Choice launches online tool to facilitate banking switch for consumers
Consumer advocacy group Choice is launching its new comparison website, called the Compare, Switch and Ditch, that it said would enable Australian bank clients to consider more banking services and change provider when necessary.
According to Choice, up to $2500 could be saved from mortgage loans when consumers make the switch from an Australian major bank to a different lender such as credit unions or building societies and such decision would be made easier through Choice's new online banking tool.
Choice representative Richard Lloyd said on Monday that consumers opting to ditch their current credit card provider could possibly cut back some $440 while those maintaining savings account could realise savings of up to $330 should they jump from a big bank to a relatively smaller bank.
The consumer group is making the new banking tool website available as the federal government is about to unveil its promised banking reforms that Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan earlier characterised as sweeping reforms that could lead into the establishment of the banking industry's so-called fifth pillar.
The Australian banking sector has been mostly monopolised by the country's big four - the Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, New Zealand & Australia Banking Group and Westpac - a scenario that critics said discouraged healthy competition in the industry and only emboldened major players to impose interest rates much higher than those officially outlined in the policy rate of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).
Choice is hoping that the new site would encourage more consumers to dump their present bank providers and make enough noise that would force the major banks to finally listen to their sentiments.
Lloyds told ABC that Choice is optimistic that by providing the appropriate tools, considerable number of consumers would make the switch as "more mobile consumers moving around in the market will itself help drive competition."
The Coalition has also called on Swan to put a stop on the prevailing anti-competitive environment in the industry, specifically the major bank's seeming practice of price signalling that enable to blanket the sector with higher interest rates.
Choice said that such monopolistic behaviour could be effectively combated if large numbers of bank clients would swing their loans to credit unions and building societies but the government must actively play its role in efficiently overseeing the crucial dynamics of the industry.
Lloyd said that "we'd like to see a crackdown on unfair fees and charges across the board and we'd like to see the government take action to inject real competition back into the market."