Loans | Finance | Mortgages

Archive for January, 2011

No one likes to see victims of any scam but it pulls at anyone’s heartstrings when those victims are elderly. We like to think that our justice system would provide protection when required sadly in the case of the Bartle Family and probably hundreds more people to come this would seem not to be the case.

Try as I might I find it difficult to take an objective view in this case you may or may not of heard about the Blue Chip Scam. Following are the videos and links to the Supreme Court transcripts of the appeal against the Judgment of The High Court.

Summary and points I find concerning are.

If what the Bartle’s say are accurate then when you sign a contract and have alterations made without your knowledge or you agreeing to them or even providing proof you’ve been shown them that the court will upheld these alterations as legal.

That Finance companies have a way out of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act by using an intermediary as is clearly the case in The Bartle vs Ge money (Ge Custodians) case. The onus for the Credit provider is to ensure that the borrower will not be put into an oppressive loan situation which is what formed the basis for the legal arguments in Bartle vs Ge money.

I am however curious that they didn’t seek clarification under the disclosure requirements in the CCCF act and why this wasn’t argued in court after all the CCCF act has strong emphasis on the lender providing total disclosure, what the total amount of the loan is, what the total Interest payments will be, what are the default charges. The total term of the loan.

In the following videos the Bartle’s state they didn’t agree to the total amount of the loan that they were told and given documents showing otherwise and that these were then changed. If this is indeed the case they were not provided disclosure and the courts can re open the contracts.

One of the most disturbing things I found reading through the transcript of the appeal was the acceptance of the fact that the lawyer who provided advice to the Barlte’s and was acting for the Blue Chip company and despite this being the case Ge Money (Ge Custodians) lawyer was able to successfully argue that the Barlte’s in their opinion at the time of the application must of received sound legal advice. Incredibly the supreme court judges agreed with this stance…

In my opinion this is a serious miscarriage of justice surely this lawyer must of had a conflict of interest he was after all acting as an agent for the Blue Chip company.

There was no denial from Ge that they were not aware of this in fact they admitted to not only knowing it in the Barlte’s case but in a large number of similar loan applications. The glossing over of the changes to their contracts and disclosure documents is also highly disturbing.

I have posted the videos of the Barlte’s and also the email contact details below the videos if you wish to help. If enough people get behind the Barlte’s and the cost of recovering the loans is less than the loss of business and bad press then perhaps there may be a happy out come for the Barlte’s family after all.

Perhaps there is something as New Zealanders we can do start boycotts on companies that use GE Money as their Finance companies. Let the public be fully aware of the circumstances and what Ge Money is now doing to elderly victims of Fraud!

Petition the Governor General for an inquiry or the Prime Minister for a Royal Commission Inquiry. I have had some misgivings about Ge Role in the New Zealand finance industry for a long time now and why they seem to get an unfair advantage over other finance companies which to appears to be anti competition. I’d like there to be some transparency why is Ge Money a Finance company providing loans to Kiwibank customers. When Kiwibank is a New Zealand owned bank

Stop using Kiwibank until Ge money sees these people right. Anyway watch these videos go to youtube and comment, send support to the Bartle’s, ring companies using Ge Money and tell them about the Bartle’s situation.

Your Credit Report- Why You really Need To Obtain It

Many New Zealanders aren’t aware they are entitled to get their credit report free of charge with in ten working days. In fact a large majority have never seen their credit report at all.

Under the Credit Reporting Privacy Code you have the right to request any information from a credit reporter for no charge unless you requested it be provided to you within a period of five working days. If that is the case they can charge a reasonable fee. Obtaining your Credit Report is a relatively easy to do exercise, you can in-fact download the form online and send it in via mail. Credit report providers under law must take steps to ensure your identity is who you say you are before providing the report but this can be as simple as faxing in a copy of your drivers license or passport and answering a few questions over the phone.

Even your local bank or credit union must disclose any information they hold about your credit record if you request it. In New Zealand there are also two companies you can contact to obtain your copy of your report, Baycorp and EC Group.

Why obtaining your report is vitally important not only may you discover incorrect details and request these be fixed. You may have some adverse history your not aware of that causes credit providers to view you as a higher risk and charge you higher Interest rates than they would others.

It also important to note that identity theft is a commonplace occurrence these days and the only way you may get advance warning of someone using your details to gain or attempt to gain credit is via your report.

Once you have your report you can see any queries raised and collate these with your own financial records to see if you actually did request the credit or not. Taking this precautionary step is a far better option than finding out someone else has opened a line or several lines of credit under your name and your now stuck with the payments and a damaged credit rating.

If any organization refuses to provide you with your credit records you can seek enforcement and even prosecution the first step would be to visit the Privacy Commissioners website for more details.

Student Loan debt consolidation might help applicants alter their Credit card debt problem. This type of loan is able to combine the characteristics involving student loans and in addition to consolidate Personal financial loans. By getting a consolidating debts loan most financial obligations accrued tend to be combined, soon after approval they are cleared by using a single loan. The Interest amount and means of payment are usually based on loan rates for student education loans.

You will be provided with decreased month-to-month payments. Because almost everything is really attached into one particular transaction, the amount that you really need to pay monthly might be quite a bit more affordable. Your personal interest charges rate are often lowered too. This is especially true on high charge credit bank cards. Probably the greatest advantages is in fact that you may not have to deal with loan providers anymore.

It’s critical to realise the fact that your debt is nonetheless your debt. It hasn’t decreased and it has not gone away from you. You nevertheless have got to end up paying it off. It might take longer to pay off the financial debt. Due to the fact you have got a lower per month payment, you tend to be very likely to pay longer to get the loan down. You actually will pay out much more in the long haul. Financing expenses and interest rates add up and they lengthen out the amount that you owe for a longer period of time.

You will at times require to secure your financial loan via property and assets.

Working out a financial budget is one area that too many individuals experience difficulty with. The fact is that many people,  are just not knowledgeable enough in relation to obtaining help with debt simply by possessing the capability to correctly manage a nicely balanced spending plan. Using a stringent spending budget every month or week, however a person may wish to do it, is without a  doubt an effective way for any person to make positive changes to their particular financial debt situation.

Fortunately for those of us living in New Zealand their is a huge range of services to help us in preparing or getting advice on how to set up a budget. An easy way to go about finding them is to just use Google Search and type in a term like New Zealand Budget advise.

Non profit organizations like communities centers, citizens advice bureau and many more can also give you some handy tips on where to go to get free budgeting advice. Websites like Get Sorted have a lot of free to use tools that are also come in handy if you want to prepare your own.

At Nzpcs we have are putting together a database of services and articles to provide resources for those wishing to reduce or eliminate debt so check back often.

Presently there happen to be a number of conditions, which unfortunately Credit card providers don’t want their customers to be aware of. Their approach is without a doubt due to the fact, in the event that the general public come to understand these facts, it could very well end up being adverse to their bottom line or lowering their profit margins. Nevertheless, it is actually the right of their clients to be aware of these conditions of being a lender and how they affect the consumer. The conditions can affect different components of credit card debt and I will explain the basics in laymen’s terms below.

Generally there tend to be a number of expenses and also concealed charges included within credit card utilization. Most of these charges are usually regarding insurance coverage and additional items, which usually the customers do not necessarily use however they fork out for those elements. The general public does not necessarily fully understand precisely how to claim this insurance coverage whenever any kind of misfortune comes about and the organizations usually wont assist the customers of their own accord. The New Zealand Government brought out a new act in 2003 The Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003, which tell credit providers in pretty strong language that causing unnecessary hardship to consumers wont be tolerated. The Act also provides for full disclosure of all items contained in a contract.

In New Zealand you can apply to the courts to have charges refunded or the contract re opened if these charges weren’t disclosed during the application or within five working days. Protection is provided for Credit Card Contracts under the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCF)

As a consumer, it is time that you know your rights and make proper use of those rights to avoid debt problems and if you are already in problem, know your rights and go for settlement with the creditor.

On the 15th of September 2009 Kiwibank and Ge Finance & Insurance (Ge Money) partnership in providing personal loans began. I had some major reservations when I heard this and I’d like to hear from others about your views on this “partnership”.

Our Reputation Being Tarnished by having a State Owned Bank involved with GE.

When Kiwibank was first launched I thought what a great idea finally a New Zealand owned bank where the profits would be spent here in New Zealand on New Zealanders and not sent overseas to fill the usual suspects treasure chests.

One of the first things I thought about when I heard about this alliance was the effect on New Zealand reputation one of our core industries and prime assets is our Country side and how it brings in a lot of tourism dollars. Ge Money is a subsidiary of General Electric a company which has a shocking record of pollution and involvement in fraud and charges of corruption they have in fact been fined 100s of millions of dollars for doing so.

GE has a history of some of its activities giving rise to large-scale air and water pollution. Based on year 2000 data, researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute listed the corporation as the fourth-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, with more than 4.4 million pounds per year (2,000 Tonnes) of toxic chemicals released into the air. GE has also been implicated in the creation of toxic waste. According to EPA documents, only the United States Government, Honeywell, and Chevron Corporation are responsible for producing more Superfund toxic waste sites.

The Loss of Revenue to Kiwibank and its customers, Nz Tax payers and Residents.

General Electric has a record of doing what makes it the most profit not what is morally responsible I very much doubt that the profits they are making apart from some token charities are re invested back into New Zealand for the benefit of all. Why Kiwibank isn’t providing its own service where they keep 100% of the profits is beyond me.

Also by aligning itself with a Bank New Zealanders trust Ge Money has managed what no other private Finance Company has managed to do – This in turn gives them an unfair advantage over other organizations in the Finance Sector and is also aids in creating a false impression to the public.

Credit unions aside it is a common belief between held a by a majority of people that banks provide lower Interest rates and charges than finance companies. While Kiwibank customers can get a lower rate than the standard Ge Money Customer a lot of people will be under the false impression that as Ge money is partnered with a bank their loan rates must be lower than other providers. The sad fact is Ge Money has outrageous loan fees and charges double what most Credit card companies charge for a personal unsecured loan.

The standard loan amount {their minimum they quote} of $3000 dollars comes with a $275 application fee which incurs interest from day one of the loan this adds a 10.9% to their rate of 34.5% bringing the total interest rate to 44.5% on day one of the loan. This rate isn’t easy to find on their website, I personally have had documentation from them stating their rates are 19.5 percent only to ring and be told otherwise. For most people finding out what the rate is doesn’t come till they are in the actual application process.

Going back to Kiwibank and Ge Money arrangement the percentage that Kiwibank makes for basically being a referral service to Ge money isn’t disclosed.

Lastly what are the effects on Finance companies that are New Zealand owned and do spend or distribute their profits inside this country how many of them are finding it harder to compete in the market place and why is exclusivity given to only Ge Money this is my major concern.

Once the deal was finalized between Kiwibank and Ge Money, Ge money shut down 19 of its offices nationwide effectively ending the employment of many of their staff.

The ASB bank has been accused of exploiting the infertile
in order to make money. Maja Whitaker, Mike King and Gareth
Jones look at the in vitro fertilisation loan issue.

If you were struggling to conceive a desperately wanted child
and needed money to Finance another cycle of in vitro
fertilisation (IVF), to whom would you turn? ASB bank would
like it to be them.

The bank’s “Creating Futures” marketing campaign includes
advertisements for its special IVF loans.

While it’s presented with the typical marketing warm fuzzies,
the advertisement has come under criticism as socially
inappropriate and exploitative.

The television advertisement “Chance” features an
attractively gloomy couple who are struggling to fall
pregnant.

They sell their much-loved classic car to finance one
unsuccessful round of IVF.

Unable to scrape together any more money, they turn to ASB
for a loan.

Once approved they undergo another round of IVF, and this
time are successful: she’s pregnant, and with triplets! The
advertisement ends with the couple and their bank manager,
each cuddling a healthy baby in their local ASB branch.

In response, the Advertising Standards Authority received a
substantial 39 complaints alleging the advertisement exploits
a vulnerable group for the purpose of making money; is
socially irresponsible; oversimplifies the IVF process,
creating unrealistic expectations of successful outcomes,
including multiple birth (which is considered bad clinical
practice); and promotes the accumulation of debt for
irresponsible purposes.

Some of these objections can be easily dismissed.

The advertisement showed IVF was not always successful (as in
the couple’s first round), and it clearly portrayed the
emotional distress that infertility and the process of IVF
generally causes.

Of course, the couple ultimately had a successful IVF outcome
– it is an advertisement after all.

It is exactly this fact that excuses ASB from many of the
accusations; it’s an advertisement, not a documentary.

We don’t expect advertisements for home appliances to show
them breaking down.

Some complainants suggested that ASB shouldn’t be offering
loans for IVF at all: if potential parents can’t afford IVF,
how are they going to afford a child? However, few couples
hoping to conceive could easily produce $10,000-$12,000 (the
cost of a round of IVF) on demand.

Are complainants seriously suggesting that couples without
this kind of financial liquidity ought not to have
children?But is this an irresponsible accumulation of debt?
As with any loan, ASB would consider the probability of the
couple being able to meet repayments.

Providing couples can meet these, what makes IVF any less
prudent than any other reason for a loan? It may be that a
loan for IVF only allows you another chance at pregnancy – it
doesn’t guarantee you a baby.

However, IVF loans aren’t unique in this.

You might get the loan for a holiday, and not achieve the
good time you hoped it would be – you might become ill, or it
might rain the whole time.

The loan finances a holiday, not a good time, and similarly
an IVF loan finances a round of IVF, not a child.

The person seeking the loan clearly believes the chance is
worth the expense; this may especially be so when trying to
conceive a child.

Perhaps this is the problem: since the desire for a child is
often so strong, the target market is vulnerable to
persuasion by advertisements such as these.

However, this persuasion is a problem only if it is followed
blindly.

After experiencing IVF a couple will have a realistic and
in-depth knowledge of what they are engaging in and it’s
demeaning to claim that they would blindly follow the
suggestions of this advertisement.

Also, the decision whether or not to undergo another cycle of
IVF is one that is made between a couple and their fertility
specialist and the Code of Health and Disability Consumers
Rights requires that consent to this be well thought through.

ASB has been accused of exploiting the infertile in order to
make money.

To exploit something is to use it for one’s own benefit, and
we do this every day to the people and institutions around
us.

Most of this exploitation is consensual and beneficial.

The ASB loans may be exploitative, but only in this harmless
sense: the bank uses my need for money to provide a loan,
benefiting from the Interest I pay.

But similarly, I use their need for customers to provide me
with the money I need at a competitive rate.

For a loan to be exploitative in a harmful sense, it must be
unfair.

Are the ASB loans unfair to people who need IVF? Perhaps they
would be if they were charging unreasonably higher interest
rates for IVF loans than for other personal loans, but the
interest rate is lower than normal (13.95% rather than the
usual rate of 17.95%).

Similarly, an IVF loan could be unfair if a couple doesn’t
have the capacity to make an informed decision, but this is
not the case here.

ASB is not responsible for a couple’s decision to undergo
IVF, and they’re not trying to convince anyone that they
should.

They are simply providing a financial service that enables
some couples who have decided they wish to undergo IVF to do
so.

Perhaps they didn’t need to actively market their IVF loans,
given that they also advertise through clinics.

However, “Chance” isn’t just about marketing loans for IVF;
the bank states that it’s part of a wider marketing campaign
to promote the bank’s image as supportive, giving us a shot
at achieving our dreams and ambitions.

The one objection levelled at “Chance” that to some degree
withstands scrutiny is the fact that the couple ends up with
triplets.

New Zealand fertility clinics use single-embryo transfers in
IVF, the gold standard for fertility practice nowadays.

Multiple births are riskier, the babies are more likely to be
premature and with worse health outcomes than singletons.

It is extremely unlikely that a couple who has experienced
IVF would believe this was likely.

The creators of the advertisement should have eschewed
advertising hyperbole so at odds with current clinical
practice.

Maja Whitaker, Mike King and Gareth Jones are all at the
Bioethics Centre, University of Otago.

TIM HUNTER

-

BusinessDesk

Likely losses for investors in a financial product called First Step have reached $182 million as bad debt writeoffs keep piling up.

First Step was the main product line for now-defunct financial advisory firm Money Managers, run by Doug Somers-Edgar. It was managed by a company he owned with NZ Funds Management principals Gerald Siddall and Russell Tills.

Since the funds were closed in late 2006 the more than 7000 investors in First Step and smaller related product First Up have received just over half – $232.5m – of the $457m owing to them at the time, but payments have slowed to a trickle over the last two years.

Accounts filed on December 23 show a further $16.1m was written off the value of First Step’s assets – mainly loans – in the year to June. As a result, investors are expected to recover just $38m from remaining loan assets of $220m.

Including First Up, expected losses total $191.8m.

First Step’s trustee Edward Russell of Calibre Asset Services, owned by interests associated with Siddall and Tills, declined to comment on the figures, saying he had written to investors about them on December 15.

First Step investor Brian Lister said he had received the letter but thought little of it. “We’ve mentally written off our remaining investment with First Step and anything we get back will be a pleasant surprise.

“They’ve made some estimates of future cashflows from each of the loans, but we still live in tough times economically, so whether that will again be written down in six to 12 months, who knows?

“They’re still talking millions [in asset value], but in terms of the amount of outstanding investments we’re talking hundreds of millions, so whatever we do get back will be pretty minimal.”

When Russell last wrote to investors in June he said a payment was likely by the end of 2010, but no payment eventuated.

Last month he wrote, “we and the asset managers are still confident of further capital repayments in the future … We and the asset managers remain very committed to obtaining the best value possible for the remaining assets, however long that takes.”

During the year to June, investors in two of First Step’s four funds – the Secured mortgage Trust and Traditional Finance Trust – received nothing. The two other funds – Escalator Trust and Premium Performance Trust – paid out $6.2m and $1.9m respectively, accounts show.

Sponsored links

Combined Building Society, which is to primarily operate the merged businesses of Canterbury Building Society (CBS), Southern Cross Building Society (SCBS) and Marac Finance, is now fully operational.

In an announcement today, merged group holding company Building Society Holdings (BSH) said all transfers were in place relating to the merger of CBS, SCBS and Marac.

Marac bonds, which were now bonds issued by Combined, were now quoted on the NZX debt market and able to be traded, BSH said.

The merger process was expected to be completed tomorrow, when shares in BSH were allotted. Formal listing of BSH and quotation of its shares was not expected until the end of the month.

Yesterday ratings agency Standard and Poor’s confirmed its ratings on CBS and SCBS.

SP also withdrew its “BB+/Stable/B” rating for CBS and “BB/Stable/B” for SCBS, at the societies’ request, in preparation for them to be folded into the $2.2 billion merged entity.

Also yesterday, participation in the Crown’s extended retail deposit guarantee scheme was approved for Combined Building Society.

The extended guarantee will cover $1.67b of retail funding — retail deposits at CBS and SCBS and stock and bonds at Marac — until the end of this year. It insures deposits and debt securities issued by up to $250,000 per retail depositor.

The ultimate intention of the merger parties is for Combined Building Society to become a registered bank, for which it will have to meet Reserve Bank registration requirements.

WELLINGTON/SYDNEY, Jan 6 (Reuters) – The Australian and
New Zealand dollar were sharply lower on Thursday as optimism
about the U.S. economy improved, boosting Treasury bond yields
and the U.S. currency.

* Dealers report widespread profit-taking on long
positions built up in commodities and commodity currencies,
which had been a favoured, and crowded, play in the final
weeks of 2010.

* The Aussie dollar sagged 0.6 percent to
$0.9997, having hit a low of $0.9960 overnight, well off a
28-year peak of $1.0325 set last week.

* Aussie seen likely testing support around $0.9950, the
low on Dec. 22 while resistance still seen at $1.0076, the
hourly high on Jan. 5.

* Worries about widespread floods in the state of
Queensland, which produces a third of Australia’s coal, the
nation’s top export, also weigh on the high yielding Aussie.

* The kiwi sheds about a third of a cent to
$0.7599 from late local trade on Wednesday, reaching a
one-week low of $0.7590 as profit taking from last week’s
hefty gains continue.

* A 7.1 percent surge in the latest dairy price auction on
Wednesday fails to prop up the kiwi, setting up a test of the
$0.7579 support — a 50 percent Fibonacci retracement from
$0.7343 on Dec 16. to $0.7815 on Dec. 31.

* Aussie firms against the kiwi , holding around
NZ$1.3166 from NZ$1.3057 late Wednesday

* Aussie also recovered on the yen, rising to 83.20 yen
from lows just under 82.00.

* In the broader markets, U.S. dollar jumps against the
yen and the euro as surprisingly strong data on private sector
jobs added to signs of an improving economy. [ID:nTOPMACRO]

* The stronger greenback added to pressure on commodity
prices, with copper and gold off for a second day. However,
crude oil bounced by a dollar and the CRB index firmed
0.45 percent.

* The brighter U.S. outlook lifts Treasuries yields and
Wall Street , with the 10-year yield up 14 bps at 3.47
percent.

* Australian bond futures lower with the three-year
contract down 0.04 points at 94.75 and the 10-year
contract falling 0.085 points to 94.375.

* Australian data on new home approvals are due later on
Thursday with analysts generally expecting a pullback in
November after a sharp jump in October. No major NZ data due
this week.

(Australia/New Zealand bureaux)