In our monthly Ratehacker round-up, Jeremy Cabral from finance comparison site finder.com.au highlights recent credit card offer changes, plus the best savings accounts, transaction accounts, personal loans and home loans.
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Christmas has arrived. December heralds a wealth of new deals for the frugal shopper. We’re going to have a look at a number of credit card deals, savings accounts and home loans to see where the real value is this holiday season.
Credit Cards
Feature: 0 per cent Purchase Rate & Balance Transfer
Citibank Clear Platinum: 0 per cent per annum for 6 months on purchases and balance transfers. Citibank are now catering to those who want to spend and save with a 0 per cent balance transfer and purchase rate offer. This is a great proposition for people who are prepared to pay back the balance by the end of the promotional period, as the Citibank promotional balance transfer rate reverts to the cash rate. Typically if you spend on a balance transfer card, you will get charged interest from the first day of the transaction. However, this card is unique as it’s combined with a 0 per cent purchase offer, giving you six months before you’re charged the annual percentage rate on purchases.
Feature: 0 per cent Purchase Rate
Commonwealth Bank Low Rate: 0 per cent per annum on purchases for 12 months. The Commonwealth Bank are offering extended interest free terms on purchases with their Low Rate MasterCard. This card allows you to spend and not pay any interest for a full twelve months. This is perfect if you’re planning on paying back your Christmas purchases over a couple of months. The Commonwealth Bank are ahead of the competition this Christmas, the next best purchase rate offer is offered by Citibank with a 0 per cent for 6 months offer, which reverts to 12.99 per cent per annum.
Feature: Cheque to Self
Citibank ReadyCredit: 5.9 per cent on purchases for 24 months on balance transfers. This is technically not a credit card, but it’s worth mentioning as it’s a unique credit product. This is the only 24 month balance transfer promotion in the market. But it’s not just for people who have a debt to pay off. The great thing about this product is that you can write a ‘Cheque-to-Self’. This means you can access up to 80 per cent of your approved credit limit under the balance transfer promotional rate of interest. If you’re looking to pay for a holiday, a wedding or renovations to your home, this is could be the product for you.
Home Loan
Feature: Variable Rate
Loans.com.au Blackboard Special – 80 per cent to 90 per cent LVR: 4.66 per cent comparison rate. Loans.com.au currently have one of the lowest variable rate mortgages in the market at just 4.49 per cent per annum. This is a fully featured loan with a of up to LVR of 90 per cent . You can make principal and interest repayments or just interest only, and this loan is available to owner occupiers and people looking to refinance.
Feature: Fixed Rate Home Loan
UBank UHomeLoan 3 Year Fixed Rate: 4.83 per cent comparison rate. UBank are a serious contender in the fixed home loan space. It offers an upfront discount of 0.25 per cent per annum off the standard variable rate for new customers. The UBank UHomeLoan three year fixed rate mortgage is almost a full percentage point below comparable loans offered by the big four banks.
Feature: Discounted Rate
Bankwest Double Deal Home Loan: 5.30 per cent comparison rate. Bankwest are offering a double deal with a discounted variable rate in the first two years of the loan and a reduced application fee. There’s over $600 to be saved in processing fees, and you could save over $300 a month on a $500,000 mortgage over thirty years.
Savings Accounts
Feature: Introductory Variable Rate
ME Bank Online Savings Account: 4.60 per cent per annum for 5 months. Available to new customers only for balances up to $250,000. There is no monthly account keeping fee or minimum balance requirement.
Feature: On-Going Bonus Variable Rate
RAMS Saver Account: 4.21 per cent per annum. If you make no withdrawals and deposit at least $200 during the month you will benefit from a bonus 1.3 per cent per annum bringing the max variable rate on your savings to 4.21 per cent per annum.
Feature: Low Monthly Deposit, Regular Savings
ANZ Progress Saver: 4.01 per cent per annum. With the ANZ Progress Saver you are rewarded for making regular savings contributions to your account. If you deposit $10 or more in a single deposit each month and make no withdrawals or debits you will receive a 4.00 per cent per annum bonus rate of interest above the standard 0.01 per cent per annum.
Transaction Accounts
Feature: Travel Debit Card
Citibank Plus Transaction Account: Fee free bank account, no foreign transaction fees. If you are looking to travel using your savings rather than credit this is a great account to consider with no foreign transaction fees. It also features free international money transfers and instant money transfers when sending funds overseas to another Citibank account using Citibank Global Transfers.
Feature: Rewards Transaction Account
Bankwest Rewards Transaction Account: 5 points for every eligible purchase at Australian based retailers. Earn 5 points every time you use your Debit MasterCard and 1 point per $100 on your account balance every day. Rewards redemption options include Woolworths or Caltex Vouchers, flights, food, wine, iTunes Vouchers, toys and electronics.
Feature: Linked Transaction Account
ME Bank EveryDay Transaction Account: Bonus 1.7 per cent per annum for 5 months on ME Bank Online Savings Account. You will receive the variable interest rate plus a fixed bonus interest rate of 1.60 per cent if you open an ME Bank Online Savings Account and link the account to an ME Bank Everyday Transaction Account. Bonus interest is payable on balances up to $250,000.
Personal Loans
Feature: New Car Loan
Gateway CU Car Loan: from 7.83 per cent per annum comparison rate. Borrow between $3000 and $75,000 for a new car for up to 7 years. You are also able to make additional repayments and redraw on these funds when you need to.
Feature: Home Improvements
bankmecu Home Improvements Personal Loan: from 9.67 per cent per annum comparison rate. This is a suitable product if you’re looking to renovate but don’t want to get funds through your home loan or another source. If you’re looking to do sustainable renovations to your property you can benefit from a 0.50 per cent per annum discount off the interest rate.
Feature: Fixed Rate
Aussie Personal Loan (Unsecured): from 13.94 per cent per annum comparison rate. With an interest rate almost 1 per cent per annum cheaper than the big 4, this is a great personal loan product plus fixed repayments make budgeting easy. Loan term is 1 to 7 years.
Jeremy Cabral is the Personal Finance Publisher at finder.com.au which includes popular comparison sites CreditCardFinder.com.au and SavingsAccountFinder.com.au, helping over 4.8 million Australians compare financial products every year. Connect with Jeremy on Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.
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