Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i CHOICE

A first-of-its-kind review by the corporate watchdog ASIC has found four major banks systematically charged high fees to First Nations consumers who could least afford them. Customers will be refunded a total of $28 million after ANZ, CBA, Westpac, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank kept at least two million Australians in high-fee accounts. Many of those affected had low incomes or relied on Centrelink payments. ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland says the banks caused financial distress through avoidable high fees, complicated bank processes, and barriers for regional and remote consumers. “Banks knew that many of these customers on low incomes were in inappropriate high-fee accounts, and it has taken ASIC’s intervention to force them to act,” he says. “Before our review, most banks only provided their customers with difficult ‘opt-in’ processes for…

For years, CHOICE has been calling for infant sleep products such as bassinets to be covered by mandatory safety standards like other baby items, pointing out the danger of some of the unsafe models for sale in Australia. In a massive win, the federal government has now introduced new safety and information standards for a range of common baby sleep products, including some not previously covered by any protections. The new standards cover items such as cots, rockers and bassinets. “Product safety for young children is essential,” says Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones. “The two mandatory standards will give parents confidence that the sleep products they purchase for their children are safe.” The changes were recommended by the ACCC, which estimates that ten babies die every year in incidents caused by…

Healthy comparison My premiums with HCF were about to increase, so I used Compare Club to look at other funds. Later, I read a CHOICE article and discovered that, unlike CHOICE who looks at all funds, Compare Club only deals with seven providers. The Compare Club staff member recommended I switch to Bupa, telling me I would get the same cover for lower fees with no waiting period, plus 10 weeks free and 70,000 Rewards points, so I switched. What they didn’t tell me was that I would get about half the rebate for physio, remedial massage and podiatry that I got with HCF, and that the physical card would take over six weeks to arrive. My 78-year-old husband doesn’t do digital cards and I had to submit invoices for…

When you buy a piece of digital content like a movie or a video game, you can be forgiven for thinking you own it. After all, you paid for it, and it sits right there in your digital library. But many of the digital goods you thought you owned can be snatched away at any time, as customers of Telstra recently found out. Many of the digital goods you own can be snatched away at any time Customers shut out Telstra announced earlier this year that its TV Box Office would be TV, which Telstra has acquired. If you’ve paid for movies over the years through Telstra TV Box Office and built up your own personalised catalogue, you may be able to move some of it to Fetch. But that’ll…

Soap scum, unsightly mould and who-knows-what lurking in the loo – cleaning a bathroom isn’t the most pleasant of tasks. But it has to be done – it’s a high-traffic room and gets dirty, fast, not to mention being the ultimate breeding ground for bacteria. That’s why it’s so important to use a cleaner that will give good results, preferably with the least effort. To help you avoid flushing money down the toilet, we put more than 40 bathroom cleaners through a series of tests to help you find the best performers worth buying. We even included refills to see if there was any difference between the original bottled product and the available refill. We source tiles from the Centre for Test Materials, which are then soiled with a soap…

Not so long ago, the only way of cleaning your floors was with a simple cotton mop. But the years have seen endless innovations in the world of mops, and now not only do you have more than five different types of manual mop to choose from, you can also opt for an electric steam mop. But as we all know, just because something is new, doesn’t mean it’s better than the original. So we took to our labs to investigate the pros and cons of the different manual mop types. Plus, we put a steam mop head-to-head with a humble cotton mop to see if it’s worth paying extra for the electric type. There are more than five different types of manual mop, as well as steam mops Manual…

Have you ever bought a product that was recalled due to a product safety issue? Did you return it for a refund? If you said ‘no’ or you’re not sure, you’re not alone. As of 2019, the ACCC reported that only half of recalled products are returned to suppliers – meaning there’s a high chance there’s a recalled product in many of our homes that could pose a risk (in fact, almost one in four Australian households are exposed). So why is this happening? At the time of writing, there have been 151 product recalls this year alone, which is a lot of recalls to stay across. Many recalls are voluntary – meaning the manufacturer or retailer has voluntarily recalled the product (as opposed to a mandatory recall called by…

When Australia’s privacy laws were written back in the ’80s, lawmakers could not have predicted the advances in technology that led us to where we are today and the numerous ways companies would come to exploit our data for profit. I suspect they were busy rushing to the dancefloor for Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)’ to celebrate the passing of this important piece of legislation. And I don’t blame them – laws get amended over time to keep up with the times anyway. (Plus, that song is irresistible.) While a lot has changed since then, our privacy laws have remained largely stuck in the past. But unlike Whitney Houston songs, privacy laws are unfortunately not timeless. The lack of consumer protections in our current laws…

Dissolvable cleaning products are tablets, pods or powders that you mix with water to create a cleaning spray. Generally packaged in recycled paper or cardboard, they’re touted as an environmentally friendly alternative to sprays packaged in plastic bottles. Each year our experts assess which cleaning products to test, and this year dissolvable cleaning products appeared on the market. We assessed some of these alongside traditional spray cleaners to see if they did as good a job as the pre-made sprays you find on the shelf in the supermarket. So, how do they work, should you choose them, and are they worth switching to? Why use tablets instead of sprays? How do you package a liquid product without a plastic bottle? You take out the water, of course! If you think…

If you’re someone who likes to vent about frustrating customer service, or even just pose queries to businesses on X (formerly known as Twitter), watch out. Scammers are posing as seemingly helpful representatives of a company and targeting its customers in order to steal their money or sensitive personal information. The imposters have big brands, and even X itself, concerned. A platform people turn to for help Despite suffering something of a fall from grace in recent years, X remains one of the most popular social media sites in Australia and a forum where big companies and government agencies continue to offer assistance to Australians on a daily basis. We found multiple accounts impersonating Qantas, Virgin and Rex Prolific user Jon Dee, who is also a former NSW Australian of…

Whatever your cleaning style – everything at the last minute or methodical and meticulous – you need cleaning products that work. And with so many available (seriously, have you seen the cleaning aisle?) it can be hard to know which ones are worth buying and what’s a waste of your money. We have good news: our experts recommend 11 of the products from our latest test of kitchen and multipurpose spray cleaners. Some of those products are a familiar sight amongst our top performers (we test them every year), while there are also a couple of newcomers we haven’t seen in our best scorers before, including two products from the Australian-owned, plant-based brand Earth Choice. There’s a considerable difference between the best and worst products too: while the recommended products…

Do you plan months in advance to get the house ship-shape for summer, or do you wing it, waiting for free time and motivation to align? Regardless of your approach, in the excitement of watering the floors, scrubbing the curtains and shampooing the television, some things, like dishwashers, are often overlooked. Some daily TLC keeps your dishwasher humming along nicely, but sometimes more substantial maintenance is called for. So what is the optimum cleaning roster to help keep your dishwasher in good shape? Every use • Run it regularly. Dishwashers love frequent use; it helps keep grime from hardening in pipes, seals from drying out and insects from taking up residence inside. And because dishwashers are more efficient than washing up by hand, it’ll save you money too.• Scrape and…

Polling from Essential Media has found Australians expect banks to do more to protect them from scams. It showed 75% of people expect the federal government to force banks to refund customers if their money hasn’t been kept safe. The polling also found 76% of people think that if banks were forced to reimburse scam victims, they would be incentivised to prevent scams. The majority of Australians also fear the increasing sophistication of scams, with 88% of people believing any of us could fall victim to one. Banks aren’t doing enough to protect consumers, says Stephanie Tonkin, CEO of the Consumer Action Law Centre. “The onus continues to be on the customer to avoid being scammed against malignant forces over which they have no control, and it’s exasperating that banks…

Telstra has been fined $1.5 million for not meeting obligations to protect consumers from SIM-swap scams, following an investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). SIM-swap scams occur when scammers trick telco providers into switching a victim’s SIM card to one controlled by them. “SIM-swap scams can be particularly devastating, as victims can lose life savings as well as control of their phone number and other personal information,” says ACMA member Samantha Yorke. Customer ID authentication rules introduced in 2022 require telcos to use multi-factor authentication before customers are allowed to perform transactions that could compromise their account. The ACMA found Telstra hadn’t followed the new rules for 168,000 high-risk customer interactions. Yorke says Telstra’s conduct put thousands of customers at risk of harm. “It is unacceptable that…

Ten telcos have received a formal warning from the communications regulator for not following new rules designed to support customers struggling to pay internet or phone bills. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found the service providers, mostly smaller players in the industry, had not provided customers with information required under the industry hardship standard. Common failings included not making payment assistance policies clearly available, and not informing customers seeking short-term assistance and victims of domestic violence that they are not required to provide evidence when seeking support. “With many people struggling to pay their bills, it’s important that telcos clearly inform customers of their right to apply for financial hardship assistance and the options and support services available,” says ACMA member and telco consumer lead Samantha Yorke. The…

American Express has been ordered by the Federal Court to pay $8 million for failing to ensure its David Jones-branded credit cards were being targeted at the right consumers. Companies selling financial products are required to monitor and review their products to ensure their target market determinations (TMDs) are still appropriate. The Court found that American Express should have known from high rates of people cancelling applications for the David Jones cards that the TMDs were no longer suitable. It also found that American Express had failed to stop issuing the cards when it had not reviewed the TMDs. In its judgement, the Court said American Express’s actions “exposed some consumers to potential harm from obtaining a financial product that may not have been appropriate to all of their needs…

The rising cost of food and groceries continues to be a source of stress for many Australians. In March 2024, our Consumer Pulse survey found that the cost of food and groceries was a concern for 87% of Australian households, and we’ve seen similar levels of concern since March 2022. In January 2024 the Australian Bureau of Statistics published the Australian Dietary Guidelines Price Indexes, which shows relative price changes in different food groups. They found that while prices peaked in December 2022 when the average shopping basket cost 9.2% more than in 2021, we’re still paying significantly more than we were before the pandemic. While we can cut back on things like eating out and takeaway meals to save a little extra cash, it’s more important than ever that…

The way energy retailers fiddle with their prices can bring on bewilderment for even the most forensically-minded home economist. There are too many plans and too many moving parts. Pinpointing the best deal at any given moment seems impossible. “The justification for this huge range of variation in the prices of many energy products is questionable, when they are all essentially selling the same electricity,” says Douglas McCloskey, program director for energy and water at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), which is currently looking into consumer outcomes in the energy sector. “Why should two people in the same circumstances and in the same area be paying two wildly different prices…?” “Why should two people in the same circumstances and in the same area be paying two wildly different prices…

Planning for where any leftover superannuation should go after you die is an unpleasant and complex task, and one that many people don’t ever turn their mind to. However, you can give your fund instructions on where to send this money. This process, which is called making a death benefit nomination, is complex and can be highly technical. The stakes are high if you don’t follow all the fiddly rules: if your nomination isn’t valid and binding, or has lapsed, your super fund will have discretion over where to send your money. If your nomination isn’t valid and binding, or has lapsed, your super fund will have discretion over where to send your money There’s mounting evidence that the current process isn’t working well and is causing further turmoil for…

Robot vacuums have exploded in popularity in recent years, but CHOICE testing has found that they’re not well suited to every cleaning situation. Here, we help you decide if a robot vac will be a help or a hindrance in your home, depending on your situation. The situation: You’re short on time and space When you’re stretched for time, anything that will lighten the load can be handy. If you can afford a robot vacuum in addition to a stick or corded vac, it can make life easier, but you may find yourself vacuuming up what the bot missed. You’ll need to weigh up how much your time is worth, and whether it’s really going to save much since you might be vacuuming anyway. Robot vacs usually perform quite well…

While you might curse those chipper souls who like to do their leaf blowing at 8am every Sunday, the appeal is undeniable. Not only can a leaf blower be a convenient option for clearing a large leaf-covered lawn, but models with a built-in vacuum (blower vacs) can also suck up all the leaves for you. Some can even turn your leaves and other bits into mulch for your garden or compost. Of course, before you throw away your rake and rush off to buy a blower, first ask yourself whether you really need one. In most yards with only a moderate quantity of leaves to clear up, a bit of exercise with a rake is probably a better option – for you and your neighbours. Things to consider You’ll need…

Our long-serving rogues’ gallery of dodgy ads, toe-curling typos and misadventures in marketing, as sent in by you – our tickled, angered and bewildered readers. And thanks to the timeless shonkiness of so much advertising, you’re always spoilt for choice – so keep ’em coming. Email high-quality unedited photos to hardword@choice.com.au. This month, thanks go to Caroline C (Spell disaster), Edward Hack (Not farmed out), Frank Maio (Very cold wash) and Ethan Reddecliffe (Fishy tale). SPELL DISASTER You could build a big hoem on 9.9 acers. NOT FARMED OUT Where else could they come from? FISHY TALE 10-year-old Ethan is better at maths than Coles. VERY COLD WASH Keeping clothes crisp and fresh.…