Kiwibank taking over NZ Post stores

Please note this sub-forum does not provide professional finance advice. You should seek advice from a licensed financial advisor.

To post in this sub-forum you must have made 100 posts or have Trust status or have completed our ID Verification.

If investing please consider our affiliate link for new accounts: Sharesies.

Forums › Finance and wealth management › Kiwibank taking over NZ Post stores

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
76318 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#233709 29-Apr-2018 10:30

I saw this on Manners St, Wellington where the NZ Post + Kiwibank shop has recently changed into a full Kiwibank branch

This apparently happened before as earlier as October 2017 in Rotorua and December 2017 in New Plymouth.

In Wellington CBD if you want a full NZ Post shop you have Lambton Quay, Featherston St. Other services are available in pharmacies, supermarkets.

Please support Geekzone by subscribing, or using one of our referral links: Dosh referral: 00001283 | Sharesies | Goodsync | Mighty Ape | Backblaze

freitasm on Keybase | My technology disclosure

1 | 2

4085 posts

Uber Geek

#2004458 29-Apr-2018 11:15

hasn't happened in Rotorua yet , they tried and everyone moaned and they reversed the decision. They still plan to but i guess they are waiting till things calm down.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

Sharesies kids

Free kids accounts - trade shares and funds (NZ, US) with Sharesies (affiliate link).

dejadeadnz

2394 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#2004484 29-Apr-2018 11:57

I don't understand the current appeal of Kiwibank at all. Yes, their coming into existence caused fees to be lowered and things to become more competitive, which is great. But why would anyone join them as a customer now? Their online offerings aren't as good as their competittors'; if you ever have to visit their stores, you're in for a nightmare (more on that below); and over the last few years they have made some astoundingly bad mistakes like the SAP "upgrade" and their increasing moves towards the franchise model.

NZP/KB people have been open about the fact that no one can/should expect to make any money directly from the NZP/KB business. Instead, the appeal of hosting a branch is to drive foot traffic into the host business and hopefully earning more money this way. How this is conducive to good customer service is beyond me, especially when it comes to ensuring that the franchisees actually abide by the very stringent and difficult legislative compliance-related obligations. I don't know what it's like elsewhere in NZ but looking around in Auckland, what I frequently see in pharmacies or Paperpluses that host NZP/KB branches are massive queues of made up of mostly older, relatively low-value customers wanting to do "bricks and mortar" banking. The lengths of queues are practically unseen in the branches of any other bank.

Oh and have fun opening a bank account at anywhere other than a full service corporate-owned store or the rare full service franchisee-owned store. Boy, what great customer service.

dafman

3791 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2004501 29-Apr-2018 12:27

dejadeadnz:

I don't understand the current appeal of Kiwibank at all. Yes, their coming into existence caused fees to be lowered and things to become more competitive, which is great. But why would anyone join them as a customer now? Their online offerings aren't as good as their competittors

I'm a Kiwibank customer; have been for over five years:

In what way are their online offerings not as good as competitors? Their mobile app is excellent, website great as well, both at least the equal of other banks I have looked at.
For daily transactional banking, they have never put a foot wrong in all the time I have used them.
And one of the main reasons I prefer them - typically, they pay higher interest rates on savings accounts and term deposits than the Aussie banks. See if you can find me a short term savings product, and interest rate, the equivalent of Kiwibank's 90-day Noticesaver account?
They are majority NZ government owned.
As for their physical branches, I have no need to visit these. Why does anyone need to visit branches nowadays?

tdgeek

28562 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2004503 29-Apr-2018 12:33

dafman:

dejadeadnz:

I don't understand the current appeal of Kiwibank at all. Yes, their coming into existence caused fees to be lowered and things to become more competitive, which is great. But why would anyone join them as a customer now? Their online offerings aren't as good as their competittors

I'm a Kiwibank customer; have been for over five years:

In what way are their online offerings not as good as competitors? Their mobile app is excellent, website great as well, both at least the equal of other banks I have looked at.
For daily transactional banking, they have never put a foot wrong in all the time I have used them.
And one of the main reasons I prefer them - typically, they pay higher interest rates on savings accounts and term deposits than the Aussie banks. See if you can find me a short term savings product, and interest rate, the equivalent of Kiwibank's 90-day Noticesaver account?
They are majority NZ government owned.
As for their physical branches, I have no need to visit these. Why does anyone need to visit branches nowadays?

I don't use KB, but I opened an account jointly with my special needs niece who I was helping. No issue. Online is fine, service was very good. I assume many use them as its NZ owned, but unless its fees, interest etc were stupidly high or dumb, they cant be high or dumb. Its a bank, it works, I can't see the issue.

Rikkitic

Awrrr
17218 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2004507 29-Apr-2018 12:38

I'm a very satisfied Kiwibank customer and have been for years. I find them very friendly and helpful. For pensioners with simple banking needs they can't be beat. No fees, great service, could not ask for better. I moved from the fee-obsessed ANZ when I turned 65 and have no regrets at all.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

richms

26382 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#2004510 29-Apr-2018 12:45

dafman:

I'm a Kiwibank customer; have been for over five years:

In what way are their online offerings not as good as competitors? Their mobile app is excellent, website great as well, both at least the equal of other banks I have looked at.
For daily transactional banking, they have never put a foot wrong in all the time I have used them.
And one of the main reasons I prefer them - typically, they pay higher interest rates on savings accounts and term deposits than the Aussie banks. See if you can find me a short term savings product, and interest rate, the equivalent of Kiwibank's 90-day Noticesaver account?
They are majority NZ government owned.
As for their physical branches, I have no need to visit these. Why does anyone need to visit branches nowadays?

Card transactions taking forever to show is the one that most people I know with kiwibank have problems with. Also hyper agressive anti fraud stuff which their call center staff seem to have no visibility into. I know a couple that when on holiday ended up having to put almost all their spending thru their kids debit card with asb because kiwibank couldnt explain why their fancy looking but totally useless credit cards were all declining when they tried to use them.

Richard rich.ms

quickymart

11160 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#2004515 29-Apr-2018 12:50

I have a mate who used to bank with them. He left as he told me their credit cards were provided by a third party company, and every time he tried to top up his AT HOP card using his Kiwibank credit card, it would take 2-3 days to clear. He moved banks (I can't remember who to) and these issues disappeared.

dejadeadnz

2394 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#2004518 29-Apr-2018 12:53

richms:

dafman:

I'm a Kiwibank customer; have been for over five years:

In what way are their online offerings not as good as competitors? Their mobile app is excellent, website great as well, both at least the equal of other banks I have looked at.
For daily transactional banking, they have never put a foot wrong in all the time I have used them.
And one of the main reasons I prefer them - typically, they pay higher interest rates on savings accounts and term deposits than the Aussie banks. See if you can find me a short term savings product, and interest rate, the equivalent of Kiwibank's 90-day Noticesaver account?
They are majority NZ government owned.
As for their physical branches, I have no need to visit these. Why does anyone need to visit branches nowadays?

Card transactions taking forever to show is the one that most people I know with kiwibank have problems with. Also hyper agressive anti fraud stuff which their call center staff seem to have no visibility into. I know a couple that when on holiday ended up having to put almost all their spending thru their kids debit card with asb because kiwibank couldnt explain why their fancy looking but totally useless credit cards were all declining when they tried to use them.

Richms answered with what I was mostly going to focus on (all of the above happened to my wife and mother when they travelled together last year) but they also complained bitterly about the KB app being inferior in terms of interface and ease of access. My wife had an instance of credit card fraud on her old KB card and it took KB weeks to finalise the issue, with Vodafone-esque level of lack of response and callback.

As for Dafman's point about the good interest rate on their Noticesaver account: point taken. Rabodirect (far better rated in terms of financial strength) currently offers 3.00% PA on 60 days' notice, which is also pretty good IMO.

afe66

3124 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2004551 29-Apr-2018 13:17

When I bought something online on a non mainstream site, KB rang me within 10 minutes to check it was me making the transaction.

I was impressed by that. Never got that from westpac.

I changed from westpac when they weren't interested in comming to my workplace to discuss setting up a mortgage (despite banking with them for 10yrs).

KB and ASB turned up to haggle for my business and KB had better deal so went with them and have had no reason to change.

A.

Rikkitic

Awrrr
17218 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2004552 29-Apr-2018 13:20

When I went overseas I contacted KB to inform them. They were very helpful and my overseas card transactions were flawless.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

baplaski

28 posts

Geek

#2004614 29-Apr-2018 17:05

quickymart:

I have a mate who used to bank with them. He left as he told me their credit cards were provided by a third party company, and every time he tried to top up his AT HOP card using his Kiwibank credit card, it would take 2-3 days to clear. He moved banks (I can't remember who to) and these issues disappeared.

Your mate was talking rubbish, Kiwibank cards are not provided by a third party (they may have been at the very beginning, but not during the lifespan of the AT HOP card)

richms

26382 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#2004619 29-Apr-2018 17:13

AFAIK only the pointless travel cards (which Kiwibank will try to sell you to get around their crap regular cards) is the only thing handled externally. The normal cards are done in house on a really poor slow antique system.

Richard rich.ms

michaelmurfy

cat
12218 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2004621 29-Apr-2018 17:22

I mainly bank with ANZ however have got an Airpoints Platinum Mastercard with Kiwibank along with some "on the side" accounts. Works well for my needs. I've never actually had any problems with Kiwibank in the time I've been with them. They're however quite a bit behind with technology with no support for Apple Pay etc but are a good "backup" bank for my needs.

Never actually needed to visit a branch in the last 5 years with them.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Tessie | Tesla | Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? Please consider supporting us by subscribing.
Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

networkn

Networkn
30183 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2004623 29-Apr-2018 17:23

We have been a Kiwibank customer for many years, and the first 2 years were awesome and everything else has been a nightmare. Their online services are actually as good as any other bank IME but their customer service is awful. I have had quite a few run ins with them over lending. I am self employed (I guess) and get PAYE from my Limited Liability company now in it's 18th year which is paid via direct credit. We have never missed a payment etc. Everytime we want to borrow for a reason or another, even to buy an asset, it's a freaking nightmare. We would switch tomorrow if we could find even close to the rates we get with them, which is their *1* competitive advantage. Everything we want is a fight usually and it's left a poor taste in our mouths. We did however, have a surprisingly good experience, where they miscalculated a car loans repayments and when they realized, ate the 2K difference rather than insisting we paid it.

I have business banking with them as well, which is nothing special. They don't feel like a "real" bank.

dafman

3791 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2004635 29-Apr-2018 17:55

dejadeadnz:

As for Dafman's point about the good interest rate on their Noticesaver account: point taken. Rabodirect (far better rated in terms of financial strength) currently offers 3.00% PA on 60 days' notice, which is also pretty good IMO.

Rabobank has the same rating as Kiwibank by international rating agency Standard & Poors - so Rabobank is NOT far better rated in terms of financial strength.

However, Kiwibank is majority owned by the NZ Government, whereas Rabobank is owned by a European bank.

1 | 2