Why won’t my bank let me buy from a trusted crypto exchange?

I wonder if you’d consider helping those of us Australians trying to safely transfer funds into CoinSpot – one of the biggest Australian crypto exchanges.

While Westpac allows transactions to CoinSpot, Macquarie has banned them. Staff insist they’re “protecting customers” by preventing us from using our own funds to invest in so-called “unsafe” assets like crypto. I’ve been told there’s no one at the bank I can speak to about reversing this decision. “Debanking” customers in this way is hardly an example of great service. It forces us to leave cash on exchanges and requires older Australians like me to open and juggle multiple bank accounts. Frankly, it’s a paternalistic and heavy-handed form of control. Can you be a voice for us?

A trunkful of crypto is no use if your bank won’t allow you to withdraw from local exchanges.Credit: Simon Letch

A Macquarie Bank spokesperson says “Unfortunately, cryptocurrency exchanges are frequently used by scammers to obtain funds from their victims and so present a high scam and fraud risk. To help protect our customers from the risk of scams, we block payments to BSBs that we assess as being high-risk, predominantly where they house accounts belonging to cryptocurrency exchanges.”

“This decision aligns with our commitment to help ensure the security of customer payments and protect against fraud and scams.” I guess your only option is to use Westpac.

I seem to have read somewhere that it is good to include a note stating one’s personal assets as part of one’s will. This is because personal assets may change over time, while changing the main will document is always onerous. Do you think that if the will simply makes a statement that one’s personal assets are noted in a separate adjoining document, that will be acceptable in states such as Queensland, NSW or Victoria in Australia?

As long as the list of assets is not a part of, or inserted in, the will, this separate list can be a good idea – particularly as one of the challenges for an executor after someone dies is finding the assets. Clearly, the list should be updated if possible when the assets change.

In relation to the lifetime cap of $82,347 that applies to aged-care fees, is that per year, or once you have paid that amount do you never have to pay any more, which I always thought was the case? This seems too good to be true to me – just pay that amount and never pay more? Or if you have assets, will that affect this?

Rachel Lane says the lifetime cap applies to the means-tested fees across home-care packages and residential aged care. Once you reach the lifetime cap, you don’t contribute any more towards these fees.

You do, however, continue to pay other fees. In home care, that would be a basic daily fee of up to $13 per day; in residential aged care, it would be your accommodation cost, the basic daily fee (currently $64 per day), and any extra service fees.

My husband and I would like to help our two young adult daughters by paying off their outstanding HECS debt. In total, it’s $47,000. We were planning to pay this before June 1, when the 3.1 per cent indexation will be applied. My query is: when will Labor’s 20 per cent reduction on HECS be applied? Will it be possible to take advantage of the 20 per cent reduction before the 3.1 per cent indexation? Also, is Labor’s pledge a one-off or does the 20 per cent apply to future years?

The good news is that the Labor government has committed to applying the one-off 20 per cent reduction to student loan account balances before indexation is applied on 1 June 2025. This means that indexation would apply only to the remaining student loan balance after the debt has been reduced by 20 per cent.

However, legislation will need to be passed before the reduction can take effect, and this may take a month or two. The debt reduction will automatically be applied by the ATO following the passage of legislation and will be given effect from 1 June 2025.

Noel Whittaker is the author of Retirement Made Simple and other books on personal finance. Questions to: [e-mail]

• Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.

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