Mr Feedback

Following on from my previous post, which touched on travel insurance - I found a pretty easy way of getting travel insurance (as well as other types) without having to pay exuberant amounts. I signed up for a Gold Credit Card with Commonwealth. Since I already had my no frills card with them, the sign up process was very easy. Even without this, signing up a very easy and you can do it online.

I rocked up to the Bourke St branch, and asked to be upgraded to a Gold Card (sounds cool, too bad its not made of gold). Here are the questions I asked (they are specific):

1. If you upgrade today, when will points start accruing (Once the card is activated).
2. How long does it take for the card to arrive in the mail (7-10 days, but mine arrived in 4 business days)
3. Is there an additional charge for an extra card linked (No).
4. Is travel insurance free with it (Yes, but read the additional brochure)
5. What if the extra card holder and I travel to separate destinations (they will say you need to call Zurich, but I told them to call for me).
6. When is the insurance valid from (From when you activate it).
7. Even before he asked: “No I don’t want to increase my limit”. Increasing your limit affects your borrowing capacity for homes/cars and other loans, so watch out.

Remember the name of the guy who told you the answers too. You will be surprised how many times the staff within the same institution have differing understandings of their own products.

It was just a matter of signing a form, and it was done. If you do not have a CC with Commbank, that’s ok. I would advise you stick to the bank you are with, and hassle them for all the features.

The costs
There is an annual fee, but here’s the way I calculated. Travel insurance to Central America for 3 months was about $450 bucks by HBA. So paying $114 per year for a Gold Card is not bad. Furthermore, since I travel a bit, it should come in handy (with insurance, points etc). Also note that any products you buy with your card is covered with insurance, there are more details on the website which can easily be read at your leisure time.

If you apply for a home loan with Commbank, they give you a Gold Card for free. Other banks should have similar schemes. To find out more about CC’s, go to: Money Manager.

The ease.
I do my banking all on the internet, and very rarely go a branch. The efficiency was amazing. I got my card on the 4th business day of applying, activated it, used it about 10 minutes later, and logged onto NetBank to pay off what I used and it had already updated to: “CreditCardName Gold”. Crazy!!!

Why can’t it be this good when things go wrong!

The service.
Every time I have signed up for something at Commbank, they have been very helpful. Makes sense, more business for them. I haven’t had many things go wrong with them, but when it has, it hasn’t been so bad to get the situation corrected. Read my mishap with Commbank here.

Suggestions.
I don’t really have any specific suggestions for them, but I would like to make a huge suggestion to all the banks out there. There are so many home loan options, especially for people with homes already. With rising house prices, and young couples wanting to get into the market, I do not see a home loan for such customers.

Surely one of the banks can come up with a solution for this, namely: A combined house/car loans, or house/car/furniture loan where you can borrow a total amount, and allocate percentages to use for a card or furniture, and the rest for the house. This would make it so much easier for people wanting to start a new life. With all the products out there, I am surprised no one has thought of it yet.

Yes, yes I know I know - its difficult because of appreciating assets, versus depreciating assets (i.e.: car/furniture), but surely all the financial think tanks and know hows can work it out so it appeals to everyone (customers and banks).

Rating - 10/10 (can’t complain about the service I received, and the efficiency of the whole thing)
Let me assure you, if a bank comes up with a starter home loan package for young couples designed to get them into the housing market, they would be my first choice and also the first choice for a lot of other customers out there.

In the last post (covered here) we covered some basic principles of getting the best deal when you are traveling overseas, and to use the internet as a good starting point in sourcing out a great quote. In this post, I will cover some nitty gritty aspects of travel, which you may or may not have ever come across.

Some things to watch out for…Using my experience as an example, there are two main ways of flying to LA from Melbourne via the Pacific Ocean. Melbourne - LA, direct flight, OR Melbourne - Auckland - LA. When I received my quote from Flight Centre, the way it was set out looked like: Melbourne - LA - Central America. WRONG! It was Melbourne - Auckland - LA - Central America.

Is it really a direct flight?

This is where it gets a bit silly. Next to Melbourne - LA, it said “1 stop”, and next to LA - Central America, it said “Non-Stop”. I had previously overlooked this in my trip to Chennai a few years back. The ticket said: Melbourne - Dubai - Chennai, but it was actually: Melbourne - Dubai (1 stop via Singapore) - Chennai.

So read the itinerary carefully. I think it can be very misleading, and in my Dubai example - I only found out on the day of travel.

Baggage check in.
Always ensure baggage is checked in directly. In the case of connecting domestic flights generally you will need to clear customs at the first port of entry. For example: Port Vila - Brisbane (clear customs) - Melbourne, which means you will need to pick up your luggage. However, in international connections, your baggage must be checked in to your final destination. Having said this, always carry a pair of clothes in your hand luggage, as my brother recently found out when they LOST his luggage on route to Mexico.

The art of bargaining.
Expanding on my earlier post about “keeping the bargaining in your terms”. Never let the agent make the calls. This strategy works especially well when you are absolutely serious in buying the ticket then and there. This means, you will need to exhibit confidence about your research and not think twice. This way, prices can be readily slashed. This principle can be used for buying anything really. I used to buy some jewelery at the end of last year, and slashed a $1000 off the retail price! I told the lady, I will walk out if she doesn’t give it to me for the price I quoted. Simple!

P.S.: The above strategy comes with its risks so ensure you have a back up plan or are prepared to negotiate further.

Be fair and honest.
I firmly believe in this concept. Sure you can be firm, harsh and straight forward in your negotiating process. But always go back to the first person you dealt with and aim to buy the tickets or product from them. Otherwise, it defeats the purpose of establishing a relationship with a retailer. For example, I know some people who buy airline tickets from the same person, and routinely obtain wholesale prices, and never pay the credit card surcharge.

The credit card surcharge!
This is part of your bargaining chip. Never pay credit card surcharge. The surcharge is what the credit card companies charge the retailer, and the retailer passes the costs to you (the consumer). I think this is unfair. The retailer should brunt this cost as we are giving them business. I frankly refuse to pay the surcharge, and when I bought my tickets recently go it surcharge free. I saved $60 bucks straight up using this method.

Remember, never pay the credit card surcharge. Always calculate this when buying tickets. When shopping online for tickets, ensures you check the prices on the last page (i.e.: upon confirmation of payment) to ensure no extra charges are being added (such as Tiger airways luxury tax highlighted earlier in my blog). Find out more about surcharges here.

Travel insurance.
This is how I played the system. I got as quote from HBA, and then decided to upgrade my credit card to one which includes Travel Insurance. That’s right, most credit cards come with built in awards, travel insurance, medical insurance, cancellation insurance, and lost baggage insurance. This can also include the family members who are travelling with the card holder.

The best thing is: 1) get a credit card which has awards and all types of insurance, 2) get additional card for your partner. Both you and your partner can go to different destinations, and still be covered. Ensure you check with the insurance provider for your credit card (which is usually NOT the bank itself, but someone like Zurich in the case of Commonwealth Bank), and ask them what the claim process is. For me, this worked out to be cheaper than getting travel insurance through HBA (about 300 bucks cheaper in fact).

In fact, did you also know if you buy a product using your credit card - sometimes your warranty is automatically extended without added cost! Do research people!

Frequent flyer program.
Always join up to a frequent flyer program. Why, because: 1) usually they are free, 2) accumulate points and then transfer amongst family members (Krisflyer allows this), 3) transfer your credit card awards to frequent flyer miles, 4) Did I mention it was free!.

Want to save more?
There is one other method of getting the best deal. If you are flying to a destination which involves a stop over, then you can buy two separate tickets. In my example: Melbourne - LA, one ticket. LA - Central America, second ticket. I could have saved about 200 bucks using this, but beware - this means you will have to pick up luggage, and re-checkin and if your plane is delayed you may find the 2nd airline will not refund all of your money. If you have huge amounts of transit time, then it might work out in your favour.

Summary
I hope this helps you make a better choice when booking holidays, or buying airline tickets. These are simple strategies which I use when booking tickets on the web, or through an agent. There are plenty of options out there, and they are not that hard to snitch out. If you have any further questions, I would be happy to help! Just drop me a line.

I have introduced The Feedback Wall located on the side bar ?. People are busy, so I can understand if you don’t have the time or love to blog like I do. To make it simpler to give feedback about businesses, you can now leave mini feedback on the side bar. Just click on: Leave mini feedback!, and tell us what you think. It’s quick, easy, simple, and takes a few seconds.

Enjoy!

This is an extended post on some of the tips I think are useful when you are looking for the best holiday or airline ticket deals. So far this year, I have traveled to: Vanuatu, Sydney, Adelaide, India, Singapore and recently booked a 2.5 month trip to Central America. You’d think I would know a thing or two about booking holidays. This is Part 1: Getting the best deal!.

The Options.
When looking for travel deals, there is no better place than the internet. There are literally thousands of sites out there who offer some great deals, but there are also some real shoddy ones too so you have to be careful. Here is my motto: be prepared to shop around, check regularly because airline prices change on a daily basis, and ensure you trust the person whom you are buying from.

Unlike me, many people are still uncomfortable making large purchases on the internet. This is understandable, however it does not mean the internet is out of the options.

Tip 1 - Do your research?
I used several sites to compare travel prices to Central America. These include (but not limited to):

1. Expedia.com.au
2. Flight Centre
3. Escape Travel
4. Travel.com.au
5. Singapore Airlines
6. American Airlines
7. Thai Airways
8. United
   

What I found that depending on the dates you put, prices can vary by up to 200-300 dollars. That’s a massive saving! This is stemmed from varying taxes, fuel prices and surcharges. Furthermore, always be prepared to check individual airlines as well, because sometimes they are way cheaper than booking through an agent.

Tip 2 - Shop around physically!
Once I assimilated my quotes from the above sites, I chose the best ones. I was quite flexible with the dates of travel, therefore I could really afford to get the best price. Traveling during weekdays is generally cheaper than weekends. Know your peak and off peak seasons. For example: Traveling in mid November to North / Central America is considered off peak, but once you hit late November prices jump rapidly (i.e.: Christmas). From my research, I found traveling on Tuesday and Wednesday (so called mid week fares) to be the cheapest.

My next target with these quotes were travel agents. I tried Flight Centre, Escape Travel, and Harvey World Travel. You would be surprised how much each agent varies, even when its their own company. I received three very different quotes from Flight Centres within 3 blocks from each other in downtown Melbourne. The difference between the cheapest and most expensive was 700 bucks!!!

Tip 3 - Set your limits, and preferences
From day one, I had my preferences set. This means selecting the best route for me, number of stop overs, and also the airlines I am willing to fly. These were: 1) Non stop to LA, 2) Via Pacific (or maybe SE Asia, but definitely not China), 3) Qantas / United /  Thai / Singapore or American Airlines.

Tip 4 - Be firm.
I find the art of negotiating quite simple. It’s my territory, I negotiate and no one else does. That means, I set the price limits, I set the rules, and I am prepared to walk away. So I went to the cheapest Flight Centre quote, and literally said: “I have this quote from this website, can you price beat it. If you can, I will buy the ticket right now!”. This usually works. The agent wants to make a quick sale, and immediately knows you are not to be messed with. Of course, I had evidence to back up my quotes. You can’t simply make up unreasonable quotes, because you will find they have access to all the quotes you have managed to source.

Summary
Okay, so far you have managed to get the best quote, and are now sitting right in front of the agent. Once you are happy with the deal and the price match / beat has been achieved, then what do you do? I will follow this up in my next post….which will definitely be interesting. Stay tuned!

Okay, so it seems they made a mistake. You see, they billed me since January until July but “forgot” to tell me. The bill stated different time frames. Naturally, I was a bit confused and just waited for them to sort it out.

Today I received a letter from Tru Energy with a big red reminder notice, and big bold words stating “unpaid account“.

This was all sorted when I rang Tru energy today, and asked them “what the hell is going on?”. I have never paid a bill late, and thus far have paid it within 24-48 hours of receiving it. I really don’t like it when companies accuse me of not paying a bill.

Not a happy camper Tru Energy.

I’m confused. To maintain my loyalty, I transferred my Tru Energy account with my previous home to the current one. They promise green energy for no extra cost, so why not I thought?

I received my first gas bill of the year couple of months ago. They charged me: $51.33, but part of it was unaccounted for. The bill actually stated a total sum of: $28.52, but right underneath it, the grand total was: $51.33. I could not find any evidence of extra charges after scouring the bill. I promptly contacted them for assistance, and an explanation.

Here is the chain of events:
* June 27th: I received a reply stating they are investigating.
* July 1st: I informed them I will not pay the bill until I hear from them.
* July 4th: they tell me the bill due date has been extended to July 18th.
* July 8th: I remind them I have not heard from them.
* July 14th: I receive an email stating: “I would like to inform you that the billing department is investigating on the matter. Once it is resolved, we will contact you.“

I wait and wait.

* Middle of July: I ring them up and confirm they are still investigating it, and the phone lady reassured me they were, and told me “not to pay the bill until I had heard from them”.
* Aug 9th: I receive an SMS from them asking me: “If I had overlooked paying the bill, and to contact customer service”. I was at work at the time.
* 1 hour later: I rang the customer service only to be confronted by an automated message repeatedly asking me for my account number (which was sitting on the bookshelf in a bills folder at home). Eventually it disconnected me, and told me to call during week days.
* 5 hours later: I finish work and email them with fury.

24 hours later: I sit and write my story here as a time course event. Somewhere along the line, communication has been lost. Some dude must have gone through the “bills not paid yet” list, and saw my name and decided to text me to “remind me”. I will keep you updated about this. Just had to vent!

P.S: I have email evidence of all this in case they change their story.

I was invited for dinner at Madras Banyan Tree, out in Hampton East. A bit of a drive, but worth it. The website is great, but please give us an option to skip the intro. It’s really annoying to have to wait until it finishes.

Madras Banyan Tree
924 Nepean Highway
Hampton East, VIC 3188
Ph: (03) 9555 7170

The service
I arrived there a bit earlier, and was promptly seated and offered drinks to start with. However, when my friends arrived they forgot to bring out more menus so we ended up sharing them. They accommodated for the baby too, but giving us seating next to the heater. I like the fact that when the food was served, they announced its name. Yes, it’s common sense but you would be surprised how many restaurant staff do not do this. The service was as you would expect for a restaurant of this quality.

The ambience and location
Don’t judge a book by its cover. The restaurant’s outside wasn’t flashy, but inside was quite nicely decorated. Not overdone. The polished floors, and tables and chairs were nice. The service desk was located in a such a way that attention could be attained easily. You find in some restaurants where you are in corner where no one else can see you, so getting the waiter’s attention is almost impossible. The restaurant was spacious, unlike some of the others I have been to. The physical location could have been better. It’s located on the side road of an overpass, but its too late to change this aspect of the restaurant.

The food
Everyone enjoyed their meal that night. It was well presented, and adequately prepared to individuals taste. Like the red hot chilli fritters - extra extra extra spicy!! Sure my tongue was burning, but it was worth it!!The onion rava masala dosa was the “best I have ever tasted” according to one of my friends. The prices were a bit steep, particularly for the entree platter which was $14.90 for 5 pieces. The sambar vada was immersed in sambar until the vada was softish (the way it should be). It just melts in your mouth.

The Rating - 8.5/10 (excellent food, will try again)
So if everything was excellent, then why only an 8.5 rating. Unfortunately for them, when I arrived to the restaurant I saw the manager outside smoking, just a few feet away from the front door. Not a good look guys. It was a good thing he wasn’t the chef, otherwise I may have turned back around.

Two different days, two very different stories when it comes to Indian food. See my next review on Madras Banyan Tree. I went to Flora Indian Restaurant a couple of nights ago. It’s kind of like “the fast food of Indian restaurants”, or almost. The prices are cheap, but I found the food to be pretty disappointing.

Flora Indian Restaurant & Cafe
238 Flinders Street
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Ph: (03) 9663 1212

The ambience and location
Situated right opposite Flinders Street Station, you could not pick out a better spot.  The restaurant is well located, and is neatly managed inside. The plasma with Indian songs running in the background is a cheeky idea too. It makes business sense to have a restaurant near a University (Victoria University), a busy metro station (Flinders Street), and a number of tourist attractions (Federation square, and more).

The food
Flora has existed for a number of years now, and over the years the quality of food has worsened unfortunately. It was the one of the first well known Indian places to have good quality South Indian food. I ordered one of the Combo meals. The mushroom curry, and potato curry were half cooked, and the dhal curry was deplorable. I have eaten in  many Indian restaurants, and I can see why you can easily be fooled into thinking this is standard Indian cuisine. However, their target is students and the fast eaters - so it makes sense to serve food fast, cheap and perhaps not care about quality so much.

The service
Nothing much I can talk about here. The only service I used, and got was when I paid for my meal.

The Rating - 5/10 (great location, excellent for the quick bite, but thats about it)
I was a bit disappointed with Flora because of its history. I have dined there in the past, when it was a quality restaurant. It’s kind of been taken over by the need for speed factor.

I hope to tell you about exciting deals that I encounter, or find out about right here. For now, there is no special section for it - but hopefully there will be. There are plenty of other Australian websites that list all the special deals out there. I thought you might be interested in this Video Ezy Offer.

The Flemington store is moving, and for the month of October (or the month they are moving), they are offering all movies (new, old, ancient, box office etc) for $1.00. You can hire 5 movies per night. That is one of the cheapest deals I have encountered when it comes to DVD hiring.

Step into the Video Ezy store, and grab a coupon. It’s totally worth it!

Store:
Video Ezy
6-12 Pin Oak Crescent
Flemington VIC 3031

There’s nothing better than a good breakfast after a long night shift. Recently, I had this privilege at Cafe Notturno.

Cafe Notturno
177-179 Lygon St
Carlton 3053 VIC
Phone: (03) 9347 8286

The food
I was in for a simple breakfast, and ordered toast with baked beans. My favourite. I liked it, but remember I am biased towards toast and baked beans. The beans could have been more warmer I thought. The coffee was not bad either, better than your average Star Bucks. I did see a few other customers, so breakfast at this place is nothing new. They have a range of options, traditional and unique. Certainly worth a try.

The service
Nothing spectacular. We received an incorrect bill, but partly because we didn’t know our table number (even though we sat very close to the front register).

Rating - 6.5 (good breaky, average service)
I love a good breakfast. I will go here again, but perhaps for other meals of the day. Have you tried this place for lunch or dinner? Let us know.