 |
| |
|
GE Money |
|
 |
| |
|
GE Money is the financial services arm of the American company General Electric, and is part of the GE Capital group. It offers a wide range of personal banking services through retail partners who can offer GE Money products to their customers without the need to have specialist staff. This means that a number of retail outlets can offer credit and insurance to their customers.
There are also 120 branches across most of Australia. In all they have 4,600 staff and claim 3.1 million customers, although most of these are due to their retail partnering. They also have a strong internet presence and call centres.
They have a wide range of products, but within each product they offer a narrow choice selling themselves as “Simplifying Money Matters”, marketing simplicity and convenience. Their interest rates on the loans are reasonably high, but their application processes are designed to be simple. There are two personal loan products offered by GE Money, a personal loan and a car loan.
The Personal Loan is an “any purpose” loan that has no restrictions. It is marketed particularly strongly to those looking for a debt consolidation loan where a number of high interest debts are put into one lower interest and longer term loan with manageable monthly repayments. It is available to all permanent Australian residents aged over 18 and in regular paid employment (this includes part time workers).
The minimum amount that can be borrowed on a personal loan is $3,000 and there is no pre-set maximum – however individual credit scoring is applied to set an upper limit on every application. The minimum term is two years, with a maximum term of seven years. The interest and payments are set at the beginning of the loan. Repayments can be made weekly, fortnightly or monthly.
There is a $250 one off establishment fee, paid when the loan is taken out. There is also a $10 monthly fee. These are not included in their interest rate, and are added to the loan. There is an early termination fee of $75, which is doubled to $150 if the loan has not reached the half way point before it is paid off. The termination fee is waived if the early repayment is less than six months before the scheduled end of the loan.
The car loans cover boats and motorcycles as well as cars. They allow the car to be used as security for the loan. |
|
|
|
