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I don’t carry lots of cash in my wallet. Heck, not even coins. And i remember reading somewhere that there was a rise in the use of electronic wallets, ie: cashless transaction, credit cards/etc.
My transactions are either with my master or nets.
Nets now charge businesses between 0.35 and 0.55 per cent of the amount of each transaction. Starting July, this will be increased gradually to between 1.5 and 1.8 per cent of purchases. What is the immediate effect on the masses? Consumers are expected to prepare for a price hike by retailers, to pass on the extra cost.
What do i think of this? Ridiculous. I’d rather deal in credit since its much more cheaper to use! NETS what were you thinking? Tsk tsk tsk.
Is this commercial decision to pay for its latest brand change?
Make Life Great. OH REALLY?!!
Tell me what you think, and remember of the GST hike next month, plus the ridiculous NETS levy hike. God save SG!
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26 guys talked!
I don’t carry cash either. With the increase of charges for NETs, we are back to square one. So let’s boycott NETs and start using cash. Haha.
Well, if their revenue dropped enough due to the increased fees, then they might lower their rates. It would be worth putting up the temporary inconvenience of using cash.
However, knowing Singaporeans, all will just ignore the increase and ’suck thumb’. Sigh.
i like that terminology Cobalt. Suck thumb and keep quiet. That is why things like these are arising. Till when?
have a good day guys!
it’s quite stupid to waste so much money on “rebranding”.. nobody will increase their nets spending because of the new brand..
and it’s unreasonable for them to increase the charges.. if people start using more cash and less nets, it’ll definitely hurt their bottom line.. i wonder how long they can have this we-can-do-whatever-we-like-because-we-have-the-monopoly attitude..
kanasai … everything has to be world class #1 for singapore
even the taxes & service charge
I’m totally against the fee hike as well. This seems have become a trend in Singapore.
Price of Petrol => increase
Bus Fare => increase
Taxi Fare => increase
GST => increase
NETS => increase
Milk Products => increase
What else is next?
Economy is better doesn’t meant it’s justify to have a price hike.
“Mr Ong also said that retailers are not allowed to pass on the administrative fee to consumers.” Quoted from http://news.asiaone.com.sg/a1news/20070606_story20_1.html
I wonder how true this sentence is..
Quoted from http://news.asiaone.com.sg/a1news/20070606_story20_1.html
“Mr Ivan Ong, vice-president of Nets Payment and Value-added Services, explained that the fee increase was needed to help Nets face increasing competition from international card schemes, adding that Nets transaction fees are still the lowest in the market.
Mr Ong also said that retailers are not allowed to pass on the administrative fee to consumers.”
I not so sure if the administrative fee caused by the hike will be passed on to consumers or not. Already 1 shoe shop in Parkway Parade shop made customers pay extra although this practice is not allowed.
Very soon everyone will just start migrating to Indian or China with less tax from the government.
Have you seen their crappy ads on TV, where they are trying to re-create that “for everything else, there’s Mastercard” image, but failing miserably at it? Ad sucks, NETS sucks! Thank goodness CASE has spoken out about the fee hike. I hope NETS change their minds about it.
Don’t you people knows that DBS, UOB, etc major local banks gov has a stake in it ?
That’s why they are keeping quiet about all these. Dig into who their management are, and you realized you been screwed into voting for PAP. Talking about conflict of interest. Money smell nicer to PAP than the public’s issue.
How did make up for loss of ShinCorp etc, salary ? Increase in GST is just one aspect, indirectly increase through GIC and gov’s linked company is another. That’s gov silent keep mum about all this issue.
Aiya…..whats the biggy? Use cash…or credit.
Hike schmike…its bound to happen at some point. I think Singaporeans just have a penchant for complaining.
That’s what 66.6% of ppl wanted… Being screwed…
I’d like to give a general view.
On the GST hike - it really is bound to happen. After all, we should be considered lucky that we don’t have to face 15-20% government service tax.
However on the down side, with the GST hike in our country, everything else is still as expensive, or getting more expensive.
With regards to the NETS hike, well, it is both disappointing AND appalling. Let’s all switch to Debit Master. Har. Har.
-M.A.
Tish ,
don’t really know what rationality is that GST is bound to happen. If it happen, it should give valid and good reason, not reason such as increasing minister pay or globalization ! Consider that GST increase , and they tell no choice, it make you look stupid and foolish consider that you are highly educated person ? It make you feel like moron.
so either u pay cash or nets or credit or watever means, price will still hike.
i doubt they can price =”$500.00″ for cash
and price = “$509.00″ for nets.
or it has always been that underlying extra charge into our acct evrytime we swipe??
arghhh!!
when it comes to people having to fork out extra kerching for no good reason and everything else hikes as well just to join the party,
i doubt u can use dat as to proof the ever cliche “its a singapore thing to complain”.
in which region/continent where the people accept ridiculous price hikes with open arms?
and how come its bound to happen?
its outrageous to accept that evrything has to hike as part of normality, right?
Reality/Noi - oookaaayyy…
Like I mentioned, it was a general comment. I’m not saying it’s good nor bad. I’m not even saying if the reasons provided by the GST hikers are good reasons at all.
What I meant was it was bound to happen sooner or later. Not necessarily a part of normality, but more like a governments-will-make-it-happen-sooner-or-later issue.
With tech hikes, education hikes, standard of living hikes, there WILL BE bound for cost hikes. Is that not apparent?
I couldn’t care less about complaining anymore, because I know they’ll just keep on hikin’.
Unless we got any power at all to change the minds of those in control of whatever or WHOever it is that handles these issues, I doubt we could go far with merely complaining. And trust me, I wouldn’t wanna start a debacle with our government either.
I suppose at the end of the day it’s about felxibility, and whether or not we can strive to live with it. Perhaps one could consider to move to a third-world country instead if one does not want to deal with taxes. You have no idea how many times that thought has come across my mind.
And if by accepting such things as price hikes, and trying to work around it and spending less, instead of complaining yet getting nothing back, makes me a stupid, foolish, moron, hey by all means.
It’s one’s opinion to another anyhoots.
tish, acceptable opinion.
g–gawd!
i didnt even see urs or reality’s comment…
whahahha, horrible connection here.
paiseh.
the last comment i saw was norman’s…
so i was actually pointing out to 2 comments above urs.
aniwae…
complains fall onto deaf ears,
true…
but if u dont even talk/whine/complain [well if u want to...]
then, its sadder..
they wont hear wat we say, and so just let us say lah, it wont matter right?
kind of just get off the chest.
well,gst hikes and all dat, def isnt the main course of my conversations.
but im sooo in when there’s discussion like dis.
cos i am affected.
but isnt it hard when they bombard us with all the hikes at one go?
speaking from a fresh out of school,
freshly having to pay adult fare,
freshly having to pay her own bill,
her own lunch,
still looking for a stable job
and yaadadada…
its worrisome.
esp. when u dont even get the gst offset. hmph!
and dont start with “welcome to the real life…”
dat is as helpful as “life is unfair”.
Noi -
hoho.. I’m neither gonna tell you “welcome to the real life”, nor am I gonna say “life is unfair” for both comments are simply the truth and really, goes without saying.
honestly, I feel your plight, for I’ve once been freshly out of school before with barely 10 buckeroos to last two months. imagine the disability, especially when you need to go out for interview. THAT, is something I would not want to relive.
but I suppose having gone thru that, has taught me to stand on my own two feet much sooner, and well kinda made me a skeptic.
which leads to my opinion on the hike.
you see, I used to do so, complaining, blogging, telling anyone who would bother to listen. then someone told me off to get a grip.
which kinda made me think, is it the end of the world? well, of course it isn’t but it sure does make living difficult.
i honestly do not have any words of consolation for you hun, but if there were any way that complains would actually be heard, then I may chip in.
but as you can see, as much as we are supposedly recommended to “free speech” (bullcrap), i highly doubt our complaints would be heard by anyone.
in the meantime… i might suggest you do some temping or freelancing to get the extra moolahs. hope that helps.
[...] entries are mostly design and general local related issues. His recent opinionated entry on the Nets hike tops Ping.sg charts. That’s the kind of topics that frequent his blog. So you’ll be [...]
keep it up guys!
thanks tish.
sad reality i have to live with ..ergh!
one thing i’ve heard so many times, and it dang its sooo true
“student life rules!”
whahahahahh.
it wud be an uproar i predict.whahha
but i noe almost nuts about it.
other than wat i heard from abg.
cos unswAsia’s expectation of the student’s result pretty high.
and thus low no. of new students admiting into unsw.
and if dat is true….
then i guess…
why wud majority of the smart kids join foreign university and pay alot alot more[cos no subsidies and wats not], when they wud most prolly , qualify nus of ntu?
personally,
i never considered unswAsia as my choice…
cos they just set up their campus here..
and pioneer batch usually get shit.
and now this happens!!
tsk
i agree with “Nadya”. although using cash all e time can be quite a hassle.
It seems that only a small percentage of people strongly oppose price increases. Others just put up a brave face
If the new perks for using Nets can offset the increase, maybe I can bear the increase. If not I would rely on my credit card and debit card for my transactions.
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