Beat the banks

[nioka]

A few years ago I went to my bank manager and asked him when my long service leave was due. When he asked why I was asking him I told him I had been working for the bank (indirectly) for 30 years and thought they should recognise it.

Lately I try and find ways to beat them.

I'm interested in any ideas to minimise their profits. Some of the ones I currently use are:

Use a bank credit card as much as possible but pay the full amount on the last day it's due.
Deposit cheques received into a credit card account as there are no bank fees.
Use savings accounts with cheque facilities and a number of free transactions. Two or three of these accounts help and preferably with more than one bank.
Cash is still usefull and usually gets a discount.

 

[Julia]

I keep hearing all this negative stuff about banks. I've been with ANZ for 30 odd years in NZ and Australia, have never paid fees on any account, and have had great service in person, on the phone and via their website.
I wouldn't change banks for anything.

Also had some contact with Suncorp on a business matter and found them really good as well. Why don't I experience all this difficulty that others appear to find defines their relationship with their banks?

I absolutely don't believe my experience is unusual.

Julia

 

[Alfredbra]

dispute bank fees. if you ever have late credit card payment fees or overdrawn an account and have been charged, always argue it even if you are in the wrong as most of the times they will reverse the charge. I have done this on some occasions as i have forgoten to pay my card off!

call them and ask them for a better deal on your credit card such as lower intrest rates and threaten to leave them as you have found better deals elsewhere. (havnt tried this one as yet, but it was proven on ACA a couple of months ago that it does work)

use your credit card as much as possible as there are no fees and you gain points in which you can convert them to buy pretty much anything these days from vouches to plain flights. i signed up for national banks rewards visa when they had a special deal going where you recieved 15000 points just for getting a credit card which is equivalent to a flight from cairns to brisbane return!

 

[WaySolid]

A few years ago I went to my bank manager and asked him when my long service leave was due. When he asked why I was asking him I told him I had been working for the bank (indirectly) for 30 years and thought they should recognise it.

Lately I try and find ways to beat them.

I'm interested in any ideas to minimise their profits. Some of the ones I currently use are:

Use a bank credit card as much as possible but pay the full amount on the last day it's due.
Deposit cheques received into a credit card account as there are no bank fees.
Use savings accounts with cheque facilities and a number of free transactions. Two or three of these accounts help and preferably with more than one bank.
Cash is still usefull and usually gets a discount.

Do you complain when asked 'would you like fries with that'? Asked by the kid just following orders usually.

The banks are profit driven wonders, participate through their shares.

I set up some business banking with CUA when investigating various bank fees last time I checked these things, no fees for two years now on that account.

 

[rub92me]

I keep hearing all this negative stuff about banks. I've been with ANZ for 30 odd years in NZ and Australia, have never paid fees on any account, and have had great service in person, on the phone and via their website.
Julia

Banks use various tactics to make money, transaction fees are not the only way. They tend to keep their 'good' customers (relatively wealthy) sweet and really hit the 'bad' customers with massive overdraft fees and penalties. What really annoys me is that banks quite often offer new deposit products with higher interest rates to lure new customers, but just keep their existing customers on the lower interest rates. Over the last 4 years I've had to call my bank 3 times and threaten to leave for them to jack up the interest rates to what they were offering new customers.

 

[Realist]

Deposit cheques received into a credit card account as there are no bank fees..

Hmm, good one. Will do that from now on!!

 

[Happy]

Bartering and voluntary work beats banks and the t a x man, unfortunately not very popular for blond hair blue eyes Aussies.

 

[nioka]

Bartering and voluntary work beats banks and the t a x man, unfortunately not very popular for blond hair blue eyes Aussies.

I usede to accept BARTERCARD but found it hard to use the funds without paying through the nose. The tax manis involved . If the price is higher so is the GST. Does have some possibilities but some traps. Often the person on the other side wants top price for his product but wants a discount on yours because of the barter aspect.

 

[nioka]

Another banking problem requiring a solution.
Day1. Sell stocks to get cash. Payment due in 3 days.
Day3. See a bargain stock so sell some other stock then buy the bargain stock at same value.
Result. You dont get paid for the first sale which the bank offsets against the 3rd trade and you get paid for the second trade in another 3 days.
This must be returning the bank a lot of money one way or another. When you trade regularly you are actually making the bank an interest free loan.
( This applys with a chess holding through Westpac where debits and credits are made through a bank account.)
Any suggestions?