- May 2, 2017
- Posted by: WebMaster
- Category: Uncategorized
This week has seen the Bank Of Queensland open their Books so to speak with ASIC. They had previously self-reported that approximately 6,000 of their customers had been inconvenienced by not having offset accounts set up correctly to Home Loans. This error reportedly cost them $12 million to fix. ASIC have now after further investigation seen that another 40,000 customers have been inconvenienced with their Home Loans so the cost to repair the damage has blown out to $58 million.
I do have to wonder if other Banks may be looking at similar issues.
Also this week we are starting see an upward trend in fixed rates for 4 and 5 years with some Lenders. Could this be a sign that we have reached the bottom of the Variable Interest Rate Cycle. Only time will tell however Economists are now saying after the latest Inflation Figures being released this week the Reserve Bank will now sit tight with their Cash Rate. However in the past we have seen Lenders do a slight adjustment upwards to fixed rates especially the longer fixed terms only to see them adjust them back again.
Regardless of the above both Fixed & Variable Interest Rates are at Historically low levels.
Also Mortgage Choice have released data this week that Mortgage Stress is on the increase affecting about half of First Home Buyers. Not sure how this can be when we have seen Interest Rates dropping. Maybe it is the First Home Buyer sector taking on other unsecured expensive debt after taking out their Home Loan.