How transaction fees work

The right transaction account for you will depend on how you do your banking, whether you have multiple accounts and loans with the one provider and how many transactions you make per month. Let’s say you have your transaction account, mortgage, a term deposit and a credit card all with the same bank. It may be worth your while to be with an institution that uses rebates.

Switching bank accounts, a step-by-step guide

With the current state of the financial market, interest rates on deposit accounts declining by the day, and monthly account keeping fees eating into our hard earned savings, there's no better time than now to switch accounts.

Keep your cool while teaching your kids to drive

Your son or daughter is about to take that wonderful step to attain their drivers licence. Here are some strategies you can use to keep them, your car and your nerves in one piece. A review of young drivers by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau found them to be at greater risk on the roads for a variety of reasons including: lack of experience, limited ability and judgement, underestimation of risks, deliberate risk taking behaviours and use of alcohol and drugs.

Handy tips to wipe your credit card debt

If you have multiple credit cards that are all heading towards their maximum limits there are strategies you can use to reduce your debt.

Cool cars that are frugal on fuel

Petrol prices may have stabilised for the time being, but the inevitable increase in the cost of oil will once again have people thinking about ways to save on their weekly fuel bill. While in the past, cars that were fuel misers were not necessarily flashiest cars to drive, there has recently been a move towards cool cars that are also frugal on fuel. Here are a few cars worth looking at.

Dude, where's my car?

Every 8 minutes, another car is stolen in Australia. That’s over 700,000 thefts a year. The good news is that the number of car thefts has been decreasing over the past few years. The bad news is that the recovery rate of stolen autos is also down.

Avoid the interest-free rip off

Buy now, pay later - there's no shortage of interest-free offers from stores selling everything from designer furniture to home theatre packages. While it's tempting to take home the very latest gizmo and worry about paying for it later, be aware of how another big debt could affect your finances after the novelty wears off and real life kicks back in.

Are banks keeping credit cardholders in debt?

As interest rates rise so does the minimum repayments on your credit card, right? Wrong! Only a handful of credit card providers have changed their minimum repayment requirements over the years despite the credit card interest rate rises.

Micro chipped credit cards boost security

All credit card issuers now provide "chip cards", ie. cards with microchip security built in. The idea behind chip cards is that the data previously held only on the magnetic strip is also held inside an embedded micro chip.

Are Australians wising up to bank fees?

It seems bank fees can be a licence to print money and no-one wants banks profiting at their expense. So how can you eliminate, or at least minimise, bank fees from your life?