Are airlines allowed to charge surcharges for debit card payments? RNZ's money correspondent answers your questions. Photo: RNZ
Send your questions to susan.edmunds@rnz.co.nz
As we near retirement age, the ability to find quite substantial funds for rates and insurance is getting harder and harder. In the Selwyn District where we live, rates are forecast to increase by 45 percent over three years.
Recently we spoke to a retired farmer on a lifestyle bock, who - like many in the district - is in an asset-rich but cash-poor situation, where he said last year to get some trees topped, pay his insurance and pay his rates bills came to $27,000. He said they're looking to sell their lifestyle property and relocate, simply to be able to afford rates and insurance costs.
Likewise a friend living in Rolleston, who has just retired has said she is looking to relocate to a cheaper house, possibly outside the district, simply to be able to afford to live on her pension. Are increasingly unaffordable rate and insurance bills forcing the downgrading of Kiwis to houses in cheaper areas (possibly with a lower standard of living) and is this a reality for more and more of us of older years?
There are two parts to your question.
In terms of insurance, it has gotten a lot more expensive in recent years, but the increases appear to be flattening off now. The cost varies around the country, according to the risk in your area. I found last year that Wellington was about twice as expensive as Auckland.
You can sometimes save money on insurance by shopping around or having a higher excess on your policy.
In terms of rates, people who are having trouble paying can apply to councils for help - it's sometimes possible to postpone your rates so that they're paid when you sell your house, or apply for a rates rebate.
Kelvin Davidson, chief economist at Corelogic, said it was likely that people were already moving to cheaper areas because of the impact of things like rates.
"A fixed income gets very difficult if a significant part of your costs keeps going up. It's not hard to imagine more people having to unfortunately make this choice. But on the other hand, it's unlikely to be a mass migration of people shifting districts either."
I would also note that you might not always get the savings you hope for. If you moved to a cheaper house within your area you might save on rates but if you shift to a new council area, the picture might be different.
The Far North, for example, reportedly has a higher average rates bill than Napier, even though average house prices are lower and access to services is often not as good.
Photo: 123RF
When I book flights using my debit card I often see surcharges added on, which is not supposed to happen, only when using a credit card do you expect surcharges. This has been going on for some time, where do we go with this?
The Commerce Commission says surcharges should be no more than 0.7 percent for contactless debit cards.
You didn't mention which airline you were booking with, but I asked Air New Zealand for comment.
Chief financial officer Richard Thomson said the card payment fees collected reflected the cost to process the card payment. "All card payment fees collected by Air New Zealand are ultimately passed back to the bank. Air New Zealand charges card payment fees on a percentage basis.
The rate for a customer processing a payment with a credit card is 1.5 percent and a debit card is 1.1 percent. Customers can avoid paying these fees by using the online payment tool POLi, or Airpoints Dollars if booking direct."
How are people who have been made redundant in the past year going to end up in the multi-bracket tax wash? Discussions among those affected - and for those lucky enough to find jobs in this employment market - there is absolutely a sense of relief and gratitude, but also a sense of despair about prospectively having to foot a tax bill on top of other cost of living pressures.
While everyone's situation will differ, there are going to be public servants, for example, who through no fault of their own have been made redundant, have made best efforts to find a new job and have been lucky enough to secure some employment, only to face a tax bill for their troubles.
It seems manifestly unfair that payments designed to compensate for the loss of an ongoing job, will actually result in that payment being reduced further when a second round of tax is applied because it moves them from one tax bracket to the next for a period.
Robyn Walker, a tax partner at Deloitte, said whether redundancy could mean tax problems would depend on a range of factors, including the income you've been earning and any redundancy payouts received.
"Ultimately, receiving a lump sum in a year will result in a greater amount of total income for that year, which in turn could bump people (temporarily) up income tax brackets.
"The lump sum would be taxed as a extra pay, so it will be taxed at a flat rate. This is designed to try to minimise the likelihood of an underpayment. But the actual outcome for the year will depend on what the total income from all sources for the individual is. If someone wants to quickly figure out whether they have paid too much or too little tax, they can jump onto the Inland Revenue calculator."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
