This is important information to anyone who carries a lot of cash around or to anyone who keeps cash (in a safe place) at home or the office. You need to check that you don’t have any of the old R200 notes in your possession because they will not be accepted by anyone other than the Reserve Bank from the end of May. You can read the full press release from the Reserve Bank in the bit below this. The South African Reserve Bank (the...

A total of 10.75 million consumers are in arrears, according to the Credit Bureau Monitor for the fourth quarter of 2009 – an increase of 160,000 from the previous quarter. I read this yesterday and it seemed too bad to be true so I did some investigating and found the actual report http://www.ncr.org.za/publications/Credit_Monitor/CB%20Monitor%20-%20December%202009%20Q.pdf .It is worth reading but is somewhat depressing…a few...

I need to get this off my chest (again)…been fighting with 3 of the bigger insurance companies re the level of disclosure on their products with respect to fees and more specifically the performance on their portfolios… Suffice to say it is a futile exercise – it appears that even in this highly regulated environment that they can get away with complete nonsense when it comes to answering questions put to them . There is...

I have written quite a bit about the fiasco that was Ovation Investment Services, a linked investment service provider (LISP) that was put into curatorship as a result of its links with Fidentia. Well that was more than 3 years ago now and still there is no end in sight to the curatorship – at least not according to the curators… “As for the last question posed in your email, at this point in time, it is impossible to...

Following on from the first post on RSA Retail Bonds, I received a reply from the communications manager at National Treasury who referred me to 2 more people and I finally received a 10 page summary on the bonds. The first section is titled “How to invest” and answers the questions we had but is unfortunately not available on the website (yet)! Turns out though, that if you want to invest via the website you need to...

Much was made about the RSA Retail Bond when it was launched and about how it would provide a safe and cheap investment with a reasonable returns to the “man-in-the-street”. Well, I have been trying to buy some of these for a “man-in-the-street” using the RSA Retail Bond website – what a nightmare. There is an application form online but no details where to submit it or how to pay the funds into an account. So...

There is an old saying that “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is…” I smell a rat that came in the form of an unsolicited email offering that I received today. The subject line contained the following: A generous commission structure for financial advisors (this alone should set the warning bells ringing!). Then the rest of the email… Early birds catch the fattest worms…and it is the same with investments!...