Latest news with #GrahamCooke
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
ATO warning to millions of Aussies desperate for $1,519 cash boost: 'Misconception'
Millions of Australians will be able to lodge their tax returns with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in the coming weeks. While many are desperate for a cash boost in the form of a refund, taxpayers are being warned not to rush. More than 10 million Australians expect a tax refund this year, new Finder research found, with 7 per cent admitting the extra cash would be 'critical' to their financial wellbeing. The average Aussie is expecting a refund of $1,519. Finder head of consumer research Graham Cooke told Yahoo Finance Aussies would be rushing to get their hands on some extra cash from July 1. RELATED ATO warning over popular tax deduction Aussies try to claim each year: 'Not claimable' Coles and Woolworths checkout move that there's no coming back from: 'Will only accelerate' Aussie couple making $1,200 a day from job anyone can do: 'Went off like an explosion' 'Australians who are living month to month are very eager to access their tax refunds to ease financial strain,' Cooke said. 'With many households grappling with the cost of living, these refunds offer a much-needed reprieve. For some, the refund is essential to cover essential expenses, such as keeping the lights on." Nearly one in four Aussies surveyed said their tax refund was 'very important' to their financial health, while a further 41 per cent said it was 'somewhat important'. Women were more likely to need a refund, with 39 per cent admitting it was 'critical' or 'very important' for their finances, compared to 24 per cent of men. But not everyone is expecting a refund this year, with 18 per cent saying they thought they would be getting a tax bill. Cooke has urged Aussies to make sure they are making prudent use of any refund. 'Consider using the funds to pay down debt, deposit into a high-interest savings account, or contribute to superannuation to maximise long-term benefits,' he said. It comes as Aussies are urged not to rush their tax returns, or they could risk making mistakes and missing out on legitimate claims. CPA Australia tax lead Jenny Wong has urged Aussies to take time to gather their evidence of work-related expenses over the next few weeks and to wait for the ATO to pre-fill their information before lodging. 'Firing the starting pistol on your tax return too quickly means you could end up shooting yourself in the foot,' she said. 'There's a misconception that lodging early means you'll receive your refund first, but it's not as simple as that. 'It's common for people who lodge early to end up having to amend their returns later anyway, so it's best to wait. It'll save you in the long run.' The ATO generally recommends waiting to lodge until the end of July when information, including interest from banks, dividend income, payments from government agencies and health insurance information is pre-filled in your tax return. The ATO has said it will be focused on areas where it sees frequent mistakes this tax time, including work-related expenses, working from home deductions and multiple income in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Coles, Woolworths shelves reveal devastating reality for coffee lovers: 'From $49 to $62'
With the average price of a cup of coffee now surpassing $5, many Australians have been rethinking their caffeine habits and turning to at-home solutions. While making your coffee at home was once seen as a major cost-of-living hack, rising bean prices mean it's less affordable than it once was. Arabica, which is the main type of coffee consumed in Australia, previously sold for US$2.93 (A$4.50) per kilogram in 2018 and is projected to increase to $US4.80 ($7.47) per kilo in 2026. Robusta, which is a cheaper option typically used to make instant coffee, used to be $US1.87 ($2.91) per kilo and is projected to hit $US3.90 ($6.06). Finder head of consumer research Graham Cooke told Yahoo Finance shoppers were similarly seeing higher coffee bean prices for the bags they buy at the supermarket. RELATED Sydney cafe offers cost-of-living relief with $2 coffee: 'Never seen that' $1,831 Centrelink payment change coming within weeks: 'You'll get more' Australia's most in-demand jobs revealed with $125,000 salaries up for grabs: 'Short supply' 'CPI Data shows that coffee and tea prices have increased by about 20 per cent since 2021 – but this is both combined,' he said. 'Coffee price increases are likely higher. So a bag of coffee that cost around $40 in 2021 would cost $50 now.' Woolworths, for example, is currently selling a kilo of Campos Superior Coffee Beans for $65. Two years ago, they were priced at $50 a and Coles both sell Vittoria Espresso Coffee Beans for $56 full price, although it is currently on special at Coles for $39. Earlier this year, they were $40 full price. Both supermarkets sell home brand 1kg bags of beans for $15. Coffee prices have been rising due to a range of factors, including weather events, rising demand and supply chain disruptions. Aussies have recently vented online about higher prices for coffee beans, with one Woolworths customer joking they would "no longer be caffeinated" after the price of Vittoria Espresso Coffee Beans rose from $38 to $40, to now $56 for a one-kilogram bag. "That's crazy, I bought 3 of these exact beans for $16 or $19 a bag about a year ago!" one person said. "I drink the Vittoria Mountain Grown. It's changed from $49 to $62. To be honest, it's not the best cup out there, it's just the best bang for my buck," another added. Some Aussies recommended people try Aldi coffee beans as a cheaper alternative. The discount chain's Lazzio beans are currently between $14.99 and $16.99 per kilo. Others recommended people see what is available from local coffee shops or roasters. "I know it's more convenient to grab the Woolies stuff, but I've stopped doing that for this very reason! The prices are laughable," one person said. While it's become more expensive to make a coffee at home, it's still much cheaper than buying a coffee out from a barista. According to a report by La Marzocco, the average price of a cup of coffee is now $5.50, while a flat white costs between $6 and $7 in the major cities and an iced long black ranges from $6.50 to $8. Cooke said the reality was that making your coffee at home was still a fraction of this price. 'For perspective, a 1kg bag of quality coffee beans, typically costing around $35 to 50, can yield 40 to 50 espresso shots, slashing your per-cup cost to a mere $1,' he told Yahoo Finance. 'At the high-end, a home-made coffee will cost you $1.50, but the equivalent coffee shop version would cost four times that, or more.' Finder analysis from earlier this year found Aussies could save $914 a year by trading their daily takeaway coffee for a Nespresso machine coffee. If you don't mind the taste of instant coffee, your savings could be higher at $1,105 a year. The coffee machine you choose will also have an impact on your savings and how long it takes to pay itself off. E-commerce and logistics platform Shippit reported an 85 per cent jump in month-on-month sales of home coffee machines in November, and a 30 per cent jump in December. The platform said brands like De'Longhi, Breville and Nespresso had been booming, with orders up 29 per cent year on year to December. Coffee machines can vary hugely in price from as little as $79 up to $4,599. Pod or capsule coffee machines are usually on the cheaper end of the scale, compared to manual or semi-automatic espresso machines. According to CHOICE, a good manual or semi-automatic espresso machine should last you about eight years or more. Even if you got a $1,200 machine, that would work out to just $150 a year over an eight-year lifespan. Cooke said he had shifted to making about half of his coffee from home. 'Picking a good machine is worth the investment, and you don't need to spend a lot,' he said. 'Working with coffee beans rather than pods will give you more flavour, be cheaper, and produce much less waste.'Sign in to access your portfolio
Sky News AU
24-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Inflation, interest rates: Simple reason Aussies cop $76m mortgage hit
Australian mortgage holders will give the major banks $76m in additional payments due to the 10 days it takes for them to pass on a rate cut. New figures released by Finder shows the big four banks hold approximately $1.13 trillion in household debt, with a 25 basis point cut earning roughly $7.6m a day on the debt. This means, the 10-day delay on average it takes for the banks to pass on an interest-rate cut will cost households $76m. Finder home loan expert Richard Whitten said even with the 10-day delay, the major banks were so far passing on the rate cut, something they had not always historically done. 'Of course, the banks aren't setting rates to be generous. They're responding to their own funding costs,' he said. 'That is, their costs for borrowing money to fund customers' loans and other business.' 'And how much profit they think they can get on top of that. The cost and profit calculations of each institution are going to look a little different.' The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced on Tuesday, May 20 that it was cutting the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 3.85 per cent. It follows a fall in Australia's headline inflation rate to 2.4 per cent in the March quarter, while the all-important trimmed mean inflation rate – which removes volatile components such as electricity and fuel costs – came in at 2.9 per cent. Either rate falls within the RBA's inflation target rate of 2 to 3 per cent. How much will Aussies save? How much Aussies will save after the rate cut will depend on the size of their mortgages. Those with a $500,00 debt will save about $76 a month, while those with a $750,000 mortgage are tipped to be $114 better off and Aussies who borrowed $1m will save about $152 a month. Finder head of consumer research Graham Cooke said more than one in two homeowners didn't even know their own rate. 'Mortgage repayments have a huge effect on the monthly cash flow of Australian households, yet more than half are unaware how much they could be overpaying each month,' he said. 'With two rate cuts in three months, the average homeowner could be saving thousands.' He said the average borrower stood to save about $213 per month – $2553 annually – thanks to the interest rate cuts in February and May. Mr Cooke said loyalty to your lender could be expensive. 'Banks rarely reward complacency, so reviewing your mortgage once a year should be as routine as your tax return,' he said. When will a rate cut be passed through? Within 24 hours of the RBA announcing a rate cut, 30 lenders said they were passing on the full rate cut. This included all four major banks that within 30 minutes of the announcement informed customers that the rate cut would be passed on. NAB confirmed it would decrease its standard variable home loan interest rate by 0.25 per cent, effective from Friday, May 30, with the 10-day delay in line with previous changes to interest rates in the wake of a cash rate change. ANZ followed, saying it would also be dropping its variable rate by 0.25 per cent, effective on May 30. Commonwealth Bank of Australia has moved in line with the other majors and will also drop variable interest rates on home loans by 0.25 per cent. Westpac told customers it too would pass on the rate cut in full to mortgage holders and savers, albeit a touch slower. Westpac explained to NewsWire it is faster to move on savings rates compared with mortgages due to the complexity of the different products. Savings rates are applied universally to every customer, while mortgage holders have differing rates depending on their circumstances. It was the only one of the major banks to make an announcement on savings rates. From June 3, the bank will decrease its variable interest rates by 0.25 per cent for new and existing customers. Bendigo Bank says it will reduce the cash rate in line with the majors from June 6. Australia's fifth largest bank, Macquarie, passed on the rate cut on Friday.
West Australian
24-05-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Mortgage holders tipped to pay their bank millions in additional payments
Australian mortgage holders will give the major banks $76m in additional payments due to the 10 days it takes for them to pass on a rate cut. New figures released by Finder shows the big four banks hold approximately $1.13 trillion in household debt, with a 25 basis point cut earning roughly $7.6m a day on the debt. This means, the 10-day delay on average it takes for the banks to pass on an interest-rate cut will cost households $76m. Finder home loan expert Richard Whitten said even with the 10-day delay, the major banks were so far passing on the rate cut, something they had not always historically done. 'Of course, the banks aren't setting rates to be generous. They're responding to their own funding costs,' he said. 'That is, their costs for borrowing money to fund customers' loans and other business.' 'And how much profit they think they can get on top of that. The cost and profit calculations of each institution are going to look a little different.' The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced on Tuesday, May 20 that it was cutting the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 3.85 per cent. It follows a fall in Australia's headline inflation rate to 2.4 per cent in the March quarter, while the all-important trimmed mean inflation rate – which removes volatile components such as electricity and fuel costs – came in at 2.9 per cent. Either rate falls within the RBA's inflation target rate of 2 to 3 per cent. How much will Aussies save? How much Aussies will save after the rate cut will depend on the size of their mortgages. Those with a $500,00 debt will save about $76 a month, while those with a $750,000 mortgage are tipped to be $114 better off and Aussies who borrowed $1m will save about $152 a month. Finder head of consumer research Graham Cooke said more than one in two homeowners didn't even know their own rate. Australia's Cash Rate 2022 'Mortgage repayments have a huge effect on the monthly cash flow of Australian households, yet more than half are unaware how much they could be overpaying each month,' he said. 'With two rate cuts in three months, the average homeowner could be saving thousands.' He said the average borrower stood to save about $213 per month – $2553 annually – thanks to the interest rate cuts in February and May. Mr Cooke said loyalty to your lender could be expensive. 'Banks rarely reward complacency, so reviewing your mortgage once a year should be as routine as your tax return,' he said. When will a rate cut be passed through? Within 24 hours of the RBA announcing a rate cut, 30 lenders said they were passing on the full rate cut. This included all four major banks that within 30 minutes of the announcement informed customers that the rate cut would be passed on. NAB confirmed it would decrease its standard variable home loan interest rate by 0.25 per cent, effective from Friday, May 30, with the 10-day delay in line with previous changes to interest rates in the wake of a cash rate change. ANZ followed, saying it would also be dropping its variable rate by 0.25 per cent, effective on May 30. Commonwealth Bank of Australia has moved in line with the other majors and will also drop variable interest rates on home loans by 0.25 per cent. Westpac told customers it too would pass on the rate cut in full to mortgage holders and savers, albeit a touch slower. Westpac explained to NewsWire it is faster to move on savings rates compared with mortgages due to the complexity of the different products. Savings rates are applied universally to every customer, while mortgage holders have differing rates depending on their circumstances. It was the only one of the major banks to make an announcement on savings rates. From June 3, the bank will decrease its variable interest rates by 0.25 per cent for new and existing customers. Bendigo Bank says it will reduce the cash rate in line with the majors from June 6. Australia's fifth largest bank, Macquarie, passed on the rate cut on Friday.
ABC News
21-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
What happens after the RBA's interest rate cut? Will home loan repayments fall? Which banks have passed it on?
The big banks have all reduced their variable home loan rates after the Reserve Bank's decision to cut the official cash rate by 0.25 percentage points. The official cash rate is now at 3.85 per cent, which means mortgage rates under 6 per cent are the new norm. Lower rates mean smaller minimum monthly repayments for borrowers, but repayments aren't automatically reduced, and many might choose to keep their repayments the same and get ahead on their home loan. Meanwhile, savers are still in the dark though, with only two lenders announcing cuts to savings rates. Here's what we know so far. At least 30 lenders have announced they will be passing the interest rate cut on, in full, for variable home loan customers. However, a number are yet to confirm whether they will be passing on the cut. "Over the next couple of days, we expect the announcements to come from most of the lenders, but some can be slow to publicise their changes," says Graham Cooke, head of consumer research at comparison site Finder. Comparison site Canstar has crunched the numbers on how much you could save due to this rate cut. On a $500,000 mortgage, monthly repayments would drop $76 to $3,164. For a million-dollar home loan, repayments would reduce $152 to $6,328. The Canstar estimates are based on an average variable rate for existing borrowers of 6.06 per cent, prior to Tuesday's rate cut. Last time the RBA cut rates in February, in an usual move, Virgin Money did not pass the cut on to customers. So far, no lenders have indicated they will hold out. This time, Virgin Money announced it will pass on the cut in full. Some lenders don't automatically adjust the direct debit amount for your mortgage repayments (even if you're paying the minimum amount). For instance, you have to contact CBA, NAB and ANZ directly, if you want to lower your repayments. Finder's Graham Cooke recommends double checking your new rate and making sure you have received the full 0.25 percentage point decrease. "Even if you do [get a rate cut from your lender], our data shows that the lowest rates on the market are about 40 basis points lower than the average, so if you want to get ahead of the RBA, look at refinancing," he says. Canstar's Sally Tindall says variable rates under 6 per cent are the new norm. "Once lenders pass on this cash rate cut, there could be at least 30 lenders offering variable rates under 5.5 per cent. If you choose not to lower your repayments, you'll be paying more off your home loan. Because your loan is accumulating less interest, the money will be redirected to paying down the principal (the original amount you borrowed from the bank). So if you don't touch your repayments, "the extra money goes to pay off your borrowings, and will allow you to shave years off your home loan," Mr Cooke notes. Many Australians did just that after the February interest rate cut. The country's biggest bank, CBA, says just 14 per cent of home loan customers reduced their repayments. Before you decide to pay extra into your home loan, it's worth checking what features your loan offers — for example, can you redraw any extra repayments made above the minimum. "These additional payments will also increase the available balance of their loan accounts and customers may have the flexibility to redraw the available balance at any time, for example if they experience an unexpected cost," explains CBA's home buying executive Michael Baumann. A rate cut is not all good news. For people with savings accounts or term deposit, it's likely they will earn less interest on their money in the bank. "Cash rate cuts are always bitter sweet and if history is anything to go by, most savings rates will be getting a haircut over the next few weeks," says Ms Tindall. So far, only two lenders have announced changes to savings rates; the Westpac Group (which includes Bank of Melbourne, St George and BankSA) and Teachers Mutural Bank. They will be lowering rates on select accounts by the full 0.25 of a percentage point. Ms Tindall says like with home loans, if you're a saver, it's time to look for the best deal, with at least 12 banks still offering a savings rate of 5 per cent or more. However, term deposits are already well below 5 per cent and are set to drop further. "Savers need to stay vigilant and monitor rate changes. Loyalty doesn't pay in this environment. It's essential to compare rates regularly and be prepared to switch to a better deal," she says. It's likely. Most economists are forecasting at least two more rate cuts in this cycle. According to LSEG, markets are pricing in the likelihood the cash rate will fall to 3.1 per cent by next year. The Reserve Bank board meets eight times a year, so there are just four more meetings remaining for the year. The next meeting is in July.
