So CHOICE has prepared a survival guide for the global financial crisis. We regularly put financial services and providers under the microscope, looking at everything from health and car insurance to the best (and worst) credit cards and home loans. 

Steps to reducing your debt:

• Make a budget  – Use our worksheet. Consider options to reduce your living expenses, such as selling the second car, as well as ways to increase your income, such as asking any adult children who still live with you to contribute to household expenses.
• Research ways to cut back on expenses; talk to family and friends and for useful websites, see Debt Relief Contacts.
• Get ahead  – Once you’ve freed up some cash, make extra repayments, which can slash thousands of dollars in interest off your mortgage and credit card(s).

Already have a great money saving tip? Share it with us and read other consumer tips. And we also have the following money reports to get people ’Back in Black’
(with apologies to rockers AC/DC):

• Debt relief
• Ten easy ways to beat the global financial crisis
• Compare credit cards
• Refinance your home loan
• Mortgage stress
• Switch financial service providers and save
• Your super and the global financial crisis
• Early release super schemes

The Consumer Credit Legal Centre (NSW) is working with Consumer Action Law Centre in Melbourne, and other agencies throughout the country to organise a National Day of Action.

Most financial counsellors and consumer lawyers are aware of the practices of Motor Finance Wizard, a company that inflates the price of the vehicles it sells and then claims to give ‘interest-free’ loans. This practice not only misleads customers but allows the company to claim that they don’t have to comply with the Consumer Credit Code. The company also targets social security recipients and other low income earners, assesses ability to repay inadequately, and the cars are often in very condition.

People will be on hand to give out consumer information and material promoting their free, independent services and lawyers can join in giving free legal advice on credit, debt and related consumer issues.

And check out the photos of Consumer Action’s previous days out at Motor Finance Wizard in Melbourne (such as the one above).

Now, when you wish to submit a comment, you will also fill out a sequence of letters. It’s a simple task for humans that can’t easily be replicated by a computer so it helps prevent automated ‘bots’ from clogging up the blogosphere.

For more information on CAPTCHAs, check out the article on CHOICE Online.

CHOICE Congress page – links to all available content
The Consumers International YouTube page – video interviews with speakers and delegates
The slideshare.net congress page – powerpoint presentations
The Consumers International web site – links to most content.

More content is being uploaded as soon as it is available.

We will try to obtain any missing presentations and papers as soon as possible.

Cheers, the CHOICE Vod Pod Blog team.

Dimitri Yanin of KonfOP tells me that until earlier this year the bank aggressively marketed credit to consumers. Because in Russia there is no consumer credit act or other regulation of lending to require fair disclosure of the terms of the contract – the bank has been able to persuade more than a million consumers to enter into credit contracts worth more than US$5 billion over the past 4 years. The problem is that the fees and charges (including insurance with a related company) mean that the Annual Percentage Rate on the credit is between 50% and 90% per annum.

KonfOP campaigned for fair laws for more than 4 years, without achieving change. But recently when they persuaded the opposition political parties to take up the issue they got a good result. The General procurator’s office and the government put pressure on the bank to change its ways, and it no longer markets products at such high interest rates. Unfortunately there has been no compensation for the consumers already affected.

KonfOP continues to lobby for the introduction of legislation on consumer credit.

The theme of the congress is Holding Corporations to Account. Consumer demands for corporate accountability, transparency and responsibility have never been so pressing: whether it’s unethical marketing, sustainable consumption, credit and debt, or what we eat — consumers are losing trust in companies and are calling for change.

More than 300 delegates from around the world will hear from a range of internationally renowned experts and take part in key policy debates and workshops.

The programme focuses on the need for corporate accountability within CI’s key campaign areas:

• Unethical drug promotion
• Sustainable consumption
• Food marketing and obesity
• Consumer credit and debt

What: 18th Consumers International World Congress
When: 29 October to 1 November 2007
Where: Luna Park, Sydney