Changing Banks - Anyone done it?

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Changing Banks - Anyone done it?

Quinny

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#209114 13-Mar-2017 14:23

Long story short looking to change banks. Was gonna say which bank but really for everyone likes Bank A someone will like Bank B.

What I would love to know is anyone who changed and found the process easy. Moving Mortgages, Normal account, Kiwisaver, Savings Account and Electronic Transaction account. So yeah full on setup. Broker says credit rating and equity mean should not be an issue but I am terrified of moving banks. So many aps etc to change. And some of the online banking platforms are horrid.

joff_nz

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#1735784 13-Mar-2017 14:29

How easy any switch is will still be matters of preference - it relies much on the individual staff member who is processing your requests.

All the big banks do having 'switching teams' who will be able to manage a lot of the work on your behalf - I'm unsure if any one bank is really any better than the others at switching.

tchart

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#1735786 13-Mar-2017 14:33

Did mine in January. Was pretty painless. Still moving a few automatic payments etc across.

Linux

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#1735790 13-Mar-2017 14:37

This is a very simple process I changed about 8 months back

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MikeAqua

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#1735795 13-Mar-2017 14:42

Easy. I changed to ANZ when BNZ did some minor but highly irritating thing.

ANZ organised everything. They paid off my BNZ mortgage (floating), card balances and set up new APs from a list I printed off internet banking. The only thing I had to change was the account my wages are paid into.

Mike

mattwnz

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#1735796 13-Mar-2017 14:44

As the major banks these days are so similar, what would be your reason for doing so? Probably work out how long it is going to take you in time and monetary terms to see if it is worth it. I have my stuff such as kiwibank, transaction account etc all with different banks, so I can pick and choose the best deals. Although I suspect if you have a mortgage, banks can package deals, and you can also borrow against your house etc.

KrazyKid

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#1735811 13-Mar-2017 15:33

I was offered $3k when buying a house 2 years ago to change banks.

It was easy.

1) Tell your work

2) Look though the last 6 months statements try and spot any Auto Payments/Direct Debits you have forgotten you have.

3) Tell all the above you are changing account

4) leave the other account open with some cash in it to cover any AP/DD you missed (couple of months should do it.

5) Check old account monthly (or more often) for those rogue Payments

6) close old account.

I'm about to shop around again now as I was locked in for 2 years to keep my 3K so can move banks again shortly depending on the deals I can get.

Just do it

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Quinny

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#1735824 13-Mar-2017 15:40

mattwnz:

As the major banks these days are so similar, what would be your reason for doing so? Probably work out how long it is going to take you in time and monetary terms to see if it is worth it. I have my stuff such as kiwibank, transaction account etc all with different banks, so I can pick and choose the best deals. Although I suspect if you have a mortgage, banks can package deals, and you can also borrow against your house etc.

I got turned down on a promotional offer (despite have 70% equity in home) and banked with them over 40 years. CreditSimple has me over 920 plus/1000. Reason turned down under costs and entertainment the automated system allocates more to these than my spending shows (ie lunches, dine out and events/concerts). Seriously that was the reason. I micromanage my account and was moving two credit cards already have with interest on them to the promotional offer of low interest card with my main bank. And yes I have complained to the bank and told them looking at moving. Branch was disgusted. Waiting on head office reply. Apparently if just want to increase mortgage they are fine. I want to pay it off in 2 years but they dont get that.

Hammerer

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#1735829 13-Mar-2017 15:47

Switching banks is a lot easier now that banks have departments that deal with the transfer for you and now that you don't have to find all the paper and remember everything because online banking access makes it easy to store and manage that information and find those unusual transactions.

mattwnz:

As the major banks these days are so similar, what would be your reason for doing so?

I don't find that banks are that much alike. They certainly aren't directly substitutable in most cases and many of their products have subtle differences in features and pricing.

The issue is that customers are even more different and what we are looking for can have very little overlap with other customers. There are lots of us changing banks to get special banking deals such as discounts for government employees, union members, corporate employees, etc.

JaseNZ

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#1735883 13-Mar-2017 17:17

I went from Kiwibank to BNZ , seamless transfer of all stuff including Kiwisaver.

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mdf

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#1736115 13-Mar-2017 22:23

We switched a couple of years ago. Overall, it went really well. The new bank did almost all the hard work bringing over direct debits and/or automatic payments. I think there might have been one regular bill we had to shift manually ourselves for some reason? But not nearly the barrier it once was.

That said, it also depends a bit on the individual you are dealing with. We had one false start with a complete drongo and decided it wasn't worth the effort, but then had a fortunate accident and ended up with a super helpful guy that was really on to it. He made the whole thing a really easy and pleasant experience.

The only other thing we found is that the focus seems to be on winning your business rather than retaining it. Try and get everything sorted at the start. We knew when we shifted banks we would need to borrow a bit extra on our mortgage. Was told at the time of shifting that it would not be a problem, we had plenty of equity and earnings to cover the additional borrowing. Come back and talk to us in 6 months when you're ready to top up. Six months later we were dealing with the regular bankers rather than Mr Super Helpful and had to go through a bit of process. In hindsight, we should have just borrowed the additional money at the start when they were bending over backwards.

tchart

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#1736118 13-Mar-2017 22:36

Seriously, the banks wont show you any loyalty. Move for a better deal.

Our last move was due to the fact that ASB wouldn't give us any discount off the advertised rate. I mean seriously? What do they expect?

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ANglEAUT

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#1736122 13-Mar-2017 23:16

Quinny: ... Moving Mortgages, Normal account, Kiwisaver, ...

Remember that your KiwiSaver can be independent of your bank. You do not need to switch KiwiSaver just because you are switching banks. There are many providers that are not banks. As always, it pays to shop around.

Start here: http://www.kiwisaver.govt.nz/providers/ks-providers.html

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

Dratsab

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#1736152 14-Mar-2017 07:52

We moved from Westpac to New Zealand Home Loans almost two years ago. It was an extremely simple process, basically just filling in a few forms and leaving the rest up to the group we were moving to. Topped up our mortgage at the same time and got rid of the two credit cards my wife had.

Westpac tried to say they could match the interest rates and give us the same loan structure we were moving to but had no answer when I asked why we weren't offered or made aware of this particular structure when we first applied for a mortgage. The written 'estimate' of ~$4000 to break our mortgage, which I'd obtained a few months earlier, magically ballooned out to a little over $6500 when I advised I wasn't interested in staying with them. NZHL were offering $2000 to move which helped offset that a little.

ShiroHagen

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#1736326 14-Mar-2017 13:38

I'm in the process of switching now and must say it's been a bit of a PITA.

Both major banks. Old bank kept harassing me with different staff ringing me in the weeks before settlement offering me new rates (all well under the rival's offer which I had accepted) to stay with them. I told them again and again - If you can't better the new offer then don't bother ringing again - and yet the next day they'd call again - borderline harassment.

The last guy I nearly hung up on until he explained he was ringing to discuss settlement so that was ok then. I had a query about Credit Cards and he promised to get someone to call me about it - no one did. He also told me everything looked all good for settlement - surprise surprise there were some account issues which delayed settlement by a day.

New bank has also made a couple errors which have required following up. I think as stated above it's a bit of a lottery as to how good a customer service you get. I would also agree as stated above that winning your business rather than retaining it seems to be their primary focus. I certainly felt that the old bank was not at all helpful in providing pre-settlement processes advice.