I’m two months behind on rent. I want to preface this by saying I have a credit score of 889, which my bank tells me is excellent, I have never been in debt or taken out a loan in my life, my previous job I held for almost 4 years straight working part time but although I have a new job, it’s only been a few weeks there. I’m behind on rent because my shithole ex-boss cut back 50% percent of the staff with zero warning or severance pay (I understand now I could’ve gone to fair work, but it’s way too late for me to now). I am also studying part time, I’m 19. My landlord has been incredibly generous in giving me time to pay rent, but with bills and having to feed myself off of my little savings I had and the $87 per week I get from babysitting, I haven’t been able to make what I owe him up. I cannot move out, I will be homeless. It is both unsafe and unreasonable for me to live at home, and I have no family members or friends that are either willing or able to front me the money and I pay them back. I also have no friends that are in a situation to let me stay at their place, and no family who would let me or I would be safe living with. At my new job I am earning 400 a week , and have sent proof to every bank I’ve applied for, and with only a 2400 loan at a repayment rate of 2 years that’s like nothing to me per week. AND YET NO ONE WILL ACCEPT ME!!! I also tried to open a credit card and got denied that too. Please please is there any lender that would loan me the money?? I don’t even care about interest rates or anything I will figure that out but NO ONE will lend me ANYTHING.

Financial Free-Talk

-=-=-=-=-

Welcome to the /r/AusFinance weekly "Financial Free-Talk" Mega Thread!

This is the thread where members should bring their general Aus Finance questions.

Click here to see previous weekly threads: https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/search/?q=%22weekly%20financial%20free%20talk%22&restrict_sr=1&sort=new

What happens here?

The goal is to have a safe space for some of the most common posts, while supporting more original and interesting content in their own posts. Single posts with commonly asked questions may be removed and directed to this thread.

AusFinance is designed to help people of all abilities, at all stages in your financial journey. We want to democratise personal financial knowledge.

The collective experience of the AusFinance community is one of the most powerful ways to help Aussies improve their financial abilities. Whether you are just starting out, or already have advanced knowledge, there's always something new to learn.

Let us know what you need help with!

• What to look for in an apartment/house/land
• How to get a mortgage/offset/savings account
• Saving/Investing for kids
• Stock Broker questions
• Interest rates: Fixed/Variable
• or whatever!

Reminder: The Sub rules are still in effect

Please note rules 5 & 6 especially:

• Rule 5: No personal or legal advice.
• Rule 6: No politicising.

Thank you for being part of the AusFinance community!

-=-=-=-=-

Hi all,

Looking for advice about WA transfer duty. I'm a PR holder married to Australian citizen. My wife has a mortgage on a house she originally bought as a primary residence but is currently renting as an investment property. We are considering using my savings to pay off a large proportion of the principal ( which will almost leave the property mortgage free). Will the total cost of the transfer duty that has to be paid be calculated on the original cost or on the current market value? As I'm taking joint ownership of it will I only pay transfer duty on 50% of the calculated value?

Hello,

I’m in the Sydney City Council area and I’m trying to assist an elderly neighbour to connect with local support & face-to-face services to sure up her financial situation.

Specifically, she needs education on financial security basics (PIN, Card No. CVC secrecy etc) going forward and support dealing with online banking and, very likely, an application to Westpac for compensation. They haven’t flagged any dodgy transactions not made by her.

I also wish to connect her to somewhere local, who can help her with some education relating to phone usage (YouTube, Netflix etc) and to assist her in contacting her ISP to stop basic spam calls and how to deal with scammers in general.

I found the website below and printed the most poignant information specific to her situation, for her to read: https://beconnected.esafety.gov.au/ But their contact email & phone for local assistance in our area only led me to a random radio station (2RPH) that I’ve never heard of?

I’m hoping someone here can help me place her in safe hands as I don’t wish to be considered her executor or anything. We’re in central Sydney but I’m happy to drive her anywhere that can offer her a safe space for learning and, ideally, some behavioural change on her part.

Thanking you in advance!

I just logged onto my NRMA Insurance portal tonight and noticed that NRMA are ditching their No Claim Bonus scheme.

Has anyone heard any news about what benefits they're replacing it with?
Seems like an odd business move to annoy long-term, low risk clients without an attractive alternative.

Source: No Claim Bonus | NRMA Insurance

Changes to our No Claim Bonus

Our No Claim Bonus is being discontinued, and will no longer apply to policies with a renewal effective date on or after 1 July 2024, or new policies with a commencement date on or after 21 April 2024.

The No Claim Bonus has never applied to any policies purchased in SA, WA and the NT.

Instead, you may be eligible for our new customer discounts. 

See our Premium, Excess and Discounts Guides.

and

source: What's changing at NRMA Insurance

If your policy is due to renew on or after 1 July 2024, the renewal documents you receive will tell you about some important changes to your NRMA Insurance policies.

These changes will apply to any policies renewed from 1 July 2024 in NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT. They also apply to new policies purchased from 21 April 2024.

To see how your cover might have changed, choose your insurance below.

<What's changing at NRMA Insurance>

Just got quoted 55k for an awd rav4 and 50k for a corolla cross hybrid.. these were 30-40k at most pre-covid. How could one justify? Will waiting out only delay the inevitable? I’ve looked for used but they are actually around the same price because there are still supply issues and long waitlists.

Hi all

I’m a 23 YO in Syd living with parents but am pretty unhappy with lack of independence and being far away from my hobbies and work (in person 3 times a week).

I earn $83k and am expecting an increase to at least $90k in August (am hoping $95k+)

I save at least 60% of my salary as I am in a privileged position to have negligible financial commitments. I currently have $55k in HISA after 15 months or so of work.

Debt is around $50k HECS.

My ideal living situation is a 1br in the inner west. I’m unsure if I want to rent and if that’s the smartest option in my position. My longer term goal would be to buy around the $500-600k mark, but I’m not sure when/if this will be possible.

What would you do in my position?

My rationale is mainly based on livelihood but I want to make sure I’m not doing anything financially irresponsible.

Hi All,

Long story short, first child on the way. We're weighing up selling our IP to make life more comfortable, kids ain't cheap, I'm sure.

Current PPOR is owing 350K (3bdr in west melbourne new estate)

and rental 3bdr (also in west melbourne owes 250K) bought for 295K back in 2016 for house and land.

Do I; Sell rental which is worth give or take $550k (minus about 55k in CGT + Estate fees etc) and walk away with about 220K? This will make current loan about 150ish... meaning it can be paid off before we're 39.

OR do we hold, prices will go up...right? And just deal with it. NOTE: The rental isn't a burden in terms of cost. I'm only out of pocket about $100 a week.

Live comfortable or hold and be better off in the long term?

Wife and I both work full time, earning combined 170K, she will be on MAT leave come xmas time.. she also is lucky enough to work somewhere where they offer half pay MAT leave, essentially a year off at minimum wage will help.

EDIT: We have $75,000 in the PPOR offset, which is all our savings.

Hey guys I was having a quick look at the share prices back in 2020 march not realising how big the crash was for some companies, as I hadn’t gotten into investing yet. But I was wondering what everyone’s best buy was back then.

Just got of the phone with ING. Asked to increase my CC limit as I am anticipating a large purchase.

They told me that due to royal commission and responsible lending laws they can no longer increase limits.

Only way is to cancel the card and apply for a new one.

Is this for real?

If I have to go through all this, I might just look at swapping for a competitor. Or just apply for another card and then ditch it after the purchase is made and paid off.

Got overcharged by a car rental company in Australia. The local branch manager refused to accept that he was in the wrong and the call centre was no help.

I explained the situation to my bank and asked them to reverse the overpayment ($100). My bank ended up reversing the entire payment ($500).

The car rental company didn’t challenge to chargeback, so the full $500 was refunded into my bank.

Fast forward 6 weeks and the rental company has sent me an email chasing the full $500.

Do I ignore their emails? Do I offer to pay the correct amount ($400) if they agree to to stop chasing me for the $500? If I ignore them, will they eventually get bored of chasing me and give up? Or would they get a debt collector involved?!

Hi all, I recently made a post about novated lease vs a car loan and realised I do not know much about finance at all. Are there any essential information I should know? Any advice? Anything welcome. Is there certain things I should be doing/not doing.

For more info, I am a 22 year old. I live out of home, I work full time as a nurse. My credit score is excellent. I have 2 credit cards - 1 with a $1000 limit that I only spend $200 max a month for essentials such as car insurance and phone bill, and pay back full each statement, and a latitude go for my white goods interest free which I pay back almost double the minimum payment. Besides my credit cards, I have no debts. No buy now, pay laters. I contribute almost $1000 into my savings fortnightly.

My mother has gotten an email about moving to a retirement income account. Currently she's paying 15% earnings tax on her super fund and she's now past 60 and retired. The Super Fund has sent an email telling her that she can move to a retirement income account and pay 0%. There is a minimum regular amount that you need to outflow, apparently.

1. Is there any reason not to do this?
2. How does one find out the minimum regular payment amount? She'd probably do the absolute minimum.

Not that I am in this situation at all, but I’ve been looking at term deposits and the rates all say for up to $2 million. Anything over you need the contact the bank. What kind of rates are those people getting???

If you were absolutely desperate and in a small town.

As the total says. What would be considered the average cost for a financial advisor?

I use MYOB for a small accommodation business (record income and expenses). Got it as part of the digital adaptation program for free, but have been paying $31 / month for a heap of features that I don't use (payroll, etc).

I found a much cheaper piece of software (Easy Business App) that does exactly what I need it to do.

I've got 3 years worth of expense receipts which I'd like to migrate to the new platform, but I can't find any simple way of doing this. Have tried searching for methods, but haven't come up with anything.

Only way I can see is to manually download each invoice and upload to the new mob.

Anyone have any bright ideas? I hate being locked into these providers.

I feel like dealerships rip you off so I would like to get some recommendations on how I could sell my car? Is gumtree or carsales.com.au any good? My car is only 2 years old

Hey everyone, I'm exploring an idea for an app that lets you pay with close to zero transaction fees for merchants or customers. Wanted to find out if this would bring any value to people before trying to build it!

How it could work: -You add money to the app wallet through Bank Transfer or PayID (These payment modes have little to no transaction fees)

-An equivalent amount of tokens is added to your wallet/card (eg: $50 = 50 tokens)

-You go to a shop, restaurant, salon, barber, any retailer (Assuming all retailers have been onboarded to this app as merchants)

-You pay with your tokens either with tap i.e NFC or with QR code (eg: your bill is $12 and you are charged 12 tokens)

-The tokens are sent to merchants account (No transaction fees as real money isn't being transferred at this stage)

-The merchant chooses to cash out at the end of the working day and gets paid via bank transfer or payID from the app

-If you have unused tokens in your wallet/card you can cash out for real money as well (Any money you add to wallet doesn't get stuck there)

Proposed transaction fee: If your bill is below $7 then fee is 0.3% If your bill is $7 and above then flat fee of $0.02

Notes:

Getting all retailers onboard is ambitious to say the least, so what incentive do retailers have to want to be a part of this? If they're currently not surcharging customers, then they save a LOT of money on card fees by using this app. If they're already surcharging customers, then they get to offer their products at marginally lower prices by using this app

Trust is a major factor when dealing with finances, especially when holding customers money with just a promise that their money wouldn't vanish overnight. Plus fraud prevention and customer support is a must.

Customers save money. I read somewhere that Aussies spend about $200 a year on card surcharges. And that transaction fees act as inflation multipliers

Open to suggestions, inputs, advice or even mild roasts of any kind. My aim is to try and help as much as I can at at time where every cent counts

I am looking into buying a new car. My employer offers salary packaging where I can novated lease a car. When doing an estimate, over 5 years, before tax, it’s $400 a fortnight. A car loan for the exact same car is $200 a fortnight, for 7 years.

What are some pros and cons for both? Which is preferred? Any advice or comments are appreciated :)

Hi all, keen to hear what people's thoughts are on two possible approaches to buying our first home.

About us

• Early 30s couple, currently renting in inner suburbs, planning to start a family within the next two years.
• Looking to buy in Melbourne, ideally around the Caulfield area but flexible.
• Financials:
  • $400K deposit
  • $200K combined annual income, stable with potential for growth.
  • We are fairly frugal and prefer not to stretch ourselves financially.

Long-term goal: Own a 3-bedroom house with a backyard. Can be small, but proximity to public transport and shops is crucial.

Current Consideration:
We're currently weighing two options:

1. Option 1: Purchase a 3-bedroom house or townhouse/unit now, with a budget up to $1M.
2. Option 2: Buy a 2-3 bedroom apartment for around $650K, live in it for the next five years, then leverage the equity to upgrade to our ideal home. We would rent out the apartment thereafter.

Pros of Option 2:

• Lower interest payments initially, beneficial while rates are high.
• Eligibility for first home buyer incentives.
• Live in a better location for the 1-2 years before we have kids
• Potential to purchase a better property in five years.
• Opportunity for negative gearing.
• Better clarity on long-term needs once our family situation evolves.

Cons/Risks of Option 2:

• Risk of being priced out of the market for our ideal home.
• Challenges of moving with small children.
• Possibility of living in a cramped space with young children.
• Risk of apartment value decline and rental market fluctuations.

We're particularly interested in hearing about experiences with either approach, especially in terms of financial implications and lifestyle impacts. Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated!

Im trying to cut my lossess with the stupid global environmental opportunities but only to find out that my lovely lovely superannuation is carked it. Does anyone know how this can be done?
They sent an email saying members online can do it, but seems BS because I just get a "we are working on this page". I wonder if there will be a class action.

Hey all,

I currently have a variable rate, unsecured personal loan with ANZ and i'd like to get a better interest rate. What's the process for refinancing this loan with a different lender? TIA :)

My parent's are retired and are not eligible for the aged pension (asset test). This got me thinking - rather than me investing my money in my own name and paying tax at my marginal tax rate, couldn't i just send my funds to my parent's super accounts and let it grow tax free there?

Obviously this is only feasible if you have a good relationship with your parents and you can segregate your funds properly, but would this be a legitimate strategy to pay less tax?

Edit: I am only talking about non-concessional contributions. I would still max out the concessional amounts each year.

Simple question. I've paid for parts of this business trip now in 2023-2024. But the trip itself isn't until August, so 2024-2025, and I'll incur further expenses then (like hotel, meals) I'll want to deduct. Do I split it and claim the bits I paid for now on this year's tax and the rest next year? Or do I package it all next year when the actual trip takes place?

Appreciate any insight. Thanks.

Pretty much as the heading says but hoping to see if there's anything we've not considered. We're coming in to a little money, 13k, & aren't sure whether it's better to put it in our mortgage offset account where our interest rate is currently 6.09%, or on my HELP debt which is currently about 7.5k but will be about 80k by the time I finish studying. Indexation on HELP is predicted to be 4.7% this year & they're saying it'll go up more in years to come. I'm studying & won't have an income for about 7 more years, (while adding to the debt too) so we rely on my partners income. At first glance it seems like it would be better to have it in our offset account as an "in case", plus saving money on the mortgage interest but is there anything other than those raw figures we haven't considered?

Thanks!!

I will be moving to Australia next year following my husband’s company assignment. But my husband has a bit of room to decide which city in Australia.

I have to resign from my current job and look for a new job after the move. My background is from consulting followed by tech industry (management position not engineer). Given my background, which city would have wide range of opportunity options?

I’ve been trying to talk with recruiters to get insights but they only want to speak with me when I’m already there.

I’m also looking for a balance view between career opportunities and cost of living if possible. For example I assume Sydney would have many job opportunities but the cost of living is also very high, I don’t know whether the job opportunities worth the cost of living?