Aussies pay 'highest bank fees in West'
Monday May 15 06:50 AEST
Australian banks are slugging families with some of the highest fees and charges in the Western world, new research shows.
The findings, from Fujitsu Consulting, compared Australia with the US, UK and Canada, News Limited newspapers reported.
It found that at 1.89 per cent, home loan margins in Australia were markedly higher, with Canada at 1.58 per cent, the UK at 1.31 per cent and only 0.95 per cent in the USA.
If Australian banks operated on the same margin as the US, the average Sydney mortgage would be cut by as much as $154 a month, or $1,854 a year, the report said.
The research also revealed that over the life of a typical Australian mortgage, borrowers pay $6,712 in costs, compared with $4,897 in the US and $5,086 in Britain.
Credit card holders in Australia were getting a raw deal as well, News Limited said.
©AAP 2006
