the mozo blog

With high competition for customers on both the lending and savings/deposit fronts, it is often the everyday transaction account that gets forgotten by many providers and consumers. Viewed by many as a simple vanilla account, many Australians are oblivious to the fact that there are some great, innovative products out there, all geared to help them save money.

For example, both BankWest and ING Direct offer transaction accounts that reimburse ATM fees. A more innovative product is Suncorp Bank’s everyday options account, which is an everyday account that can link to multiple savings accounts as well as lock away part of your funds to a term deposit “flexiRate”.

St. George’s latest offering, St George SENSE Savings, is similar in many ways to Suncorp’s with a few different bells and whistles. The ‘SENSE’ account is effectively an amalgam of St. George’s leading savings and transactions accounts with a few clever gimmicks to help things along.

The first innovative add on is that you receive a combined statement for both accounts. SENSE also comes with a range of pretty snazzy and informative graphs that help you track your spending. One of them is a pie chart that breaks down your everyday spending by categories, such as leisure, home expenses, and transport. There’s also a bar graph version that shows these amounts month to month. Plus you get a graph outlining your savings progress in relation to your set target.

There’s also the Sense Rounding Contribution graph -and this is what really sets this product apart. What exactly is a rounding contribution? Well, every time you make a purchase on your debit card, the SENSE account automatically rounds up the transaction to the nearest dollar and takes that balance from your everyday account and puts it into your savings bucket. For example, say I bought a coffee and a croissant on my way in to work that costs me $5.30. If I pay using my SENSE account, $6 gets taken out of my account. $5.30 goes to the barista and the remaining $0.70 goes into my SENSE savings account. The same process also applies to all BPay transactions too. It’s a really nifty way to start saving without putting any effort in.

All the standard perks come too – if you deposit over $2000 a month into the account you don’t pay an annual fee, there’s no minimum balance required, a VISA debit card, and all the convenience of having linked accounts, such as ease of transfers and regular payments. The savings account comes with a reasonable 4.85% rate as well.

So hats off to St. George. They’ve managed to craft a simple, yet intuitive and innovative product that redefines the relationship between the transaction and the savings account. For all those that struggle with saving, or simply having to manage two accounts, this is one option that could make a lot of SENSE.

Find the best savings account rates at mozo.com.au.

Last night’s federal budget contained the very welcome news that interest on your savings will soon receive special tax treatment. From 1 July 2011, you’ll only pay half the tax on the first $1,000 of your interest income.

This is a big win for the banking industry. The measure only applies to income earned on bank accounts, savings accounts, term deposits, bonds and annuities. It will have the effect of pulling money into the banks from other investment vehicles — and from out of cookie jars and under mattresses. And it is Mr Swan’s hope – and mine, and I’m sure yours – that this extra leg up for banks will help them gather sufficient deposits to reduce the overall cost of funding their home loan products. Wouldn’t that be nice: better savings returns and cheaper home financing. Only time will tell.

But what’s it mean for you exactly? Well, at an interest rate of 5.85% (the best standard at-call interest rate in the market right now, at UBank), you’ll be able to save up to $17,000 and receive the full rate reduction. If your taxable income is between $35,000 and $80,000 then you’ll only pay an effective tax rate of 15% on interest: that means a saving of up to $150 a year. And of course the savings are even higher if you’re on a higher rate of tax.

But here’s a savings measure you can access right now. If you already have money that’s not getting the best rate in the market, you can make $150 or more by moving it. If your 17 grand is only earning 4.50%, say in an old BankWest TeleNet Saver account, then moving it to a rate of 5.85% makes you $150 — even after paying current tax rates. And you can do better yet with a Term Deposit, where plenty of providers offer well over 6% on your money for terms as short as 6 months.

If you’re not making the most of your savings, don’t wait for 2011. Mozo’s Rate Chasers have been out in the field chasing down the best rates – compare savings account and term deposit rates now.

Part of ANZ’s new “making banking simpler” push is their ANZ Money Manager service.  It sounds fantastic – it aggregates all your bank balances and transactions in one spot online, even if they aren’t ANZ products, so you can see the complete picture of your money.  (ANZ say it is a first for Australia, but there were aggregator services like this as many as 10 years ago.  And they never took off.)  The thing that caught my eye about ANZ’s offering was that it can automatically categorise your transactions so you can see what you spend your money on, and you can feed that info straight into their online budgeting tool.

But when I went to try it out, I stopped dead at the point where it asks you to divulge the userid and password of your other online banking accounts.  ANZ say it’s safe, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.  If something goes wrong, ANZ will no doubt point to the fine print of their terms and conditions, where they warn that getting information through their service “is done at your own discretion and risk”.  And my other bank isn’t going to come to the rescue, because their conditions are that you don’t disclose your info to anyone – not even to a password-protected service run by ANZ.

What do you think?  Would you hand over your internet banking passwords to ANZ Money Manager?

Compare bank accounts with mozo.com.au

UBank’s USaver, already quite the consumer champion, raised its rate by 0.35% today (effective next Tuesday), lifting it once again head and shoulders above the competition. Having sat out the last Reserve Bank rate rise, eyes were firmly aimed at the NAB-backed upstart to see whether it had perhaps conceded in its revolutionary push towards top spot in the savings account market. Alas for ING Direct and co., UBank had no such ideas, and have once again set themselves at the head of the pack.

Also of great news to existing account holders, was UBank’s rate assurance last night, declaring that until the end of the year at least, that USaver interest rate will not fall below that of their chief rivals (including introductory promotional rates), directly labelling accounts by ANZ, BankWest, Westpac, ING Direct and Commonwealth Bank as their chief competition (though surprisingly no Raboplus…).

So the time’s never been better to snap up a USaver account, once again a good 0.2% or more above its rivals. Get in quick while the rate assurances are hot I say!

Want to make up your own mind? Compare Savings Accounts on Mozo.com.au

It’s time to pull out your calculator and do some simple sums on those mortgages. And the sum to do is to take your current interest rate, add 2%, and see if you can cope with the adjusted repayment amount. Because that’s where we are headed.

There is now no doubt that the RBA is done with its rate lowering cycle. We’ve all been hypothesising on this for a while, and the RBA itself has now essentially confirmed it.

In fact, Glenn Stevens has gone further, and indicated that rates need to go back to “normal” levels, which he defined as “a good deal north of where the cash rate is now”.

Reading between the lines, I think the RBA is indicating that 5% is more normal to it. That’s a 2% rise from here. And given that we’ve all got used to “unusually low” rates (as Glenn Stevens refers to the current state of play), that will feel like a large rise.

This prediction may be unsettling for first home-buyers or those looking to refinance – for a typical loan of $250,000, this 2% hike will mean an extra $300 in monthly repayments. Use the Mozo Home Loan Health Check to see if your loan is costing you more than it should.

So the only question now is WHEN rates will start to move up…
My prediction is that it isn’t when the RBA next moves on rates that we need to worry about, it’s when the banks do, because I think they’ll be first. Regardless of when the RBA decides it’s time, I’ll place a $20 bet that the banks move before it does anyway.

And it may be sooner than we think. No bank will want to be first, but one of them will go at some stage, and as soon as that happens, the one thing you can be completely sure of is that the rest will follow quickly. They act in unison – always have, always will.

So just when we least expect it, at a time when the news flow will allow it to get through without too much push back, one bank will move rates up, and the rest will follow.

Given all that, and a world where rates are about to start moving in a one way journey north, it’s a good time to do some quick sums and make sure you can cope with an extra 2% on your mortgage.

Compare home loans with Mozo.com.au

The Reserve Bank might have taken the axe to interest rates over the last six months, but savers needn’t despair quite yet.

Savings rates are still extremely competitive. New players like AMP and ANZ’s SmartyPig have recently launched high interest accounts, while challenger brands like RaboPlus and ING DIRECT continue to keep the banks on their toes.

Now that interest rates are settling down after a flurry of cuts, it’s a great time for savers to check their current rate against the best on the market to ensure they are still getting a good deal.

With this in mind, the team at Mozo has put together our Top 5 Tips for comparing savings accounts.

1. Promo rate tricks

Be wary of promotional savings rates that are only available for a limited time. Some savings accounts advertise headline rates of up to 4.5%, but after the first three or four months these rates drop right down, often to less than 3.0%.

Unless you are the sort of person who actively moves their savings every three months, or you only want a short-term savings product, you will be better off with an account that has a competitive ongoing rate. The RaboPlus savings account offers 4.0% on call with no nasty small print.

2. Provider track record

Look at the financial institution’s track record on savings rates. Is the advertised rate just a good rate today, or is the institution known for offering consistently competitive rates?

Mozo recently analysed the interest rates track record of the major savings providers and found that over the last six months, 8 out of 17 institutions have cut savings rates by more than the Reserve Bank. By contrast, RaboPlus and ING Direct have absorbed a significant percentage of the base rate cuts to maintain consistently competitive high interest savings accounts.

3. Interest rate conditions

Understand the conditions attached to an advertised interest rate, such as whether you need to maintain a minimum account balance or deposit a certain amount each month.

For instance the BankWest Regular Saver account offers a market-leading rate of 5.0% but you need to deposit between $50 and $500 per month, and make no withdrawals, or you’ll earn 0% instead.

If you’re not 100% sure that you’ll be able to meet these sorts of account conditions each month, go for a savings account without hurdles instead. The Members Equity Bank Online Savings Account has a competitive 4.0% interest rate with no strings attached.

4. Linked accounts

Check whether the institution requires you to open a linked bank account along with the savings account.

This is an increasingly common condition attached to high interest savings accounts. In addition to the hassle of having to open a separate account to access your savings, you may also get hit with additional bank fees.

The alternative is a new breed of accounts like the AMP First account, which offer high interest and everyday transaction access all in the one account. The AMP First account gives you easy access to your money via ATM, EFTPOS, online and cheque, plus a competitive 4.35% on your savings.

5. Accessing your cash

Work out what sort of access you need to your cash. If you’re happy to leave it under lock and key for a period of time, consider term deposits as an alternative to savings accounts.

Term deposits protect you from further drops in interest rates and exist for terms of anywhere from 30 days to 3 years. Right now UBank is offering 4.51% on 90 day term deposits and Macquarie Bank has 2 year term deposits at 4.5%.

Compare savings accounts now

While attending the Finovate conference in the US recently one thing was clear – the face of online banking is changing. And when I say the face, I am talking about just that, the face of it to users.

There are some exciting new applications in the online banking space in the US, in the form of internet banking platforms that are designed to go beyond the transactional nature which it is today, and move into the realms of helping consumers with their finances in a broader sense. Rather than the generic “one size fits all” approach, they are offering users genuine personalisation of their online banking experience to meet their needs.

Leading the way is Jwaala who market their product as BOB (“Better Online Banking”). And unlike every second coffee shop in Sydney claiming they have the best coffee in the city, I think Jwaala can sit safely behind their call, because it IS better. It offers several tools which help users manage their personal finances, do budgets, integrate their accounts from other institutions, and get personalised reports and alerts. And it is all highly customisable as the user wishes. It’s all a long way ahead of the current offering in Australia.

Another more recent player (only launched in January 2009) is iThryv who are doing some great things with a genuinely consumer friendly interface, and highly targeted content. Beyond just transactional information, they deliver highly targeted content to the user, in a form the user chooses. For example they have developed an interface designed for and focused on kids aged 5 to 11. It’s a long leap forward from the CBA Dollarmite account!

Given that ANZ was the only Australian financial institution at the Finovate conference, I think we can expect ANZ to lead the way in Australia with some innovative new customer focused online banking tools in the months ahead, either partnered with one of these companies or taking their ideas and developing them on their own. Hopefully personalisation of the online banking experience in Australia is not far away.

I’ve just come back from showcasing mozo.com.au at the Finovate conference in San Francisco, which bills itself as “the visionaries creating new ways to bank, manage personal finance, and appeal to financial consumers”.

Being a US focused conference (Mozo was the only Australian site presenting), it was a chance to see the latest and greatest in finance based innovation to come out of the US.

My first observation is that the level of innovation in the US, in the internet based finance space at least, is a long long way ahead of Australia. The level of product proposition and sophisitication is simply much higher than we have.

BUT, and for me it is a very big but…

In many cases there were no clear business models associated with the innovations.

I saw presentation after presentation (companies gave a 7 minute demo of their site) with nifty functionality and tools, but for most of the 7 minutes I looked for, and failed to find, the associated business model. It was simply unclear to me how many of these companies intend to make money.

So it got me pondering the question – can innovation come before business model? Is it a valid strategy to develop a product or application, without thinking through the business model up front?

On the whole, the US seems to think so. Because many of these ‘no revenue in sight’ companies have been exceptionally well funded, some of them in excess of US$10m before seeing any revenue. And that’s for an internet business, which is by it’s nature low cost to set up. That’s a lot of money to invest in an unknown business model! In fact in their list of “highlights” many companies were listing the money raised as an “achievement”, with a sense that the more the better. Big teams, fancy offices, all before starting to code the website. On the whole the US seems to operate on the principle of raise the money first, start the business second.

I think it’s fair to say that on the whole Australia operates the opposite way around. For a start, we tend to guard our financials very closely to our chest. We also tend to startup our businesses differently, by first trying to get the business going for as low a cost as possible, prove up the business model, and only then seek greater capital to expand. We have small teams and very basic offices, often working from home for the early stages. We tend to take the view that the less we spend on getting things started the better. Quite the opposite path.

I have to say that I struggle with the concept that innovation can come before business model. So for me the answer is no, you shouldn’t develop an application without a clear view of how you’ll get back your investment in it. It doesn’t need to be immediately obvious to everyone else, and to be fair many of these early stage companies may have longer term views of their revenue models which are not yet apparent, but to leap and hope doesn’t cut it for me.

Of course people will counter this view with examples of companies which developed a product first and successfully went on to later work out how to make money. But these are the exceptions, and for each of these there are many many more failures. Which is why I struggle with it being a starting point of how to go about things.

So I predict that while the list of new ideas from Finovate may deliver one or two big successes, I fear that for many trying to log in to their websites in five years will deliver a “site not found” message.

Of course there were also some standout companies at Finovate that had BOTH great innovation AND a clear business model. I’d tell you which ones, but then I’d much rather keep that to myself and rollout those ideas for mozo.com.au instead!!

The consumer sentiment index came out today, and it measures 85.5. What does that mean to the average person exactly? Not quite sure.

I have a far more useful index, the Taxi and Café Index, which I think is a highly accurate gauge of the economy. That’s because taxi drivers and café owners are right in the heart of everything, day in day out, and they feel the effects of people’s actions before anyone else.

Two experiences this week illustrate my point…

Yesterday I got in a taxi and asked my standard question “how’s your day going. The answers you get from taxi drivers tell you everything you need to know about how the economy is. The driver grumbled “terrible”. Ok, so nothing unusual about a Sydney taxi driver grumbling. But ask him why and he’ll happily tell you over the 20 minute journey. “Nobody takes cabs any more. Today I’ve only been to the airport once, whereas I’ve usually gone five times by this time of day. And everyone is walking more, look at all those people over there on the footpath”.

Earlier this week I asked my local café owner the same casual question, “how’s things?”. Now that’s the sort of question which normally just gets Aussie politeness, “good thanks, and you?”. But not any more. I had innocently hit a nerve and got another “terrible”. She went on without any need to prompt her – “my regulars are all changing their habits. Some used to come in three times a day, once for breakfast, once for a coffee, and once for lunch. Now they all tell me they’re making their own lunch. Next they’ll stop buying breakfast. I can’t cope with that, we’ll go broke.” [Note that coffee is the last thing to go!]

So I’m not sure what 85.5 means, but I do know what these stories from taxi drivers and café owners mean. So I just can’t believe the government when it says we’re not going into a recession. These stories don’t sound like 2% growth to me. Growth is growth, certainly no growth in the taxi and café industries.

So let’s set up the Taxi and Café Index, and we’ll all have a better read on whether we’re moving towards recession or not.