Susan Edmunds. Photo: RNZ
Got questions? RNZ has launched a [ https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/no-stupid-questions new podcast, 'No Stupid Questions'], with Susan Edmunds.
We'd love to hear more of your questions about money and the economy.
You can send through written questions, like these ones, but even better, you can drop us a voice memo to our email questions@rnz.co.nz.
What age can children living at home get a Community Services Card? Bus fares, doctors visits and prescriptions are all costs that a community services card would make a big difference with. Is there any other information that we all should know about the benefits of a community services card? I am sure there are many families with older children that don't know about this issue.
The Ministry of Social Development pointed me to a couple of places for information about this.
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If they are a dependent child, they can only get a Community Services Card if their parent or caregiver is getting an orphan's benefit, unsupported child benefit or child disability allowance.
The ministry defines a dependent child as someone who is:
- Under 18 (or still living at home in their last year of school as an 18-year-old).
- Living with parents, step parents, adopted parents or grandparents as a member of the family.
- Financially dependent on their caregivers.
If someone is no longer a dependent child, they can get a community services card as a single person living with others if their income is less than $33,919 a year.
They don't have to be receiving a benefit to qualify.
They can use the card to help with visits to a doctor you're enrolled with, prescriptions, public transport, some emergency dental care and home help.
We currently have emergency savings of $15,000 split across three term deposits. It is roughly the equivalent of three months car and mortgage repayments, should my partner or I lose their job. I've always thought this was prudent, but given term deposit rates may be dropping and the emergency may never eventuate, is it better to invest this money and pull it from the investment, if needed?
It's a great idea to have some money as emergency savings.
This isn't personalised advice, but if I were you I would consider using it to reduce my mortgage.
You could put the money into an offset account if your bank offers that, or have it as a revolving credit facility. That means it's there if you need to access it but otherwise it reduces what you pay in interest on your home loan.
You could invest it but if you know that you need to be able to access it at short notice, you won't be able to take a lot of risk with it so you might find that the returns you get won't outweigh the interest you save on your mortgage.
You could chat to a mortgage adviser about the right plan.
We've had seven-days payments processing since May 2023, where direct debits are processed on the exact day they are due, including weekends and public holidays. Yet many banks still pay interest on savings and term deposits on business days only. If such an interest payment is due on Saturday but paid on the following Monday, and a direct debit due on Sunday and processed on that day causes our account balance to go below zero, does the bank get to charge us fees and/or interest for the temporary overdraft?
Example: The account balance is $500 on Saturday when an interest credit of $700 is due but not paid out until Monday. On Sunday a direct debit of $800 is processed on that day and causes the balance to fall to -$300, causing an overdraft. On Monday the delayed interest payment brings the balance back up to $400, but the account balance was negative for a day and might trigger overdraft fees and/or interest, even so the credit payment that would have kept the balance positive was due before the debit payment.
Do we think that it's fair to process debit transactions on the same day but delay credit transactions until the next business day, and that banks might even profit from that? Are you aware of any upcoming changes that will extend seven-days payments to all types of transactions and eliminate the risk of accidental temporary overdrafts?
I asked Banking Ombudsman Nicola Sladden what she thought of your question.
She said her scheme received complaints about the order of bank payments from time to time.
"However, we have not considered a specific complaint about the scenario below. If we received such a complaint, we would consider whether the bank acted fairly, including whether it complied with its terms and conditions and properly disclosed how interest would be calculated and paid.
"When seven day processing was introduced, some banks offered to refund fees while customers adjusted to the payments coming out every day - and the banks assisted them to change outgoing payments to align with incoming payments where possible. It is important customers consider the timing of payments they have agreed to be direct debited and ensure there are sufficient funds in their account at that time."
She said if someone had experienced a delayed interest payment, they should raise the concern with their bank and contact the ombudsman scheme if they were not happy with the response.
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