Overcharging – it’s not just rugby shirts.
Filed under: Cost of living, Exchannge Rate & Currency Transfers, Life in New Zealand, Only in New Zealand
So Adidas hae been given one helluva kicking over here for charging about $220 for a new All Blacks jersey, when they charge less than half that overseas. The people of New Zealand have (rightly in my opinion) expressed utter disgust at being blatantly ripped off. The jerseys are manufactured like most things- in China – so the price paid at the till has nothing to do with the cost of making the product. But that aside – why do Kiwis have to pay twice as much here for their home shirt as someone in the UK?
It has been all over the news. Boycotts were planned. It became a PR disaster that just got worse as the big wigs tried hard to justify the price with the usual bull crap about currency fluctuations, local conditions oh – and they have paid hundreds of millions of dollars of sponsorship to New Zealand rugby – so the price of the jerseys has to be higher.
Now I personally don’t give a toss about rugby, and wouldn’t pay anything at all for a jersey. But without a doubt there is a captive market who want to buy the new strip to support their team in the world cup. Why should they be ripped off?
This has shown up how much people spend on Internet shopping here though. Even John Key talked on TV about the fact that its cheaper to by and import books from abroad. But many Kiwis actually cant access Internet shopping because they don’t have credit cards and eftpos cards cant be used to buy anything online. That will change as the NZ banks join the 20th century and bring out proper debit cards 0 but still it means that a large proportion of people have no choice but to pay too much.
My main issue is that this has focused on a Rugby Shirt.
What about books, dvds, CD’s. Medicines, clothes, shoes.All of these things cost way more than they should, and are cheaper to import individually from the UK or the US.
Food is also hideously overpriced, with the extra downside that you cannot exactly import fresh food, and even the stuff you can import yourself, you have to try and find a supplier who will ship it here.
Medicines are also a bit harder to import – the best way being to ask friends to buy for you and post them here. And you have the downside that some medicines you cannot import as they are restricted anyway. But WHY are we being asked to pay way over the odds for goods. We are not talking luxuries here – basics are overpriced as much as things that could be considered wants rather than needs.
I would really like to know where the money we pay for these things goes – because I actually doubt its going to the retailers to be honest. I know in the Adidas cock-up the issue was that Adidas set different wholesale prices depending on the country they were selling to. Is that what happens with books and the rest of it?
The New Zealand Art Show Wellington
Last night we popped along to the opening of the NZ Art Show in Wellington.
Now this isn’t usually “our thing”. Neither of us are particularly “arty”, and I have a tendency to think of things like this as a little pretentious. Though I do quite love painting an drawing myself. But in this case we were actually invited by the Bank.
Yep. We owe the bank enough money that they invited us to something!
Actually that’s not strictly true – we owe them more than we did when we bought our home, but it’s still not exactly a huge amount. But ASB are the main sponsors of the event, and our personal manager at the Manners Street branch asked if we would like to go.
Far be it from me to turn down wine and nibbles supplied by the bank!
But you know, the event really is rather impressive – even if Art is not really your thing. The main impression I left with was there that would be something in there for everyone. Some of it I found hideous, and some I swear I would have whipped out the credit card for if I had had the money to burn on it. But I guess that is the point of art – it’s all very individual. One person’s loves are another person’s loathes. And as long as you can afford it – well, then it’s your taste that matters, not anyone elses.
Just don’t take out a loan from the very friendly bank to do it!
As someone buys a piece, new work is added, so over the three days of the exhibition, it will be changing.
Tickets are $10 each for Friday during the day, Saturday and Sunday.
Edited to add. As we were leaving we saw Alan Bollard, govener of the Reserve Bank heading into the show. I sure hope he wasnt buying anything and thus adding to the rate of inflation meaning he just has to put our interest rates up!
Paying off debt – still too hard for most people :(
Filed under: Banks, General Budgeting, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ
According to a piece on the herald today, Kiwi consumer debt (that doesn’t include mortgages on property) still stands at a whopping $11.96 billion. That’s $11,960,000,000. Now the Stats NZ population clock stands at over 4.4 million, but census information says there are 895,000 people here under the age of 15. Which leaves an “adult(ish) population of 3.5million give or take. Which means on average every one over the age of 15 would be carrying a debt of $3417 each, all at high interest rates. This is debt on credit cards, store card and hire purchase.
That’s actually quite a lot really.
And according to the article, the most that people are thinking of doing to sort this out is not get further into debt. But there are very few people thinking of paying it down.
Now for the moment, we also have some consumer debt on a credit card – expenses from setting hubby up as a contractor. As you know, we swapped this to a “low” interest credit card, saving us about $250 a month in interest, and that is being paid off rapidly, and will be gone by the end of September. To be honest, I felt really unconformable having the debt there, and it just didn’t seem to be getting lower. So we took steps and have budgeted $2000 a month to pay the card off. Now most people will not have the income to do that, especially here in New Zealand. But the bottom line is – debt has to be paid off somehow.
It doesn’t have to be $2000 a month, but it does have to be more than the minimum payment, and having consumer debt means if nothing else – you have to stop buying things you cannot afford.
Its a pain – but its true.
Apparently the interest we are collectively paying on our credit cards (at an average of 18%) is $650 million in a year.Now shared amongst the same 3.5 million of us sharing the debt, that works out at a reasonable sounding $185 a year each. But when you consider that you pay that for the privilege of having the debt, and you actually don’t have anything to show for it – its a bit of a waste of money isn’t it?
Believe me – that $2000 debt repayment could be much better spent on us having some fun. Though actually because I’m completely sad – once the credit card is paid off, its going to be used to pay down some of our business mortgages. We may however be able to use 1 month of it to fund the purchase of a new laptop. In the meantime, I gain a huge amount of pleasure from denying the banks a fair chunk of interest each month.
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Would you apply for a mortgage for someone else…
Filed under: Banks, Economics, General Budgeting, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ, Property & General Investing
and then complain when you realise that you were scammed and the mortgage broker lied to you when they told you it was to help a British couple out whose money was locked up in the UK???
Much as I would like to help people make the move to New Zealand – the answer for me is
Because call me nuts – but isn’t it fraud to apply for a mortgage or loan under you own name, when you know its actually for someone else, especially when you are doing so on the promise of being paid money by these people when the loan draws down, and then a monthly fee from them?
This is what has happened to a couple on the Kapiti Coast. They got scammed by Kerry Brundle, a mortgage broker. And they have finally woken up and gone to the police – along with many other victims who for some utterly inexplicable reason took out loans to give this woman money. The mortgage payments were supposed to be met by Brundle, or some other fictitious character and then the people scammed were also supposed to receive a payment when the loan was drawn down, and then ongoing payments each month. To say “Thank you”.
Mark Mason can testify to how persuasive Ms Buddle could be. He took out a $42,000 mortgage on his house in Paraparaumu in 2008 so he could lend her money to renovate her home. He has since had to sell his house to avoid a mortgagee sale.
“She said it would be good for both of us. I trusted her, she was a friend. I thought this has got to be easy – get $1000 upfront then $100 a month – for signing a piece of paper.”
Were they all barking nuts???
Why oh why oh why would you mortgage your house, risk yours and your families financial future to give money to someone else? Charity is one thing – stupidity is quite another. If you have the money and want to help people – that’s great: laudable and entirely your choice. But when you are prepared to sign loan documents under your own name knowing full well that you are lying about the loan being for you in exchange for money, I’m afraid any sympathy I have goes out the window. To me – this is what greed is – you do something which highly unethical, because someone is going to pay you money to do it.
That doesn’t diminish how much of a snake Kerry Brundle is – living like a millionaire on the money she scammed out of people. There are an awful lot of people out there pretending they have a lot of money when they don’t, so she will not be the last person to get caught for trying to live off other people’s money I’m sure.
Why do people do this?
We were prepared to take a certain amount of risk when taking out mortgages to buy our investment properties. But always – we ran the numbers, listened to advice, and remembered that if we screwed up or things got difficult – we were risking not just our home and future – but that of my Parents and brother as well. I sure as hell would never risk that to borrow money for someone else! If I give money – for any reason – it is money I can afford to give – and I give it because I want to – not because someone will pay me to do so.
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I’m a credit card tart and proud of it!
Filed under: Banks, General Budgeting, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ
A credit card tart is someone who swaps the balance of their credit card to another card in order to take advantage of special low introductory rates on balance transfers.
This was hugely popular in the UK in the years before we emigrated, where it was not unusual to get several offers in the post each month from different providers, often with 0% interest on the balance transfer.
Now many people took these out, and ended up spending yet more money and ended up with a lot more debt. But people in the know used these rates to pay down debt faster and faster – including us.
Yet when we came to New Zealand, there was no such thing. With standard interest rates on cards at about 20%, “low” rates were about 7% at the cheapest. But now ANZ are offering 2.99% on balance transfers for 6 months. And while most banks won’t “lend” me money (because we have investment properties), one of our mortgages is with ANZ and they have decided to take our business. I am not taking on an extra credit card – I will be canceling the ASB card as soon as I have the physical new card – I just want to take advantage of a good offer!
This is the only credit card we have with debt on it – and it is associated with Hubby’s contracting business – so this is where all the set up costs, training costs and such went. The interest we are paying on the card with ASB is about $200 a month. On the ANZ card it will be about $30.
Even better – one of those money saving options that results from not having to “give up” a single cup of coffee (or anything else!)
Of course the trick to being a successful Tart is to keep paying off the credit card at the same rate, and not see the $170 reduction as extra money you can spend! I will be aiming to have the balance paid off in full by the end of the 6 months introductory period, and then we can go back to not having a revolving balance on any of our cards.
So thanks today goes to ANZ bank – for not only helping me out with my finances and budgeting, but for making the process of getting the cards and transferring the balance an easy and pleasant one. I am very impressed.
In contrast to my opinion of Kiwibank.
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Well Done to ASB
Filed under: Banks, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ
It’s really nice to be able to say that a Bank has done something really worthwhile but I think ASB deserve a gold star for doing just a little more to help people in Christchurch, and show a bit of team spirit and flexibility.
We realise that some ASB customers have been significantly affected by the Christchurch earthquakes so we have updated our assistance package to reflect this. If your home is uninhabitable or your income has been significantly impacted talk to us as you may be eligible for the following discounted rates on your existing products:
Home Loans
Save on your home loan rates for up to 12 months
We’re offering up to 12 months at a reduced rate to help make things easier. That means 0.5% discount off your existing fixed rate; and/or 1% discount off your floating rate.
Up to 6 months payment holiday on a home loan
Take a break from repayments (although interest will be added to your loan during this period increasing what you owe).
No Early Repayment Fees if you repay a fixed rate home loan, where a home is destroyed or suffered major damage as a result of the earthquake.
No establishment or adjustment fees if you need to establish or restructure a home loan as a result of the earthquake.
Credit Cards
A discounted rate of 6.24%p.a. on your ASB Credit Card for 12 months. This rate is subject to change.
Immediate consideration of any requests for emergency credit limit increases and review of credit card instalment repayments
Personal Loans
Up to six months payment holiday and a discounted interest rate for existing Personal Loans for 12 months. This is set at the current housing variable rate.
Term Investments
Access to funds in ASB Term Deposit or ASB Term Fund accounts without receiving a reduced return on your ASB Term Deposit or paying any ASB Term Fund withdrawal fees.
Insurance
Our support if you’re working with IAG on claims over and above the Earthquake Commission cover.
All Christchurch customers are also eligible for a 90-day emergency overdraft facility
Borrow up to $10,000 if you have a home loan (or $2,000 if not) at a special variable rate of 1.25% p.a. below ASB’s housing variable rate. Right now that special rate is 4.5% p.a.
These discounts are actually quite significant. To help put that in context, I recently had to negotiate damn hard to get a 0.1% discount of my floating rate mortgages, and my fixed rate (only one of those with ASB) is still fixed with no discount.
And the no early repayment fee can literally save tens of thousands of dollars.
ASB have similar offers in place for businesses affected by the Quake, and this is in addition to the emergency package that they set up, along with the other banks, immediately after the quake:
ASB Christchurch Business Rebuild Fund
We’ve set up a $100 million fund for ASB SME business customers with existing loans that have been substantially impacted by the earthquake.
The fund will offer a 12 month interest free period, followed by a discount of 1.00% off your rate(s) (fixed or floating) at that time for up to two years.
Principal repayments are not required during the first 12 months.
The offer is available until 31 August 2011.
To ask about any of these options, or just chat about your situation and how we can help, please call us on 0800 272 222 between 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday.
Lending criteria applies. Interest rates subject to change. ASB terms and conditions apply.
ASB Christchurch New Business Fund
We’ve set up a $100 million fund to encourage new business in the Christchurch region.
This fund is available for both existing small to medium business customers and new businesses whose future cash flows are expected to be financially viable within 12-24 months.
A maximum amount of $1 million business lending per customer.
The fund will offer a 12 month interest free period, followed by two years at 1.00% discount on customer rate for two year fixed rate and variable rate Term Loans and Overdrafts.
Principal repayments are not required during the first 12 months.
The offer is available until 31 March 2012.
I mean – Interest free loans for up to a year? I cannot tell you how mindblowing this is in New Zealand. This is not a place that ever took up the idea of 0% on credit card transfers (though ANZ are offering 2.99% at the moment).
Im really impressed – and let’s be honest here – it takes and awful lot for me to impressed with a bank. I am assuming that the other banks will follow their lead – but ASB got there first, and they get the credit.
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Commonwealth Bank Of Australia lose the plot.
It’s an Aussie bank. but they own ASB, and if you emigrate from the UK and want to bank with ASB, these are the people that you would open the account with in London. So you need to know what the imbeciles have cooked up now as their latest scheme.
According to The Australian (thanks to Kiwiblog):
THE Commonwealth Bank has threatened its employees with disciplinary action, including dismissal, if they do not report criticism of the bank made by others on social media channels, including Facebook.
Bank employees have been told they must immediately notify their manager if they become aware of “inappropriate or disparaging content and information stored or posted by others”, including non-employees, in the “social media environment”.
Which I guess means that anyone reading this who works for the bank needs to report that I think these people are absoulte tossers, who would look really comfy in a George Orwell book. If they had the brains to read one. Which I doubt, because if they had they would understand just how unbelievably stupid and evil this is.
(Hubby would like to express his surprise – which can also be reported – that it took me till the second line to call them imbeciles. He would further note that he prefers to term Cretins (actually he said something else, but that’s using foul language and I wont allow that on this blog).
It says the content may damage the bank and its reputation.
Because, clearly, you need the help of people like us to totally ruin your reputation and look like a bunch of blithering idiots with all the humanity and common sense of dung beetles.
As well as notifying their manager, employees must assist the bank with any investigation into the material, and its removal.
Good luck with that. I’m sure said employee, when telling you with a single finger where to stick this idea will find employment at another bank who values then as human beings and valuable staff members rather than forcing them to act as spies and thought police.
So, CBA (and ASB) if you ever take offence at anything I say about you which is uncomplementary – then please – do not fire your staff because of it. Instead – may I suggest you get off you fat overpaid arses and listen to the fact that a customer of yours is pissed off with your crap service and do something about it.
Where the hell do these people get these ideas? And they have the sodding gaul to charge me money for this shite?
“The bank will amend the policy, where it is considered reasonable to do so, to ensure that all of its staff continue to be treated fairly.“
Ahem, too late (and due to the inevitable backlash in – you guessed it – social media). You threatened your staff, and more importantly you have basically threatened us (the customers who pay you money you ungrateful little scrotes) that if we say something bad about you and you find out – you will threaten us and force us to take it down. What are you – China?
Get a sodding grip and run your bank – which is after all what we actually pay for you.
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You don’t save when you have debts to pay.
Filed under: Avalon's Money Thread, Economics, General Budgeting, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ, Property & General Investing, Retirement, Pensions and Kiwisaver
It is a fundemental rule of personal finance and budgeting:
Do not save while you have debt to pay off.
So why is it that the supposedly “clever” people in the savings working group want to force people to save because we have too high a level of debt? It makes no sense, in fact its the most stupid and finacially dangerous idea you could come up with. The scary thing is – they have to know this – they really can’t be that thick – so why are they suggesting it?
First of all- why is it a bad idea?
Well, its all to do with interest rates. You get less interest for saving than you pay for borrowing. For example, ASB pay you 3.65% for any savings you have, and charge you a minimum of 6.25% for any borrowings you have. (Up to 19.25% if you have credit card debt with them). So WHY would you put any money in the savings account when it can work at least twice as hard for you paying off the debt?
And because you pay tax on any of the interest that you earn – you are even worse off. The simple fact, to earn enough interest to make it worth “saving” (or “investing” ) instead of paying off debt you need to be able to earn that 6.25% AFTER THE INCOME TAX HAS BEEN PAID. That means you need to earn about 8% interest in savings or investments.
Anyone know where you can get that?
(Actually – First Direct in the UK are currently offering 8% on thier regular savings account – but that aint gonna help most Kiwis, or expats unless you already have an account with them).
So – Forced Kiwisaver then?
Yep – thats the bee-all and end-all of everything. Open a Kiwisaver account and the economy will fix itself. You won’t be able to eat – but hey – who cares about that? We will stop using debt to buy things we can’t afford, and no one will have any money to plow into investment properties because it will all be in the stockmarket. NZ Business needs the investment – and as too many of us are not doing as we are told – we need to be forced to behave.
A classic quote in a second article today shows the attitude of these people really eloquently I think:
“KiwiSaver has considerable potential to further help people select appropriate investment assets,” the working group report said. “At the moment this potential is not being fully realised.”
Ie – “stop thinking you know better than us – we tell you Kiwisaver is the best investment – and if you won’t believe us – we will force you to. You are too stupid to select your own shares and we really are terribly hacked off that you want to buy property – because none of us get a cut of that!”
Of course, buying shares, unless you buy in an Initial Public Offering never actually puts money into a business – it just values the business. Which means that on paper the business is worth more and can borrow more. Um – isn’t that bad and greedy when Property Investors do it? It will of course put money into the pocket of the person you bought the shares from. Much like buying a property off someone who bought it as an investment puts money into the greedy gits pocket!
The first rule of smart finances:
Pay off your debt first.
It’s the best form of “saving” there is, purely because of the cost of borrowing and the effect of compound interest. If you want to try and beat the interest rate you are paying on debts, then you tend to have to save the money in risky investments, or property (and that as we all know is BAD!) And even then – it isn’t easy – and is dependent on a lot of outside forces. Investments can and do lose money – because money always goes in cycles. Theres are booms and busts – in a boom your investment goes up, in a bust it goes down.
But one easy way to get the best return on money is paying down debt. It’s risk free, makes the absolute most of every pound or dollar, and also reduces your personal risk. Can you get a better investment for your money than that?
Does this include mortgages?
Yes and no. In general when people talk about “debt” they mean non-mortgage debt. But clearly when you end up in the middle of a financial crisis like we are right now, mortgage debt is also a huge issue for people, so I personally think you can’t forget about it that easily. And when the boffins in these working grups are whining about our debt levels – they are also talking about mortgage debt. Most of our mortgages are business related, so they are tax deductable – effectively this brings the interest rate down by about 1/3. (which would be exactly the same if we have taken out the loan to buy shares with by the way). But it should never be forgotten that they are still debts, and they cost a lot of money to service. It is in the end money we owe. To be honest – if we didnt have the investment properties then financially we would be laughing all the way to the bank because our spending is way lower than earnings right now. All our spare money is going into paying down debt and keeping our properties.
If we are forced to pay Kiwisaver contributions as well – how the bloody hell am I supposed to pay the mortgages and reduce debt levels???
I may be good with money – but I am not that good!
I will be writing another blog about this, and what the Savings Working Group actually said in full, because from the skim read I have had – there are some really good ideas in there. Just some truly barmy ones as well, and an arrogant insistance that I MUST have a Kiwisaver account.
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The Virtual Coin Jar.
Filed under: Banks, General Budgeting, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ
I always wanted one of those oversized whisky bottles to put spare change in. I just never had one – consequently never really bothered to save change to be honest. When we first came here – we did have a Piggy Bank – actually it was a Chocolate fund cat. There wasn’t a Coffee fund cat available, so we made do.
But now ASB have decided that we probably aren’t saving our pennies any more – probably on account of we don’t use cash these days. So they have come up with a “Virtual” piggy bank for your loose change. called “Save the change”.
The idea is actually simple:
- Tell them to round up payments on your account to the next $1, $2, $5 or $10
- Tell them whether you want this on just your Eftpos Transaction, or all items, like Direct Debits, standing orders etc,
- Tell them which saving accounts you want it to go to,
- Then they “sweep” the extra “change” into that account each night.
Bit snazzy really.
And they aren’t even going to charge you to set the system up or make any changes to it – which is a minor miracle in itself.
Now when I first looked at this, you didn’t seem to be able to set this up from an Orbit account which is what I have. And that’s a good thing, so I was a bit chuffed at the bank for being sensible. Turns out you can, so I am explicitly state where you need to be very careful here:
If you have an Orbit account – which is a Revolving Credit account – or overdraft – you really do not want to be moving money to a saving account. You need as much money as you can sitting in the Orbit account.
This is because Orbit currently charges you 6.25% and Fastsaver only pays you 3.65%. So ever dollar you have in Fastsaver, rather than in Orbit is costing you still costing you 2.4%. (actually its more than that, because the 3.65% you are earning is taxed.)
So this system only works if you are in credit on your Orbit account (and Im guessing that the majority of people are not) – otherwise stay well away! And smack on the hand for ASB because they are being a bit naughty here.
Of course – this all begs the question: how much did ASB pay to get all this set up, and as they aren’t charging any fees to setup or run this – why the hell do they still charge me fees to run my bank accounts?????
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NZ interests rate holds at 3%
Filed under: Cost of living, Economics, General Budgeting, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ
Alan Bollard (bless his little cotton socks), has held the official cash rate at 3% this morning. There are reasons for this – which basically comes down to we aren’t spending enough, so he has to keep it low. If we were spending he’s have to put it up to stop us.
Well, I’m doing my bit right now to ensure it doesn’t go up!
Overall, continued economic growth was expected to gradually absorb current surplus capacity over the next few years, Dr Bollard said.
Headline inflation was expected to move higher following the recent increase in the rate of GST.
The subdued state of domestic demand suggested this inflation spike would have limited impact on medium-term inflation expectations.
Translated as:
I can hear you talking but all I hear is “Blah Blah Blah”
If this is going to affect mortgage rates, we wont see it for a day or so, but I happened to be checking last week, and compared to a year ago, ASB’s rates are down quite nicely for longer term loans, but up for floating or short term loans. Still way too sodding expensive in my opinion – but ho hum.
As at 05:14:15 p.m., Sunday 20 December 2009
Housing Variable 5.75 % p.a.
Housing Fixed (6 Month) 6.00 % p.a.
Housing Fixed (12 Month) 6.25 % p.a.
Housing Fixed (18 Month) 6.75 % p.a.
Housing Fixed (24 Month) 7.25 % p.a.
Housing Fixed (36 Month) 8.00 % p.a.
Housing Fixed (48 Month) 8.50 % p.a.
Housing Fixed (60 Month) 8.75 % p.a.
ORBIT Home Loan 5.75 % p.a.
As at 09:27:19 a.m., Tuesday 19 October 2010
Housing Variable 6.25 % p.a.
Housing Fixed (6 Month) 6.35 % p.a.
Housing Fixed (12 Month) 6.45 % p.a.
Housing Fixed (18 Month) 6.60 % p.a.
Housing Fixed (24 Month) 6.70 % p.a.
Housing Fixed (36 Month) 7.10 % p.a.
Housing Fixed (48 Month) 7.45 % p.a.
Housing Fixed (60 Month) 7.75 % p.a.
ORBIT Home Loan 6.25 % p.a.
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