What are peoples fav bank, and why?

[Crazy Dazz]

Westpac – just terrible. Had such a bad name in WA that they bought out Challenge bank, and changed all their branches to Challenge. (Challenge were awesome, even when I worked for ANZ, I had loans and cards with Challenge. Westpac ruined them, so then changed em all back to Westpac.
St George were awesome, until Westpac took them over. Just *********.
NAB – All banks are *********, but NAB somehow made it worse. Gave me a loan, then a year later said I never should have gotten it and demanded I pay it back.
CBA – Were incompetent and inefficient, now just incompetent. If you want a back to actually LOSE your money (as in “it’s not in your account but we don’t know where it’s gone”) use them.
ANZ - lying thieving ****** of the worst order.

RAMS – If you know of somebody who is going to get a loan through RAMS, break their fingers you will be doing them a favour. There entire operation is really quite criminal.
There branches are nothing but sales centres, where there operatives will lie to your face, falsify documents, and do anything to suck you in and sign you up for stuff you never agreed to. After which you have nothing to do with them. They are actually a front for WESTPAC, so from that day on you are dealing with the faceless Westpac bureaucracy in some building somewhere. They have no interest in you, they refuse to discuss refinancing options (in TOTAL violation of the Consumer Credit Code,) and the day you fall behind you are handballed to their collections people who are just the ********* from hell.
Their standard ploy is to use some trumped up ******** to go to court and get a possession order, which they then file away, and pull out to threaten you at every opportunity. We are still being threatened with an order they obtained 4 years ago. For the last few years, I have always stayed a bit in front, and as a consequence when I lost my job, and missed a payment we were actually less than a ¼ of a month behind. When we were 13 days overdue, they sent the bailiffs to evict us, because the money we transferred in the previous day from another bank was deemed “uncleared.” (And who paid for the bailiffs etc? Well of course they just charged that to our account.

If you want a bank that offers very good products, good interest, and no fees. HSBC. We have been banking with them for over 10 years, and product wise, and for reliability, they are top notch.
Downside is that they don’t have many branches, (only THREE in WA) but all your eftpos and internet is free, and you can use Westpac ATM’s to withdraw free.
They are NOT what I would call a “personable” bank. If you’re looking for someone to sit down and have a chat and sought out your issues, that’s not them.

If you want a home loan, I would seriously recommend ME bank.
Credit unions can be great, but they can also chop and change too much. Because they are so small, changing one manager can completely change their attitude towards you.

[Spudz27]

I have been with police and nurses for years now. By far the easiest bank (they are now a bank and not a credit union) I have ever dealt with. Even 8yrs ago when I joined I had no account fee's, unlimited eftpos and atm (their atm network which in ludes nab) transactions etc, so long as $500 went in each month. It took years for the big banks to offer something similair and even then you have to pay for the privelage, or you used to. I have never had a drama, my calls are always answered pretty much instantly, I get calls straight away if they think something suss is going on etc. I would not change banks unless I was forced to.

[Simple6]

I'm with CUA and contrary to what another poster said I havent been charged fees. There are fees for using EFTPOS more than 15 times a month but of you hit credit that doesn't apply. It even doesn't matter to me when a company want to charge a VISA fee because on those odd occasions I hit savings. Happens a lot less than 15 times a month so never get hit with a fee.

I did contemplate BankWest but they charge for every BPAY so that wouldnt work for me. Its also got to the point now that I can't understand ever having an account that has fees...so when I got my credit card with NAB I was able to get rid of the annual fee for the first year. So now ill be looking for a better deal when the first year is up.

[pauljh74]

Originally Posted by Papa Smurf

I use Westpac and Members Equity. Westpac is like the others I guess and ME gives good interest rates but has no teller system. :(

Member's Equity you can use Australia Post for over the counter banking and use Westpac ATMs at no charge.

I moved from NAB to ME bank when I got my mortgage. Discounted loan rate due to my super fund being an approved industry fund and no fees for most transactions like EFTPOS or BPay.

[Iggypoppin']

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

Westpac – just terrible. Had such a bad name in WA that they bought out Challenge bank, and changed all their branches to Challenge. (Challenge were awesome, even when I worked for ANZ, I had loans and cards with Challenge. Westpac ruined them, so then changed em all back to Westpac.
St George were awesome, until Westpac took them over. Just *********.
NAB – All banks are *********, but NAB somehow made it worse. Gave me a loan, then a year later said I never should have gotten it and demanded I pay it back.
CBA – Were incompetent and inefficient, now just incompetent. If you want a back to actually LOSE your money (as in “it’s not in your account but we don’t know where it’s gone”) use them.
ANZ - lying thieving ****** of the worst order.

RAMS – If you know of somebody who is going to get a loan through RAMS, break their fingers you will be doing them a favour. There entire operation is really quite criminal.
There branches are nothing but sales centres, where there operatives will lie to your face, falsify documents, and do anything to suck you in and sign you up for stuff you never agreed to. After which you have nothing to do with them. They are actually a front for WESTPAC, so from that day on you are dealing with the faceless Westpac bureaucracy in some building somewhere. They have no interest in you, they refuse to discuss refinancing options (in TOTAL violation of the Consumer Credit Code,) and the day you fall behind you are handballed to their collections people who are just the ********* from hell.
Their standard ploy is to use some trumped up ******** to go to court and get a possession order, which they then file away, and pull out to threaten you at every opportunity. We are still being threatened with an order they obtained 4 years ago. For the last few years, I have always stayed a bit in front, and as a consequence when I lost my job, and missed a payment we were actually less than a ¼ of a month behind. When we were 13 days overdue, they sent the bailiffs to evict us, because the money we transferred in the previous day from another bank was deemed “uncleared.” (And who paid for the bailiffs etc? Well of course they just charged that to our account.

If you want a bank that offers very good products, good interest, and no fees. HSBC. We have been banking with them for over 10 years, and product wise, and for reliability, they are top notch.
Downside is that they don’t have many branches, (only THREE in WA) but all your eftpos and internet is free, and you can use Westpac ATM’s to withdraw free.
They are NOT what I would call a “personable” bank. If you’re looking for someone to sit down and have a chat and sought out your issues, that’s not them.

If you want a home loan, I would seriously recommend ME bank.
Credit unions can be great, but they can also chop and change too much. Because they are so small, changing one manager can completely change their attitude towards you.

I can't say I've had the same experience with Westpac, they have been good so far with me (customer nearly 5 years). Just recently enquired about changing my 55 day interest free credit card to a rewards program and increasing the limit and they were very prompt and helped me out. A fantastic rate and can't complain at all about the service.

[Crazy Dazz]

Originally Posted by Iggypoppin'

I can't say I've had the same experience with Westpac, they have been good so far with me (customer nearly 5 years). Just recently enquired about changing my 55 day interest free credit card to a rewards program and increasing the limit and they were very prompt and helped me out. A fantastic rate and can't complain at all about the service.

My wife WORKED for Westpac, they have institutionalised the art of being an ********.
What I have determined through my years of dealing with financial institutions, is that EVERYBODY is fitted into one of four distinct categories. When I worked with ANZ they were classed as A, B, C, or D.
Unfortunately these categories do NOT work how you think.
A – “Valued Customer.” Solely means that they see the opportunity to sell you more products. If you have a job and a credit card, you’re a “valued customer” because they believe they can sell you more credit. They will generally respond favourably to your requests.
B – “Tolerated Customer.” They may be making a lot of money off you, but there is limited opportunity to sell you more. You may even have a “personal banker” assigned to you, but it is simply window dressing. Their aim is only to keep you happy enough not to leave. (Unfortunately I got caught napping with Westpac and didn’t realise I had slipped into this category until it was too late.) NB: Having 4 investment properties and almost $1M in equity does NOT make you a valued customer.
C – “Captive Customer.” They can’t sell you anything more, and you are so stitched up that you can’t leave with ease, they start hitting you with every ******** fee they can think of, and refuse to listen. Months’ worth of advance payments are simply ignored, the more you try and reason with them the more belligerent they become. Yet DESPITE all the threatening letters, the legal actions, and all the crap charged to your account, they REFUSE to let you leave (and why would they, when they are making so much money off you.)
D – “Not Wanted.” This was supposed to stand for “Default,” but in reality they are more than happy to keep defaulters in class ‘C’ provided they can still make money of you. They will not normally go into all out warfare mode until they believe they are at risk of losing money. My downfall here, despite my healthy equity, was one property that the bank was reluctant to repossess. So whilst across those 3 properties my equity was around 30%, if you took out the whole of that apartment, it looked shaky.

The worst aspect of the above is that you get handballed from department to department, many of which have KPIs that are very much not in your best interest. I get confused between “Collections” and “Recoveries.” I THINK it is C – Collections, and D – Recoveries. Collections simply want to bilk as much money from you as possible, but on an ongoing basis. Recoveries work on a straight percentage of debt recovered.
In my case, the joke was on them. They thought they were ******* me over, but in the end it seems they can’t touch the apartment, so their strategy has blown up in their face.

[Iggypoppin']

If your wife worked for them, why weren't you a little better looked after? I'm happy being in column A, they can sell me anything they like. I won't be buying I'm happy with my present financial situation.

[Ben73]

Moved from The Greater Building Society to CBA.

I have found CBA to be great. Helpful, friendly, decent loan rates and decent bank accounts, lots of ATMs
I don't think their fees are too bad.

The Greater are hopeless. Not helpful, don't care much, and only have a few ATMS and branches around Newcastle and central coast. And None anywhere else.

[Ryan]

Switched from Westpac to The Greater a couple of years ago. No issue with either. Was just easier with the move into the new house dealing with rent and other expenses.

[brydie76]

Switched from CBA a little while ago to the Newcastle Permanent, after CBA stuffed up the release of the Fiesta from the PPSR majorly when I was trying to trade it in for the Swift (and one branch worker outright lied to me then accused me of lying when I put a complaint in). I not 100% happy with the Perm, but they are better than the CBA was. Got heaps better rates and that for my car loan (heaps easier to repay early too) and when I was setting up transaction accounts the teller told me how to avoid fees on it specifically! I'm also with Westpac but with one dormant account which I'm trying to close- isn't easy given none of the branches in Newcastle open outside normal 9-5 Monday to Friday business hours...

I would go with the Greater, but I can't which sucks- I like how they operate.

[Barnaby]

Originally Posted by pauljh74

Member's Equity you can use Australia Post for over the counter banking and use Westpac ATMs at no charge.

Have a look at your statements...Westpac don't charge you, but ME does! I am with ME and they are slowly turning into the same as the others.

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by Barnaby

Have a look at your statements...Westpac don't charge you, but ME does! I am with ME and they are slowly turning into the same as the others.

I've been using the ME Bank Every Day Transaction Account for around 2 years now (IIRC) and I have never been charged for an ATM transaction, either by Westpac or by ME Bank (as per the below)

Free ATM access at more than 3,000 ATMs across Australia including ME Bank, Westpac, St.George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA ATMs
Free EFTPOS transactions
Unlimited BPAY® and PayAnyone transactions
Unlimited direct debits and credits
Tap & Go™ with MasterCard PayPass™ for purchases under $100
Peace of mind with MasterCard Zero Liability® for protection against fraud and unauthorised transactions#
Choice of card colour - Lime, Metallic or Pink (supporting the National Breast Cancer Foundation)

Perhaps you have a different account to me?

Craig H

[Barnaby]

Originally Posted by psychobimbo

Perhaps you have a different account to me?

Craig H

Interest Savings Account here. I get interest on my account and yours attracts none. They sting me back though....:(

[JC]

Were with ANZ - have been on and off over the years since switching from CBA. Why? convenience. sloth. not greed!