Latitude Financial Australia is also a defendant in the lawsuit filed by the corporate regulator.
Old Mate Gerry and Lattitude Being Sued over ‘Misleading’ Interest-Free Ads
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anyone actually expect a real punishment?
Not a chance and these companies know it….. They might get a $10m fine, but made $100m+ along the way out of it, so still infront.
Until the laws change that the fine is equal to all gains + 20% these companies won't change.
some european countries already do it, at least for traffic violations.
i can't imagine it would pass here, gerry, and all his mates on both sides of the fence, would see to that.
Ya love to see it
No deposit and interest free, sounds like AfterPay amirite?
How? You dont pay anything with Afterpay if you make your payments.
With Latitude, there is sometimes an annual fee (I think the Gem card) as well as the $7.95 month fee.
I was being facetious, I know latitude theres other 'fees and charges' that aren't called 'interest' or 'deposit', so technically they got away with the scam whereas Afterpay is legit split your payments over a set period no extra cost.
Your HELP debt is also interest free too, it's just increased according to indexation :D tomato tomato
And customers who owe them money be like " We deserve compensation, court should void any amount we owe and let us keep the two door fridge and 88 inches OLED".
It's predatory lending, but sure, go ahead and blame the poors.
Yeah Gerry wants 'compensation' but we the tax payers are still waiting for Gerry to repay all that job keeper money….
Wonder if they'll get the option to repay the fine in instalments with no deposit and 24mths interest free…
But 7.95 per month administration fee.
Hidden monthly admin fee.. outstanding job keeper repayment/24
+10% because gst is a good thing…Regrettably this is probably more as a result of the salesperson being stupid/deceitful , who worked the previously selling used cars for a City Fraud dealership.
@BewareOfThe Dog: I'd suggest that the court case suggests that is is clearly not so. The "salesperson" didn't write or commission the misleading ads.
Nope, it's $8.95 per month, has been for quite some time.
Latitude will just cop a small slap and probably rebrand/restructure yet again in a few years. Exact same shit as GE Capital previously and they still continue to get away with it.
It's rude to neg without replying Gerry
GE only rebranded as they were sold off.
Creditline>AGC>GE - same shit
They sell to Latitude - same shit occurring still.Fair point
Those are different products that the company owns, they used to own about 16 different ones, i.e. GE Mastercard, 28 degrees Visa, Gem Visa, Coles Mastercard, Myer Visa, Creditline etc.. They all have slightly different offerings, different interest rates, monthly costs, limits, perks etc…
This is the same guy that cried so hard he got a GST on low imports because of his mates in office? GH is getting nothing but a finger waggled at him and a furrowed eyebrow over this at best.
"They never advertised that it was fee free."
Yeah, they didn't advertise that it was fee free.. in fact, they didn't advertise anything about additional fees at all.
Hmm.
I wonder if that's what it meant when it said they were taking them to court on "hidden fees".
I wonder if that's what it meant when it said they were taking them to court on "hidden fees".
Its literally in the PDS that the clients have access to before they sign.
Unless you mean to say Latitude hid all fees even in the PDS?
It sounds like you're arguing from a point of sophistry that "as long as a fee is mentioned somewhere in the process, regardless of how prominent, even if it's in the fine print of the PDS right at the end and only there" then it's all legally binding and final and that's that and the concept of "hidden fees" and so forth can't apply. "You shoulda read the fine print, too bad, so sad" etc.
Of course that's nonsense, which is why the concept of a 'hidden fee' exists in the first place. And we have the various laws on predatory finance, payday loans etc, to prevent this type of scenario.
Because the law goes further than "welp, it's just whether the words were ever at any place in the process or not".
The fees need to be told to you up front, not hidden in the PDS. We have lending standards in this country, I prefer it that way.
How did it come out to a average of $537? I don’t recall creditline cards having $5 a month fees, there was a average monthly payment calculated, there were late fees if you didn’t pay on time, but the internet free period was pretty generous considering the cards rate was like 29% and every man and his dog could get one
That's $8.95, which no doubt is the current rate per month. I know my ANZ CC Yearly fee is less than that - $7.50 per month?
I can’t see anything wrong with the ad.
The fees are for the Go MasterCard, not the purchase. It has monthly fees for ongoing balances. Those fees apply even if you don’t shop at HN and use the card somewhere else and have ongoing balances.
They aren’t interest fees or deposits. I assume customers are claiming they weren’t told about the Go MasterCard fees when they took out the credit?
Based on your ability to discern between the technicalities, you're not likely to get caught up in this "scam"
However I think the general layman will get caught with this. IDEALLY we would expect everyone to read the T&C's but I would guess that a fairly significant portion of their customers don't. For a customer that isn't educated, what TYPE of fee is being charged doesn't really matter but how much it is does. These sorts of advertisements are preying upon that consumers are only versed in identifying a TYPE of fee and watching like a hawk for it, because newspapers tell you interest = bad etc etc. So then they just shuffle those costs elsewhere.
How successful it is does come down to what a layman is likely to understand from the marketing presented. Being hit with fees that you weren't looking out for, even if it's in a table of fees document does feel like its a bit of an angle shoot.
The other issue is that the whole financial products "presentation" documents have all had overhauls so that you can EASILY compare one product to another. I am unsure if HN/Latitude present these fees in the standard financial products disclosure fee table but if they're purposely avoiding that sort of presentation I can imagine it won't be looked upon too favourably
Well you could argue that Harvey Norman could also advertised
'NO ADDED SALT, NO FAT, NO SUGAR' and 'Gluten FREE, VEGAN FRIENDLY' because it didn't have any of that and they can claim it.
I think latitude bought ge, who bought agc, who bought avco.
As someone, who has worked for HN over the years in a few different roles, I daresay some sales people have misrepresented the product, hence why this has come to light.
However, quite often the ads would have 'terms and conditions apply, see store for details.'
Of course, if the sales person was not trained, or was downright deceitful (and/or stupid), this is where people would complain (understandably), but some customers didn't listen, they were just dazed by having a product better than the Joneses next door.
As someone that worked in sales, we would cringe when someone came in to buy something on Interest free, as there was a Finance Recovery, that was internally added to the sale. Depending on the type of Interest free, there was a percentage taken out of the sale which obviously affected the salespersons commission, so you had to be really good with Add-ons like 'Extended Warranty', Anti-Virus, a Printer, Desk, Chair, Ink, MS Office and Accessories. At the time, if they were a business, you would switch them to Flexirent/Lisa (which was a full tax deduction, unlike depreciation)
The Go Mastercard was brought in @2006, and also brought in a reward system at the time. This was also for everyday purchases. The reward system finished this/last year.
There was an account keeping fee of @$5 per month whilst you had a balance Initially. Where Latitude (and their Predecessors) made their money was when, someone was late on the payment, then the massive 25-29% Interest rate kicked in, which was calculated on the original purchase. Imagine, being short by $20 on a $4000 purchase, and then being slugged the Interest payment calculated on $4000 (not $20).
Prior to Latitude, HN had an internal system in the 90s, which offered 9% Interest on 1/3rd deposit over 2 years? Anyone that was late, was only charged Interest on the balance? However, the Povs, preferred the lure of 'Interest-Free' over various time frames.
I'm surprised that HN don't offer 6 years interest free.
Loved it when it was near EOFY and tradies and small business owners would froth for Flexirent.
How good were those Flexichips tho.I daresay some sales people have misrepresented the product
Come on man. You know it is/was more than some.
Extended warranty cough ProductCare.
Merged from Misleading’ Interest-Free Ads
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2022/10/05/h…
consumers need to be aware of the dangers. While 2 companies have been alleged, the issue is more dangerous.
Dup post
It's good that they are fighting small players that are indirectly fleecing the consumer however that should look at the big players such as that are involved in cybercrime that are scamming people that are transacting big dollars. Bank branches are closing and more and more onus is on the consumer to do the run around, stress etc whilst reaping $B in profits, washing their hands (handballing) the responsibility. DIY society gremlins
My question is why is anyone shopping at HN…. Gerry clearly showed his disdain for Australia with his action over job keeper and just recently confirmed it with his statement that China is the way to run a country……
Actually, his love for Australia increased because we were the poor saps that funded his bumper profits for the year.
They advertise to the uneducated. This suits them as they have predatory sales tactics.
Will be interesting how this proceeds, as it will have big knockon effects for every retailer that advertises interest free options. Latitude provides interest free finance to a LOT of retailers, so not sure why they aren't included in the lawsuit as I don't see any difference in the advertising between them and HN.
The lawsuit centres around the advertising and promotion of the interest free, not the actual interest free itself it seems. I don't how they can say it was not represented that in order to get interest free you need to use a Latitude product such as GO Mastercard, their logos and whatnot are all over the place in ads I've seen.
I know that all interest free promotion advertising has been pulled effective immediately, but you can still get interest free if desired.
Latitude provides interest free finance to a LOT of retailers, so not sure why they aren't included in the lawsuit as I don't see any difference in the advertising between them and HN.
Because the other retailers generally follow the rules. How many of the other retailers actively sign up their customers for them?
Quite a lot. And what rules in regards to signing people up are being broken by HN specifically? They don't approve the applications, Latitude do.
There's an obvious conflict when the retailer is controlling, inputting the sign up process.
Because most of the ads on tv radio etc is hn or dm.
anyone actually expect a real punishment? my bet is a slap on the wrist, as per usual.