Personal finance is one a tricky thing for many people to understand. It gets worse when we evaluate how much we spend just to keep our accounts and credit cards running, especially here in Australia. There are easy ways to cut the cost of banking and start keeping more of your money.
Bank fees are something that we could all do without. In some cases, they are a necessary evil that fund the cost of managing your account. However, here in Australia those fees seem to have gotten out of control. The Australia Institute recently released their findings that the average working person who earn $50,000 per year pays $28.85 each week toward bank profits. For a family that means mum & dad together spend $53.20 each week to help fill the bankers coffers. That is quite a lot of money getting thrown out the window. Australians, in fact pays out more in bank fees then those in the UK and in the US. We spend $2,600 per household each year. In the UK they spend only $749 and in the US they spend only $8500 per year.
Research has shown that one of the main contributors to these high costs is inflated interest rates. However, there are other easily avoidable fees that stick more money into the credit card companies pockets. If you can stop spending money on these fees you should be able to recoup a big portion of that $50 per week back to your household.
Personal Finance Tips
Use only your home ATM – Those so-called ‘foreign’ ATM’s charge large fees. If you can not find one that is associated with your bank use you EFTPOS card to get cash back from your transactions for free.
Pay your bill on time – Too many of us spend money on late and over the limit fees. If you have trouble paying your bills on time set up a direct draft from your bank account to your credit card company each month.
Shop around – Look for cards that give you lower interest rates or charge less in fees. Also, look at how much interest your money is earning, chances are there is a financial institution willing to pay you more for your money.
Remember that all bank fees wind up getting passed on to the consumer. Businesses are forced to pass these costs on to you whether you are getting your hair cut, dining out, or buying groceries. The more we can work toward reducing the cost of these fees the less other products and services will wind up costing too. If you look carefully you might be surprised at how much you can save and how much you are spending on bank fees.
