You have probably heard of “term deposits” and you may have heard of “fixed term deposits” but do you know what these financial products are? [...]

Reward Program Credit Cards Reward cards are a variety of credit cards that provide gifts and perks to reward cardholders for spending money with the [...]

Balance Transfer credit cards Balance transfer credit cards can sometimes be a helpful debt consolidation option. These cards allow you to transfer the existing debt [...]

The Commonwealth Treasurer Wayne Swan has urged home owners to consider switching their home loans from the big banks to credit unions. The Treasurer is [...]

Savings account holders can save up to $330 by switching to a better account according to consumer group Choice. Choice's Better Banking campaign director Richard [...]

Home buyers can save an average of $2500 a year by switching lender, according to consumer group Choice. A typical family can also give themselves [...]

Save money & reduce debt with Balance transfer offers Cutting back on the interest expense on your current card is the most obvious way you [...]

Brokers Millions of people who own a car arrange the insurance of their car directly with the insurer. But there are many drivers who choose [...]

The Price of Car Insurance There are many things to know about car insurance and one of them is price. There is very little use [...]

Insurance in Western Australia When an insurer designs their car insurance policies and premiums, they take many things into consideration. The first thing you should [...]

Used cars Cars can be divided into two broad areas - new and used. Used cars can then be divided into many areas but in [...]

The Australian government is likely to release its reform proposals for the banking sector on Wednesday. The proposals are being considered by cabinet today. The [...]

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is expected to be given increased powers to oversee banks by the government’s new banking reform package, and ensure [...]

Sydney auction results continued to cool on the weekend, as Christmas approaches. There were 687 properties put up for auction in Sydney on Saturday, down [...]

Understanding the in's and out's of rates and fees when looking at a credit card can make a world of difference. Find a break down [...]

Car insurance companies work like most other businesses. They offer a service, in this case insurance for your car, and aim to write as many [...]

Account switching needs to be easier said a new group established to promote integrity in banking. The Australian Financial Integrity Network (AusFIN) is Choice, the [...]

During the spring selling season, the number of properties advertised for sale has been mounting as sales volumes fall and buyers are spoilt for choice [...]

Car insurance need not be confusing. There are many aspects including the different types of motor insurance but within each type or category, the rules [...]

Car Insurance When looking to obtain comprehensive car insurance, shopping around is sound advice. This fact is true for a number of reasons as you [...]

Credit cards are a financial staple for a lot of Australians. They allow you to access a limited amount of credit to give you some [...]

Cash or Credit The recent strength of the Australian dollar has provided great incentives for Australians to travel abroad. Amongst the difficulties of planning a [...]

The best rewards credit cards Credit Card Reward Programs 'reward' you for spending by giving you ‘points’ for every dollar spent. Eventually when you accumulate [...]

What are no annual fee credit cards? Despite the title being self explanatory we believe that the concept of these cards are so wonderful, they [...]

Costs and benefits of balance transfer credit cards Benefits; major benefit is the interest savings made on transfers due to the very low balance transfer [...]

Types of Credit Card interests When you are quoted an annual percentage rate on a credit card it could be referring to one of 3 [...]

What is a Balance transfer credit card? Balance transfer credit cards are just like normal credit cards but with an attractive added balance transfer option. [...]

Credit cards Australia In Australia there are literally hundreds of credit cards available and tens of credit lenders providing them that make the Australian credit [...]

Some economic analysts are now predicting that the RBA will not raise rates again until March or even April next year. Private sector borrowing is [...]

Wayne Swan is expected to offer assistance to credit unions expand in a bid to put more competitive pressure on the big four banks. The [...]

Tuesday afternoon NAB conceded what customers continue to notice, and was reported on talkback radio and social media platforms, which is that some people are [...]

Term deposit rates offered by the big banks have moved up since the RBA increased the official cash rate on Melbourne Cup Day, November 2. [...]

Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens said the time was ripe to be prudent about household spending. Stevens warned about the “challenge of prosperity” facing the [...]

Next month, I'll announce a new package of reforms to further promote competition in the banking sector and build on the action we've already taken. [...]

There were 770 auctions of residential properties held in Sydney on Saturday, up from 628 last week and 486 on the same weekend last year. [...]

It is too difficult or costly to change banks for most people to bother, according to Essential Research. Of those surveyed, 37 per cent of [...]

National Australia Bank will sometime this morning have corrected its mishandled processing of salary, Centrelink and business payments on Wednesday night. Most likely NAB will [...]

Greens MP Adam Bandt said the cross-bench independents - Andrew Wilkie, Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott, Bob Katter and Tony Crook - have agreed to back [...]

Property owners in Australia are holding onto their properties much longer according to research by RP Data. Between the years 2000-2005, the average holding time [...]

Over recent days, Wayne Swan, Australia’s Treasurer has become spokesperson-in-chief for the mutuals, pushing their merit as an option for those seriously cheesed off with [...]

The big four banks have been caught out charging their customers two to three times the market rate for standard life insurance, which they sell [...]

The Sydney auction market continues to deliver poor clearance rates for relatively high numbers of properties being listed for auction. There were 636 residential property [...]

Mortgage exit fees can only cover the lender’s losses from the borrower leaving the loan early. ASIC advises borrowers that they can get more information [...]

The RBA this week released minutes of the its most recent meeting at which it decided to raise the cash rate by 0.25 of a [...]

InfoChoice has compiled a list of what it considers are the best credit card hints and tips to help Australians save money. We have looked [...]

The pressure to allow banks to retain mortgage exit fees has continued to grow this week. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Robert Johanson chairman told ABC [...]

Mortgage holders should carefully weigh up their options before shifting to a rival lender, says Loan Market Group's chief operating officer Dean Rushton who said [...]

KPMG's Building Societies and Credit Unions 2010 Survey released today highlights the "strength, resilience and competitiveness" of the mutual banking sector. "The Australian mutual sector [...]

The average credit card holder spends about $1200 per month or about $14,000 per year on their card according to data from the Reserve Bank [...]

National Australia Bank and Westpac have followed CBA and ANZ and raised their standard variable mortgage rates above and beyond the rate rise imposed by [...]

Queensland Police Credit Union (QPCU) wants bank customers to tell their bank to bark off and switch from the big banks. Chief Executive Officer Grant [...]

With Christmas just around the corner, shoppers are expected to spend big on gifts, entertainment, food, drinks and holidays. Typically people spend more on their [...]

ANZ was the first bank to respond yesterday to an announcement by the corporate regulator, ASIC, that will take action against lenders who charge high [...]

Smaller, non-bank lenders, who charge higher exit fees, are more likely to lose out from the government’s move against high mortgage exit fees, potentially robbing [...]

Approved deposit-taking institutions’ response so far to last week’s 25 basis point increase in the official cash rate won’t please savers. Only a handful of [...]

The three big banks that have not raised their standard variable interest rates - NAB, ANZ and Westpac are losing three million dollars a day [...]

Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ralph Norris said his bank's 0.45 per cent interest rate rise will cost some customers their homes. Sir Ralph said it [...]

Laws to crack down on bank fees would encourage banks to raise their lending rates beyond Reserve Bank moves more often said the Australian Bankers [...]

Senior officials at three of the big banks said yesterday that mortgage exit fees, which cost customers upward of $900, could soon be scrapped. One [...]

Many people are acting now to lock in low mortgage rates for the one, two, two, three, even five years. Big mortgage broking chain Mortgage [...]

Going back fifteen years, the notion that higher density living would become almost as popular as a detached dwelling on its own plot of land [...]

NAB says their standard variable can save a borrower with a $300,000 mortgage about $68 per month compared to the most expensive big bank lender, [...]

The new Woolworths Everyday Rewards Qantas Mastercard credit card is offering a remarkable upfront deal for a card that has a generous points scheme with [...]

Choice today launches its Better Banking campaign. The launch of the Better Banking campaign coincides with fresh research showing that - despite widespread dissatisfaction - [...]

Other banks might follow CBA’s lead and raise their standard variable mortgage by more than the RBA’s 0.25 per cent rise of yesterday. Westpac was [...]

New fixed rate home loans more than doubled over October to reach a 27-month high of 7.7 per cent of the total number of new [...]

Auctions produced reasonable results in Sydney this weekend, but spring racing interfered with results in Melbourne. There were 659 residential properties put up for auction [...]

Veda Advantage’s latest Australian Debt Study found 1.6 million Australians have misrepresented their financial information when applying for a loan in order to obtain credit. [...]

A new wide-ranging Senate Inquiry into banking competition appears almost certain after independent Senator Nick Xenophon joined forces with the Liberal Party. The plan for [...]

Business banking customer satisfaction ratings have leveled out, after falling sharply from late 2008 until the middle of this year. The latest TNS business banking [...]

Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ralph Norris indicated that Australia would pay for the blunders made by overseas governments, regulators and banks if the rules were [...]

Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey escalated his confrontation with the banking industry earlier this week, by asking whether banks should be re-shaped into lower-risk, lower-growth [...]

Repaying consumer debts is a definite financial trend of 2010. “People definitely don’t want to go backwards with debt this year,” said Matt Thomas, the [...]

First home buyers may remain a minor segment of the home loan market, given low levels of affordability, research by the National Centre for Social [...]

The strong Australian dollar is encouraging Australian investors to purchase properties overseas. Loan Market Group’s chief operating officer Dean Rushton, said the brokerage has received [...]

Australia’s credit unions and mutual building societies have called on government to take practical steps to increase competition against the big banks. Too many Australians [...]

Joe Hockey’s attack on bank margins last week shows that the big four banks are now more politically isolated than at any time in the [...]

There were 501 residential properties listed for auction in Sydney on Saturday, with 56 per cent selling on the day, in results that were largely [...]

According to RP Data’s latest research, Australia is currently in the midst of a terrible housing shortage, with Melbourne the worst sufferer. RP Data’s research [...]

Opposition leader Tony Abbott said that the ‘ineffectual’ Labor government was being “stood over” by the major banks. “We didn't see this kind of behaviour [...]

Roy Morgan Research data on customer satisfaction with banks shows NAB were the biggest improver of the big four over the last 12 months with [...]

Australia’s housing prices are not yet an asset bubble according to the Reserve bank of Australia’s financial stability chief Luci Ellis who said the RBA [...]

The latest Bankwest/MFAA Home Finance Index has found that an increasing number of first home buyers are keen to put their first foot on the [...]

Tighter financial conditions are something banks appear to want their customers to experience. Bank executives speaking out recently on the case for margin increases (including [...]

Banks are preventing first home buyers from entering the property market by refusing to recognise rental payments as evidence of genuine savings, says leading mortgage [...]

Westpac has reduced interest rates on two of its savings products by 100 basis points. St George Bank, ME Bank and Bank of Queensland have [...]

Half of all Australians have tightened their belts in recent months because they fear the impact of higher interest rates. The Reserve Bank kept official [...]

There were 517 residential properties listed for auction in Sydney on Saturday with 58 per cent selling on the day. Those results were broadly similar [...]

The banks have been expected to use the next rise in official rates to make their big move upward in interest rates above the cash [...]

The average national rent fell just 0.3 per cent for houses and 0.5 per cent for units throughout the quarter, according to data from Australian [...]

CBA and Westpac have signalled that out of cycle rate rises are inevitable as banks deal with higher funding costs. ING DIRECT’s chief financial officer [...]

According to the latest Bankwest/MFAA Home Finance Index, 50 per cent of Australians are forgoing eating out to deal with the burden of higher rates, [...]

New loans for the construction of housing fell by one per cent in August and loans to buy them fell 2 per cent despite new [...]

Most credit card holders are not getting value for money from their card’s rewards scheme according to a survey by Citibank. Head of Credit Cards [...]

Provident Capital has slashed 15 basis points from its Premium and Premium-Lite range of home loan products. Another small mortgage lender, Future Financial has also [...]

Australian house prices will rise between 9 and 20 per cent in capital cities over the next three years according to new research by BIS [...]

First home buyers will be the major casualties if the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) or lenders lift interest rates, a national survey has found. [...]

Westpac managing director Gail Kelly yesterday reiterated that, since funding costs are rising, interest rates paid by borrowers must rise “over time”. Kelly may not [...]

Sydney households are spending three quarters of their average monthly income on mortgage repayments. A survey of global cities found that Sydney residents spend a [...]

Borrowers who are considering refinancing their home loan need to weigh up the short term and long term costs and benefits. It can take 10 [...]