News

With the start of the school year, the ADF is processing thousands of direct debit forms each week.

We take the opportunity to remind our school customers that only direct debit forms that need to be processed urgently (i.e., with effective date starting within 7 working days of the first payment date) be emailed to the ADF. We are discovering that printing and sorting the large number of direct debits we are receiving by email is more challenging than expected.

It would be greatly appreciated if customers could please submit the bulk of direct debit forms by postal mail, reserving email for only those within 7 working days of the first payment date.

Thanks for your continued support.

Important note: the message below was initially posted on the 23rd of October 2015. Subsequently the CommBank put the changes on hold until the new year. We have now been advised these changes will commence on the 8th of February 2016.

The Commonwealth Bank will be centralising courier banking deliveries to specific branches within Brisbane and Gold Coast from Monday 8 February 2016. These new requirements only apply where the courier/staff member/volunteer drops off a sealed satchel and requires a stamped receipt before leaving the deposit at the branch for processing.

Should you utilise a courier/staff member/volunteer who needs a stamped receipt before leaving, they will need to take the deposit to one of the following designated branches nearest to you.

Brisbane Branches

• North Lakes
• Virginia
• 240 Queen St Brisbane
• Hamilton
• Carindale
• Beenleigh
• Ipswich
• Mount Ommaney
• Acacia Ridge

Gold Coast Branches

• Tweed Mall
• Stockland Burleigh
• Southport

It does not apply in the following circumstances:-

• The courier/staff member/volunteer waits whilst the Bank counts the deposit;
• Bank issued quick cash bags are utilised and the courier/staff member/ volunteer drops them in the designated chute; or
• Where a staff member or volunteer waits whilst the deposit is counted.

Due to the location of the designated courier branches, you may incur additional costs, which you should discuss with your courier company.

The ADF would appreciate any feedback you may have. This can be emailed to us at adfmail@bne.catholic.net.au. We will, in turn, be providing this feedback to the Bank.

The ADF will provide you with quick cash bags (at no cost) should you wish to utilise this for your banking. The courier will collect the competed quick cash bags from you and drop them in a designated chute at any branch.

Australia Post has announced changes to the pricing and delivery schedules of their letter service. In particular a basic letter now costs $1.00 (up from 70c) and will take 1-2 days longer to be delivered.

Please take note of updated postal costs and delivery time-frames in relation to any important mail directed to the ADF. Please consider emailing the ADF if you need something actioned sooner.

Full details of the new pricing and delivery schedules are available on the Australia Post website at the following address:

http://auspost.com.au/changes-to-your-letters-service.html

The ADF will be operating throughout the Christmas holiday period with the exception of the gazetted public holidays.

Any customers preloading files or transactions for the period should ensure that they have sufficient funds in their account to cover the amount of the transactions to be processed.

If you require a temporary daily limit upgrade please contact the ADF on (07) 3324 3777

ADF management and staff wish all of our customers a happy and safe Christmas and thank you for your support in 2015.

Paper-based Merchant Facilities

The ADF has been advised that CommBank branches will no longer be accepting manual transactions from paper-based merchant imprinters – colloquially known as “click clack machines”.

The first credit card imprinting machine is believed to have been developed in the 1930’s but the technology was first patented in 1977 by Richard B Feldman, three years after the introduction of Bankcard in Australia in 1974.

The ADF began phasing out paper-based merchants two years ago in response to the Payment Card Industry emphasis on securing access to credit card numbers, so almost all ADF customers will have already transitioned to CommBank EFTPOS terminals and BPOINT facilities.

Please contact the ADF if you need to transition to new merchant facilities as a result of these changes.

Apple Pay in Australia

Apple Pay launched in Australia on the 19th of November 2015 for American Express customers only, after Apple’s negotiations with the big Australian banks and VISA were unsuccessful. No doubt resulting from the Reserve Bank’s push to decrease interchange fees for credit cards, VISA is said to have banned Australian banks from sharing interchange fees with third parties, effectively locking Apple out of the market here. As American Express payments are not regulated, they can charge significantly higher fees than their regulated competitors, and this has allowed them to offer a portion of the merchant fee to Apple.

American Express transactions are said to make up around 19% of credit card transactions in Australia, and cardholders with American Express-issued cards can now add their AMEX cards to compatible iPhones and start making contactless payments with an iPhone or an Apple Watch.

ADF merchants with contactless CommBank merchant terminals (EFTPOS Mobile, Integrated and Albert Pi) with an attached American Express merchant facility can accept Apple Pay payments. If you do not have an American Express facility attached to your terminal but would like to accept Apple Pay payments, please contact the ADF for assistance.

Another year seems to be passing by quickly, and the end of the school year will be upon us before we know it.

The ADF has prepared a checklist of things to consider in relation to schools accounts, products and services with the ADF in readiness for the end of this year and the commencement of next year.

• ADF Checklist 2015 (opens in new window)

If schools require any assistance in relation to any of the checklist items, they are invited to contact their Relationship Manager.

After a period of internal consultation and review, the ADF is proud to launch our new website.

We’ve tried our best to include all the most relevant information for our customers but no website is perfect. If you experience any issues, have any feedback, or would like to make any suggestions, please let us know at adf@bne.catholic.net.au.

After many years of service the previous website has been consigned to the recycle bin. Here it is, for anyone who would like one last look just for nostalgia’s sake.

The Archdiocesan Development Fund is pleased to announce the upgrade of ADF Online.

The benefits to you will include:

• New look and feel
• Improved transaction search functionality
• Increased file upload capacity

The upgrade was undertaken on Saturday 18^th July 2015.

Thank you for your continued support of the Archdiocesan Development Fund.

The ADF has started preparing direct debit forms for 2016. We’re looking to introduce editable PDFs this year so that parents can type in the details and then print the form for signing. This will help to eliminate any scanning errors during the ADF’s data upload process.

In order to allow parents to fill out these forms they will need to be emailed rather than posted to parents. We will provide further details on this process change later in the year.

We’re very excited about these changes. Stay tuned for further information.

The ADF is looking to introduce forms that you can fill in online and email back to us. This is an exciting new development to help improve accuracy and should help everyone interested in relying less on paper.

If you have any feedback on this initiative, whether to tell us you think it’s a terrible idea or a great one, or to flag any issues you think we need to be aware of while introducing this change, we would love to hear from you.