Report - Consumers' Federation of Australia

30 June , 2020

Report shows life insurers need a stronger commitment to their Code compliance obligations

A number of life insurers appear not to be taking their obligations under the Life Insurance Code of Practice (the Code) seriously, according to a report released on Friday by the Life Code Compliance Committee (the Committee) – the independent Committee which monitors and enforces industry compliance with the customer service standards set out in…

16 February , 2020

Consumer research centre releases latest report – Choosing care: the difficulties of navigating home care

The report from Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) draws on research undertaken in partnership with University of South Australia (UniSA) which surveyed 502 Home Care Package (HCP) recipients across metropolitan Australia in June and July last year. “Older Australians are being abandoned by the system, often unable to access the necessary support to live happier,…

17 December , 2019

Share your insights of bankruptcy, debt agreements and financial difficulty assistance

CFA member Nicola Howell (PhD researcher, Melbourne Law School and Senior Lecturer at QUT) is researching the impact of financial difficulty assistance/hardship variations, bankruptcy and debt agreements on consumer debtors . In the next phase of the study, Nicola is keen to hear from financial counsellors, consumer advocates, insolvency practitioners and others working in the…

5 December , 2019

Reports lead to concern about banks’ breach reporting as they transition to the 2019 Code

Two key reports released on Friday by the Banking Code Compliance Committee (BCCC) contain important findings for the industry, including: Significant concerns about the reporting of breaches under the 2013 Code of Banking Practice during 2018-19. Banks will need to continue ongoing efforts in order to meet the BCCC’s expectations and the higher standards of…

27 November , 2019

Consumer representatives report back

Consumer representatives nominated or supported by CFA have written a short report on their activities over the past year. All consumer representatives, whether or not nominated by CFA or representing CFA, are accountable to the consumers whose interests they represent. They have a duty to stay informed about consumers’ interests and how the body to…

3 September , 2019

Australians paying millions too much for foreign currency services

Australian consumers are paying too much for foreign currency conversion (FX) services because of confusing pricing and a lack of robust competition, a new ACCC report has found. The final report of the ACCC’s Foreign Currency Conversion Services Inquiry highlights important competition and consumer issues affecting individuals and small businesses who use international money transfers (IMTs), foreign…

5 August , 2019

Investigation finds telemarketers pressuring consumers to sign up to NBN

Threats of being disconnected from phone and internet services, loss of phone numbers, and inaccurate information about NBN plans are issues highlighted in the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s latest report: “Misleading telemarketing of NBN services” published Thursday 1 August, 2019. Between January and December 2018, residential consumers and small businesses made 1,729 complaints to the Telecommunications…

31 July , 2019

Researching the impact of financial difficulty assistance: Request for participation

CFA member Nicola Howell (PhD researcher, Melbourne Law School and Senior Lecturer at QUT) is researching the impact of financial difficulty assistance, bankruptcy and debt agreements on consumer debtors. A better understanding of how people experience the different options, and whether they improve the lives of debtors in the short and long term, can help…

30 May , 2019

CPRC Research Report: A Day in the Life of Data

Consumer Policy Research’s Centre (CPRC)’s latest report – A Day in the Life of Data – illustrates the bewildering volume and scope of data collected about consumers just as they go about their daily lives. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is here, and personal information is increasingly being collected and commodified while legislation fails to keep up. Led…

30 April , 2019

Scams cost Australians half a billion dollars

Australians lost almost half a billion dollars to scammers in 2018 according to the latest figures in the ACCC’s Targeting Scams report released today. “Total combined losses reported to Scamwatch and other government agencies exceeded $489 million – $149 million more than 2017,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said. “And these record losses are likely just the tip…

24 April , 2019

ICAN launches Yarnin’ Money Report

In late 2014, the Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network (ICAN) received a grant from the Ecstra Foundation to create Yarnin’ Money, a financial capability program wholly developed by and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In the 2014 grant round, Ecstra sought to fund projects that would: ‘work to improve the financial literacy and money…

16 April , 2019

Phone and internet complaints down between July and December 2018

Australian residential consumers and small businesses made 60,998 complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman in the last six months of 2018 (1 July 2018 to 31 December 2018). In this period, complaints about landline, mobile and internet services, decreased by 27.7 per cent compared to the same six month period in 2017. Publishing the Telecommunications…