Ratehacker: February’s Best Credit Card, Bank And Home Loan Deals

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 and home loans.

Money picture from Shutterstock

With the first RBA rate cut in over 16 months, it’s really important to pay attention to the interest rates on your financial products. You can expect home loan and savings interest rates to move so pay attention to how your banks (and other banks) respond.

Credit Cards

Feature: 0 percent balance transfer & purchases

NAB Low Rate: 0% per annum for 12 months on purchases and balance transfers. This card is one of those rare offers that has 0% on both purchases and balance transfers, for the same period of time — and in this case, for 12 months. This card also has a low annual fee of $59.

Feature: 0 percent balance transfer and no annual fee

Coles No Annual Fee MasterCard: 0% per annum for 18 months on balance transfers. This card has one of the longest 0% balance transfer offers in market and you won’t have to pay an annual fee. For every $2 you spend you will also earn 1 flybuys point.

Feature: No annual fee and low purchase rate

ME Bank Low Rate Credit Card: 9.99% purchase rate and 0 annual fee. Besides offering a remarkably low rate on purchases, this card also offers the same 9.99% per annum rate on cash advances.

Feature: Bonus points after first purchase

ANZ Frequent Flyer: 50,000 bonus Qantas points. If you make a purchase by 31st March 2015 you will receive 50,000 bonus Qantas Points. The annual fee for this card is $95.

Home Loans

Feature: Variable Rate Home Loan

loans.com.au Dream Home Loan Offset Variable: 4.29% comparison rate. This loan features no application fee, and you can borrow up to 90% of the property value at this rate. It also features a 100% offset redraw facility.

Feature: Discounted application fees

Bankwest Online Home Loan: 4.89% comparison rate. This an online-only offer for loans from $100,000 to $1 million. This rate applies for new borrowing only for up to 80% of the property value.

Feature: Fixed rate home loan

UBank UHomeLoan — Fixed Rate: 4.77% comparison rate. This rate is available if you choose to fix your home loan rate for 3 years. It’s possible to complete your application online and get a response within 30 minutes.

Savings Accounts

Feature: High maximum variable interest rate

ME Bank Online Savings Account: 4.10% per annum. When you link this product with the ME Bank Everyday Transaction Account you will be entitled to the bonus rate of 4.10% per annum for the first four months which works out to be an extra 1.35% per annum above the standard variable rate.

Feature: Incentive saver

ING DIRECT Savings Maximiser: 4.00% per annum. If you have an Orange Everyday Bank Account and deposit $1000+ each month from an external account each month you will be entitled to the variable rate of 4% per annum which is 1.25% per annum above the standard variable rate.

Feature: High base interest rate

RaboDirect Notice Saver 90: 3.75% per annum. If you don’t want the savings commitment and want just a solid base variable rate, that’s what the RaboDirect Notice Saver product has been designed for. You need to give 90 days notice prior to being able to withdraw your funds.

Transaction Accounts

Feature: Cashback on PayWave purchases

Citibank Plus Transaction Account: 5% cashback on PayWave purchases under $100. The Citibank Plus Transaction Account is now offering 5% cashback (capped at $500 per month) for Visa PayWave purchases under $100. The account is still fee free and offers the benefit of no foreign transaction fees.

Feature: No monthly account-keeping fee

ING DIRECT Orange Everyday Account: No account keeping fees. This account offers no ATM fees at every ATM in Australia when you deposit your salary of $1,000 or more each month, 2% cashback on Visa PayWave purchases under $100 in Australia and no monthly account keeping fees.

Feature: Rewards Transaction Account

Bankwest Qantas Transaction Account: 5 Qantas Points per eligible purchase. Besides points on purchases you can earn 12 Qantas Points per $100 balance in your account and 5 Qantas Points for every cash withdrawal overseas.

Personal Loans

Feature: Debt Consolidation Loan

CUA Personal Loan: 13.84% per annum comparison rate. Benefit from no monthly fees, no penalties for paying out your loan early and unlimited extra repayments. All loans will have an establishment fee of $120.

Feature: Fixed Rate New Car Loan

loans.com.au Car Loan: 7.02% comparison rate. The repayments on this loan are fixed. There are no ongoing monthly fees and you can use this loan for a new or used vehicle for a minimum loan amount of $10,000 over 3, 4, 5 or 7 years.

Feature: Low Interest Rate Personal Loan

Gateway CU Personal Loan — Variable Rate: 11.53% comparison rate. Borrow a minimum of $3,000 for up to 7 years. You also have the benefit of making additional loan repayments without penalty.

Travel Insurance

Feature: Policy Discount

InsureandGo Travel Insurance: 10% discount on your policy plus free kids cover. Exclusive finder.com.au offer to get a 10% discount on your travel insurance policy with InsureandGo. Features unlimited medical cover on all overseas policies.

Life Insurance

Feature: Discounted Premium

NobleOak Life Limited: 25% discount on your premiums and first month free. Exclusive offer for Life Insurance Finder customers — receive savings on your premium (up to 25%) and you will get one month of cover at no charge.

Jeremy Cabral is the 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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At Lifehacker, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

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