Introduction

The name John Biggins may not sound familiar, but the banking industry has much to thank him for. Mr Biggins, a Brooklyn banker, was the brains behind the very first credit card in 1946. Known as the Charg-It card, it led to Diners Club membership cards and store cards, revolutionising the way everyday people shopped.

Australia began with store cards, Diners Club and American Express, but in 1974 when the Bankcard was launched, we really jumped on board.
Today we have almost 16 million credit cards in circulation, a fact that has caused successive governments to regulate, and further-regulate, their use.

The latest regulatory changes came in July 2018 when the federal government banned credit card providers from inviting customers to increase card credit limits. Designed to protect card users, additional rules came into force on 1 January 2019. Here’s a round-up of the main ones:

Introduction

Peer to Peer, or ‘P2P’, lending is a method of bringing borrowers and lenders together without a traditional financial institution to act as intermediary. This increasingly popular form of lending takes advantage of the internet to connect individuals who have money to lend with those who require funding for any reputable need.

It’s not an entirely new process. The first P2P lending portal was Zopa, founded in the UK in February 2005. In the past 10 years Zopa has processed loans worth more than three billion pounds. However, this figure pales in comparison to the two largest US services.

Introduction

Virtual currencies, or cyber currencies, are both a medium of exchange and a store of value, just like traditional money. However, unlike banknotes or coins cyber currencies exist only as digital data stored in computers.

Trading in virtual currencies requires membership in an online community connected by appropriate software, with the value usually being determined by a computer algorithm or simple supply and demand.

Virtual currencies are not considered legal tender in most countries, however some, including Australia, do allow purchases using this alternative money.

Introduction

We’ve all heard about the “lost billions” sitting in idle superannuation funds around Australia but are you aware of what’s happening to hundreds of millions of dollars sitting in “inactive” bank accounts? Read on, you may be very surprised.

Did you know that the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC) collects total balances from bank accounts that have remained untouched for seven years? It also collects money left in unclaimed investments and life insurance policies. 

There is $..... billion dollars waiting to be claimed, most of which has been transferred from bank accounts into the federal government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund. Some dormant bank accounts had balances of more than a million dollars! That news should be enough to prompt action!

Introduction

Credit cards are part of our everyday lives, but as much as these bits of plastic can make our lives easier, they can also cause a lot of grief, particularly when we’re travelling.

To ensure your holiday is memorable for the right reasons, review the following tips before you take off:

Introduction

We are constantly hearing reports about the rise of personal fraud in Australia, but have you ever looked at the figures? The federal government’s website dedicated to monitoring and reporting scams, Scamwatch, reports that  .......... Australians were scammed out of $.... million dollars in 2017!

........... thousand were victims of identity theft. These people had their personal details stolen which were then used to borrow money or incur debt in their names.

Avoiding identity theft not only causes financial loss, but can severely affect your credit rating into the future. Securing your identity is usually a matter of common sense but there are some other additional ideas that will help to keep your money safer: