I've got one of the ASB visa debit cards, it's reasonably useful but I find some EFTPOS machines still don't support the chip cards properly, and all the Christchurch parking meters don't like them either.

Going a bit off topic but I've been having lots of fun with banks recently... I'm self employed and needed to get a mortgage. My current bank (ASB) said that because I'd only been self employed for 18 months there wasn't a good chance, even though I had a 20% deposit. I then went to Westpac, I told them about my business and they said not a problem - come back with your financial statements and we'll pre-approve you. I decided to wait until the end of the financial year as the statements would be getting done then anyway. In early April I came across a house that was too good to pass up, so I got a finance condition added into the purchase agreement with a 3 week deadline and had my accountant rush getting my accounts done. I then went to Westpac to get the finance sorted, got approved but then the loans person said to me "but because all of your customers are offshore we'll need a 25% deposit instead of 20%, that won't be a problem will it?" Yes it will be a problem, 5% doesn't sound like much but when you convert it to dollars it's a substantial amount. I told her in no uncertain terms that I wouldn't be putting down a 25% deposit, she said OK and that she'd speak to her manager about it and that it wouldn't be a problem and that she'd call me first thing Monday morning. 12pm Monday I still hadn't heard from her so I rang and left a voicemail message, at 2pm I got a call saying "still no luck, but I'm going to speak to my manager and will call you in 20 minutes". 6pm that evening she finally called back, "still no luck but I should be able to sort it tomorrow", at this time I told her exactly what I thought of her and her bank. The next day I went to the National Bank, they approved me with a 20% deposit within 24 hours, no hassle, no fuss and the house settles on Friday.