The Australian, Wealth TRAVEL insurance is one of those products that few travellers pay attention to, whether they are begrudgingly buying a policy or relying on cover provided through top-end credit cards. For that reason, travel insurance remains one of the most complained about financial products in Australia. “It’s about 18 per cent of all our work for what would be a small partner in the insurance portfolio,” insurance industry ombudsman Sam Parrino says. “That is a lot of work […]
journalism
Aussies pay dearly for overseas currency conversions
The Australian, Wealth IT’S time for Christmas shopping and many people will be visiting Singapore and Hong Kong or the duty-free halls for their seasonal spending sprees. But retailers could be taking-advantage of the festive spirit by offering payment in Australian dollars and adding a surcharge to foreign currency conversion fees. Called dynamic currency conversion, surcharging payments made in Australian dollars is perfectly legitimate. But this is one of the many pitfalls when spending abroad and is a matter of […]
Social media is the new thing, and it’s rapidly being integrated into business.
IN THE BLACK Are you a knowledge worker or a pen pusher? The likelihood is that you are the former, which means you are about ideas and -collaboration. In that case, the expressions ‘social media’, ‘Web 2.0’, or more importantly, ‘Enterprise 2.0’, should be in your vocabulary, even if you don’t have a profile on Facebook. While these ideas may seem a threat to old-school types, the reality is that most social media users are Generation Xers and Yers – […]
Fine food no truffling matter
The Australian, Entrepreneur Importers accept the necessity of strict biosecurity measures but can find that their implementation is hard to swallow, writes Ed Charles | November 30, 2007 LAST month Melbourne-based food importer Friend & Burrell was forced to destroy 80kg of the prized Porcini mushrooms. Another exotic food importer reports that truffles — the underground fungus — were ruined because they heated up and spoiled during fumigation. It’s all part of the bureaucracy and sometimes heavy and slow handling […]
Local secrets
Herald Sun, Citystyle For diners wanting a cheap, authentic Asian or African meal, Melbourne’s suburbs offer a world of flavours. To get some insider knowledge, ED CHARLES talks to five people about the neigbourhoods they visit for a taste of their homeland. The secret to a memorable experience, he discovers, is to know which dish to order from which restaurant Ethiopian IT’S the coffee ceremony and the traditional meals that Elleni Bereded-Samuel misses most from her homeland of Ethiopia. She […]
Graze of our lives
THE CURIOUS COOK: Ed Charles THERE are so many excellent markets, cafes and food shops in Melbourne it is sometimes difficult to know where to start. Even as an intrepid local I relax into my shopping comfort zones and forget to explore new territory. Curious cook Luckily, I’m one of about 20 souls from as far away as Brisbane, Perth and Auckland taking Melbourne’s Foodies’ Bus Tour this Saturday. Our host, Allan Campion, is the embodiment of a Melbourne foodie. […]
Putting out the garbage
The Australian, Entrepreneur An online questionnaire can help employers sort the chaff from the grain when it comes to recruiting workers, writes Ed Charles. THE internet is a wonderful thing for job hunters. Once an online resume is created, it can be sent almost effortlessly to as many potential employers as the applicant wishes. The SME recruiter, however, is fast becoming overwhelmed by resumes — many from people who are inappropriate for the job. According to Carolyne Burns, managing director […]
Some retailers are not playing fair
The Australian, Entrepreneur: FAIR-TRADE COFFEE A lot of companies are selling Fairtrade products at a different price to free trade products and pocketing the difference, Ed Charles reports SOME companies are exploiting the fair and sustainable certification schemes by charging over and above the premium they pay for Fairtrade coffee beans and boosting their own profits. Getting to the bottom of which is the best and fairest way to buy coffee is a tricky one requiring a deep knowledge of […]
Seeking the roast with the most
From The Australian, Entrepreneur: BOUTIQUE ROASTERS Unique blends stand out from the crowd, writes Ed Charles IT’S a typical Melbourne location, an old warehouse off the main drag of Clarendon Street in South Melbourne, better known for its brothels than its beans. If it wasn’t for the smell of coffee roasting you wouldn’t even know St Ali was in this back alley. But despite the unpromising location, the micro-roaster and cafe named after the father of coffee, the 14th century […]