Some H-e-l-p For Nrma
Sun Herald
Sunday May 23, 1999
MAYBE the NRMA could do with a bit of HELP for its website. Not because it's deficient - on the contrary, there are things the site has that you wouldn't have known the NRMA does - but its boffins haven't developed it to its full potential.
Take the good bits first. After the recent hailstorm in Sydney, for example, some car buyers made a point of buying hail damaged cars from dealers because it was a way of getting a new model car cheaply.
But, it turns out the NRMA has a weekly auction of cars, including those written off after the hailstorm.
"Each week we auction on average over 350 damaged vehicles at our two Salvage Auction Centres at Smithfield and Gateshead," according to the website. "We offer a wide variety of stock weekly to both trade and, subject to statutory restrictions, the public, including theft recovered vehicles, repairables, light commercials, 4WDs, motor bikes, trucks and boats."
It also offers household insurance write-offs too, such as video recorders and TVs. So that's what insurance companies do with their stuff!
It's also worth checking out what the NRMA calls the theft-ability of cars. This assigns a mark to a car according to the chance of it being nicked. But in one of those little irritations that come to dog you on the NRMA site, it doesn't tell you whether a high number is good or bad. Since a Daihatsu Sirion Dual Airbag model gets a lowly 15, and a Porsche a 93, I assume the lower the figure the less theft-ability, so the better. Or does it just mean a Daihatsu is easy to steal, but nobody bothers?
There's one other little problem. I hate to admit it, but I couldn't find how to get back to this area the second time around. Be patient, net surfers, because it's there. Somewhere. I know it is.
While you're there, check out the NRMA's new membership rewards. These seem to be an understatement. Car rental company Hertz, for example, gives NRMA members a discount, but isn't mentioned anywhere on the website.
Something else that's missing isn't so excusable. Click on accommodation bookings and you get the closest thing to a two finger salute.
Sorry, customers, but the NRMA doesn't do holiday bookings anymore. Instead, it says bookings can be made by following "some easy steps" which turn out to be (1) Pick up your guide from the NRMA. (2) Select somewhere. (3) "Contact the property directly using the phone number in your NRMA guide or the number given to you from the NRMA Drive Travel 13 11 22 information service." Gee, thanks a lot.
Why not have links from the site to the accommodation providers so at least you can book direct on the Internet if the NRMA isn't going to do it?
The finance site, on the other hand, is helpful and easy to use. It even offers a bonus one per cent on money put in the NRMA's cash management trust for the first three months. There's also a retirement calculator that tells you how much you should be saving now to see you through retirement.
The NRMA says you need seven times your salary at retirement. I shoudl never have touched the calculator. It showed I should be saving $48,000 a year to survive retirement. It's enough to make you want to keep working. nrma.com.au Your Prosperity
THE cyber equivalent of cold calling is inviting you to register as a "guest" on a financial website before you can see all the goodies.
Your Prosperity Online Investing takes this to the extreme by asking you just about everything except what you earn. Unless you want to go on a mailing list, it's probably best not to register.
The Learning Centre, however, has a lot of basic information for novices which is registration free.
By the way, Your Prosperity says you need 75pc of your final salary a year to retire on. That sounds better than the NRMA's seven times your final salary. Maybe it's worth registering after all. www.yourprosperity.com.au
Britannica
WITH enough patience you could just about compile your own version of Encyclopaedia Britannica for free just by visiting its website. There's always a free demonstration on offer that the technically minded could probably pirate away.
There are four free extracts at the moment (click on Showcase from the home page), ranging from Women's Month in the US, to living in Harlem, the "British Invasion" which turns out to be about the Beatles and the Normandy invasion.
On the other hand, the entire Britannica CD-ROM which has 73,000 articles and 43,000 words is for sale at $199. This is cheaper than in bookshops and a lot cheaper than the six-month plan that was recently on offer with an implied interest rate of 20pc which would have made buying it on Bankcard cheaper. And remember what you buy on the Internet gets home delivered - no hassles parking and going to the shops.
The website has editor recommendations which, if the finance site is anything to go by, should be avoided at all costs. The Britannica took me to The Journal Of Finance, a timeless publication by the American Financial Association. So timeless, in fact, it proudly notes its home page was last updated on September 11, 1996. Amazing, was the Internet invented then? www.britannica.com.au
4 MICE: Must visit.
3 MICE: Worth looking at.
2 MICE: Only if you're passing by.
1 MOUSE: Forget it.
© 1999 Sun Herald