Kiwibank takes 40 minutes to answer the phone: what's going on?

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Kiwibank takes 40 minutes to answer the phone: what's going on?

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Hammerer

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#1756401 4-Apr-2017 15:52

BTR:

nitrotech:

Like you no real issues but they haven't ever contacted me to ask if there was anything they can do to help. Obviously they have enough customers.

You are kidding right???? I was a Westpac customer since being a kid when it was then called Trustbank. Not ONCE did they ever contact me to ask am I happy with everything, banks do not do that just like your power, phone and insurance companies don't.

With Westpac, I've had at least five phone calls checking if I'm OK over our 15+ years with Westpac. I've also had at least as many calls when a fixed rate loan will soon float. So part of the reason for this may be the type of accounts and the amount borrowed/deposited.

mattwnz

20141 posts

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#1756408 4-Apr-2017 16:02

dafman:

I invested in a Kiwibank 200 day term deposit this week at 3.70% - that is the best rate in the market for that term. Each bank will differ, depending on how much they require funding for a particular term. It clearly pays to shop around - sometimes Kiwibank may not be as competitive (as in your case), other times they will offer the best rate (as in mine).

Although like mortgages, you never just take the advertised rate. By shopping around you can get better rates with other banks.

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#1756409 4-Apr-2017 16:03

mattwnz:

dafman:

I invested in a Kiwibank 200 day term deposit this week at 3.70% - that is the best rate in the market for that term. Each bank will differ, depending on how much they require funding for a particular term. It clearly pays to shop around - sometimes Kiwibank may not be as competitive (as in your case), other times they will offer the best rate (as in mine).

Although like mortgages, you never just take the advertised rate. By shopping around you can get better rates with other banks.

We always get .25-.75 off the best rates with Kiwibank, it's the only reason we put up with their otherwise infuriating service.

mattwnz

20141 posts

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#1756410 4-Apr-2017 16:03

Hammerer:

BTR:

nitrotech:

Like you no real issues but they haven't ever contacted me to ask if there was anything they can do to help. Obviously they have enough customers.

You are kidding right???? I was a Westpac customer since being a kid when it was then called Trustbank. Not ONCE did they ever contact me to ask am I happy with everything, banks do not do that just like your power, phone and insurance companies don't.

With Westpac, I've had at least five phone calls checking if I'm OK over our 15+ years with Westpac. I've also had at least as many calls when a fixed rate loan will soon float. So part of the reason for this may be the type of accounts and the amount borrowed/deposited.

I have never had any calls either, checking. Also the last times I had to phone them, I was was on hold for well over half an hour each time. Although my call wasn't for a loan.

If I was looking at a bank with the best customer service, you can't really go past TSB, and I have been a customer for 20 years . But they may not suit everyones needs.

JaseNZ

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#1756805 5-Apr-2017 09:04

I recently had to change from Kiwibank because I was involved in the purchase of a business. Because it was well into the mid millions Kiwibank were not interested in security against a loan etc but BNZ could not do enough for me. Part of the deal was all my personal banking had to be migrated all over to them.

I guess if you have a huge debt with them there is nothing they won't do for you to make sure they are getting their repayments.

Totally different scene to Kiwibank which I am still getting used to.

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frednz

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#1756809 5-Apr-2017 09:11

mattwnz:

I have never had any calls either, checking. Also the last times I had to phone them, I was was on hold for well over half an hour each time. Although my call wasn't for a loan.

If I was looking at a bank with the best customer service, you can't really go past TSB, and I have been a customer for 20 years . But they may not suit everyones needs.

I agree, TSB customer service is excellent and often they answer the phone within 5 seconds. Even though they are a small bank I think they are prudent enough to survive any major financial storms?

But, of course, this is always the concern when you have term deposits with small banks! At the moment, they are even offering 4% for 2 years on investments over $10,000 and I think this is one of the top rates around for this term.

frednz

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#1759340 8-Apr-2017 08:58

frednz:

mattwnz:

I have never had any calls either, checking. Also the last times I had to phone them, I was was on hold for well over half an hour each time. Although my call wasn't for a loan.

If I was looking at a bank with the best customer service, you can't really go past TSB, and I have been a customer for 20 years . But they may not suit everyones needs.

I agree, TSB customer service is excellent and often they answer the phone within 5 seconds. Even though they are a small bank I think they are prudent enough to survive any major financial storms?

But, of course, this is always the concern when you have term deposits with small banks! At the moment, they are even offering 4% for 2 years on investments over $10,000 and I think this is one of the top rates around for this term.

I was telling some friends about Kiwibank's long delays in answering phone calls, and they said that people are now being charged $5 if they call Kiwibank "too often". An article about this can be seen here and apparently this is being charged if a customer calls more than 5 times in a month. One of my friends has been charged this $5 fee for making sensible and absolutely necessary calls.

Do any other banks charge a $5 phone fee, Kiwibank used to be so customer friendly but I'm not so sure now? Do they really need to cost-save to this extent?

It's interesting to see that Kiwibank has recently asked shareholders for $247 million.

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dafman

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#1759442 8-Apr-2017 12:22

frednz:

frednz:

mattwnz:

I have never had any calls either, checking. Also the last times I had to phone them, I was was on hold for well over half an hour each time. Although my call wasn't for a loan.

If I was looking at a bank with the best customer service, you can't really go past TSB, and I have been a customer for 20 years . But they may not suit everyones needs.

I agree, TSB customer service is excellent and often they answer the phone within 5 seconds. Even though they are a small bank I think they are prudent enough to survive any major financial storms?

But, of course, this is always the concern when you have term deposits with small banks! At the moment, they are even offering 4% for 2 years on investments over $10,000 and I think this is one of the top rates around for this term.

I was telling some friends about Kiwibank's long delays in answering phone calls, and they said that people are now being charged $5 if they call Kiwibank "too often". An article about this can be seen here and apparently this is being charged if a customer calls more than 5 times in a month. One of my friends has been charged this $5 fee for making sensible and absolutely necessary calls.

Do any other banks charge a $5 phone fee, Kiwibank used to be so customer friendly but I'm not so sure now? Do they really need to cost-save to this extent?

It's interesting to see that Kiwibank has recently asked shareholders for $247 million.

Why would you need to call the bank more than five times in one month?

frednz

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#1759445 8-Apr-2017 12:30

dafman:

frednz:

frednz:

mattwnz:

I have never had any calls either, checking. Also the last times I had to phone them, I was was on hold for well over half an hour each time. Although my call wasn't for a loan.

If I was looking at a bank with the best customer service, you can't really go past TSB, and I have been a customer for 20 years . But they may not suit everyones needs.

I agree, TSB customer service is excellent and often they answer the phone within 5 seconds. Even though they are a small bank I think they are prudent enough to survive any major financial storms?

But, of course, this is always the concern when you have term deposits with small banks! At the moment, they are even offering 4% for 2 years on investments over $10,000 and I think this is one of the top rates around for this term.

I was telling some friends about Kiwibank's long delays in answering phone calls, and they said that people are now being charged $5 if they call Kiwibank "too often". An article about this can be seen here and apparently this is being charged if a customer calls more than 5 times in a month. One of my friends has been charged this $5 fee for making sensible and absolutely necessary calls.

Do any other banks charge a $5 phone fee, Kiwibank used to be so customer friendly but I'm not so sure now? Do they really need to cost-save to this extent?

It's interesting to see that Kiwibank has recently asked shareholders for $247 million.

Why would you need to call the bank more than five times in one month?

I can confirm again that my friend's calls were sensible and absolutely necessary and on legitimate business and absolutely no warning was given that there would be a $5 charge.

cokemaster

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#1759505 8-Apr-2017 15:54

I bank with Kiwibank and a number of other NZ and overseas banks. My experiences are reasonably aligned with some of the previous posters but my thoughts:
* Kiwibank tends to have good headline rates for mortgages (on very specific terms) but tend to have charge fees that other banks would either waive because of the value of your business or simply not charge at all (eg. Direct debit establishment fees).
* Milage with customer service varies significantly. There is one branch where I've had excellent service but on the whole - I've been frustrated with the in branch experience. It's not just the waiting but the experience itself and the product knowledge.
- their IVR navigation needs to be better - it can take up to 2 minutes to navigate through the menus only to be told - sorry "we're busy - try again later"
- Contact centre experience has been extremely poor on almost all fronts. I end up getting frustrated every time with the overall experience. Once you get through to the retentions team, things get a lot better (eg. Ownership, followthrough, and general engagement)...
- their email contact in the app is equally annoying. 2 days and the responses feel canned (not personalised or friendly).
- my experience with both their email and contact centres basically saw me moving services (that were making them a reasonable amount of money) away in preparation for the "big move".
- some of kiwibank policies or lack of adherence to best practice can end costing you significantly (eg. Hundreds to thousands). Always push back - they'll generally cover the expenses.
- whilst I've experienced isolated poor experiences with other banks eg. Westpac PN, ASB Contact centre, , Westpac St Luke's.... they've been very isolated and the overall experience is that they want the business and care about providing a quality product. In the cases of ANZ, they've been excellent in all counts and their app is excellent.

My advice:
- keep your credit cards and other accounts with a mainstream bank.
- if you see a really great interest rate for home loans that your bank won't match.. then they're an option but keep the bare minimum with Kiwibank.
- as with all banks - make sure you get the best rate (not always the one on the board) and cash contributions.
- always kick the tyres on the fees - often they'll waive most of them.
- if you feel like you're not going anywhere and you've got a home loan... ask for break fees.. it's a shortcut to getting to the retention team.

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Yabanize

2350 posts

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#1759525 8-Apr-2017 16:36

I also don't like how they don't have any ATM's that do automatic deposits

mattwnz

20141 posts

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#1759531 8-Apr-2017 16:44

frednz:
dafman:

frednz:

frednz:

mattwnz:

I have never had any calls either, checking. Also the last times I had to phone them, I was was on hold for well over half an hour each time. Although my call wasn't for a loan.

If I was looking at a bank with the best customer service, you can't really go past TSB, and I have been a customer for 20 years . But they may not suit everyones needs.

I agree, TSB customer service is excellent and often they answer the phone within 5 seconds. Even though they are a small bank I think they are prudent enough to survive any major financial storms?

But, of course, this is always the concern when you have term deposits with small banks! At the moment, they are even offering 4% for 2 years on investments over $10,000 and I think this is one of the top rates around for this term.

I was telling some friends about Kiwibank's long delays in answering phone calls, and they said that people are now being charged $5 if they call Kiwibank "too often". An article about this can be seen here and apparently this is being charged if a customer calls more than 5 times in a month. One of my friends has been charged this $5 fee for making sensible and absolutely necessary calls.

Do any other banks charge a $5 phone fee, Kiwibank used to be so customer friendly but I'm not so sure now? Do they really need to cost-save to this extent?

It's interesting to see that Kiwibank has recently asked shareholders for $247 million.

Why would you need to call the bank more than five times in one month?

I can confirm again that my friend's calls were sensible and absolutely necessary and on legitimate business and absolutely no warning was given that there would be a $5 charge.

ASB also have a fee they charge if you phone too much in a month. Think it is more than 4 or 5 times. I think it is terrible that some banks are now doing this.

In terms of whether 4 or 5 times is too much? If you are setting up term deposits, and have multiple accounts, and also a mortgage, and are calling for quotes, you may need to do this several times in a month, so it can easily add up. I have got up to the number before.

frednz

1467 posts

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Inactive user

#1759706 9-Apr-2017 10:21

cokemaster: I bank with Kiwibank and a number of other NZ and overseas banks. My experiences are reasonably aligned with some of the previous posters but my thoughts:
* Kiwibank tends to have good headline rates for mortgages (on very specific terms) but tend to have charge fees that other banks would either waive because of the value of your business or simply not charge at all (eg. Direct debit establishment fees).
* Milage with customer service varies significantly. There is one branch where I've had excellent service but on the whole - I've been frustrated with the in branch experience. It's not just the waiting but the experience itself and the product knowledge.
- their IVR navigation needs to be better - it can take up to 2 minutes to navigate through the menus only to be told - sorry "we're busy - try again later"
- Contact centre experience has been extremely poor on almost all fronts. I end up getting frustrated every time with the overall experience. Once you get through to the retentions team, things get a lot better (eg. Ownership, followthrough, and general engagement)...
- their email contact in the app is equally annoying. 2 days and the responses feel canned (not personalised or friendly).
- my experience with both their email and contact centres basically saw me moving services (that were making them a reasonable amount of money) away in preparation for the "big move".
- some of kiwibank policies or lack of adherence to best practice can end costing you significantly (eg. Hundreds to thousands). Always push back - they'll generally cover the expenses.
- whilst I've experienced isolated poor experiences with other banks eg. Westpac PN, ASB Contact centre, , Westpac St Luke's.... they've been very isolated and the overall experience is that they want the business and care about providing a quality product. In the cases of ANZ, they've been excellent in all counts and their app is excellent.

My advice:
- keep your credit cards and other accounts with a mainstream bank.
- if you see a really great interest rate for home loans that your bank won't match.. then they're an option but keep the bare minimum with Kiwibank.
- as with all banks - make sure you get the best rate (not always the one on the board) and cash contributions.
- always kick the tyres on the fees - often they'll waive most of them.
- if you feel like you're not going anywhere and you've got a home loan... ask for break fees.. it's a shortcut to getting to the retention team.

Thanks for this advice, I wasn't aware they had a retentions team, this might have been an option for the many times I've had to accept interest being paid only at maturity when other banks pay monthly interest while offering an equal or better rate than Kiwibank!

I'm not sure that Kiwibank appreciates why pensioners, for example, prefer to have monthly interest.

Despite the limitations of a smaller bank such as Kiwibank, I have persisted with them because I don't want to put most of my money "in the one basket", so Kiwibank has been useful to help with getting a reasonable spread of investments with perhaps reasonable security as it is Government owned.

I once asked why I wasn't offered a rate of interest that matched that offered by ANZ and BNZ and they said that if I was a substantial customer this would be considered. When I asked how they defined the term "substantial customer" they said a customer who had more than $1 million deposited with them.. oh well that put me in my place!

frednz

1467 posts

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#1759713 9-Apr-2017 10:37

mattwnz:
frednz:

dafman:

frednz:

frednz:

mattwnz:

I have never had any calls either, checking. Also the last times I had to phone them, I was was on hold for well over half an hour each time. Although my call wasn't for a loan.

If I was looking at a bank with the best customer service, you can't really go past TSB, and I have been a customer for 20 years . But they may not suit everyones needs.

I agree, TSB customer service is excellent and often they answer the phone within 5 seconds. Even though they are a small bank I think they are prudent enough to survive any major financial storms?

But, of course, this is always the concern when you have term deposits with small banks! At the moment, they are even offering 4% for 2 years on investments over $10,000 and I think this is one of the top rates around for this term.

I was telling some friends about Kiwibank's long delays in answering phone calls, and they said that people are now being charged $5 if they call Kiwibank "too often". An article about this can be seen here and apparently this is being charged if a customer calls more than 5 times in a month. One of my friends has been charged this $5 fee for making sensible and absolutely necessary calls.

Do any other banks charge a $5 phone fee, Kiwibank used to be so customer friendly but I'm not so sure now? Do they really need to cost-save to this extent?

It's interesting to see that Kiwibank has recently asked shareholders for $247 million.

Why would you need to call the bank more than five times in one month?

I can confirm again that my friend's calls were sensible and absolutely necessary and on legitimate business and absolutely no warning was given that there would be a $5 charge.

ASB also have a fee they charge if you phone too much in a month. Think it is more than 4 or 5 times. I think it is terrible that some banks are now doing this.

In terms of whether 4 or 5 times is too much? If you are setting up term deposits, and have multiple accounts, and also a mortgage, and are calling for quotes, you may need to do this several times in a month, so it can easily add up. I have got up to the number before.

I agree that it's terrible that a bank can charge you for making a series of legitimate phone calls, which in my friend's case, was going to result in Kiwibank's term deposits getting larger!

It seems that call centres must be very expensive to run as a lot of large companies now have their call centres in places like the Philippines. Although the staff at these centres try to be very helpful, it's sometimes hard to understand what they are saying (and vice versa)!

There seems to be a concerted effort from many companies to get you to do everything online and to give up any personal phone contact. They don't want to send you correspondence by snail mail any more either. Vodafone, for example, charges a monthly fee if you have your statement posted to you rather than sent by email.

But, of course, it's not everyone who is computer literate or wants to wait for email responses. So, in designing customer service policy, I think large companies should consider the needs of all their customers so that they don't put in place customer elimination policies rather than customer retention policies!

mattwnz

20141 posts

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#1761786 11-Apr-2017 17:19

i think i partly comes down to whether they need the business or not.

Interesting that one of the guys on the Edge radio station complained today that they were on hold with Kiwibank for 1 hour, 18 minutes!. Just for a simple query.Is this sort of thing becoming a new normal? You expect it these days with ISPs, but it shouldn't be happening with banks as well. Especially as they have cut down the number of branches etc.

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