Find Out – Are You Mr. Average Australian Borrower?

Are you Mr. Average when it comes to borrowing money?

Are you typical of Australian borrowers? Needing a couple of hundred dollars to tide you over until pay day? Or have you sat down, prepared your budgets and are on top of your personal finances, knowing what’s coming in and when and what’s going out and when?

There is very little middle ground here – unless you are the latter you may well be the former!

The New Study by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia

The Commonwealth Bank recently surveyed about 2,000 people and found that the average person borrows $200 per month to make it to the next pay day, quite apart from any other lines of credit that they have like home loans, credit card balances, car loans or personal loans. Continue Reading…

The 5 Most Overrated Credit Card Features

Beware! Overrated credit card features

As you’re trawling through the various personal finance sites, checking deals and comparing credit cards online, bear in mind that some of the features you are unlikely to use, so they are essentially irrelevant and should not even enter into your decision-making process!

It’s amazing how we can get caught up in the “peripherals” and sometimes miss the main features that will directly affect us day to day.

Being aware of the features that you may not need is the first step to choosing the features that actually matter and will probably save you costs on your card. Here are some very likely candidates: Continue Reading…

No Rush For Home Loans In Australia

He’s probably NOT off to apply for a home loan!

While there are plenty of good intentions around, it’s not converting into home loans activity in the Australian housing market.

If evidence from the latest QBE Lenders Mortgage Insurance survey is anything to go by, people are sitting on decisions to buy until they are more confident that the worldwide financial problems have settled.

The QBE Lenders Mortgage Insurance Survey

This survey, by one of Australia’s largest lending insurers, conducted across the country with 1162 participants, found that 60% of Aussies intend to buy property within the next five years; of these, one in five were hoping to buy in 2012.

The state break-down shows that West Australians were the most eager to buy and those in NSW were second. Continue Reading…

How to Save For A Home Loan

Be patient when saving for your home loan deposit

For first time home buyers saving for a home loan can be a daunting task and that deposit can seem far, far away at first.

There is nothing that a little perseverance and discipline cannot achieve and below we take you through how you can work towards the deposit you need for the house you’re after.

Aim High

When we say “aim high” we are not talking about buying a bigger, better house than you actually need.

Continue Reading…

Credit Card Cash Advances Start To Retreat

Cash advances - does it make sense to wait on that purchase?

There are positive signs that Australians are starting to use their credit cards more conservatively and are beginning to tackle their debt problems.

In February 2012, the number of credit card cash advances hit their lowest level since 1996 – below 2 million – and this is continuing a trend that has been established in recent years for people to cut down on this type of credit.

This comes on the back of Reserve bank of Australia figures that the average credit card balance last year grew by its lowest rate since records began in 1995. Continue Reading…