Australia: News and Views

If you are an overseas Australian property investor you may have noticed that the Aussie dollar is hitting new highs against the US$ and quite a lot of other currencies too. So if you are planning on selling a property and bailing from Australia - now is a very good time to do it - the property market is showing quite strong signs of recovery in places - and more importantly the rate you will get for your foreign exchange is fantastic.

If you are on the other side - maybe and Ausralian expat looking to head back to Australia you are in a worse situation - you might want to delay your overseas currency excahnage in the hope that the dollar doesn’t stay at current levels of over 90c - though speculation is that it might hit partiy - mind you the last time that speculation occurred  - alittle over a year ago from memory - it hit 62c - so you never can tell with foreign exchange.

My advice would be to avoid large currency transactions anyway - drip the currency in or out over a few months - to limit your risk

If like I you live in Perth,WA - you have probably heard of the latest credit card fraud. Its actually EFTPOS cards as well and doesn’t effect just ATMs This is a new technology which has seen over $100,000 stolen from West Australian affected  fast food outlets and customers paying by card. The police and the banks have been coy about saying exactly where the thefts are occuring - which is pretty crap as far as I am concerned. So here is the current list which is circulating naming some McDonalds, Coles, Peak and BP service stations which have been affected. There is no need to shopping at these locations - just pay by cash for the next week or two.

Meanwhile you should be doing the right thing by regularly checking your online statements. If there is a problem you won’t be out of pocket but you need to report it ASAP to your bank and they may have to reissue your cards and account which is nuisence.

Card Fraud Affected McDonalds etc

McDonalds Canning Vale
McDonalds Maddington
McDonalds City
McDonalds Success
McDonalds Cannington
McDonalds South Perth

Coles Southern River
Coles Gosnells
Coles Thornlie
Coles Maddington
Coles Forest Lakes

Peak Service Station Bayswater
Peak Service Station Kwinana
Peak Service Station Maddington
Peak Service Station Mundaring
Peak Service Station Roleystone

BP Service Station Wembley
BP Service Station Carlisle
BP Service Station Manning
BP Service Station Osborne Park