Kiwibank customer complaints or kudos

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Kiwibank customer complaints or kudos

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scottjpalmer

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#225328 15-Jun-2009 18:48

Regs: i tried to sign up online for their zero fee mastercard and the process failed twice. I sent them an email/filled out a form (cant remember which) and it took two weeks for them to respond. Based on that i wont bother trying again - i get much better service at the ASB

My experience was similar on numerous occassions.

Regs

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Snowflake

#225330 15-Jun-2009 18:50

cokemaster:
I've kept my credit cards with the other banks as they offer rewards programs, but everything else is with kiwibank where I pay virtually nothing in fees.

On that note, how much do you spend annually on your 'rewards' credit card, how much are the fees and how much do you get back in rewards? I did a bunch of calculations recently and found that some 'rewards' programs actually cost you money (when taking higher fees into account) unless you spend a minimum amount. Also the actual $$ value of rewards changes significantly between the different bank products - even with supposedly the same 'earn rate'. I found that if you have a joint credit card (e.g husb/wife), don't use travel insurance and spend between $10,000 and $30,000 per annum on your credit card then the National Bank Thoroughbred Visa is the best card to have. With one card in particular you were still down $55 if you only spent $30K after deducting fees! In that case the zero fee M/Cfrom kiwibank would be a better deal than a rewards card!

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NickiB

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#225349 15-Jun-2009 19:32

Regs:
On that note, how much do you spend annually on your 'rewards' credit card, how much are the fees and how much do you get back in rewards? I did a bunch of calculations recently and found that some 'rewards' programs actually cost you money

So important to do this! Most of those schemes are a load of bollocks. Farmers keep sending me crap about their latest scheme, worked out I'd have to something like $3500 a year to get my fee money back, $7000 would net me a $30 return. And I refuse to cycle money through cards just to get rewards like they all suggest. My Visa has flybuys, which nets me next to nothing as well and was in no way a deciding factor when signing up, but at least it doesn't cost me anything and I didn't have to sign up to yet another scheme with extra cards, statements and fees.

You also have to be careful with the low interest credit cards as they generally charged a significantly higher fee and if you have a low balance or pay off each month you're much better off with a higher interest rate, will cost less in the long run.

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cokemaster

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#225363 15-Jun-2009 19:59

@Regs - I primarily use my ASB credit which has the 'true rewards'. Every 2-3 months I usually get enough for a $20 fuel voucher now and then. I do have a westpac credit card, but this was provided under the employee pack that westpac provides.

It works out well, I use it for my daily purchases and pay the card off on a monthly basis.

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paradoxsm

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#225401 15-Jun-2009 22:19

They have just changed the Internet Banking from the old version of Ultradata's MyViewPoint.

Personally I liked the old simpler interface with the drop down menus but the new one does have handy "quick links" on the right hand side and hopefully will introduce some better integration with the back end system. The primary web address has changed too from https://www.kiwibank.co.nz/banking/ to https://www.ib.kiwibank.co.nz/

The whitesheet on Ultracs gives some good insight into the functionality of the platform that Kiwibank use and features they also have access to. http://www.ultradata.com.au/htm/products_services/retail_banking.html

Kiwibank's internet banking is extremely quick, showing most transactions in real-time.

paradoxsm

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#225404 15-Jun-2009 22:24

Very much like the likes of flybuys and similar loyalty schemes, I just shop with lower-margin retailers or await the many specials and can afford that popcorn maker after usually a $200 - $300 dollar spend, be warned though, I have certainly noticed increased margins on many retail items recently. One creditcard "rewards" scheme would have required me to shove $7,000 in a year through it to make it even break even unless my calculations were off however my National bank creditcard paid it's own annual fee with a minimal spend so do the math before the leap.

Regs

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Snowflake

#225414 15-Jun-2009 23:01

cokemaster: @Regs - I primarily use my ASB credit which has the 'true rewards'. Every 2-3 months I usually get enough for a $20 fuel voucher now and then. I do have a westpac credit card, but this was provided under the employee pack that westpac provides.

It works out well, I use it for my daily purchases and pay the card off on a monthly basis.

LOL. The ASB Bank cards came out near bottom on my table of fees versus rewards - they are one of th few banks that charge reward scheme fees on top of credit card fees. My calculations, based on joint account and $30,000 annual spend, put The NBNZ thoroughbred visa card at $245 (cash) net rewards versus the ASB visa card at $124 net rewards (farmers vouchers). I use the ASB for everything *except* credit cards :)

EDIT: note that at the $30,000 level the BNZ GlobalPlus American Express came out tops with $382 airpoint dollar rewards, but its unrealistic to expect to be able to spend 100% of your annual credit card expenditure on an Amex card... for $30,000 annual spend the best option was a combination of the Globalplus Amex *plus* the NBNZ Visa which returned $232 in airpoint dollars (globalplus amex) plus $45 in cashback (nbnz visa).

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dpw

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#225530 16-Jun-2009 10:48

I've had very few big issues with kiwibank. At the moment my biggest hassle with them is inability to install their mobile client on my E71, and their mobile web banking. The latter is incredibly limited and doesn't even allow me to move money out of my online call account. Not being able to pay bills or transfer money to external accounts is pretty darn annoying too. What's the point of having a mobile client if the features are incredibly limited? Looking in from a software developer's point of view I wonder why they can't offer the bulk of the core features they offer on a richer browser site? At least offer the ones I've mentioned above!

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martyyn

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#225822 17-Jun-2009 13:54

We joined KB 12 months ago after having the worst possible customer service experiences from National you can imagine. We moved our daily banking, savings, mortgage, credit cards and insurances to them.

The change over was painless, our front line bloke was superb and everything went without a hitch. A couple of auto payments didnt go through (partially my fault) and an overdraft was set-up when I didnt want one, but the charges were all refunded immediately and problems rectified straight away.

There have been a couple of minor issues since then but a phone call or email was all it took to get sorted out and they have always refunded any fees occurred without question.

The only issue we have had is when needed some 'security' a few months ago. I was off work for two months and their special unit for situations like this were utterly abysmal. Again the front line staff were great but behind the scenes they refused us any help at all, which given the circumstances (what we needed vs the amount of finance we have with them) was incredibly stressful.

Still, the cheapest mortgage rates by far, no fees and excellent front line staff....cant argue with that.

plumebee

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#225847 17-Jun-2009 15:26

I've been with Kiwibank since I moved here (just under 4 years ago) and never had any problems. I've had accounts with other banks but I found that I had to go into branches a lot to sort things out and I don't like doing that. I really like the Kiwibank internet banking website and that's what has kept me there. They are aso quite prompt with their emails. The few times I have had to go into the postshop have been ok but the wait times are very annoying. Fortunately I hardly ever have to go in.
The only problem is that their interest rates are quite low which means that I have another account with ASB. If they had good rates I would have everything with them.

paradoxsm

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#225979 17-Jun-2009 21:20

The online tools can be flaky, my "creditcard" application is still stuck in the system from 2005.

Regs

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#225992 17-Jun-2009 22:07

martyyn: Still, the cheapest mortgage rates by far, no fees and excellent front line staff....cant argue with that.

i'm going to dispute the "cheapest mortgage rates by far" line... westpac currently has the lowest 6 month and 1 year rates, TSB lowest 2yr rate. Kiwibank is currently 'cheapest' for 3yr rate. In any case i talked to kiwibank in the past and they were not able to match the rates that ASB offered me (who takes the carded interest rate anyway...?) therefore they were more expensive than ASB for me.

Kiwibank also seem to have a *lot* of loan fees listed under their home loans fees section. Do they waive all of these extra fees? I've never paid a fee for a mortgage with the ASB (not even low equity insurance fees!). They have always waived documentation fees, re-fixing fees, loan restructure fees etc. ASB also paid all my legal fees when establishing the mortgage in the first place!

With the ASB you also have no fees on your cheque accounts.

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BurningBeard

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#226295 18-Jun-2009 15:13

No issues whatsoever. Very happy with them.

Though it was a bit iffy that I was guiding the lady through the process of signing up (it was her first day and she was a computer N00B)

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ageorge

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#226329 18-Jun-2009 16:35

When I started this thread I did not expect so many responses! all is good because I have had quite a horror story with them, partly to do with the new web interface and their refusal to change description field from an inane numeric account number descriptor into what it used to be; a standard descriptor, causing me to amongst other things do a double payment.

I'd read of a bunch of other kiwibank problems which is here:

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/sleemanj/6227

Anyway, its all good news from most of you here, so thats good. Thanks for the feedback.

Al.

andrewcnz

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#226338 18-Jun-2009 17:01

Found kiwibank good not had any problems at all. Have savings,credit card and mortgage with them. Do most things online with them.

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