Ready or not here's Eftpos tax!

New tax is here what retailers are calling the big banks' new "Eftpos tax".
Eftpos begins a new advertising offensive this week to tell us that shoppers "are better off with Eftpos".
But shoppers who use "Australia's favourite way to pay without cash" could soon be subjected to higher prices or even merchant fees for paying with Eftpos.
The company that runs Eftpos, EPAL, has given banks until next month to opt in to its new, higher interchange fee structure.
"Banks are about to start charging for something they previously provided for free," said Jost Stollmann, chief executive of a rival player in the debit-card payment industry, Tyro Payments.
"In fact they supplied this service for less than free: they paid 5c each time someone used Eftpos."
"Now EPAL has reversed that subsidy and created a new 5c fee to acquirers, which will flow through to retailers and merchants."
The Australian Newsagents' Federation say the new Eftpos fee regime will impose fees of up to 21c for each Eftpos transaction, up 110 per cent on existing fees.
"No retailer can negotiate the interchange fee with his bank. The new EPAL regime is all about raising bank fees," the federation says in a new advertising campaign.
"Big banks will slap an extra 10c interchange fee and 1c EPAL scheme fee increase on Eftpos transactions starting October 1, 2011."
This is the first change to Eftpos interchange fees since the debit card payment system was introduced to Australia 23 years ago.
"Cardholders will ultimately pay with higher prices through less competition," the newsagents' group said.
Mr Stollmann said the new fees would benefit big international card companies over Australia's own domestic debit payments system.
"A new Eftpos tax - that's what merchants and people in the industry are calling this," Mr Stollmann said.
"We know banks are under fee pressure in other areas, but I am unable to ascribe a motive as to why they are doing this.
"This will make Eftpos less competitive compared to Visa and Mastercard, and will make Eftpos difficult to offer for some small retailers.
A lot of merchants will simply not offer Eftpos any more."
Business owners are also being slugged by higher bank fees on their loans, accounts and credit cards, according to recent Reserve Bank of Australia data.
"All categories for bank-fee revenue increased for business products, except for deposit accounts due to exception fees (going down)."
Bank fees levied on business loans and credit facilities rose 21 per cent - and by 52 per cent on bank bills for business! OMG!
The big banks maintain families are paying less for banking services than ever.
Australian Bankers' Association chief Steven Munchenberg said average weekly bank fees paid by households fell by $2.13 to $9.73 last year."And households are paying less for banking even though they are using banking services more often," he said. as they should say I.
"Customers are completing more transactions on more accounts, and are buying more products and services from banks. Also, customers are choosing lower-cost accounts."Banks have cut a range of fees on accounts and credit cards, so if you think you are paying too much for banking, call your bank and see if there's a better product which suits the way you want to transact."
Googled EPAL and came up with nothing other than dating site which doesnt fit in with the context of this article. So who runs this? where from? is it a fictional smokescreen, what is going on behind the scenes and in the halls of power? how much more manipulation can those who aspire to greatness or some form of mastery at least in life put up with? why is this still being permitted to happen? is there nobody who can deflect this insanity and mass control?

Women on Boards

Few Women in Oil and Gas

The 29 public U.S. companies with no women among top executives or the board of directors cover a diverse selection of industries. One-third of the companies are in oil and gas, and Diamond Offshore Drilling which all declined to comment. According to Bloomberg Rankings, the oil and gas sector has the lowest percentage of women directors, at 9.6 percent.In some cases, the argument is that there simply aren't enough qualified women to earn a seat on a specific company board. If you want a board that has oil and gas experts, then you're picking from the same pool.
Lacking Technical Knowledge
the corporate secretary for Pioneer Natural Resources, Mark Kleinman says: "There is some challenge, because our board looks for deep industry experience and technical experience where it can find it. You have to look back to where this industry looked 30 years ago. That was a time when it was not heavily populated with women in the leadership."Terry Savage, who sat on the board of Pennzoil-Quaker State for six years—says there are women qualified to sit on the boards of oil and gas companies."The fact is that more than half the employees of that hugely industrial corporation were women," Savage says. "I did not have to be an expert on drilling to be on that board. There is always something that a woman can contribute.
Tokenism
The number of women on boards grew throughout the 1990s and 2000s, but that growth has leveled off in recent years. Experts and female board members interviewed for this story say that when boards have only one woman, it's often just a token gesture of gender diversity.The vast majority of board members are men, and just 2.6 percent of board chairmanships are held by women, according to Catalyst, a nonprofit that focuses on women and business. Only three companies in the S&P 500 have women who hold more than 40 percent of the board seats: Avon Products, Estée Lauder, and Macy's. There is a concern that some of the initial progress was tokenism, so the company can check that box off they now have quote unquote gender diversity.
Diversity by Law
Numerous European companies have tried to enforce equality by creating quotas for corporate boards. Norway, Spain, and France have imposed legal quotas to increase board seats held by women. Currently, 37.9 percent of directors at Norway's largest companies are women, with the 40 percent target legally required by 2017 for companies with 500 employees and annual sales of more than $71 million."If you only have one woman on a board then it can be difficult," says Alvarez, who notes that the experience can be "isolating and intimidating." She continues: "If you have at least some numbers, then you feel more empowered about opening up and expressing your doubts."

Women stress and spending

As women around the world enjoy broader opportunities and expanding roles, they're also experiencing one other increase in their lives — stress.

In one of their latest reports, Women of Tomorrow, Nielsen released stats that revealed where the most stressed-out women in the world reside, and how they behave in consequence.
Nielsen's study, which was conducted from February to April of 2011, polled almost 6,500 women throughout 21 developed and emerging countries including those in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa, and North America (note Australian women were not included in this poll). The study was done in an effort to better understand women's consumer habits, but yielded some fascinating conclusions about what causes stress in women around the world.

Reuters also finds that women around the world were largely more stressed than those of the past, but also found that women in emerging economic and social markets were more stressed than those in developed countries. “While women in emerging markets see tremendous growth in the opportunities for their daughters, a plateau of hope is evident in developed countries," said Susan Whiting, Nielsen's vice chair, in a statement.
The results of the polls showed that an astounding 87% of Indian women claim feeling stressed most of the time, with an additional 82% asserting they had insufficient time to relax.
Here are the top 10 most stressed countries, at least for women. The percentages indicate the percentage of women claiming to be stressed most of the time.

India (87%)
Mexico (74%)
Russia (69%)
Brazil (67%)
Spain (66%)
France (65%)
South Africa (64%)
Italy (64%)
Nigeria (58%)
Turkey (56%)

Another interesting finding correlated degree of stress with spending and consuming habits. Interestingly, Indian women, while claiming to be the most stressed, were also most likely to spend disposable income on themselves. Upwards of three quarters of Indian women admitted they would spend on beauty and health items, while 96% said they would buy clothing.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/07/13/study-for-women-india-is-the-most-stressful-country-on-earth/#ixzz1S2qLybDw

Mothers & paid work

Women with three or more children are less likely to be in paid work than mothers with one or two children, a study has found.
Official figures show 55% of women with three or more children are in paid work compared with compared with 68% of women with two or fewer children.
Anna Zhu, co-author of the Fertility and Labour Market Participation report, says it’s not surprising that women with three children or more are less likely to be involved in paid work because of their greater care responsibilities.
“But the interesting thing is we also found that even when the children have grown older there’s still an effect,” Zhu says. Zhu, of the University of NSW Social Policy Research Centre, says several things play a role in inhibiting women to re-enter paid work – a lack of confidence, atrophied skills, the challenge of finding flexible workplaces and fulfilling work without recent stints to speak of. Zhu says providing flexibility is the key to keeping women in paid work.“Most women after having children go back on a part-time basis, so flexible working conditions and providing leave when an emergency pops up are very important,” she says.
The paper found that for women aged 45-49, 81% with two or fewer children were in paid work versus 70% with three or more children.
The gap was also found for women with pre-school aged students, with 55% of women with two pre-schoolers in paid work versus 44% for three or more children. When at least one child is at school 62% of mothers with one or two children are in paid work compared with 59% of mothers of three or more children.

Bank exit fees

The ban on bank exit fees, which may be recorded on a contract as deferred establishment or early repayment fees, applies only to all new home loans taken out after 1 July 2011. Some home loans already do not have them and some lenders have made the ban retrospective.
Think carefully before making any moves.
Ensure that you as the consumer understand the exit fee ban applies only to new home loans taken out after 1 July, not existing loans, and that there are still other switching costs and home loan aspects that must be considered.
Educate yourself as the borrower about what it means for you as satisfaction with your home loan commitment comes after making a well informed decision

Property millionaires, are U one?

The property market is one of the main reasons why more and more Australians are becoming millionaires, according to an annual report by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch.
Dorus van den Biezenbos from Capgemini Australia says the total number of millionaires in Australia rose 11.1 per cent to almost 193,000 in 2010.
Despite the current downturn in the property sector, the long-term rewards of real estate and hard investing are putting more Australians on the millionaire map –and property is fast becoming a better alternative to make money than a wage.
"We see the real estate market as a big contributor to the positive growth number of millionaires in Australia," van den Biezenbos says.
"GDP grew by 2.8 per cent last year, compared to 1.3 per cent in 2009, so that's good growth.
"Market capitalisation also showed a gain of 15.3 per cent."
The combined wealth of Australia's millionaires was also up 12.1 per cent to $550 billion.
In another positive sign for investors, our neighbours are becoming richer too. The Asia-Pacific region has also taken over second position and is now just behind North America, in terms of millionaire population.
"They've taken over the place from Europe now with 3.3 million millionaires, whereby Europe has 3.1 million millionaires."

Its a long way to the top.....

Still a long way to the top for Australian women?

The successful Australian woman is passionate, driven, focused, determined and resilient – but she has had to make a number of sacrifices in the name of success, and while regret might be too strong a word, she is fully aware of these sacrifices and is striving to ameliorate them.
These are the findings revealed in ‘Long Way to the Top’ a White Paper authored by Melbourne financial planner, Charmaine Curtain from Global Partnerships Financial Consulting.
Curtain said Long Way to the Top provides extraordinary insights into the Australian woman’s journey along the pathway to success and the challenges she continues to face.
“Australian women have jumped some amazing hurdles that a hundred years ago seemed insurmountable,” Curtain said. “They now hold some of the most powerful positions in the country – we have a female Prime Minister, two female state Premiers, a female Governor General and two female state Governors. One of our female executives – Gail Kelly – is ranked eighth in the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women in the World.”
However, Curtain said that while Australian women have much to celebrate, they still have significant hurdles to overcome.
“Many of the women I interviewed believe they have made significant sacrifices in the name of success,” Curtain said. “These sacrifices included time, money and personal relationships. If my findings are typical, professional women are still being paid less than men, they still lack the financial resources or security to appropriately fund their own ventures, they still have poor access to business funding and they still have insufficient savings for retirement. In the twenty-first century, it is not good enough.”
Curtain said that her research suggests that successful women are powerful consumers and expect service that surpasses their expectations. The consumer is, in fact, Queen,” Curtain said. “If providers expect to win them as customers or clients they must deliver exceptional service.”
According to the findings, women want to be listened to, valued, appreciated and respected by service providers. “Service that takes into account how time poor professional women are and how torn they feel between home and work; lifestyle and career will win the day,” Curtain said.
Curtain also took the opportunity to thank the women she interviewed for the project.
“As a woman and as the owner of a business myself, I set out to discover how women achieved, in some instances, such outstanding success. I was curious about the barriers to success and how successful women had surmounted them,” she said. “But what I came away with was powerful insights into women, their ability to face obstacles, their great willingness to help each other and their generosity towards younger women just starting out on the corporate ladder. I feel as though I have been coached by some of the best women in the business – and for that I thank each and every one of them.”
Key findings

• Many women (69%) believe they had sacrificed some aspect of their personal life in order to achieve success
• More than half (58%) felt the challenges they face were the result of external put on them by others in the workplace
• Almost half (41%) felt the challenges they face were the result of the internal pressure they put on themselves
• Most (80%) felt women were overcoming these challenges
• Most women (73%) were able to articulate an exact moment in business that stood out as a bad experience; only half were able to articulate a good experience
• Women recognised they faced three major financial challenges – lack of security/financial backing to go into business; having enough money for retirement; being paid less than their male colleagues
• More than half (53%) said they relax by doing some form of exercise – typically, walking
• Most women were voracious readers, with 84% saying they read their daily newspaper regularly. Only 15% said they had abandoned the traditional paper format in favour of online versions. Many women (69%) also admitted to reading gossip/women’s magazines
• Women are generous givers with 84% donating their time and/or money to charity/charity events. Children’s charities were far and away the most popular, with 81% of women favouring them