This week in banking - The RBA drops the cash rate to 1.00%

In this week’s banking recap, we revisit Tuesday’s RBA rate cut, and take a look at all the moves that have been made in the home loan market since.

The RBA cuts the cash rate to 1.00%, a historic low

At its meeting in Darwin this Tuesday, the Reserve Bank decided to cut official interest rates for the second month in a row, the first time it’s done so since 2012. 

While back to back cuts might signal weakening confidence in the economy, RBA Governor, Philip Lowe maintained an optimistic tone in his official statement.

“Today's decision to lower the cash rate will help make further inroads into the spare capacity in the economy. It will assist with faster progress in reducing unemployment and achieve more assured progress towards the inflation target,” he said.

Big 4 outperformed by smaller lenders

In the few days since, we’ve seen plenty of lenders making reduction to variable home loan rates, but only a handful have opted to pass on the full cut. 

ANZ impressed us by announcing it will be lowering rates by 0.25% - welcome news after last month’s 0.18% cut - while the other three major banks made reductions of between 0.19% and 0.20%.

At the moment, online lenders are still the ones to watch, especially considering some are offering rates below 3% mark. Homestar and Athena, for example, pounced on the chance to pass on the full rate, while loans.com.au followed suit only a few days later.

Who is Australia’s favourite online grocery service?

This week we also crowned Woolworths our Mozo Experts Choice Online Grocery Service of the Year. Our panel of judges considered price, range, ordering experience and delivery, and in all four categories Woolworths came out on top. 

Woolies also performed spectacularly in last month’s Mozo People’s Choice Awards, going to show that it’s not just a hit with the experts, it’s pretty beloved by everyday Australians too.

Big changes in store for the energy market

This month will herald a number of key changes in the energy market. Most notably, AGL has announced it will be taking steps to make its pricing much more transparent, starting by scrapping pay on time discounts, which many have found to be more predatory than useful. 

This month’s rate cut will see home loan rates dropping further, so if you’re looking at your home loan and despairing, now might be a good time to look at what other options are available. Check out some of the options below, or visit our variable rate home loan comparison page for a more in-depth look.