Tax time in Australia

Well its tax time here in Aus and don't the scammers know it sending messages pretending to be the tax office or Gov department or bank institute trying to milk our funds by email or text messages and yet people still get caught out by these although we been warned, yes we get these bastards all the time but tax time it just gets worst.
Billions of $$$ get milked every year by people opening attachments from these scammers and yet we get told not too with ads on TV and all and so many get caught out when they get messages that money is owing to them is on hold, click here to get your money owed too you, come in suckers as well old scams remerging after a few years break.
There has been a few raids on people getting caught with machines that send over 3000 texts every minute to unsuspecting people from parcel deliveries to anything to try and catch us out, seems to be a lot of Russian, Chinese and some small island nations as well African nations just to name a few, throwing a baited line out too see who they can pull in and even our marketing places are being hit hard, can't trust no one these days, just got to be very careful in what you open.
Then there are the companies you deal with insisting you give them your email address so they can send you a recite for your purchase and unknown to you they sell off your details to someone else to then find you start to get junk mail from dating services, which I found out recently.
So now if they ask for my email or phone number I give them nothing, they do everything on computers so they can print out a recite.

Ashley

If I can, I get away from direct deposit for my pay, recurring bill payments to credit cards or even the water softener rental place wants my checking account numbers or I have to pay a $1 charge per bill to pay by paper. No, numbers are not going out. Since the new billing company took over my bills have been a mess. I pay by quarter as it is $15 a month. I'm paid up to September. A couple of weeks ago I received a bill for $47 and change for a month, that was due. I went to their office with the previous bill, stamped paid, and carbon copy of the check I used to pay it. The lady nicely explained what was going on and said she would get a message to the billing company. She also wrote the circumstances on the old bill and when the next payment is due, September. Today's mail contained a bill for $97 and change, PAST DUE. The office is still closed from the holiday. Monday I will stop in and tell them that I wouldn't be as calm as I am, had the billing company gone into my checking account and taken the money out and I'm trying to get it back. I will also say "You want me to trust these people with my banking information?"
My one credit card information is on my computer, because of on line shopping. Nothing at all to do with banking. I'm not smart enough not to do something stupid.

So she says, "Our computer shows you are overdue on your electric bill, and if you do not pay immediately, we will disconnect your service today"
I says "which account are we talking about? I have three."
She says, "I can't tell you, our computers are down now."
So I says", If your computers are down, how are you going to credit my account, should I pay now?"

Click

Slick

I pay all my bills before due date at our post office, but every company wants us all to pay online but I still want a paper bill sent to me so now they charge postal fees to do so, yes I am old school but having that recite stapled to the bill is the only way to have proof its been paid, but with my car and bikes registration I pay 3 monthly and is set up to come out of my bank automatically before due date, there is no extra cost involve unless you don't have the money in your account or one day late paying, doing it this way its never late.
But when it comes to bills like electric, gas, water, rates, its paper bills sent to me through the post but now Aus post only deliver 5 days out of 10 working days now, cutbacks because no one is using postal these days.
Computers are great but hackers are smart in getting our money or hacking company's and getting millions of personal details of everyone who deals with these company's no matter how good their protection systems are, hackers are everywhere.

Ashley

I've had minor go arounds with the doctors office and others who just want to send me a bill in an email and to pay it on line. I've told them to keep sending a paper bill if they want timely payments. It will be on the kitchen table until paid. An e mail bill will be left behind on the laptop.

I'm an old guy, new school. I lived in Germany for a long time where credit cards and checks were really not used.

Today, my Quarterly Federal, Quarterly State, and various County taxes; Water/Sewer, Electric, and Gas all come straight from my personal Checking account. Some other bills as well. The rest come from the debit card attached to my checking account (works like a credit card). I receive one bill a month in the mail from my lawn cutting service and I write them a check - the only check I ever write. I use my one personal credit card for almost everything else, but I never hand it to anyone. My credit card bill is auto paid in full from my checking account every month. I pay no fees for any of this and would change banks in an instant if they even asked for $1! I have not paid anyone interest since 2013 when I paid my house off. Before that, I paid no other interest this century. If I get a doctor's bill, it's a mistake and the next time I go to that office I tell them to fix it - I definitely don't pay it or waste my time on the phone.

I hated the old days where I spent large portions of Sundays paying bills! Germany taught me a better way.