General Chat

OH and myself have been with our current bank for over thirty years. We first opened an account with said bank prior to us emigrating to Oz, so we should be given some credit for loyalty.

Several years ago we received a letter from the Bank regarding our credit card, basically saying that if we wanted to retain the fifty five day interest fee period for repayments we would have to pay an annual fee of $60.00. If we paid the monthly amount off as soon as it was due, we would still continue to pay no fee.

We elected to do the latter as we had always done this anyway.

In 2014 we received a rather faecally tainted letter saying that we had not paid any fees and from November that year we would be charged $29.00 for use of said card.

The inference from the letter was that somehow it was OUR fault that the charge had not been paid.

On the positive side the letter did inform us that if we spent $1000.00 annually with the card then no charges would apply.

As we have a couple of standing orders payable via the card, including internet and gas providers we knew that we would be over the $1000.00 figure.

November came and a $29 fee was taken from the Bank Card:-| :-|

Fast forward to a couple of days ago, and on the November statement another Fee had bee extracted even though we had purchase goods or services well in excess of the magical figure.

Straight round to the local branch to seek an explanation

Staff extremely helpful but couldn't offer any explanation so one particular person phoned the head office. It appears that as we have had the card for so long, it was one of the 'older' ones to which the $1000 figure did not apply :-S

I wonder how many other customers have been caught in the same way

Told we would have to 'migrate' our card to a new one. Done in a few keystrokes....would we need new cards? NO! And the 2015 fee would be reimbursed. WIN!:-D :-D

Whilst on the phone waiting for a response, the staff member was looking at our accounts, which are all linked.

"Did you know that you are only earning 1.8% interest on your Netbank Saver account"

"no' (When we first opened this account it was earning 6%)

"Did you know that if you change To a Pensioner Savings account you will earn 3%?"

Never heard of it, so we asked all the stupid questions, how long does it take, do we have a new account number? can we transfer all from our old account to the new one?

None of the above...we just change the name of the account :-S

So due to an extremely helpful staff member, we not only resolved one issue but we also gained a higher interest for one of our accounts.

Banks wonder why there is no longer any loyalty. Perhaps, just perhaps, if they had a section employing people like the member of staff we met, the Banks themselves could advise their customers of such changes, and leave it up to the customer to decide if they wish to take advantage.

I suspect however as that may reduce their grossly inflated profits, it's easier, and more profitable , to say nothing :-P :-| :-|

*ankers, as you so rightly say :-D :-D

AnnC, its just annoying that if we didn't check our statements closely, we could have been paying the fee indefinitely.

It may well be 'only' $29.00, but if another 999 people don't bother checking, that's $29000.00 per month in the Bank's pocket :-| :-|

mattress +under.,,,,, :-D

Not enough room, Kay, too many bodies ;-) :-D :-D

When I was growing up banking was a very respectable occupation and I'm sure my in-laws were very content when the young OH went into banking (overseas branches of a UK bank). He retired some ago, but by then the retail type of banking he had always known was becoming dominated by the manic investment bankers. He took a part-time job with a merchant bank but didn't stay long, as he found he was expected to push deals of the kind he said he had always warned his customers against. And now he finds it embarrassing if he has to say he is a retired banker!

:-D :-D.

Elizabeth, I have always found that the individual bank staff are extremely helpful, particularly at our local branch which is very small.

It's the step-up to the corporate identity that makes the whole thing so impersonal, and never advising of any changes to, or additions to, their terms and conditions of the various accounts or the existence of any new type of accounts

We find that the tellers on the front desks at the local branch are very helpful.

But if we want to open a new account, as we did earlier this year, we have to go into an office and talk to a Financial Advisor. The tellers are no longer allowed to open accounts.

Unfortunately, most of the Financial Advisors are immigrants, and their English can be spotty at best. Interestingly, more than half the tellers are also immigrants, but with much better English!

Imagine one young Financial Advisor having a couple of pensioners wanting to open an account at this bank, but also wanting their daughter to have access to said account at a branch of the bank in another province. In other words, we needed to have 3 names on the account.

All suggested by a Senior Teller as being perfectly feasible.

We did get what we wanted ........ eventually. But we had to get the Senior Teller to go into the new account and make corrections :-|

Twice in my life I've had 'experiences' with banks.

The first was many years ago. Apart from the main city branch there were three small branches in other parts of the city. I wrote out a large cheque on Saturday afternoon, asked my husband to deposit, during his Monday lunchtime, the cash at the main branch in order to cover the cheque. Unfortunately, he was short of time and went to the sub-branch (ten minutes' walk away). At the end of the month I spotted that the bank had charged us a nominal fee for being overdrawn. Fronted up at the bank but they would not budge. The excuse? The sub-branch closes mid-afternoon and, although the money is taken straight to the main branch it is not 'allocated' until the following morning. This, at a time when cheques were supposedly taking four days to clear. I rang the company to ask if they'd specially presented the cheque but, no, they had paid it in at lunchtime on the Monday morning at another of the sub-branches. Funny that, as it ought then not to have been allocated until the Tuesday morning. Bank would not budge and although I was angry I was not going to waste any more of my time chasing a refund as the amount was not worth it. Easy, the way the funds mount up in banks isn't it?

The second experience was only about seven years ago. One Friday afternoon, with a grandchild in a pusher, I approached another bank about depositing a lump sum I had received from an overseas pension. This bank was offering a bond at a staggering amount of interest at that time. I told them I wanted to put the money into that bond. The teller asked a financial adviser to see me and this adviser wanted me to make an appointment for Monday. I told her I knew what I wanted but she insisted, so I said I would drive to the next town about 20 minutes away. This was about 4 pm. As I was leaving I said to the young lady that I was surprised she would be willing to lose such an amount of money to another branch when I could easily fill a form in. She reneged and gave me the form, asking if I was sure it was what I wanted. It took me less than ten minutes to complete the form, give her the cheque and that to be deposited. That same day the bank withdrew the offer at 5 pm. I got a letter from that bank the following week acknowledging my deposit and saying that since I had deposited the cheque before 5 pm the bank would let me have the bond!

Now, I have to say that when we were very young, before we went to uni, both of my children and I worked for banks! They were the same 50 years ago as they are now, I'm afraid, only the public and, thankfully, the press, speak up about it now.

I have had my bank account in Spain for around 10 years. " pensions from England are paid in every month & I go in once a month to draw out cash. Several direct debits go out every month. I also have two investment accounts with the same branch of the same bank.
When I opened the account initially I provided evidence of my ID number & my passport details.
When I went last week, suddenly I was asked to produce my ID all over again.
As I wasn´t carrying my passport with me for safety reasons, I offered the photocopy, but apparently that was unacceptable. The original is required.
I still have no idea why. The teller just kept saying it was the Bank rules.
I can pretty well guarentee that my passport will be unacceptable as the original one expired a few years ago, and I now have a new one which has a different number from the original. :-| :-|

Nobody has skin as thick as the local bank manager.

It is something you have to learn to develop, Dermot, but I think politicians would give anyone a good run for their money as far as thick skins are concerned.

:-D. service with a smile is the motto :-D

Some years ago when everything went digital and I could do longer speak to bank direct, I argued up hill and down until I visited my branch and informed them in a very loud voice that unless I could have contact with a human voice I was, from that date, withdrawing all my assests and instructing my OH, son and daughter to do the same.

Here I am having spoken to my bank 3 days ago.

I am the wise one, amalgamate our accounts and no transaction fees... thank you, then they moved the amount that we had to have as a minimum before fees would be waived. But wait your husband is a member of the accountants society. Fees were waived. I thought that was weird but was happy to accept it. It got raised again but .........

... Now we have two separate accounts and no fees because we are pensioners.

The thing is the whole system is/was unfair, if you had a high bank balance no fees and yet the poor unfortunates that struggle to make ends meet do get charged fees and if they do something like go into the red they get another slam dunk huge charge slapped on their account. All those on a benefit - unemployment, are usually in this category.

The banks aren't happy with us because we don't do internet banking and receive statements in the mail. It can be quite funny when we have to see them about something and we get the internet spiel plus insurance spiels and anything else that the bank is into.

One bank told us they had 35 different customer services.. we don't bank with them but had gone in there to make a donation to their rescue helicopter fund and got the spiel.

and besides they are so often getting robbed.

Stick 'em up Pers. Or rather stick it to them.

We use two banks, one giving you a small amount each month as long as you have three standing orders/direct debits with them and deposit (I thinks it is still) £750 per month into you current account. Easy to transfer back and forth there and gain £60 FROM the bank while so doing.

Another trick. When a bank offers you interest-free periods (usually 12 months) on your credit card, use it. Transfer other card debts to it, buy everything using it while at the same time saving the money you would have purchased items with. Pay the minimum amount each month to the 'free' interest card and just before the 12 months is up, pay it off. You have to save the cash you would have spent but you will gain a small amount of interest while so doing.

We now get free accounts as we are pensioners ................ when we opened that account with our daughter as third name earlier this year, the Financial Manager started off by telling us that we had to pay a fee as we already had 2 free Seniors account.

She was quite taken aback when I suggested that it was possible for her to link the new account either to my account or his as we already had 3 other linked accounts, all free.

Yes, it was possible to do that.

I like to think that we taught her something that day :-)

I grew up with a bank account with the Auckland Savings Bank. A few years ago they went up-market (I presume) and decided to call themselves the ASB bank (now owned by Australia). About 6 months ago I decided to ask one of the tellers, what do the letters ASB mean? She said it was their name. I tried very hard to get her to tell me that it was the Auckland Savings Bank bank, but she just wouldnt. I think it now stands for Another S***ing B*****d bank. ;-)

That upmarket bank Huia, removed the ATM machine from Huntly not long after we moved here.. It was the only bank missing..the ANZ, BNZ, Kiwi and Westpac all have actual banks plus machines.. costs a $1. if we dare to use one of their machines.. okay we will live we still can do it at Bombay Service Centre on the way North, they have a machine and now it has gone as well.

Well, at least our recent Annual Credit Card Fee of $29.00 has now been refunded :-)