Source: Radio New Zealand
RNZ’s money correspondent Susan Edmunds answers your questions. RNZ
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I started up a KiwiSaver for my daughter when it first came out. Through the years, I have contributed the minimum amount to gain the annual government top-up. Twelve years ago, my daughter moved to London and she has no future plans to come back to New Zealand. She and her partner are looking to purchase their first home in London. My question is, what happens to her KiwiSaver?
People who are moving to another country permanently can withdraw their money once they’ve been gone a year.
Your daughter can withdraw her contributions, employer contributions, the $1000 kickstart that she probably got when she signed up, the fee subsidies she might have got at the start, and any returns made by the fund.
She can’t take out the government contributions that she’s been getting thanks to the $1042 you’ve been putting in over the years. (Note that until this year, this was only available to people over 18 but is now paid to people aged 16 and up.)
Just wanting to know what happens to my daughter’s super in Australia if she came home to New Zealand and passed away. She lived and worked there for approximately 11 years and passed away four years ago but had been home for five years prior to passing.
I am sorry to hear about your daughter. I asked Ana-Marie Lockyer from Pie Funds about your question.
She said when someone died in Australia, any superannuation savings they had including any life insurance benefits that might be attached to it, would become part of a superannuation death benefit.
“This money can usually be claimed by the next of kin or the estate.
“If your daughter had an Australian super fund, the balance would still be held there unless it became lost or inactive, in which case it may have been transferred to the ATO’s ‘unclaimed super’ register. Either way, it remains claimable.
“The normal process is to contact the super fund (or the ATO if the fund is unknown) and follow their requirements, which often include probate or letters of administration. So the best next step is to contact the ATO or use their online ‘lost super’ search to locate the account and begin the claim process.”
A while back I encountered an issue when I received a reminder that a website (MightyApe) subscription was due. The payment information for my Visa details were expired on the website by nearly a year and I did not wish to continue the subscription so made the assumption the payment would be rejected as the expiry date had past and the CVV was invalid.
I had also noticed MyLotto also didn’t care if the CVV were incorrect when purchasing online tickets …At the time as I wanted a lottery ticket it didn’t alarm me but when I received an email from MightyApe confirming the renewal of the subscription I was confused. The payment information was definitely outdated so how was payment processed?
MightyApe refunded the transaction and suggested they had ‘payment tokens’. Perplexed, I questioned the bank around how did they make customers aware the expiry date displayed on the card was meaningless, that Visa issued “tokens” to merchants so they could override customer payment information to whatever enabled payment.
The bank (ANZ) advised me they were powerless as they were subject to Visa terms and conditions at which point I reminded the bank that to take a direct debit from a customer that consent was required. So how were they actively alerting customers that merchants get tokens that enable money to be taken without clear consent. That a credit card number was enough as CVV and expiry detail became meaningless…because tokens made payments easy for the merchant. Why did banks print expiry information on a card if it held no meaning and if a CVV was able to change and be accepted? How are customers protected? The reply was customers can request refunds and request a new card with a different number, both clearly detached the bank from actually protecting the customer.
I am interested to know what has changed with regards to Visa and banks gaining customer consent for tokens to be issued.
What have banks done to clarify to their customers the risk of merchants not notifying expiry and CVV on credit cards can change without direct consent or tick box when using a credit card online because I know banks are aware they have process for direct debits but not for credit card tokens.
ANZ said when a customer signed up for a subscription, they agreed to create a recurring payment authority.
“This is often called a payment token. It allows the merchant to charge a card on a recurring basis in line with the subscription agreement.
“Visa offers a service to merchants called Visa Account Updater. If the customer’s card expires and is reissued, Visa can automatically update the customer’s card details for any merchants who have a valid recurring payment authority. This means your subscription may continue even if the expiry date printed on your card has passed.
“This is why it’s important for customers to regularly check their bank statements so they can cancel subscriptions they no longer want, or may have forgotten about.”
The ANZ spokesperson said an expiry date did not guarantee that a subscription would be cancelled.
“To ensure a subscription is cancelled you need to cancel it directly with the merchant. CVV is usually only needed when you first save your card. Later subscription charges use the stored token, not CVV.
“If a customer wants to cancel a subscription, they should contact the company directly to end the service and request removal of their card details. If the company doesn’t respond or continues charging, we recommend keeping proof of cancellation attempts – such as emails or screenshots. In certain circumstances we can support customers in disputing charges through a process called a chargeback.”
Visa said its tokenisation technology replaced sensitive card details with a unique, secure token and increased security for consumers and businesses.
“This reduces fraud risk because businesses never need to store raw card data, and tokens cannot be used outside their intended environment – for instance, the token for that consumer at MightyApe will not work anywhere else. The expiry date and CVV fields are only used for the initial authentication of a service. Once a token is in place, transactions rely on the token, not the original card details. There are different ways that card-issuing banks, like ANZ, inform their customers when tokens are in use.
“Visa’s Zero Liability policy ensures cardholders are not held responsible for unauthorised transactions. Customers retain full dispute rights and can request cancellation of tokens or replacement cards at any time. Finally, letting card details lapse does not automatically cancel the underlying commercial agreement and obligations between the cardholder and a business. And not updating card details isn’t suggested as a replacement for formally cancelling subscriptions.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand