OrbitRemit Blog - International Money Transfers

Call for Expats to repay student loans as quake aid

uk@orbitremit — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:01:12 +0000

New Zealander of the year Sir Paul Callaghan has come up with an interesting way to try and help with the relief effort in the wakeof the Christchurch Quake. We here at OrbitRemit are behind this proposal and have undertaken to make all student loan repayments free of charge. Read the full article below and visit our site for full details on how to make payments.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-2011/4819321/Call-for-expats-to-repay-student-loans-as-quake-aie

Share this:

OrbitRemit helping you to save money this Christmas

uk@orbitremit — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:42:40 +0000

The lead up to Christmas can be a very expensive time and like everyone else we like to make savings where we can. We have had a lot of very positive feedback from customers of late in regard to the service that we are now offering to help people make payments to New Zealand for outstanding tax bills and student loans.

We are currently offering theses services free of charge in a bid to help making those payments a little less difficult. Our customers cannot believe the savings they can make using our service as opposed to the banks or high street money transfer companies. We have had numerous calls and emails from students abroad thanking us for making the process so simple and cost effective compared to the tradtional channels they have been using.

If making a tax payment, or student loan payment is one of the things on your long to-do list before Christmas please visit our site and see how you can make some significant savings. For full information visit http://www.orbitremit.com/global/orbitremit-payment-options/send-money-to-new-zealand/tax-account-student-loan and then select the country you are in.

For all those of you have used us and sent us positive feedback we tahnk you and look forward to continuing to exceed your expectations.

The team at OrbitRemit.

Share this:

Interested in saving money on your student loan repayments?

uk@orbitremit — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 10:13:23 +0000

We recently spoke with a customer who was wishing to make a significant payment towards their New Zealand student loan from Australia. The individual in question was shocked at the amount they had previously been charged by their bank and could not believe the sort of savings we could offer towards their payment. To give you an idea of the charges levied by the bank and the savings offered by OrbitRemit see the example below;

Fees;

With bank: Customer sent NZD$7,000 through a credit card payment. Customer was charged AUD$161.87 by Commonwealth Bank as a currency conversion fee.

With OrbitRemit: OrbitRemit will provide your student loan payment for zero fees. The amount you see on our site to pay in AUD$ is the amount you pay and the amount received by IRD in NZD$ is the amount you see. The process is completely transparent and without fees.

Exchange Rates;

With bank: Based on the day the customer transferred the money she would have needed to pay AUD $5,701.72 to receive NZD$7,000 with Commonwealth Bank.

With OrbitRemit: To receive the same NZD$7,000 with OrbitRemit the customer only needed to send AUD $5,588.82

If you consider the saving from the fees of AUD $161.87 plus the savings on the exchange rate offered of AUD $112.90 then the total that this customer was able to save using OrbitRemit to make this payment was AUD$274.77. If you consider this as a percentage it is just under four percent of the total sent.

Here at OrbitRemit we dont think it is fair that hardworking people trying to make payments towards there loans should be charged such high fees and given such low exchange rates. We are committed to working with the Inland Revenue Department in providing the most cost effective way to make payments towards New Zealand student loans.

For more information please visit our site at www.orbitremit.com and select the country you are in.

Share this:

Residents Flee Philippines volcano

uk@orbitremit — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:26:25 +0000

Dozens of people fled their homes near a restive Philippine volcano on Wednesday, while authorities advised pilots to avoid flying near clouds of fine ash shooting out from its crater.

More than 50 people fled two villages at the base of the 1565-metre Mount Bulusan volcano and more may follow, the local Philippine Army command said in a statement.

Soldiers and police would also be posted to keep people out of a six-kilometre zone around the crater and has trucks on standby to take evacuees to government-run shelters, it said. Bulusan showered nearby communities with ash on Tuesday, with its explosions accompanied by booming sounds, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said in an advisory, adding that it expects more explosions.

“Civic aviation authorities must advise pilots to avoid flying close to the volcano’s summit as ejected ash and volcanic fragments from sudden explosions may pose hazard to aircraft,” it said.

Bulusan, 250 kilometres southeast of the capital Manila on the main island of Luzon, is one of the country’s 23 active volcanoes.

People living near streams and valleys in the area were warned that mudflows of volcanic ash could be triggered by heavy rainfall.

The local government said a quarter of a million people live in six towns around the volcano, and many of them could be at risk if the mild eruption increases in intensity.

Bulusan has erupted 16 times in recorded history, the last time in 2006. It began emitting ash again from November 6.

If you know anyone affected OrbitRemit are offering all new registrations free money transfers to the Philippines to help. Please visit our site for more information at www.orbitremit.com and select the country you are in.

Share this:

Make International child support payments for free with OrbitRemit

uk@orbitremit — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:58:27 +0000

OrbitRemit is now able to assist anyone living in the UK or Australia to make child support payments back to IRD New Zealand.

You are now able to link straight to OrbitRemit through the IRD website.

http://www.ird.govt.nz/makepayment/internet-banking/internet-banking-index.html

As a sign of our commitment to work with the IRD to make these payments as easy and cost effective as possible we will be making all child support payments from these countries for free. This means as a sender the amount you send is the amount that will be received by the IRD, there are no hidden costs.

Compare this with large fees levied by the banks in both the UK and Australia and also the difficulty in confirming rates and it all points to a a very user friendy, cost effective option.

Should you have any questions about how to make child suppport payments through OrbitRemit please visit our sits at https://www.orbitremit.com/global and choose the country where you are sending from.

Share this:

Australian Dollar hits parity with the US

uk@orbitremit — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:04:50 +0000

The Australian dollar hit parity with the US for the first time since it was floated in 1983. This came on the back of the US Federal Resrve announcing that they will continue with their quantitative easing program in November.

Sterling was down this morning towards levels close to the lows of last week against the Australian dollar. Last week saw a low of 1.60390 with an average of 1.61624.

Against NZD Sterling traded in a farily tight range last week with an average 2.10626.

With no significant data out today we would expect trading to be fairly soft. For those of you needing to send funds from New Zealand or Australia this is a great time to do so and remember that your first payment with OrbitRemit is free of charge.

Visit us at www.orbitremit.com for up to date rates and more information.

Share this:

OrbitRemit Loyalty Scheme for money transfers

uk@orbitremit — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:19:06 +0000

As well as offering all new customers their first money transfer free of charge OrbitRemit also rewards those who refer friends and family to us. We offer all existing customers ongoing loyalty points for every payment made and extra points for all new customers who you refer that register with us.

These loyalty points are accumulated and count towards free payments to allow you to send money with no fees.

At OrbitRemit we pride ourselves on our level of customer service and only ever being a quick phone call or email away. Here are a couple of recent testimonials from our customers;

“I would score your Customer Service as 10/10.

My whole working career was with customer service and I appreciate when I receive the standard of care I tried to give my customers.

Many thanks,

John (UK)

“Your service is absolutely wonderful. Now I know that I can easily send money back home and I am confident because I can always check the status through my account. It is really great. I will refer your service to my friends.”

Jean (New Zealand)

Share this:

Aussie Dollar hits highs against New Zealand dollar

uk@orbitremit — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:16:38 +0000

Further on from our last post about the Reserve Bank anouncement in New Zealand and the dollar has hit close to a five month low against the Aussie dollar. This comes largely on the bank of the Reserve banks statement, which inclinated that there will be no interest rate rises before the years end. By comparison the Reserve Bank of Australia noted that rates are likely to increase, largely driven by the mining sector, in an attempt to combat inflation.

With unemployment figures sitting at a very low 5% in Australia it is likely that interest rates will rise throughout the year. With the Aussie dollar riding so high, its a great time to send some money back to New Zealand. Both the Aussie and Kiwi dollar made ground against Sterling last week.

Here at OrbitRemit we have just extended our free payment offer so any new customers registering to use our service will receive their first payment free of charge. Please visit www.orbitremit.com and selcet the country you are in for full information.

Share this:

New Zealands Official Cash Rate Announcement

uk@orbitremit — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 13:26:13 +0000

We received this today from Richard Christensen at Westpac in regard to the Official Cash Rate Announcement this morning, it makes for interesting reading;

I have copied some information below from our Economics team and the RBNZ release regarding this morning’s Official Cash Rate review and the Monetary Policy Statement issued by the Reserve Bank.

We anticipate interest rates will remain largely static for the coming months as a result of today’s review and the associated comments.

OCR on hold at 3%, issues extremely dovish statement, plans to hike OCR more slowly
This morning the RBNZ left the Official Cash Rate on hold at 3%, as expected, and issued a much more dovish statement than expected. The plan for future monetary policy has been radically altered. Whereas the June Monetary Policy Statement projected that 90-day rates would rise to around 6%, now the RBNZ is projecting rates will rise to just 4.4% by mid-2012 – an implicit endorsement of current market pricing.

The detail of the Monetary Policy Statement was even weaker than the press release.

The RBNZ noted that overall global economic conditions had weakened a little – although US economic growth was slowing, growth in Asia remained robust.

The real change since June, in the RBNZ’s mind, is the outlook for NZ domestic demand. The RBNZ has slashed its forecast for residential construction and NZ consumer spending. There was an extraordinary reduction in the GDP forecast. Back in June the RBNZ expected annual growth to rise to 4% during 2011. Now, the RBNZ expects growth to hit just 2.8%. The RBNZ appears to have reached the judgement that recent down-beat confidence surveys portend an extended relapse into economic malaise.

The radically reduced growth outlook means less pressure on medium-term inflation in the RBNZ’s forecast. Back in June, the RBNZ expected robust growth to pressure inflation towards the top of the allowable 1-3% range. Now, the RBNZ expects inflation will settle comfortably at 2.2%, after a one-off spike from GST pushes inflation to 4.8%.

The RBNZ reached its judgement before the earthquake struck Canterbury. The earthquake was seen as neutral for medium-term inflation, even though it will create GDP growth in the short run. Therefore, the earthquake is seen as neutral for monetary policy.

Market implications
The statement implies no change to the OCR in October or December, and only one hike every three meetings thereafter.

Two-year swap rates fell 8bp, and the exchange rate fell 50 pips. A larger reaction was avoided, as markets had anticipated a radical change in the RBNZ’s stance. Most economists, ourselves included, will be astounded by the size the revision to the RBNZ’s plan.

RBNZ media release
The Reserve Bank today left the Official Cash Rate (OCR) unchanged at 3.0 percent.

Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard said: “While the global and domestic economies continue to recover, the outlook has weakened since our June Statement. We consider it appropriate at this point to keep the OCR on hold.

“The earthquake that struck Canterbury on 4 September has significantly disrupted economic activity and is likely to continue to do so for some time yet. Many homes and businesses have been damaged, as have significant parts of Canterbury’s public infrastructure. Eventual reconstruction and repairs will require considerable resources over the next year or two, particularly in the construction sector. If, in the aftermath of the earthquake, the prices of some goods and services increase temporarily, monetary policy would remain focused on the medium-term trend in inflation. The Policy Targets Agreement explicitly instructs the Bank to look through temporary price increases generated by a natural disaster.

“Looking more generally at the domestic economy, the household sector remains cautious, with consumer spending soft, house sales falling and house prices remaining flat. With continued soft demand for credit, this suggests household spending will not increase to the extent previously projected.

“The pace of expansion in the global economy appears to have slowed in recent months with forward indicators of US growth, in particular, deteriorating noticeably. Nevertheless, continued strong growth in Australia and China will support demand for New Zealand exports, reinforcing the continued contribution of high export commodity prices.

“Overall, despite the weakened outlook, we still expect that growth will progressively absorb current surplus capacity over the next few years. In addition, changes to indirect taxes and earthquake impacts will cause headline inflation to spike higher over the coming year. Previous experience of GST increases, the fact that annual CPI inflation has been near 2 percent for the past year and a half, and the subdued state of domestic demand suggest this inflation spike will have little impact on medium-term inflation expectations.

“Over time, it is likely that further removal of monetary policy support will be required. The pace and extent of further OCR increases is likely to be more moderate than was projected in the June Statement.”

If you would like to see how this has affected exchange rates today, please visit www.orbitremit.com where you can find more information on online money transfers.

Share this:

Student loans and overseas borrowers in the news again

uk@orbitremit — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:43:29 +0000

It seems that student loan debt and overseas borrowers in particular are really in the sights of the government at the moment;

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10670936

We remind you again that if you need to make a re-payment towards your outstanding New Zealand student loan debt we can help you to make the payment free of charge. Here at OrbitRemit we charge no transaction fee and offer rates superior to the banks. Please visit our site at https://www.orbitremit.com/uk/orbitremit-payment-options/send-money-to-new-zealand/tax-account-student-loan for more information.

Share this:

OrbitRemit Blog - International Money Transfers

Call for Expats to repay student loans as quake aid

Related posts

OrbitRemit helping you to save money this Christmas

Related posts

Interested in saving money on your student loan repayments?

Related posts

Residents Flee Philippines volcano

Related posts

Make International child support payments for free with OrbitRemit

Related posts

Australian Dollar hits parity with the US

Related posts

OrbitRemit Loyalty Scheme for money transfers

Related posts

Aussie Dollar hits highs against New Zealand dollar

Related posts

New Zealands Official Cash Rate Announcement

Related posts

Student loans and overseas borrowers in the news again

Related posts