One of the greatest advantages of the development of the internet is the access to information we can get at the click of a button.

From a finance perspective, this is great as it allows us to compare multiple products in an effecient manner.

This is also the problem – by having access to all this information at our fingertips, it gives the product providers and marketing machines more touch points to sway our decision on what is really best for you.

Here are a few examples;

– Lending Providers offering the lowest interest rate – This is nothing new, however now with comparable websites you can easily rank the different products by interest rates to find out which one is the cheapest. This doesn’t neccessarilly mean it is the best product for you – often to get low rates the product providers will remove certain features and benefits such as an offset account or add on extra fees for when you exit or repay the loan

– How much they cut rates after an RBA announcement – When the RBA announce their interest rate cuts, each bank gets a free promo on what their rate cut will be. In the last rate cut, Westpac lowered their standard variable rate by more than the RBA cut but they still had one of the highest standard variable rates compared to the other four banks. This doesn’t mean that the Westpac product is worse, you just need to make sure it is the right one for you.

So when looking for a product, whether it be insurance, a loan or even an investment – make sure you look past the marketing and understand what you really need and whether that product will meet those needs.