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Article in this morning's Sunday Star Times:
Happy searching.
Regards
Article in this morning's Sunday Star Times:
Financial advice is just a website away
SUNDAY , 03 OCTOBER 2004
With so many companies offering financial advice online ROB STOCK clicks on to the best of the free ones.
Are you wondering if your credit card is the best one for you? Are you paying too much for your mortgage? Do you think the charges on your bank accounts are outrageous?
With so much choice out there - and so many questions - it's no wonder consumers often feel lost, alone and overwhelmed.
But there are a growing number of allies willing to help consumers manage their money, reduce risk and choose the best products.
Many prop up their free services with income from other sources like advertising but all try to lend a helping hand.
Here is the Sunday Star-Times list of the top free websites.
www.interest.co.nz: Want to see all the interest rates on loans, mortgages, term deposits and accounts in New Zealand? This is one of your options. Industrialist and recycler turned finance watchdog David Chaston set up the site in 2001 after having had to phone around to get term deposit rates for his retired mother. "I thought, 'there has to be a better way than this'," says Chaston, who earns his money through advertising on the site.
FundSource: If it's a managed fund you are after, www.fundsource.co.nz is one of the places to go. FundSource has been around since 1987 - formerly called IPAC - and makes its money providing investment and managed fund analysis to financial planners as well as through advertising. The site has loads of useful tools to help select funds and compare performance for the DIY fund investor.
Morningstar: A true global giant and competitor for home-grown FundSource is Morningstar, found at www.morningstar.net.nz. Morningstar tracks and analyses a staggering 100,000-plus funds worldwide. Its speciality is giving funds stars based on their past performance - balancing short-term performance with medium-term performance to avoid rewarding flavour-of-the-month funds. The theory is that a good, consistent fund earns a lot of stars. It's a system the Yanks trust and all the biggest selling funds in the US are Morningstar five-star rated.
www.cardwatch.co.nz: CardWatch is a Kiwi first, launched earlier this year by FundSource. It recognises there are more than 50 credit cards on offer in New Zealand. CardWatch rates credit cards and helps borrowers create a shortlist based on their spending and repayment habits.
Good returns: Journalist-turned-entrepreneur Philip Macalister has built his publishing organisation from Rotorua and turned it into one of the fastest growing businesses in New Zealand. While it's really aimed at financial planners, insurance advisers and mortgage brokers, the group's website www.goodreturns.co.nz offers a handful of user-friendly tools to help compare mortgage rates and term deposits. It's also the first free website to offer rates on "non-conforming" mortgages for people to whom the banks won't lend.
Cannex: It's the new player on the mortgage-rating block but big overseas - and totally independent. Cannex arrived in New Zealand in 2002. It makes its cash by providing research to banks and brokers but offers comparisons of mortgage, deposit and account rates on its site. Soon to come will be credit card ratings, which Cannex already does in Australia. Its website at www.cannex.co.nz champions what it calls AAPR - the real cost of lending. It calculates the "real" interest rates on mortgages taking fees and charges into account. That's how it's done in Australia - but not here - though if Cannex has its way we will.
www.bondwatch.co.nz: It's still there, but for how long? Run by Grosvenor Financial Services Group, which manages money for the rich, it crunches freely available information on finance company debenture stocks and puts it into an online calculator. It then indicates which debenture stocks offer the best interest rates for the risk they carry and which are poor value. Grosvenor admits the calculator isn't perfect. There's still nothing quite like it that covers all the major finance stocks.
Consumer: Possibly the best website in New Zealand you won't be willing to pay for. Some stuff is free but much of the best reports are not. The Consumers' Institute is a not-for-profit organisation and consumer champion. It aims to help Kiwis avoid getting ripped off and to find the best deals whether it's for insurance or a new fridge. The glory of www.consumer.co.nz for the free-browser is the electricity switch calculator which helps people work out whether they are getting the best deal for their home power supply. All its mortgage, banking and insurance comparison tools are available at an annual cost of $68 or $9.95 per month.
Sorted: www.sorted.co.nz is run on the government ticket by the Retirement Commission, which has one aim in life - to make Kiwis smarter with money. Visited by around a million users, it has two big drawcards. The first is it boasts the best debt and savings calculators on the web. If you want to know how much faster you could pay off your mortgage by putting in an extra $20 a week - and how much that would save in interest payments - it has a calculator for you. It's the same with getting out of debt, saving and planning for your retirement. The site also has beautifully packaged advice on how to make financial plans and budget. There's also a wonderful new sections for kids and the over-60s. Explore and get smarter.
SUNDAY , 03 OCTOBER 2004
With so many companies offering financial advice online ROB STOCK clicks on to the best of the free ones.
Are you wondering if your credit card is the best one for you? Are you paying too much for your mortgage? Do you think the charges on your bank accounts are outrageous?
With so much choice out there - and so many questions - it's no wonder consumers often feel lost, alone and overwhelmed.
But there are a growing number of allies willing to help consumers manage their money, reduce risk and choose the best products.
Many prop up their free services with income from other sources like advertising but all try to lend a helping hand.
Here is the Sunday Star-Times list of the top free websites.
www.interest.co.nz: Want to see all the interest rates on loans, mortgages, term deposits and accounts in New Zealand? This is one of your options. Industrialist and recycler turned finance watchdog David Chaston set up the site in 2001 after having had to phone around to get term deposit rates for his retired mother. "I thought, 'there has to be a better way than this'," says Chaston, who earns his money through advertising on the site.
FundSource: If it's a managed fund you are after, www.fundsource.co.nz is one of the places to go. FundSource has been around since 1987 - formerly called IPAC - and makes its money providing investment and managed fund analysis to financial planners as well as through advertising. The site has loads of useful tools to help select funds and compare performance for the DIY fund investor.
Morningstar: A true global giant and competitor for home-grown FundSource is Morningstar, found at www.morningstar.net.nz. Morningstar tracks and analyses a staggering 100,000-plus funds worldwide. Its speciality is giving funds stars based on their past performance - balancing short-term performance with medium-term performance to avoid rewarding flavour-of-the-month funds. The theory is that a good, consistent fund earns a lot of stars. It's a system the Yanks trust and all the biggest selling funds in the US are Morningstar five-star rated.
www.cardwatch.co.nz: CardWatch is a Kiwi first, launched earlier this year by FundSource. It recognises there are more than 50 credit cards on offer in New Zealand. CardWatch rates credit cards and helps borrowers create a shortlist based on their spending and repayment habits.
Good returns: Journalist-turned-entrepreneur Philip Macalister has built his publishing organisation from Rotorua and turned it into one of the fastest growing businesses in New Zealand. While it's really aimed at financial planners, insurance advisers and mortgage brokers, the group's website www.goodreturns.co.nz offers a handful of user-friendly tools to help compare mortgage rates and term deposits. It's also the first free website to offer rates on "non-conforming" mortgages for people to whom the banks won't lend.
Cannex: It's the new player on the mortgage-rating block but big overseas - and totally independent. Cannex arrived in New Zealand in 2002. It makes its cash by providing research to banks and brokers but offers comparisons of mortgage, deposit and account rates on its site. Soon to come will be credit card ratings, which Cannex already does in Australia. Its website at www.cannex.co.nz champions what it calls AAPR - the real cost of lending. It calculates the "real" interest rates on mortgages taking fees and charges into account. That's how it's done in Australia - but not here - though if Cannex has its way we will.
www.bondwatch.co.nz: It's still there, but for how long? Run by Grosvenor Financial Services Group, which manages money for the rich, it crunches freely available information on finance company debenture stocks and puts it into an online calculator. It then indicates which debenture stocks offer the best interest rates for the risk they carry and which are poor value. Grosvenor admits the calculator isn't perfect. There's still nothing quite like it that covers all the major finance stocks.
Consumer: Possibly the best website in New Zealand you won't be willing to pay for. Some stuff is free but much of the best reports are not. The Consumers' Institute is a not-for-profit organisation and consumer champion. It aims to help Kiwis avoid getting ripped off and to find the best deals whether it's for insurance or a new fridge. The glory of www.consumer.co.nz for the free-browser is the electricity switch calculator which helps people work out whether they are getting the best deal for their home power supply. All its mortgage, banking and insurance comparison tools are available at an annual cost of $68 or $9.95 per month.
Sorted: www.sorted.co.nz is run on the government ticket by the Retirement Commission, which has one aim in life - to make Kiwis smarter with money. Visited by around a million users, it has two big drawcards. The first is it boasts the best debt and savings calculators on the web. If you want to know how much faster you could pay off your mortgage by putting in an extra $20 a week - and how much that would save in interest payments - it has a calculator for you. It's the same with getting out of debt, saving and planning for your retirement. The site also has beautifully packaged advice on how to make financial plans and budget. There's also a wonderful new sections for kids and the over-60s. Explore and get smarter.
Happy searching.
Regards