the mozo blog

State against State. Mate against Mate. It’s a line that epitomises rugby league’s annual showcase of interstate rivalry, underscoring the passion and pride on display between the NSW cockroaches and the cane toads from Queensland. With rugby league’s annual State of Origin series now decided, it’s time to bring back the financial biff and pit the states head on!

Since Origin is about representing your state, community and people, we’ve decided to use what consumers have said about their banks hailing from each particular state to create an overall picture. So using the 30,000 bank reviews you’ve submitted, it’s time for Mozo’s annual ‘Rate of Origin’. State against state. Rate against rate.

With 7371 reviews behind them and big players like Westpac, Macquarie and St. George as well as no less than 4 credit unions on our list of the top 10 Australian banks in the side, NSW comes in as strong favourites. As always, Queensland are the underdogs, conceding a significant numerical advantage in both number of reviews (2416) and number of providers (10 to NSW’s 15). They’re led by Queensland stalwarts like Suncorp, Bank of Queensland and their sole representative in our top 10, CUA.

With the NSW camp already shattered and in turmoil after losing their fifth straight origin series, it will come as another body blow to the state and their footballers that NSW is getting dusted not only on the field but also in their wallets. NSW banks put up a solid if unspectacular average overall rating of 6.91, led by strong performances by Teachers Credit Union and the Greater Building Society. However, with old hands Suncorp and Bank of Queensland ably steering them round the park and strong efforts from CUA and Heritage Building Society, the banana benders have stormed home with an overall rating of 7.34 to claim the Origin title.

The real difference between the sides was the abject performance of Westpac, whose rating of 6.7 was the catalyst to NSW’s demise. If you remove Westpac from the equation, NSW’s rating rises to 7.25, a mere drop goal away from victory. NSW will be looking for Westpac to pick up their game over the next year to avoid the pain and humiliation of another Rate of Origin defeat.

So as the dust settles and the xxxx’s are cracked in bank head offices around Brisbane and wider Queensland after another fiery clash between these two interstate rivals, I implore all Origin fans out there to get behind your state and rate your bank to give your state a shot at Origin glory next year!

Today we open the doors to Mozo!

We’ve been building Mozo for over 18 months, but as the world is under the spell of tough financial times, our launch timing seems just right. It’s a time when everyone needs to take care of their hard earned money more than ever before. Mozo is here to help you do just that – get your finances sorted.

So have a play around the site and let us know what you think. I’d love to hear from you directly, so why not email me on rohan.gamble@mozo.com.au with any feedback or suggestions.

So what is Mozo then?

Mozo has everything you need to make a financial decision on the one website, combining personalised financial product comparison tools with customer ratings.

Whether you’re looking for a new savings account or a great mortgage lender, it’s important to look beyond the big budget marketing campaigns, which don’t tell the whole story. The difference at Mozo is, we do. We’re here to level the playing field and help Australians make better financial decisions.

For the first time, Australians get to have their say on what they think of their bank. Mozo doesn’t make subjective judgements. We’ve designed the ratings system, but the rest is up to real customers to have their say.

To kick things off we partnered with research firm Roy Morgan to survey thousands of Australian banking customers. The results are fascinating, and we already have over 10,000 product reviews on the site. We’ll blog about some of the more interesting results in future posts.

In the meantime, we’re now inviting all Australian banking customers to rate your bank. So join the conversation, and put your mouth where your money is!

Mozo is here to help Australians navigate the money maze, and our public journey begins today.

After the traditional nine months of incubation, we’re ready to give birth. So today we have unveiled our baby for the first time outside the walls of our Surry Hills office.

As our site is only a baby, it is likely to have teething problems! So as our first foray out into the real world we’ve invited our family and friends to check out the site and give us all their feedback – the good, the bad and the ugly. Once we’ve spent a few weeks ironing out the kinks from all that we’ll open the door to everyone else.

Of course while our public journey starts today, the Mozo history goes back a little further.

It all started because I think that too many of us put up with bad deals from our financial providers because it is just too damn hard to do anything about it. We know we should, but we just don’t act. So in early 2007 I decided to do something about it. The initial idea for Mozo was born, and since then we have set about putting together all the pieces to make it a reality.

Our vision for Mozo is to empower Australians by giving them everything they need to find and select the best financial products, all from the comfort of their own lounge room. In doing so we will become the best way for financial providers to connect with new customers, thereby creating the Mozo marketplace.

So what is Mozo exactly? Well Mozo is short for Money Zone, and that’s what we intend to be, a zone to help people with all things money related.

So as soon as we’ve made the changes our helpful family and friends suggest, we’ll open the door to Mozo and let everyone in. See you in the money zone soon!