How we make money

First & foremost, RateCity is a financial comparison website that is free for consumers to use.

We make money by generating qualified leads for financial institutions. A lead is generated when our users visit a financial institution's website via a link from the RateCity website. If you visit a bank's website via RateCity, we may get paid either for that click itself, or more likely, for you "doing something" with the institution - for example, opening an account, or completing an application form on the bank's website.

We also generate revenue from display advertising, which are the graphical ads you see on many websites.

Sometimes, there are institutions which don't appear in our search results, and this can be for one of three reasons:

• Some institutions are not in a position to accept online leads because, for example, they can only deal with customers from a certain industry, or from a very defined part of Australia, or because they might not be able to process any new customers at all for a period of time.

• Some institutions simply won't allow RateCity to get access to their data - this is the case with some car insurance companies, for example.

• And sometimes, some institutions aren't willing to pay anything for successful leads - so from time to time, we'll exclude them from our search results if we believe that we can still offer users a good set of search results.

If institutions aren't displayed in our search results, you can generally find their products in RateCity's "A-Z directory".

We try to offer as comprehensive a list as possible of the most competitive rates for all products. We review it daily, and we are confident that consumers see a fair & reasonable set of search results for the best rates or products.

RateCity has two licences issued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) - an Australian Financial Services Licence, and an Australian Credit Licence. This means that we're bound by certain codes of practice, it means we're part of an industry-wide dispute resolution scheme, and most importantly, it means that ASIC can look at our website and propose changes if they don't think we're being clear enough. So as well as a clear business incentive to offer the right products and results, we've also got government oversight.

Financial comparison is a new sector in Australia. It's growing and we're able to offer consumers more information and therefore more choice which leads to greater competition in the financial services industry.

Click this link for more information About RateCity including our licence numbers and frequently asked questions. You should also read an important document called our Financial Services and Credit Guide, which explains our business in even more detail.