Banks hit us hard, but we lap it up

Official home loan figures released by the Bureau of Statistics show the share of new loans being signed with banks struck a decade-high 83.6 per cent in January - the first month banks began adding their own sting to official rate rises.
The shift by borrowers towards banks came amid calls by the federal Treasurer, Wayne Swan, for customers to "vote with their feet" if they did not like the interest rate rise set by their lenders.
It was impossible to tell from the figures whether customers were switching between banks, but it was clear they were not switching to non-bank lenders.
Perhaps people are also a little bit worried about the issues of the non-bank lenders and the credit crunch problems.
The latest rises mean there is now no common variable rate. ANZ and St George have the highest standard rate, 9.37 per cent, followed by Commonwealth on 9.32 per cent and NAB and Westpac on 9.27 per cent.
Mr Swan said that customers would reward banks that best shielded them from increased interests flats costs flowing from the US subprime crisis. Banks which don't act in a way which their customers think is reasonable will now run a greater risk of losing customers.