About RateCity

Welcome to RateCity, Australia's new home for virtually all retail banking products. Only at RateCity can you easily find, compare and buy financial products online. It spells the end of travelling from website to website and the beginning of discovering the very best value product for you.

RateCity has been built by two of Australia's most successful and trusted organizations: ninemsn and CANNEX.
ninemsn contributes world-class Internet know-how and access to Australia's leading online media company which has over 8 million regular users. Ninemsn includes content from Channel 9, Money Magazine and other news and current affairs sources.

CANNEX is Australia's leading financial services research firm, and its database of 13,000 financial products from 325 institutions is made available to help you save money and find the very best product at RateCity.

Our online comparison capital is a place anyone can visit anytime and go home with exactly what they have been looking for: a fantastic finance deal. RateCity signals a hassle-free journey in your search for choice, savings and service from Australia's leading money product providers.

Here is more information about us:

• Our history
• What products can I find on RateCity?
• The people behind the scenes
• How do we compare products?
• Techno talk
• What's in it for us?
• Careers
• Charity begins at home
• Contact us

Our history

RateCity is a brand new 50:50 joint venture between ninemsn and CANNEX.

About ninemsn

ninemsn is Australia's number one interactive media company, capturing the largest online audience in Australia, with 7.9 million (as at July 2006) people visiting the site each month. This means that 73 percent of active online Australian's use ninemsn regularly to get the news, information and communication services they want.

Formed in 1997, ninemsn is a 50:50 joint venture between the Microsoft Corporation and Australia's leading media company, Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL).

Through its joint-venture parent companies, ninemsn delivers well-known and respected content from the stable of Nine Network television programs and Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) magazines, while also providing access to Australia's most popular communication services such as Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Spaces, Windows Live Messenger and Live Seacrh.

ninemsn derives the bulk of its revenue from online advertising and has the leading position in the competitive online advertising market. ninemsn has expanded its vision to the other key screen for Australian consumers and marketers - the mobile phone, with strategic investments in the mobile marketing and content industry, including mobile marketing pioneers 5th Finger and HWW.

About CANNEX

CANNEX is Australia & New Zealand's leading financial research firm. Our database has become the most comprehensive specialist research service used by over 400 financial institutions, government, media and finance professionals.

CANNEX researchers monitor thousands of mortgage, deposit, credit card, margin lending, personal loan and investment products available in Australia and New Zealand. They provide Australia's only fully interactive online service in retail and business finance. CANNEX customers use the extensive online database for competitor analysis as well as a means of disseminating their product range.

CANNEX also distributes this information to print and electronic media for publication and to Agents, Accountants, Brokers and Internet Portals for use in advising their clients.

CANNEX is a family owned business with over 30 employees. It is based in Brisbane, with offices in Sydney and Auckland.

What products can I find on RateCity?

RateCity houses no less than 13,000 everyday retail banking products. Our warehouse is large and deep. From small credit unions and building societies to major banks and direct-style lending institutions, we cover them all, and have developed detailed product knowledge which will answer every question you have.

Every retail banking product from almost every financial institution in Australia will be available for comparison and many for purchase. Product areas are:

• Home Loans
• Credit Impaired Loans
• Low Doc Loans
• Reverse Mortgages
• Credit Cards
• Personal Loans
• Car Loans
• Savings Accounts
• Transaction Accounts
• Term Deposits
• Margin Loans

We are also working to expand the range of products that you can compare at RateCity. Look out for new product categories including:

• Reward Programmes
• Car Insurance

In each product area RateCity provides best buys, the top CANNEX star rated products, and search tools that allow you to find the cheapest or best featured products according to your needs.

The people behind the scenes

RateCity was founded by some of Australia's leading Internet, finance and consumer experts. Every member of staff makes a valuable contribution to the business.

The senior people involved with RateCity are:

• Andrew Willink - Executive Chairman of RateCity and Managing Director of CANNEX (formerly with Bankers Trust, Toronto Dominion Bank, NAB)

The team of research experts that power RateCity on the CANNEX side are:

• Harry Senlitonga- CANNEX research analyst - rewards, debit cards
• Lauren Newlands - CANNEX Financial Analyst - credit cards, mortgages, low-doc loans, reverse mortgages, margin lending, car insurance
• Jeremy Ooi - CANNEX Financial Analyst - cash accounts, personal loans

How do we compare products?

Comparison tables allow us to translate your key needs into all of the important product dimensions that you will want to compare. Our findings are ranked according to your preferences (lowest cost, best features etc.).

We try to compare the entire Australian market, and this means you will find familiar brands as well as surprising value for money from providers you may have never heard of.

For the most complete comparisons, go to the full results table. We also show a selection of 'best buys' and top CANNEX 5 Star rated products for each category if you are looking for a short-cut. CANNEX star ratings are a way for our researchers to identify the very best value for money combining rates, fees and flexible features.

Techno Talk

RateCity is powered by the CANNEX database. In 1992 CANNEX introduced Australia's first fully interactive online information service for retail banking institutions to instantly view the competitor landscape of the marketplace on a timely basis. CANNEX developed a comprehensive data dictionary for some 13,000 financial products with over 3 million current data points routinely updated by institutions themselves and rigorously checked and audited by CANNEX and other external parties. Institutions benefit now from consistency in data structure and definitions providing extensive analytical capabilities in at least four dimensions:

• Current and historical price behaviour
• Product marketshare segmented by tiering and by territory
• Purpose marketshare using publicly available information
• Consumer demand matching from the Internet consumer channel

Our unique star ratings methodology is a "value for money" benchmark, combining the value of price and features for retail finance products in a consumer friendly way. Institutions use this benchmark to improve or promote "excellence" to staff and their customers.

CANNEX introduced many other methodologies like the mortgage comparison rate (AAPR Average Annual Percentage Rate), Effective Rates in Term Deposits and At Call accounts, scoring metholodology for the complex Life Insurance products (Income Protection, Trauma, Death and TPD) and a comparison rate for Portfolio Platforms, also known as Master Trust and Wraps (APE "Annual Percentage Expense") which are now common in the marketplace for money.

What's in it for us?

Getting this all for free may seem too good to believe. But there is no catch. The reason you can use this website for free is because the way we make money is not at the consumer's expense.

Our revenue comes from introduction fees paid by financial institutions if you click to apply for products using RateCity. For example, if, after a search for credit cards, you find the very best one and click to apply with a participating institution, they will pay RateCity a fee for introducing you to them. After all, the other ways in which banks and other provider find new customers can be very expensive and even intrusive (eg - calls at home, direct mail offers, people soliciting customers in airports etc.) Why not meet new customers on line, after they have actually decided to come to the party?

Only a small proportion of our revenue comes from advertising. If you use the site to shop around for the best product but choose not to apply through the site, instead choosing to go apply at the provider's website instead, RateCity will earn nothing. That's fine, because we are happy to provide this service for free to everyone. However, it is more convenient for consumers to go ahead and apply through us. That way it helps to keep us in business and ensures that the very best deals remain on offer for all Australian consumers.

Careers

RateCity is based in Sydney and has offices in Brisbane. If you are interested in joining us it is worth supplying a CV. We often have vacancies for IT, admin and sales staff.

Charity begins at home

We feel fortunate to have the opportunity to create RateCity and to build this exciting new shopping and learning opportunity for Australian consumers. We want to give something back to the community.

For every product you purchase through a RateCity apply button, we will donate five cents towards charities selected by our staff that work to improve related social and environmental problems. It may not sound like much, but after our first 100,000 applications we will have our first $5,000 to contribute, and once we hit 1,000,000 applications the donation will be $50,000.

We will report back on how our charity work as RateCity grows.

Contact us

For any questions you might have about our site, please email info@ratecity.com.au.
If you find a piece of information on RateCity that you think doesn't match an institution's advertised product, let us know by sending an email to audit@ratecity.com.au.
If you are having difficulty using our website, please contact our dedicated IT Support Team on admin@ratecity.com.au.
For information about advertising, please contact sales@ratecity.com.au.