ANZ and Westpac in firing line over advice

ANZ and Westpac in firing line over advice

ANZ and Westpac are the latest banks to be caught up in financial advice troubles. ANZ announced last month that it will pay $30 million in compensation to around 8500 clients.

The bank failed to provide these customers with a documented annual review that they were meant to receive as part of the Prime Access wealth package. Reviews weren't carried out from 2003 to 2013.

ANZ is working with ASIC to finalise the refund methodology and has said it has put in place a range of measures to ensure this issue does not happen again.

Westpac is being sued by a Queensland businessman for misleading and deceptive conduct and was ordered to pay another client nearly $1 million for poor advice after losing an appeal.

Kogan hands out points

You can now earn Qantas frequent flyer points when you shop at Kogan.com. You'll get two points per dollar spent at Kogan.com through the "online mall".

You can earn an extra one point per dollar spent if you enter your membership number on your Kogan.com account before you make a purchase through the online mall.You won't earn points on returned items, taxes, delivery fees or other charges and the points will be credited to your account up to eight weeks after delivery.

If you're not already a Qantas frequent flyer member you can join through kogan.com and the usual joining fee will be waived.

Win for consumers

In the April issue of Money magazine ("Stop those pesky calls", page 37) we reminded readers that if they wanted to stop unsolicited marketing calls they should make sure they add their number to the Do Not Call Register.

But until now you needed to re-register every eight years. In what has been described as a win for consumers, registrations are now indefinite.

"The previous legislation required consumers to re-register a phone number every eight years. Removing this requirement will save on regulation costs," says Teresa Corbin, CEO of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.

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