NZ Banks - Looking for recommendation
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<p>ANZ screwed me when at university. They gave me a free overdraft which I didn't want and didn't request. So I called them up and got it cancelled, as said there was no need. All fine and dandy.</p>
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<p>Then one day, I got some money out which put it into OD. I didn't check the balance, as I just assumed it would have declined if going OD. Instead gave me the cash, but then charged me $100 to go into OD which I didn't have authorised.</p>
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<p>They refused to budge on their stance when I told them what happened. So I killed the account, paid the fine and walked away.</p>
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<p>About 6 years later I was getting an offshore mortgage and they came flying in. I took about 5 meetings, and wasted hours and hours of time on documentation / applications etc. Anyway, they offered me the mortgage finally, so I wrote a letter explaining what had happened earlier and how much I enjoyed using well over $100 of their resources during the application process, for a mortgage which I never had any intent on signing up for.</p>
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<p>Totally pathetic on my part. But I enjoyed it.</p> -
<p>Westpac did that to me one time in my teens, fortunately I played golf with one of the guys there and he got it all sorted, despite the women at the service desk playing hardball (unsure if this was the rules or that I used to date her daughter....)</p>
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<p>I should actually add that in hindsight, this wasn't really a problem with the company, just more the local bank manager as a person who flatly refused to look at the situation for what it was.</p>
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<p>If they offered a good package/service now, I'd be more than happy to use them.</p> -
<p>We use ASB at the moment, but have previously used National Bank and then ANZ by default after the merger. </p>
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<p>We found the product that ANZ offered was good, but their staff and systems bordered on incompetent. Despite having around 600k of lending, we didn't qualify for a personal banker, so whenever we needed something done, we had to call and arrange for the paperwork to be sent to a branch for us to go in and sign or whatever. The problem with this was, about 60 percent of the time when we turned up to sign the branch the paperwork wasn't there or, wasn't the right thing, or they had no idea who we were or what we were there for. Then when we went to buy our most recent house in Auckland, with my parents as limited guarantors, they tried to demand 2 years worth of accounts for my parents businesses, despite them being able to show they were financially stable enough with term deposits that they could easily bail us out if it came to it. In the end we walked away from ANZ for that very reason. As with MajorRage, about two months after we left, I started getting phone calls every few weeks asking if we wanted to come back. </p>
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<p>We now have our accounts with ASB and have our own personal banker. She is awesome, and even though we're overseas, everything is easily sorted by emails. ASB smashed us with break fees when we sold our rental property late last year and wouldn't budge on them, but that was more our own fault for making a stupid long term interest rate choice a few years back. The only grievance I have with ASB is that we still pay account fees on our revolving credit, despite having a reasonable amount of lending with them, and therefore paying a small fortune in interest each month anyway.</p> -
<p>Is anyone with BNZ? That is who I am with and I thikn they Suck! I was happy at National Bank and then it merged with ANZ and for me, they fell to pieces with customer service so I didn't mind popping to BNZ. Now ANZ look fantastic in comparison.</p>
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<p>I might go and have a chat with ASB.</p>
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<p>I run a few horse accounts through Westpac and they must be 20 years behind with their technology????</p> -
<p>Might be some useful advice here too (not trying to be a dick about there being a recent topic - just genuinely thought this might be helpful)</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/rugby/index.php/topic/42058-banking-nonsense/'>http://www.daimenhutchison.com/rugby/index.php/topic/42058-banking-nonsense/</a></p> -
<p>We have our mortgage with ASB and bank with Kiwibank, and I put my self-employed banking through Westpac. All are fine these days in my experience.</p>
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<p>That said, the smaller banks (think Cooperative, Heartland, SBS, TSB etc) will be more willing to do more for you as their best chance of differentiation from the big banks is service.</p>
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<p>Also, some banks offer discounted fees etc to employees of some businesses e.g. Westpac has cheaper banking for public servants, Kiwibank has cheaper banking for most union members.</p> -
<p>I've always found ASB very good to deal with although I did just have a minor issue with them recently despite living in the UK.</p>
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<p>I think the worst bank in NZ will be miles better than any in the UK. Absolutely shocking over here - I had a battle on my hands just to open an account!</p> -
<p>As I went to the UK on a working holiday (whereas you are on a UK Passport aren't you?) I had to open an account before I left as part of the visa condition was to show I had £2000 available to me, the travel agent sorted it all for me, was easy as!</p>
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I just remembered why I stuck with bnz , when I was in Sydney the ATM swallowed my card leaving me with bugger all money and I'd only been there a week. I rang bnz in NZ and told them what happened and they sent me a replacement card that day , because I was staying at a backpackers I didn't want my credit card being sent there so I gave them the address of the Westpac branch I'd joined up at the day before and told them to make attn my personal banker. It turned up the next day , when I got the card off her she was blown away that a bank would actually go to that sort of trouble for a customer.
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<p>I've had accounts with Westpac, National Bank, ANZ and BNZ.</p>
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<p>By a country mile (in my experience) the worst is ANZ. As others have said above they are very keen to send any kind of debt straight to the creditors without really informing you, whereas the other banks will actually make an effort to contact you and work out a repayment.</p> -
<p>add me to the ANZ sucks chorus.</p>
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<p>I wanted to borrow $30K and they said I would have to come in and see a personal banker who will advise me on budgeting and other financial matters (read try and sell me shit).</p>
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<p>I pointed out the size of my trading portfolio (with them), the $$$'s I put through their credit card every year and the equity in my mortgage free home and told them it was there call, but either they sort the shit out on-line then and there or I close my accounts and move everything to one of their many competitors because at the retail level banking is a commodity differentiated only by their customer service.</p>
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<p>They caved but it was clearly a major for them. I would hate to work there. It seems no one is empowered to make any decision but has to follow a protocol for everything.</p>
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<p>Only laziness / a belief everyone else is probably as bad has stopped me shopping around. TBF I'm not the ideal customer - apart from the merchant fees they get on my credit card spend they get nothing from me. Even the $30K taken out over 5 years was almost all paid back inside a month. </p> -
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="dogmeat" data-cid="604269" data-time="1470714749">
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<p>Only laziness / a belief everyone else is probably as bad has stopped me shopping around. TBF I'm not the ideal customer - apart from the merchant fees they get on my credit card spend they get nothing from me. Even the $30K taken out over 5 years was almost all paid back inside a month. </p>
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<p>ANZ...sucks.</p>
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<p>I needed to break a term deposit a few years ago - coincidentally just after they absorbed the National Bank (my bank till then). Turned out the penalty for breaking the TD was going to be more than $1,000.</p>
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<p>So I wrote David Hisco a nasty letter telling him his marketing push was being wasted on me, that ANZ may think they're in my world, but I'm wondering what planet they're on. And crucially, pointing out how much my business was worth to them annually and that they either gave me my money back or I was gone. They folded.</p>
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<p>I'm still with them, mainly through laziness, though eventually I'll get around to visiting someone else and shifting some money away. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Hooroo" data-cid="604168" data-time="1470696506">
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<p>I don't think allow that now with money laundering laws? You must be present to open a new account I think?</p>
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<p>I did the same with National bank. They just opened an account at Lloyds for me, so no dramas, but that was 2000</p>
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<p>At the Travel Agents they had an HSBC exchange thing in the office, so that's who I went with...no idea about the laundering, I was too naive!</p> -
<p>So the message from this thread is: anyone but ANZ. :)</p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="No Quarter" data-cid="604300" data-time="1470725881"><p>
So the message from this thread is: anyone but ANZ. :)</p></blockquote>
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Surprising they have so many customers. Have heard bad things about them for years.