Monday media round-up 06/09/10

This week's selection of recent personal finance stories.
 

• Giving credit where it's due
  The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is considering a move to "positive" credit reporting - whereby lenders could know what types of credit you have, who the provider is, the limit, and whether the account is open or closed. (NZ Herald)
   
• Brent Sheather: Time value of money needs weighing up
  At the start of this year, the consensus among financial advisers, economists, stock brokers and all those others that frequently get their forecasts wrong was interest rates were going up, no question about it. (NZ Herald)
   
• Diana Clement: How to save teens from the credit trap
  Getting sucked into the credit card trap seems to be a teenage rite of passage in New Zealand.
  (NZ Herald)
   
• Mary Holm: Always take care of the pennies
  Mary answers  readers' questions about revolving credit, budgeting software and the KiwiSaver first home deposit subsidy. (NZ Herald)
   
• Code contradictions
  Changes proposed to the kind of information financiers can have about you are at odds with a bill before Parliament. (NZ Herald)
   
• Kiwis opt to manage own funds
  Do-it-yourself has crept into the KiwiSaver space, and while it is not for everybody, some Kiwis like it. (Stuff)
   
• Inquiry launched into Credit Sails product
  A Commerce Commission inquiry is under way after tens of millions of dollars were wiped out in a complex financial product marketed to mums and dads as capital protected and AA rated. (Stuff)
   
• No charge - if you check
  Some superannuitants are still being charged fees on bank accounts despite a belief the banks agreed not to charge under a mysterious deal back in the days of New Zealand banking deregulation and privatisation. (Stuff)
   
• KiwiSaver performance analysis 'rubbish', says Morgan
  Gareth Morgan has withdrawn his KiwiSaver fund from researcher Morningstar's analysis, published weekly in the Sunday Star-Times, and laid a complaint against the firm with the Advertising Standards Authority. (Stuff)
   
• Marketing to penny pinchers
  How do you get penny pinchers to spend these days? Pitch products that promise to save them money. (Stuff)
   
• Kiwis hunting for insurance and bank bargains
  Feeling slighted for unrequited loyalty to their main bank or insurer, most Kiwis shop actively for better deals from competing providers, according to a new survey from Ernst & Young. (Stuff)
   
• Top tips for buying or selling property
  Depending on the day, the residential housing market is either in the doldrums or picking up for spring. (Stuff)
   
• Finance shake-up - after $8b wiped out
  The biggest shake-up of the finance sector in 35 years is under way in a bid to restore shattered confidence, but it will be too late for most of those who invested more than $8 billion in finance companies that then failed. (Stuff)
   
• Customers growing happier with banks
  Customer satisfaction with the big five banks improved during the year to June, but smaller rivals Kiwibank and TSB remain at the head of the pack, a survey shows. (Stuff)
   
• Greer McDonald: The shopping list revival
  The humble old-fashioned shopping list has made a bit of a comeback as shoppers try to save money. (Lady in the Red blog - Stuff)
   
• Tips to pay off your mortgage faster
  Here’s a challenge. How fast could you pay your mortgage off? (Stuff)