Home Loans, Mortgage Refinance, Bad Credit Home Loans

New research has confirmed that 70% of us are more confident about our financial future than we were previously.

According to the latest ING DIRECT Financial Wellbeing Index, 65 per cent of  families feel that they have become better off financially during 2011. Consumers have spent the year consolidation debts, repaying loans including car loans, home loans, credit cards etc. and saving more towards the future.

But while the majority of consumers interviewed believe that they have improved their financial position during 2011 and are confident of achieving the same thing in 2012, 32 per cent of households shave reported that their family finances are worse off today than they were a year earlier with escalating debt levels and higher monthly...

Australians have finally learned how to consolidate debts, reduce spending and start saving. Some years ago we were amongst the nations with the lowest levels of savings and now we are amongst the best savers.

An OECD ranking of household savings rates places Australia at number 5 from the 23 countries surveyed, with 10.4 per cent of household disposable income going into savings in 2011.

Switzerland has come up as the country with the highest annual rate of saving, with a savings rate of 12.1 per cent in 2011, followed by Sweden (11.7 per cent), Germany (11.3 per cent) and Belgium (10.7 per cent).

Back in 2006, before we were affected by the GFC, Australian household savings rate was 2.1 per cent. Its OECD ranking that year was 16th.

OECD economists are expecting that Australian households will maintain their high savings rate. The forecast...

Two women who were hassled and chased by Debt Collectors have decided to take legal action over the treatment they have received.

Recent legislative changes make it illegal for debt collectors to continue to hassle a debtor once asked in writing not to do so.

The two agencies are said to have continued to contact the two Melbourne women after receiving written requests that they either stop contacting them or take legal action against them

The Consumer Action Law Centre is bringing the cases in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, on behalf of the women.

The agencies involved are Australian Receivables Limited and Baycorp Collections.

This will be seen as a test case for Debt Collectors and their debt collection strategies.

Baycorp Collections,...

Firstfolio has entered into a joint venture with Evergreen Finance for the purpose of offering personal loan products to the Australian market.

Evergreen Finance are a provider of personal loans and personal finance across Australia and New Zealand. They will develop consumer finance products that will be offered to borrowers directly through the  Firstfolio’s national network of finance brokers.

Speaking to The Adviser, Firstfolio’s chief executive officer Mark Forsyth said the joint venture was another step towards the company’s overall goal of creating a holistic and diversified business.Evergreen have developed advanced processing systems that facilitate and assist in the processing of  personal loans.Currently there is significant borrower demand for such products.  The partnership reflects our strategy of introducing additional...

According to figures provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics,  personal finance commitments declined by 7.8 per cent during November to $7,199 billion.

The ABS today said the seasonally-adjusted commitments were down from $7.806 billion in October. This includes, personal loans, car loans, credit cards and the like.

Commercial finance overall also declined during November. There was a drop of 9.6 per cent to $33.098 billion, seasonally adjusted, from $36.624 billion in October.

Lease finance was up 15.1 per cent to $490 million, compared with $426 million October.

Home Loans taken out by owner occupiers increased by 2.2 per cent to $13.790 billion, from $13.487 billion...

Australians seem to have gone on to a spending spree yet again. Our credit card debt has reached a new record high of $50 billion, an increase of almost a third over the past five years.

New figures from the RBA issued today, show outstanding credit card debt has exceeded $50 billion for the first time in November, with $36.3 billion of the total accruing interest. It is no wonder that so may Australians are looking for debt consolidation loans.

With 15 million cards on issue, the average debt level per credit card has reached about $3333.

The amount of credit card debt owed by Australians has increased sharply over the past ten years with the most significant increase ocuring over the past 3 years.

As the Australian economy has steadily grown over the past decade, it’s logical that...

Non conforming unsecured personal loans are in huge demand, unfortunately there are no such loans available in Australia. Borrowers who have tried to borrow for debt consolidation or a holiday or just some spending money from their banks but were declined, are desperately trying to find a lender who would be able to help them online.

Unfortunately unsecured loans beyond a couple thousand generally have the same lending criteria no matter which lender the borrower makes an application through. There is simply no such financial product as a bad credit unsecured personal loan or a low doc unsecured personal loan.

If you have been declined for a personal loan with a bank because you have some paid defaults on your credit report, you will also be...

In the period coming up to Christmas domestic credit card loans went up to over $40.6 billion in November. This was the first time the credit card loans had eclipsed $40 billion.

Now in the post Christmas period many more Aussies are struggling with recently acquired  credit card debts. Many more are now actively looking for debt consolidation loans.

Even if you find it difficult to qualify for debt consolidation loans it is important to maintain monthly repayments to ensure that your debts and loans are in order.

Financial Counselling Australia executive director Fiona Guthrie says the best way to deal with this debt “is sit down and go back to basics”.

“You might need to reassess your spending...

At this Festive time of the year when most of us are busy piling purchases on to our credit cards as well as store cards, it is timely to consider the true cost of these purchases.

An investigation by the consumer watchdog Choice has confirmed that in most cases retailers are not providing sufficient information about the costs of retail credit when it is offered to consumers.

Some deals included fees of as much as 87.6 per cent of the cost of the item, Choice found.