Central Western Daily, 11 Dec 2007
The article in CWD 11 December 2007 "Rates Scrooge on cards" by Jessica Irvine rings true. I went into CBA recently when my low interest credit card was predicted to rise to 12.39% in January 2008. That is 0.15% more than the 0.25% rate rise by the RBA. In 20 years that is the highest hike in one hit that I can remember. Before that any RBA rise was mirrored in the credit card rise and no more. It appears the sub-prime mortgage crisis in USA and $5Bn loss in Northern Rock in UK are starting to impact Australia despite us being 12,000 miles away as credit is drying up for banks and non-bank lenders. I got very little joy over this gratuitous rise by the CBA from the management - they just stonewalled. The manager said the banks had the right to lift their rates without government authorization. So it is 'buyer beware'. The credit squeeze is starting to bite. We are paying for dodgy loans to others by banks in other countries. The whole financial world is linked together and what hurts one hurts all.