Australia’s New ATM Direct Charges

The banking and finance industry together with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has developed how the new ATM direct charges work with aims to provide better transparency and choice to cardholders.

Cardholders will now be shown the ATM owner fee prior to making a transaction at a foreign ATM or a “non-customer” ATM. You will have the option to either accept the fee or reject and cancel the transaction. This will be effective as of March 3, 2009.

A foreign ATM is a any ATM that doesn’t belong to a financial institution. These types of ATMs are usually found in convenience stores, pubs and other random places. Majority of these foreign ATMs are owned by Customers Limited.

A “non-customer” ATM is an ATM that belongs to a financial institution that you are not a cardholder with (i.e. Commonwealth Bank customer withdrawing from a St George ATM).

You may also be charged for a disloyalty fee by your financial institution if you withdraw from a different ATM. Basically, you may be charged two kinds of fees: direct charge and disloyalty fee.

Below are some breakdowns of 4 major banks and their ATM charges.

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Australian Tax Bonus: Beware of email scams

We’re expecting tax bonus payments from the government around early April so beware of email scams that will most likely be sent out as we approach closer to the payment date.

Please remember that the Australian Tax Office (ATO) will never send out emails asking for personal details such as credit card and bank details. You also won’t be charged a fee to receive the payment and if you didn’t know, the bonus payments are tax free. If you do receive an email pretending to be from the ATO, delete it immediately. The ATO has released an official statement on this.

You can read on the details of the tax bonus / stimulus package in my other post.

Nokia E71 WLAN / Wifi Connection Problem

I’ve recently signed up with Vodafone on the $49 cap to get my free Nokia E71. Took some photos of it but unfortunately it’s on my cousin’s camera and he’s in Adelaide right now. Will blog about it once  I can get a hand on the photos.

So it’s been like 3 days since I’ve gotten the phone and I had some trouble connecting my phone to my home wireless network. Everytime I tried to connect, I kept getting this error message,

WLAN: Unable to connect.

WLAN Network Not Found.

It friggin’ took me 3 days to figure this one out. Was driving me insane.

So here’s a few tips on how to troubleshoot your wlan problem. Continue reading »

Australia’s Economic Stimulus Package – Tax Bonus Payment

The Rudd government signed off on a $42 billion dollar stimulus package in February 2009 with hopes of reviving and encouraging long term economic growth in Australia.

In the wake of a global recession, Australian tax payers will be getting a tax bonus payment from the government to help struggling low to middle income earners as well as encourage spending to get the economy flowing again. It is no surprise that everyone has decreased if not stopped spending with massive retrenchments happening globally and nationwide. Job uncertainty is definitely in the fore front of our minds.

New businesses are slow to come by and even managers have strict budgets to follow and are reluctant on committing to long term spending. This downward spiral is expected to continue throughout 2009 and many fear the worst is yet to come.

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Google Analytics Qualified Individual Qualification

Google has finally made available individual qualifications for Google Analytics called well, Google Analytics Individual Qualification. This is great because before, there were only qualifications for companies called Google Analytics Authorised Consultants (GAAC).

All you have to do is pay USD$50 to sit for the IQ test and you’ll need a passing mark of at least 75%. Once you’ve passed, you’ll be registered as  Google Analytics qualified and this qualification lasts for 18 months.

If you fail, you’ll be able to re-take the test (max twice within 30 days).

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