There’s been a great deal of pessimism about the GFC (Global Financial Crisis), the economy, job prospects, the share markets in Australia (and the World) lately. Consumers are finding that the banks have started to tighten access to consumer loans and restrict lending all but their prime clients. In a country with four large banks [...]
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The Comparison Rate
When assessing the effective cost of a loan, you will need to consider a few possible charges and not just the interest rate. Other costs and charges can include bank fees and up-front or settlement charges. The comparison rate (also called Mandatory Comparison Rate or MCR or the Effective Rate) is an interest rate [...]
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The ‘credit crunch’ has now lasted for nearly year and is starting to have a fairly noticeable impact on consumers and borrowers.
The inability of many non-bank lenders to obtain funding for their loans means that there are now few competitors to the traditional banks (Wizard has been reported to be up for sale and RAMS [...]
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Interest rates in Australia have been increasing for some time now and in our view are likely to rise a little further yet. There are a number of factors that have driven the increase in the underlying cash rate to 6.75% (the Reserve Banks principle tool for affecting the future inflation rate) and also the recent [...]
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