New Zealand - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

[Honkdonk]

When we were there for 3 weeks we used these guys:

https://www.snaprentals.co.nz/

 

Had a car I didn't like which had a wobble and they changed it no issues. Drove a Toyota Auris and it was super light on fuel...

Cheers Rad, but it appears Snap dont operate in Dunedin..

[patches]

Can also recommend Snap and Apex. Have used both in the past.

 

Luckily now though we get over 50% off from Budget because of Fonterra employee discount. At least there's 1 perk working for them, even if they plaster on the news that you're not gonna get a bonus or an increase, hahaha

[Wayne Potgieter]

Another option is https://www.mycaryourrental.com/

 

Private vehicle owners that rent out their vehicles

[GrahamS2]

Another option is https://www.mycaryourrental.com/

 

Private vehicle owners that rent out their vehicles

Wowzers! An insurance nightmare in the making.

Good option as a renter though.

[Wayne Potgieter]

Wowzers! An insurance nightmare in the making.

Good option as a renter th

A mate of mine rents his Tesla on there. He reckons 33% of the premium goes to insurance. The company deducts it and fully coveres the replacement value of the vehicle.

[GrahamS2]

A mate of mine rents his Tesla on there. He reckons 33% of the premium goes to insurance. The company deducts it and fully coveres the replacement value of the vehicle.

Double insured then, unless you specifically notify your private insurer. It could get all kinds of messy, particularly on bank financed vehicles. Especially when a claim is made and pre-existing damage is identified - which policy should cover it? 

[davetapson]

Can any of you recommend a good affordable car rental company - not the normal AVIS etc

Something like a rent-a-wreck

 

I need wheels for 2,5 weeks in Jan while in Dunedin

 

I used Jucy when we arrived.  Was the cheapest I could find at the time, from SA.

[davetapson]

Bank acc question:  I'm getting reamed by my SA bank in terms of charges.

 

The crowd we spoke to re financial emigration have a deal with Bidvest where they open you an account for free and then charge you R100 per transaction.

 

Sounds rediculous, but I have approx one transaction a month - cash to my mother - and that's it.  R100 / month is way less than I am paying RMB for an account I don't much use.

 

I need an account until SARS is sorted out and FE completed.

Does this sound like a dumb deal?

I should have opened a Capitec account before I left... 

Edited September 12, 2019 by davetapson

[davetapson]

A mate of mine rents his Tesla on there. He reckons 33% of the premium goes to insurance. The company deducts it and fully coveres the replacement value of the vehicle.

 

Apparently one of the options one has when a Tesla (and I suppose the others too) gets to full self-drive mode is to tell your car to take you to work and then go and uber while you're working and then come back and fetch you to take you home.  I suppose you could then tell it to sod off and carry on ubering once you're home.

 

It's going to be an interesting new world...

[pista]

Bank acc question: I'm getting reamed by my SA bank in terms of charges.

 

The crowd we spoke to re financial emigration have a deal with Bidvest where they open you an account for free and then charge you R100 per transaction.

 

Sounds rediculous, but I have approx one transaction a month - cash to my mother - and that's it. R100 / month is way less than I am paying RMB for an account I don't much use.

 

I need an account until SARS is sorted out and FE completed.

 

Does this sound like a dumb deal?

 

I should have opened a Capitec account before I left...

We support my mom and in-laws in SA.

We opened credit cards over here for them and couriered the cards to SA.Saves us loads on fees and no hassles.

[davetapson]

We support my mom and in-laws in SA.

We opened credit cards over here for them and couriered the cards to SA.Saves us loads on fees and no hassles.

 

That's not a bad idea.  Could get a fright now and then depending what's going on in their lives...?

[patches]

Bank acc question:  I'm getting reamed by my SA bank in terms of charges.

 

The crowd we spoke to re financial emigration have a deal with Bidvest where they open you an account for free and then charge you R100 per transaction.

 

Sounds rediculous, but I have approx one transaction a month - cash to my mother - and that's it.  R100 / month is way less than I am paying RMB for an account I don't much use.

 

I need an account until SARS is sorted out and FE completed.

 

Does this sound like a dumb deal?

 

I should have opened a Capitec account before I left... 

 

I was getting reamed on fee too. Had an FNB Private Clients account that had no salary going in so didn't qualify for the rebates.

 

I had them close the credit card and downgrade the cheque account to the basic one I could get. It's about R100pm and I still get online banking and all that. I just don't get the eBucks, lounge access, private banker, and all that other stuff that is useless now.

 

 

We support my mom and in-laws in SA.

We opened credit cards over here for them and couriered the cards to SA.Saves us loads on fees and no hassles.

 

That is a good idea... hmmmm.... *thinking face*

[patches]

On the topic of banking (or rather banking perks) here's a bit of the bad....

 

eBucks vs Flybuys.

 

How lame is the Flybuys programme by comparison. They accumulate at snails-pace and they're only useful for shopping on their overpriced store.

 

I used to get nearly as many eBucks in 1 month as the equivalent Flybuys that I have earned in 3.5yrs of being in NZ. On top of that, when I was on eBucks tier 5, that had 40% off Makro vouchers. So when 1 month of spending gets you eB6000 and R1000 worth of Makro vouchers, which you will earn eBucks on anyway... Flybuys looks really lame!

 

Also lounge access. I like that in SA the banks have lounges for holders of certain accounts. It's independent of airline etc.

 

Here it's what, about $600pa for Koru/Qantas Club, and you can only use it when you fly with those specific airlines.

[Wayne Potgieter]

On the topic of banking (or rather banking perks) here's a bit of the bad....

 

eBucks vs Flybuys.

 

How lame is the Flybuys programme by comparison. They accumulate at snails-pace and they're only useful for shopping on their overpriced store.

 

I used to get nearly as many eBucks in 1 month as the equivalent Flybuys that I have earned in 3.5yrs of being in NZ. On top of that, when I was on eBucks tier 5, that had 40% off Makro vouchers. So when 1 month of spending gets you eB6000 and R1000 worth of Makro vouchers, which you will earn eBucks on anyway... Flybuys looks really lame!

 

Also lounge access. I like that in SA the banks have lounges for holders of certain accounts. It's independent of airline etc.

 

Here it's what, about $600pa for Koru/Qantas Club, and you can only use it when you fly with those specific airlines.

i use Airpoints dollars a lot.

 

I travel a fair bit so tend to accumulate them quickly. Paired with an interest free Airpoints credit card it’s quite useful. Provided you are mindful of which stores add a cc surcharge.

[patches]

i use Airpoints dollars a lot.

 

I travel a fair bit so tend to accumulate them quickly. Paired with an interest free Airpoints credit card it’s quite useful. Provided you are mindful of which stores add a cc surcharge.

 

Yeah, I'm on an Airpoints CC and cheque card. One only accumulates at 1:120 and the other at 1:75.

 

Even at that higher rate, it's only 1.33% and takes forever.

 

Most of our Sharepoints come from an Auckland to Chicago Business class flight that was booked last minute. Something like 900 Airpoints and instant upgrade to gold membership.

 

Unfortunately that was not me 

Edited September 12, 2019 by patches

[RossW]

I was getting reamed on fee too. Had an FNB Private Clients account that had no salary going in so didn't qualify for the rebates.

 

I had them close the credit card and downgrade the cheque account to the basic one I could get. It's about R100pm and I still get online banking and all that. I just don't get the eBucks, lounge access, private banker, and all that other stuff that is useless now.

 

 

 

That is a good idea... hmmmm.... *thinking face*

On the topic of FNB and banks in general.

I'm currently on a R29 pm contract to keep my mobile number active for FNB banking. I admit, I haven't researched this yet but perhaps someone here has. I want to cancel the mobile contract but keep online banking. Is that possible? As it is, I hate paying the monthly bank charges and actually looking at closing my FNB accounts. Much easier to simply pay on local card and accept the conversion fee than pay monthly costs for a few purchases each year.

 

And yes, the Flybuys accrual rate and use of points is terrible. The only good is to convert to $10 discounts and use to save a few dollars on your weekly shop.