When purchasing a new or used car it is more than likely that you will require car finance. There are a number of factors that you need to take into consideration when looking for car finance. By using a car finance broker they will be able to do the work for you in securing the best car finance deal available.

It is imperative that you are aware that the interest rate you are provided with is dependent on your ability and past ability to repay the loan. Lenders use what is referred to as a “Henderson Poverty Index” to establish what interest rate will apply. The factors taken into consideration are marital status, income, disposable income, length of employment and number of children etc. Your car finance broker will ensure that you are provided with an interest rate that is favourable to you once these factors have been taken into consideration. You credit rating is a big factor in determining your interest rate as if you have a bad credit rating the lenders see you as a bigger risk and therefore penalise you by charging a higher interest rate to protect themselves.

Interest rates are usually an indication as to whether you are receiving a “good deal”, however there is a great difference between the interest rate and the comparative interest rate. The comparative interest rate takes into consideration the additional fees and charges that may apply. Additional fees and charges include account keeping fees or service fees that are charged monthly and/or an upfront establishment fee. Your car finance broker will also take these into conseration when determining the best car loan for you as they can often increase your comparative interest rate by 5 percent.

The line-up of monthly surveys on confidence are now all showing the big problem with our economy right now is a decline of confidence. The business associations say their members are very apprehensive which is causing investment to be withdrawn and all consumer-lead surveys are worrying. The Melbourne Institute is leading the charge on pessimism claiming consumer confidence dropped 8 percent in the past month.

After the Productivity Commission recently suggested the credit card companies could be used to collect the GST on overseas mail orders bought on-line, VISA has firmly dismissed the idea. (The present GST-free threshold on purchases under $1000 remains despite various retail chains trying to get it lowered.)

As the top end of the retail industry suffers and a couple of fashion chains are also complaining, others say business is fine. Target for example continues to grow as does K-Mart. And Starbucks latest figures show an excellent 34 percent growth. Most supermarket chains are showing around a 3 percent growth on this time last year.

Around $10 billion annually is now going out of this country for on-line shopping with overseas retailers. This is the latest estimate tracking a fast expanding trend which our rising dollar is fuelling. Incredibly no less than $4 billion of that is from under-21 year olds with their own credit cards.

The spreading cities of Melbourne and Sydney are right there with Darwin when it comes to their house prices retaining most of the increases from the past decade. But the latest research is showing a huge number of house buyers in those markets are committing over 33 percent of their income on servicing mortgages and 10 percent are paying more than half their income.

Property monitor, RP Data’s latest figures show a drop of around 0.2 percent in the median price of the houses in our larger capital cities this year.

Australia’s million-plus annual vehicle sales race is never dull with high stakes. And for decades the Holden Commodore has survived most challenges to retain its envied national outright top seller position. Occasionally the monthly sales stats see a Toyota get close but now the numbers from the rivals are really strong. So strong in fact that the Mazda 3 finished the first half of 2011 as this country’s top selling car pushing the once-mighty Commodore to second but the General’s new mid-size Cruze is holding third spot ahead of the European VW Golf in fourth. The previously strong-selling Corolla is no more than eigth.

The once mighty Falcon which has long dropped out of this country’s top ten selling car ratings, is receiving various factory upgrades to revive sales.
The one which Ford is most confident about is the option for the car with a newly uprated LPG fuel system that delivers traditional effortless Big Six power with impressive economy.