Business

Photo: 123RF Have you ever received a suspicious email, call, or a text that felt like a scam? You are not alone - scam victims accounted for 22 percent of complaints to the Banking Ombudsman over the past year. A report from the banking watchdog has revealed it received word of almost 80 fraud and scam cases a month in the last 12 months. Phishing and data-gathering scams were the most common, followed by online shopping scams. Auckland resident Rita Regmi is among a growing group of New Zealanders to fall victim to a scam. In May, she received a call from someone claiming to be from her bank's fraud team. "They said something suspicious was happening with my account, and someone was trying to transfer money. "To verify my details, they asked for my first name, last name, date of birt...

Photo: Unsplash Airfares might be falling but it could take a long time for them to get back to pre-pandemic levels, experts say. Air NZ chief executive Greg Foran told RNZ in August that fare prices on average were down and were driven by supply and demand. Stats NZ data backs that up - but while prices are down 23 percent on average from the peak for international airfares, and 13 percent for domestic, they are still up more than 50 percent from their lowest point, just before Covid hit. Aviation expert Irene King said it was still likely that the long-term trend for airfares would be down. "What we are seeing is some short-term aberrations and hangover from all the supply chain disruption ... remember we are operating in a market where 25 percent of the aircraft capacity is basically ...

Karaka Cafe manager Cam Cuff. Photo: RNZ / Pokere Paewai A Wellington cafe is offering customers the chance to save money by using a little bit of te reo Māori - something which could help the normalisation of the language. For te reo speakers, going out for lunch often means leaving a language bubble - but as te reo gradually becomes more normalised, cafes and restaurants could become spaces where hearing the language is common. Karaka Cafe on Wellington's waterfront offered customers a chance to knock 10 percent off the price of their meal during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. All they had to do was say a te reo phrase when paying: "Tēnā koa poroa te tekau paihēneti o te utu", or "Please trim 10 percent off the price". Cafe manager Cam Cuff said this was the first year the cafe had run the p...

RNZ's money correspondent Susan Edmunds. Photo: RNZ Send your questions to susan.edmunds@rnz.co.nz I've just found out that I'm being made redundant but I am due to settle on my first home in a few weeks. Can I pull out, now the deal is unconditional? Lawyer Thomas Biss, from Henderson Reeves, says it might be tricky. He says, once you have an unconditional agreement for a house purchase, that's a fixed commitment from both sides that you will settle. "The purchaser has accepted the risk of a change in their circumstances. If they are not able to settle then they are likely to lose their deposit unless some concession is made by the vendor." But that may not be something to hold out much hope for, because the vendor will probably have used a significant chunk of your deposit to pay the...

The Aratere on the Cook Strait (file image). Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Marlborough businesses are warning the region and the entire South Island are starting to miss out on tourism dollars due to the unreliability of the Cook Strait ferries. A power failure on Bluebridge's Connemara ship on Thursday night is the latest in a spate of ferry breakdowns. Acting head of the Marlborough Chamber of Commerce Stephen Waters said the continued problems on the ferries are making both holiday-makers and tourists nervous about booking a ferry to Picton. "People are starting to then fly into other ports, not go through Auckland and travel down the country, across the Strait. They're going to fly down to other ports and do the South Island, and we might not even see them in Marlborough so we'r...

Mānawa Bay under construction in 2023. Photo: Supplied / Auckland International Airport Travellers heading to Auckland Airport this weekend should allow extra travel time as the opening of a new outlet centre creates delays. Mānawa Bay, a premium outlet shopping centre next to the airport, opened on Thursday. An Auckland Airport spokesperson said temporary road changes were in place to prioritise traffic heading to and from the terminals. Jimmy Ward Crescent would be temporarily closed to through traffic, and Nixon Road would be closed to southbound traffic. "For travellers heading to the airport this weekend, we suggest allowing extra time to get here. There's lots of change happening around the precinct, including some temporary changes to some of the roads on the network," the spokes...

Cuba Street in 2024. Photo: Bella Craig Wellington businesses say high rents, expensive groceries and car parking costs have sucked life out of the CBD, leaving businesses struggling with few customers. Post-Covid-19 they say the vibe has been off, with the area feeling less safe and more people choosing to stay away. Cuba Street has been long-known as the lively heart of the Wellington CBD, bustling with locals and tourists visiting locally owned cafes, shops and bars. But Ainsley Robinson, manager of Olive - a café and restaurant on Cuba Street - told Checkpoint the street had changed, as it had been especially quiet the past few months, forcing the café to raise prices and cut staff hours. "I've been working here for the last couple of years and when I started it used to be busy, b...

Photo: Unsplash An Auckland hospitality entrepreneur hopes to flip the New Zealand culture of 'no tipping' at bars and restaurants. Luke Dallow told Morning Report a struggling economy means many hospitality spots are employing fewer waiters, so diners are getting slack service. With the cost of goods and rents increasing, something needs to change, he said. "And what is controllable is wages. My concept would be to reduce the menu price on the menu, then that would get more consumers into the restaurants or bars. "Now to top this up you would tip, encourage tipping." He said it would mean minimum wage plus tips for wait staff, though Dallow's maths could be a bit off. "Minimum wage is $24 or I think it's roughly around that at the moment, and a waitress or waiter could easily make $10 i...

A pedestrian bridge that links Auckland's Viaduct to a strip of waterfront restaurants is broken and stuck in the up position. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi A broken pedestrian bridge across Auckland's Wynyard Quarter is set to reopen in December. The Wynyard Crossing bridge, linking the city centre to businesses in the Wynyard Quarter, has been stuck upright since March. Its closure has caused difficulties for businesses, with foot traffic re-directed via a 15-minute detour. A passenger ferry and pontoon bridge had been a temporary solution. Eke Panuku, the Auckland council agency responsible for repairing the bridge, said the complexity of works meant it could not confirm an exact date for the bridge's re-opening, but it was expected to be in December. "As the project team get further t...

The SeaLink vehicle ferry to Waiheke Island. Photo: Supplied An Auckland ferry company will continue negotiations with workers on Friday to avoid strike action next week. Unionised employees of SeaLink, which operates freight and passenger ferries between Auckland, Waiheke and Great Barrier Islands, will strike from Tuesday over pay disparity in the industry. First Union organiser Justin Wallace said workers want wages and conditions to match that of Auckland Transport's ferries, which had a cash injection to increase pay for crew earlier this year. "SeaLink's workers are struggling with the absurd cost of living in Auckland, while going to work every day knowing that they are being underpaid compared to colleagues who do the same work as them on a different ferry provider." In a statem...