In money news that affects your hip pocket this week.
From today, more than 500,000 ANZ customers with a Mastercard credit card will be able to wave their mobile phones to use Apply Pay.
Despite security concerns about storing your bank account details on mobile devices, ANZ said in a statement that “the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, nor on Apple servers. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the Secure Element of the device. Each transaction is authorised with a one-time unique dynamic security code.”
Hmm, seems like some data is stored on the device no matter how you state it. But this is of course the way paperless transactions are going.
On Thursday, a ban on excessive surcharging on credit cards will take effect on a range of goods and services.
Legislation was passed in February that prevents big businesses, an eventually smaller ones too, from charging excessive fees on cards. If they fail to comply they will most likely be fined.
You have probably noticed most of these charges when paying for flights with a credit card. One tip: pay direct debit with no fees!
Financial product comparison website finder.com.au estimates that two-thirds of mortgage holders in Australia are complacent when it comes to approaching their lender for a cheaper home loan.
The national survey of 2,033 participants found 65 per cent of Australian home loan customers have never asked for a better interest rate – but for those who did, received a better deal.
A small reduction in a home loan rate could result in thousands of dollars saved.
Based on the current average national home loan size of $360,100, a 0.10 per cent reduction from the average standard variable rate of 4.93 per cent to 4.83 per cent could save you approximately $262 per year or $7,870.79 over 30 years.
Sydney homeowners may well double their money, that’s if they haven’t already, according to research conducted by News Corp.
News.com.au reports that analysis of price data going back 36 years shows that the major capital cities have shown strong similarities in median house price growth and all have increased at least 1100 per cent since 1980.
Real Estate Institute of Australia figures show that anybody who bought in any capital city 20 years ago has doubled their money several times over.
Financy more on property prices
And AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver says the Aussie dollar could climb towards $US0.80 in the short-term, if the United States Federal Reserve delays a decision to raise interest rates. Currently the Aussie dollar is trading around $US0.75.
