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Trawling the websites of a seemingly endless plethora of financial institutions can lead to much confusion when trying to find the right investment opportunity.
Cannex and Morning Star are two companies that help to make the process easier, and rate the performance of various investment possibilities using a five-star system.
Cannex
Cannex researches, analyses and rates more than 20,000 consumer products available within Australia. These include margin loans, term deposits and all types of bank accounts, as well as home loans, credit cards, car insurance, personal loans, rewards programs and more.
Cannex independently gathers information, which over 450 banks and financial institutions pays to regularly access. Consumers can view reports on the best available products, the most superior in value being the five-star rating.
Information about margin loans, for instance, compares the cost of fixed and variable rate loans from almost every major lender in Australia. You can choose to search by interest rate or by the five-star rating. They also compare term deposits based on the interest paid on the investment amount.
Last year, Cannex also launched the website Rate City, which allows consumers to keep regular tabs on financial products available.
As a free service, it's definitely worth the visit to their website before any home loan is decided upon.
Morning Star
During the early 1980s, while the mutual funds industry was experiencing a lot of growth, comparative information was virtually non-existent. Enter Morning Star, a US based company that began offering comprehensive information to individual investors (the largest group of investors in mutual funds) in 1984.
Morning Star Australia concentrates on the Australian market, but can also take advantage of its sister company's expertise and experience. They also offer an online daily publication, which, unlike many of their reports, is free to access.
Morning Star's website is a wealth of information on the various types of investment available for individuals, including the increasingly popular property trust market.
Similar to Cannex, Morning Star uses a five-star rating system, which offers a quick reference for users.
Using a combination of Cannex and Morning Star to gather information can save a lot of time and potential headaches. Their information is reliable and up-to-date, so whether it's a property trust portfolio or a margin loan you're looking for, these two sites are a handy first stop for any would-be investor.