect Package by 0.20%. Beyond Bank also decreased variable rates for their investor offerings by 0.10%, as did Suncorp for its Back to Basics Special.

Turning to fees, Heritage Bank has gotten rid of the $600 application fee for its Standard Variable Home Loan and Discount Variable Home Loan, while Bendigo Bank has raised discharge fees for their home loans from $250 to $300.

Fixed home loans

Fixed home loan rates also trended downward. Illawarra Credit Union has made cuts of about 0.20% to its 2 and 3 year fixed rate for owner occupiers and investors. Mortgage House also dropped fixed rates, slashing its 3 year fixed rate Advantage Home Loan by 0.24%. And FreedomLend has decreased 5 year rates for its Fixed Home Loan for investors by up to 0.40%. 

Term deposits

Commonwealth Bank has decreased rates for its 2 to 5 year term deposits by as much as 0.25%. BoQ Specialist has also cut rates for their 1 to 5 year term deposits, but by a much smaller 0.05%. And Macquarie has cut rates for 2 to 5 year term deposits by 0.10%.

Meanwhile, AMP has made slight increases to rates for their 6 to 9 month terms. They now sit at a competitive 2.80%.

So if you don’t want to miss out on a quality term deposit, be sure to check out our term deposits comparison page.

*WARNING: This comparison rate applies only to the example or examples given. Different amounts and terms will result in different comparison rates. Costs such as redraw fees or early repayment fees, and cost savings such as fee waivers, are not included in the comparison rate but may influence the cost of the loan. The comparison rate displayed is for a secured loan with monthly principal and interest repayments for $150,000 over 25 years.