NAB Sees Profit Tank On UK Businesses

After announcing a $305 million restructuring of its UK operations and job cuts numbering 1,400, Australian banking major NAB has seen its share price fall. The lender recently announced a loss on its UK business for the half year ending March 31st resulted in a 15.6 drop in its own half yearly profit, which came [...]

Mortgage Broker Found Guilty Of Bilking Clients In Ponzi Scheme

A mortgage broker in Western Australia has been found guilty of bilking as much as $1.2 million from seven borrowers and using the cash to pay his credit card bills and other debts.

According to news paper reports, Max Booty was charged with eight counts of stealing and an additional eight counts of fraud and stood trial for a Ponzi scheme which he ran between August 2007 to March 2009. The jury took three hours to deliberate and found him guilty of all charges.

ANZ Defends Interest Rate Policy

Australian banking major ANZ has defended its policy on interests in a letter addressed to The Age from its Australian operations chief Phil Chronican who argues that the cost of funding has increased substantially, and provided data to support his claim.

Macquarie Chief Calls For Interest Rates To Be Cut

Nicholas Moore, chief executive of Macquarie has added his voice to growing calls made by leaders of industry for interest rates to be cut next week as a means by which confidence in the country would be boosted by helping export based industries who are currently suffering from the high value of the Australian dollar.

NAB To Hold On To UK Businesses For Now

Banking analysts are predicting that Australian banking major NAB will not sell its interests in the UK, whilst the economy continues to stay weak.

The analysts cite pricing as the main reason, arguing that NAB will not be able to obtain a decent price for the Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks according to CBA analyst Ben Zucker.

NAB To Cease Credit Card Negative Payment Hierarchy

One of the worst features of credit cards is what is known as negative payment hierarchy. An example of this if the borrower undertakes a balance transfer to a zero balance account, the interest on the balance transfer is zero, whilst if the borrower uses the same card to make a new purchase, that purchase will attract interest.

Negative payment hierarchy is when credit card companies use any payment made to pay off debt which is accruing at low or zero interest, whilst the debt which carries higher interest continues to accrue charges at the higher rate.

RACQ Warns Australian Motorists To Watch The Price Of Petrol

“Cheap Tuesday” used to be the best day to fill the petrol tank, however that is now slowly changing with “savings Sunday” becoming the prime day to fill up the fuel tank.

For many years, Tuesday was the best day to top up one’s fuel tank, as a result of a fuel cycle set by companies. However the oil companies in a bid to maintain revenues began varying which day was the cheapest to obtain fuel, as they sought to keep consumers off balance.

Five Tips For Borrowing Using A Personal Loan

Personal loans can be amongst the cheapest way to borrow, but we can’t help but stress how important what the reason you are borrowing the money for.

If you are looking to finance a new flat screen television or go on holiday, or any other luxury, a personal loan is not your best option. Fortunately the financial crisis has made most people more aware of their finances and changed the way they think about borrowing.

Six Debt Myths Busted

Trying to pay off debt that has piled up can make borrowers feel very scared and vulnerable. Often those who find themselves struggling to pay off a mountain of debt end up fearful over what the future may hold, don’t know whom to turn to or what to do.That kind of insecurity is usually a result of inability to decide what to do and what the consequence of a particular course of action are.

Many people confuse fact with fiction when trying to decide how to solve their problems so in this post, we try separate truth from fiction.

Nine Credit Card Pitfalls

No matter how responsible you are when it comes to credit cards, they still come with a number of pitfalls. As soon as you navigate your way past one, yet another emerges. Here are 9 credit card pitfalls.

The Debt That Never Ends. The minimum payment on many credit cards barely meet the interest being incurred on your debt, which means if you only ever make the minimum, you’re debt will never reduce and seem to be endless. Occasionally a card will be offered with such a low minimum monthly payment, that your debt ends up actually growing.