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

[patches]

I got to the bottom of my mysterious escalation in insurance premiums.

...so when I purchased the 2nd Husky I requested a quote for insurance from Insurer A (insurer of the 1st Husky). I never received a reply. I then went ahead and got other quotes and took up insurance with Insurer B.

 

Insurer A took it upon themselves to add the new bike onto my policy, without even so much as an email to say they had done so, let alone the expected a policy update.

The result, I have paid $300 more than I should have. I have reverted back instructing a cancellation of that 2nd policy with immediate effect, as well as a refund of the $300 which was never agreed to.

 

The ball is in their court now, and I'm keeping the Ombudsman up my sleeve should they resist restitution.

Damn skellums!

[GrahamS2]

I had to pull out some details on my post because I actually like my job, but from my observations there arent many independent insurers in these countries.

There's quite a few. Here in Aus the big players in the motor space are Auto&General, Youi (outsurance), Allianz, RACQ, Suncorp, and lots of smaller guys who have their own licenses.

 

In SA the big ones were A&G, Outsurance, Hollard and Bidvest. Lots of smaller guys with their own licenses though, but also lots of cell captives running off other licenses.

[Hairy]

There's quite a few. Here in Aus the big players in the motor space are Auto&General, Youi (outsurance), Allianz, RACQ, Suncorp, and lots of smaller guys who have their own licenses.

 

In SA the big ones were A&G, Outsurance, Hollard and Bidvest. Lots of smaller guys with their own licenses though, but also lots of cell captives running off other licenses.

This past weekend I received an Outsurance Bonus Payback thingie for not crashing into walls or cars for a specified number of years

[Rocket-Boy]

Wiseasses..!!

 

I put in a 'me-too' post reply to Rocketboy and then re-thought my career prospects.

There is so much more I would love to say but social media can be your undoing pretty quickly these days.

[intern]

Does anyone here do Sharesies? Or what other options are you using to gamble with your life savings?

[davetapson]

Does anyone here do Sharesies? Or what other options are you using to gamble with your life savings?

I currently use Smart Shares, but in an unsmart way, because I'm dof.

 

Gets you cheap access to index funds, NZ and overseas.

 

I wanted access to robotics and health funds, so got then via SS.

 

I then did some reading, because always check after you've dropped the dosh, not before, because that would be dumb, and found they're just rebadging Vanguard or Blackrock funds - probably be cheaper to go direct.

 

The thing that had me incensed was that they take your dosh on the 20th, sit on it till the 3rd, when they have a guy with a side rule do all the calcs and assign you your units.

 

Someone needs to tell them about realtime transactions and calculators. Maybe even computers and spreadsheets and things.

 

But hey, NZ.

[davetapson]

 

 

I currently use Smart Shares, but in an unsmart way, because I'm dof.

 

Gets you cheap access to index funds, NZ and overseas.

 

.

But if you looking for access to NZ index funds, they're not a bad option.

[intern]

I currently use Smart Shares, but in an unsmart way, because I'm dof.

 

Gets you cheap access to index funds, NZ and overseas.

 

I wanted access to robotics and health funds, so got then via SS.

 

I then did some reading, because always check after you've dropped the dosh, not before, because that would be dumb, and found they're just rebadging Vanguard or Blackrock funds - probably be cheaper to go direct.

 

The thing that had me incensed was that they take your dosh on the 20th, sit on it till the 3rd, when they have a guy with a side rule do all the calcs and assign you your units.

 

Someone needs to tell them about realtime transactions and calculators. Maybe even computers and spreadsheets and things.

 

But hey, NZ.

 

I've heard mixed things about Smartshares; I quite like Sharesies because it's so simple (I too am dof) and it does give easy access to the US sharemarket, with a currency exchange fee of 0.4% to turn NZD into USD. It's immediate, too, so once you have dosh in Sharesies, it's a click of a button and you have USD to blow on parlous and fragile tech stocks etc

[patches]

I've heard mixed things about Smartshares; I quite like Sharesies because it's so simple (I too am dof) and it does give easy access to the US sharemarket, with a currency exchange fee of 0.4% to turn NZD into USD. It's immediate, too, so once you have dosh in Sharesies, it's a click of a button and you have USD to blow on parlous and fragile tech stocks etc

 

I used Sharesies to capitalise on Air NZ's lockdown crash 

[intern]

I used Sharesies to capitalise on Air NZ's lockdown crash 

As have I. Auckland Airport another trading at a big discount; actually, a fair portion of the NZX is still trading at around a 30 percent discount, so I am loading up on companies I know, and hoping my poor understanding of economics and the economy somehow works out for me 

[davetapson]

In a previous life when I was single and liquid (cash wise), about 2000 or so, if any of yous is old enough to remember back that far, tech stocks were flying.

I had some cash in the bank and some time on my hands - so I figured, 'hey drop half your cash into some of these tech stocks, take the rest, buy a round-the-world ticket, you can monitor them on-line, what could go wrong?'

So did that.

About Cambodia time, where internet speeds were so slow that logging on to websites was a time consuming and frustrating affair, I thought 'Fk it' and left them be.  They all looked fine.

Couple of months later, after making a pit stop to see the folks in SA, I rock back to the UK, log on... strange, I'm sure that the companies were called "Blah" and "Blah2" (and...)

Can't seem to find them, maybe I'm misremembering the stock codes.  This was in the day when they sent you stock certificates when you bought stock, went dug them out, nope, the stock codes were right.

They were gone.  Just gone. Closed down, keep your cert, have fun.  Was a bit of an eye opener.  So had to sell the ones that had done well (as in still existed!) to get liquid again.

Still got the certs, somewhere.  Magic Moments (yes) was one of them I think, a gaming company if I remember right. 

[arabsandals]

In a previous life when I was single and liquid (cash wise), about 2000 or so, if any of yous is old enough to remember back that far, tech stocks were flying.

 

I had some cash in the bank and some time on my hands - so I figured, 'hey drop half your cash into some of these tech stocks, take the rest, buy a round-the-world ticket, you can monitor them on-line, what could go wrong?'

 

So did that.

 

About Cambodia time, where internet speeds were so slow that logging on to websites was a time consuming and frustrating affair, I thought 'Fk it' and left them be.  They all looked fine.

 

Couple of months later, after making a pit stop to see the folks in SA, I rock back to the UK, log on... strange, I'm sure that the companies were called "Blah" and "Blah2" (and...)

 

Can't seem to find them, maybe I'm misremembering the stock codes.  This was in the day when they sent you stock certificates when you bought stock, went dug them out, nope, the stock codes were right.

 

They were gone.  Just gone. Closed down, keep your cert, have fun.  Was a bit of an eye opener.  So had to sell the ones that had done well (as in still existed!) to get liquid again.

 

Still got the certs, somewhere.  Magic Moments (yes) was one of them I think, a gaming company if I remember right. 

Aah, the dot com bubble. Good times. Good times.

[Wayne Potgieter]

Does anyone here do Sharesies? Or what other options are you using to gamble with your life savings?

Just saw this now.

 

I use Sharesies all the time.

 

I also have set up kids accounts as well for the little ones. I like creating DIY investment playbooks and have set up a monthly debit to go into the account and then get spent in line with my strategy. ITs really easy, not badly priced and I enjoy the US markets.

 

In fact, bought some apple shares this morning.

[davetapson]

I then did some reading, because always check after you've dropped the dosh, not before, because that would be dumb, and found they're just rebadging Vanguard or Blackrock funds - probably be cheaper to go direct.

It does cross my mind tho, if you are making monthly payments (which I am) then you avoid the fx commissions if you are paying to Blackrock or Vanguard in the US, so SS makes sense.

 

Unless you can buy B or V funds in NZ..?  Note to self: check.

[Wayne Potgieter]

Hey Intern.

 

What bike did you get for your kiddos?

 

My son is hassling me for a bike.

[intern]

Hey Intern.

 

What bike did you get for your kiddos?

 

My son is hassling me for a bike.

 

First bike Suzuki JR50 - single gear, no clutch, very small = nice and easy to understand the concept of the throttle, kicking it into gear, balance, easy handling etc. Even bigger kids can get started and familiarise themselves with this dinky lil thing; I can ride it, to give you an idea.

Second bike: Suzuki JR80. A lot more powerful and quite a bit bigger and heavier, 5 speed gearbox and clutch. Nice 2 stroke powerband. Didn't take long for my older boy to get the hang of clutch and gearbox. Was thinking of moving from the JR50 to a Kawa KX65 or KTM SX65, but the Suzuki is deffo a better 'step up'. The KX and SX are pretty powerful and 'vicious' on the power delivery, where the Suzbox is nice and gentle.

Also, a brand new JR80 is $2995, with a 5 year old one on TradeMe going for around 2200, so it is at the same time affordable and holds value very well...