Trending Financial News 26 July

Google owes you $1,000

Google must compensate all internet users $1000 for breaching their privacy and selling their information to advertisers says global cyber security firm Oracle.

Oracle has told the Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk that Google takes user information and data collected from Android phones, Google Chrome, YouTube and other services to sell in real time auctions to the highest bidder.

Low rates are here to stay says RBA

Australians should get used to low home loan and savings rates because they are here to stay – at least for the next few years, according to the governor of the Reserve Bank, Philip Lowe.

Markets are now pricing in a 90 per cent chance of the official Australian cash rate reaching 0.50 per cent within one year. My Lowe said Australians should “expect an extended period of low interest rates.”

“It is highly unlikely we will be contemplating higher interest rates until we are confident inflation will return to around the midpoint of the target range.” The RBA’s target for inflation is 2 – 3 per cent. Inflation is now sitting at 1.30 per cent.

Most Aussies retire with inadequate savings

The median superannuation balance for people aged 60-64 years retiring from the workforce is $154, 453 for men and $122,848 for women according to the Association of Superannuation Funds (ASFA). Retirees need $545,000 to fund a comfortable retirement lifestyle says ASFA.

Less than a quarter of retiring Aussies have enough savings to fund a comfortable lifestyle, which ASFA defines as being able to afford holidays, a reasonable car and private health insurance.

ANZ Bank faces court action over bank account transaction fees

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has commenced federal court action alleging ANZ Bank wrongly charged customers missed payment and bank account fees millions of times over the last 16 years.

ASIC says that ANZ charged customers late payment and missed payment fees of up to $45 on periodical payments between 2003 and 2016, even when the payments were made to accounts in the customer’s own name. ANZ’s terms and conditions state that the fees were payable only on payments made to the account of another person or business.

ANZ has been repaying the wrongly charged fees but ASIC now alleges that the bank was slow to inform customers about the issue and slow to start repaying customers. ASIC also alleges that ANZ kept charging the fees even though it knew or suspected they may not be lawful and has not made payments to customers who had been wrongly charged the fees between August 2003 to 31 December 2007.

Debt collector harassed people over fake debts

Debt collector, Panthera Finance, harassed consumers over debts they did not owe according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The ACCC has taken Panthera Finance to court, alleging the company repeatedly contacted consumers for payment, despite being advised that they were not liable for the debts. In two cases Panthera placed incorrect default listings on the consumers’ credit files says the ACCC who are seeking penalties and compliance orders.

Which big bank has the highest customer satisfaction rating?

Australian bank customers are starting to forgive the big four banks for the bad behaviour exposed by the Hayne Royal Commission into Financial Services in 2018.

Customer satisfaction ratings for the big banks has begun to recover after falling to its lowest level in February 2019, when the overall average satisfaction level was 6.9 (out of 10) for the big four, according to DBM Research.

Now big bank customer satisfaction is back to 7.1, still below the peak of satisfaction, 7.4 in January 2015.

Among the big banks, Westpac has the highest overall score of 7.4, followed by NAB (7.2), Commonwealth Bank (7.0) and ANZ (6.7).