Medicare customers are being urged to update their bank account details to see if they’re entitled to a share of more than $110 million in unclaimed rebates. Here’s how to do so online in a few minutes.

And no, this is not one of those pesky scams doing the rounds! But we’ll touch upon that later.

The government released an interesting stat this week: almost 670,000 people have not provided Medicare with their bank details, which has resulted in more than $110 million in unclaimed rebates.

As such, the average amount owed to each individual is about $150 – a decent injection that could help you pay off your mortgage, an upcoming bill, or a nice Valentine’s Day dinner!

Some people are missing out on far more – and often they’re the people who need it most – if they are regular visitors to their doctor or have had treatment for a serious medical condition. So make sure you let your friends and loved ones know too.

Minister for Health Greg Hunt put out a statement this week encouraging residents to update their bank account details so they could start receiving their cash rebates.

“It only takes a couple of minutes, and the easiest way to update your details is by using one of the Australian Government’s digital channels, such as the Medicare Express Plus app, or through your myGov account,” he says.

Is that it?

Yup, that’s it.

Once you’ve logged into your account and updated your details Mr Hunt says Medicare will take care of the rest.

“The money you’re owed will be deposited in your account in a matter of days,” he explains.

“My advice is to set aside a couple of minutes, to do what is a really simple task that will ensure you receive what you are entitled to quickly and easily.”

Be wary of scammers!

It’s not lost on us that this sounds like a scam. And guess what? There are actually scammers out there trying to take advantage of this rebate payment by getting in touch with people directly over the phone, via SMS, or email.

The scammers are posing as Medicare representatives and contacting people asking for their bank account details, so you need to remain vigilant.

To avoid falling victim: don’t click on any links in emails or texts as they may take you to a fake website. Instead, go directly to www.my.gov.au to update your account.

“As recently as late last year, scammers were actively targeting people through SMS messages, that urged them to click on a hyperlink to claim their outstanding Medicare rebates,” says Minister for Human Services and Digital Transformation Michael Keenan.

“While the department does call, SMS, or email people, it never includes hyperlinks in emails or text messages.”

For more information on how to set up a Medicare online account, visit www.humanservices.gov.au/medicareonline

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Disclaimer: The content of this article is general in nature and is presented for informative purposes. It is not intended to constitute financial advice, whether general or personal nor is it intended to imply any recommendation or opinion about a financial product. It does not take into consideration your personal situation and may not be relevant to circumstances. Before taking any action, consider your own particular circumstances and seek professional advice. This content is protected by copyright laws and various other intellectual property laws. It is not to be modified, reproduced or republished without prior written consent.

Excuse the humble brag, but property buyers are turning to mortgage brokers in record numbers. Here’s why that’s great news for the both of us.

Ok, ok, sure, we know we’re beating our own drum a little here.

But there’s a good reason why, we promise.

Firstly, it’s fantastic to see that at a time when the royal commission is dominating headlines and consumer confidence in the big banks is tanking, our industry is proving worthy of people’s trust.

During the September 2018 quarter, mortgage brokers settled an unprecedented 59.1% of all residential home loans.

That’s up from 53.6% in 2016 and 55.7 per cent in 2017 over the same period.

MFAA CEO Mike Felton points out that the result reflects not only the trust and confidence customers have in their mortgage broker, but the systemic importance of the mortgage broking industry.

“As banks have persisted in making it more difficult to secure a loan, turning many would-be borrowers away, consumers have continued to increasingly utilise the broker channel for experience, expertise and greater market choice to secure access to credit,” Mr Felton says.

Take that, banks

The figures emerge as the big banks continually try to curb the effectiveness of mortgage brokers. And it doesn’t take Einstein to figure out why: mortgage brokers promote a more competitive lending market at their expense.

According to Deloitte Access Economics, over the past three decades brokers have contributed to the fall in net interest margin for banks of over 3% points. This saves you $300,000 on a $500,000 30-year home loan (based on an interest rate fall from 7% to 4% pa).

Furthermore, on average, mortgage brokers have 34 lenders on their panel, and 28% of the time arrange residential loans through lenders other than the big four banks.

“In addition to providing customers access to a panel of 34 lenders on average, brokers are ideally positioned to help customers, especially those with more complex lending scenarios, to understand the ever-evolving application process and provide the information necessary to meet changing lender requirements,” adds Mr Felton.

Current model under threat

There’s been a recent push by at least one of the big four banks to make the customers pay for the services of a mortgage broker. If they had their way, that would be an industry-wide standard.

However, news that more and more customers are flocking to mortgage brokers under the current system will hopefully help us both out in the long run.

Better yet, a recent report shows that 9 out of 10 customers are satisfied with the services provided by mortgage brokers, so we sincerely thank you for your support.

Got a minute help us out a little more?

Besides continuing to use our services, and recommending us to family and friends, another way you can support us is by contacting your local MP to let them know you’re happy with the mortgage broking service we’re currently providing.

By letting your local Federal Member of Parliament know this you can help prevent the cost of our future services being transferred from the bank over to you – and you’ll also be showing your support for us.

If you’d like any more information on this issue don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’d love to speak to you more about it.

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Disclaimer: The content of this article is general in nature and is presented for informative purposes. It is not intended to constitute financial advice, whether general or personal nor is it intended to imply any recommendation or opinion about a financial product. It does not take into consideration your personal situation and may not be relevant to circumstances. Before taking any action, consider your own particular circumstances and seek professional advice. This content is protected by copyright laws and various other intellectual property laws. It is not to be modified, reproduced or republished without prior written consent.

Borrowers who don’t shop around due to the banks’ unclear pricing tactics are losing out on an average of $850 a year, an ACCC report has found.

Get a load of this: there’s this tactic that the big four banks (ANZ, CBA, NAB and Westpac) use that makes it “difficult” and “frustrating” for borrowers to discover their best home loan offer.

The tactic is called discretionary pricing, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has just released a scathing report on it.

So what is discretionary pricing?

The banks don’t really advertise their best home loan deals. But there are two kinds of discounts that they do offer.

The first is their “advertised discounts”, which are generally published on their website and relatively easy for borrowers to discover.

The second is “discretionary discounts”, which are much harder to find.

Discretionary discounts are offered on a case-by-case basis to individual borrowers, usually after the lender has assessed their application.

However, the criteria for discretionary discounts is generally not disclosed to borrowers.

So what’s the problem?

Basically, the banks are intentionally making it pretty damn hard and time-consuming for borrowers to obtain accurate lowest interest rate offers from multiple lenders.

In doing so, they’re hoping you’ll just get too frustrated and put the whole ‘searching around for a better deal’ thing in the too-hard-basket.

The ACCC says that’s how it was for 70% of recent borrowers from one bank – they obtained just one quote before taking out their residential mortgage.

“The lack of transparency in discretionary discounts makes it unnecessarily difficult and more costly for borrowers to discover the best price offers,” says the ACCC.

“This adversely impacts borrowers’ willingness to shop around, either for a new residential mortgage or when they are contemplating switching their existing residential mortgage to another lender. The unnecessarily high cost that prospective borrowers incur to discover price information from lenders causes inefficiency.”

How effective is this tactic?

Extremely so.

The rate of borrowers switching lenders remained extremely low last financial year.

In fact, less than 4% of borrowers with variable rate residential mortgages with the top five banks refinanced to another lender, says the ACCC.

That’s just 1 in every 25 mortgages.

(It’s also worth noting that only 11% of people got a better home loan deal from their current bank by either asking for it or being offered it.)

“The big four banks profit from the suppression of borrower incentives to shop around and lack strong incentives to make prices more transparent,” says the ACCC.

How much are these opaque tactics costing some borrowers?

In two words: A lot.

The ACCC believes an existing borrower with an average-sized residential mortgage who negotiates to pay the same interest rate as the average new borrower could initially save up to $850 a year in interest.

“This could add up to tens of thousands of dollars over the full term of their residential mortgage in net present value terms,” the ACCC adds.

So will the banks stop doing it?

Unlikely. Well, anytime soon that is. Here’s what the ACCC say about it:

“At least one Inquiry Bank appears to be aware of borrower frustration with discretionary pricing. There is little evidence of any Inquiry Bank responding to that frustration by moving away from the practice,” the ACCC says.

“More generally, the Inquiry Banks, particularly the big four banks, lack a strong incentive to reduce the cost that prospective borrowers incur to discover price information because they profit from the suppression of borrowers’ incentives to shop around.”

So what can I do about it then?

That’s the easy part. Get in touch with us to discuss your refinancing and/or renegotiating options.

By teaming up with us, not only can you save yourself the headache of having to research what each lender’s best available discount is, we will happily negotiate for it on your behalf.

So if you’re interested in potentially cutting down the amount of interest you pay each year, give us a call today.

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