Which is the worst/best bank in Australia?

[sptrawler]

Police and Nurses in W.A. They are great to deal with, the only down side is their term deposit rates are a bit low.

 

[stewiejp]

I'm passionate about bank fees - that and interest rates payable to the customer. When NAB and ANZ started charging me fees, I took all my business (savings, mortgage and cards) to Bendigo where there were no fees. Either the NAB or ANZ staff actually laughed at me stating all banks charge fees. While I had a home loan, there were no fees associated with my credit card or savings (mortgage offset) account. When I paid the house off - they re-appeared and I was outta there.

Now I have my everyday banking (wages, bills, ATM card) with ING. Zero fees - full stop. Use any ATM in Australia to withdraw $200 or more and they rebate any ATM fee charged. On top of that, withdraw $200 or more at an EFTPOS machine at your local supermarket and they credit you 50c. Not a lot of money but it's better than being charged $2.50..

My savings are with RAMS - 4.95% paid monthly, or 5.75% if I deposit $200 or more in a month (excluding interest) and make no withdrawals. Again, fee free. Short term savings I keep with ING at a bit under 4% - eg. We are taking a holiday soon and they cash I'll be paying for the flights and accommodation I throw into the ING savings account which is instantly accessible when we decide on dates etc and pay online, so as not to affect my "bonus interest" on the RAMS account.

Share trading is with ComSec1 - again fee free (other than brokerage) and pays 4%. When I call them for queries (not often) a person answers within seconds, and sorts out my silly question.

ING customer service so far has been outstanding, even though there are no branches in Melbourne. Phone calls never last longer than 10 minutes, although I haven't had a lot of reason to call them yet.

 

[sptrawler]

I'm passionate about bank fees - that and interest rates payable to the customer. When NAB and ANZ started charging me fees, I took all my business (savings, mortgage and cards) to Bendigo where there were no fees. Either the NAB or ANZ staff actually laughed at me stating all banks charge fees. While I had a home loan, there were no fees associated with my credit card or savings (mortgage offset) account. When I paid the house off - they re-appeared and I was outta there.

Now I have my everyday banking (wages, bills, ATM card) with ING. Zero fees - full stop. Use any ATM in Australia to withdraw $200 or more and they rebate any ATM fee charged. On top of that, withdraw $200 or more at an EFTPOS machine at your local supermarket and they credit you 50c. Not a lot of money but it's better than being charged $2.50..

My savings are with RAMS - 4.95% paid monthly, or 5.75% if I deposit $200 or more in a month (excluding interest) and make no withdrawals. Again, fee free. Short term savings I keep with ING at a bit under 4% - eg. We are taking a holiday soon and they cash I'll be paying for the flights and accommodation I throw into the ING savings account which is instantly accessible when we decide on dates etc and pay online, so as not to affect my "bonus interest" on the RAMS account.

Share trading is with ComSec1 - again fee free (other than brokerage) and pays 4%. When I call them for queries (not often) a person answers within seconds, and sorts out my silly question.

ING customer service so far has been outstanding, even though there are no branches in Melbourne. Phone calls never last longer than 10 minutes, although I haven't had a lot of reason to call them yet.

All sounds good except:
BOQ is the first bank in 20 years to report a loss.
ING I don't think is a bank, therefore wouldn't have to conform to capital adequacy regulations and I'm not sure it qualifies for the gov $250k insurance.
As far as 'RAMS' goes, I think they are just a mortage lender. So if you put your money there, don't come bawling to us.LOL

Don't take what I say as gospel, do your own research. My research on the above took about 30 seconds on google.

 

[Julia]

I'm passionate about bank fees - that and interest rates payable to the customer. When NAB and ANZ started charging me fees, I took all my business (savings, mortgage and cards) to Bendigo where there were no fees. Either the NAB or ANZ staff actually laughed at me stating all banks charge fees. While I had a home loan, there were no fees associated with my credit card or savings (mortgage offset) account. When I paid the house off - they re-appeared and I was outta there.

I have always banked with ANZ. I have never paid any fees. I have many accounts with them.
If you were paying fees you were not asking the right questions about how you could best be served by the bank.

 

[stewiejp]

RAMS - yes it is covered by the government guarantee, and is owned by Westpac.

ING - agree, it probably works to a different set of rules but I generally keep under $2000 with them, as it is simply my day to day transaction account, not savings. According to its website though, funds are covered by the same government guarantee as other banks.

ANZ fees - I'm sure things have changed, when I was with them I was a lot younger and barely had any money with them, though I did have a mortgage. As I said - when that was the case, there were no fees. This was about 15 years ago.

Nowadays as Julia says it is simple to avoid bank fees and charges by asking the right questions or taking business elsewhere, but I am amazed how many people don't and stay with their bank just because they always have...

 

[sptrawler]

RAMS - yes it is covered by the government guarantee, and is owned by Westpac.

ING - agree, it probably works to a different set of rules but I generally keep under $2000 with them, as it is simply my day to day transaction account, not savings. According to its website though, funds are covered by the same government guarantee as other banks.

ANZ fees - I'm sure things have changed, when I was with them I was a lot younger and barely had any money with them, though I did have a mortgage. As I said - when that was the case, there were no fees. This was about 15 years ago.

Nowadays as Julia says it is simple to avoid bank fees and charges by asking the right questions or taking business elsewhere, but I am amazed how many people don't and stay with their bank just because they always have...

Thanks for the info, I didn't realise Rams had been bought by Westpac.

 

[Bill M]

Today my wife tried to close her Bendigo Bank Account. For no other reason other than she doesn't use it anymore and there is no branch near us. Goes into the bank armed with ID and asked to have the account closed. They said you have to pay $6.70 to close the account. Why? Never happened before, Oh it's a transaction and you have to pay. OK she pays, we leave and drive back home. 3 hours later they call her, err sorry we should not have charged you that $6.70 and the next time you are down this way you can come and pick it up. How useless is that? So for me Bendigo Bank is a fail and their internet banking wasn't real good either when we were hooked up for it.

The best bank was RAMS. Got online today, filled out an online application form for the RAMS SAVER account with electronic ID and the account was ready for deposits and withdrawals with full access in 10 minutes. No paper work, no fuss. Already transferred some money in. 10 out of 10 RAMS!!!!!

 

[Julia]

I'm not surprised to hear about Bendigo being such a pain. Several years ago I wanted to take one of their term deposits for my SMSF. At the time the fund had two trustees and I had POA to sign all documents on behalf of the second trustee. That had worked perfectly well with other banks.

But not for Bendigo. They insisted the other trustee had to come into the branch personally and establish her 100 points of ID. I patiently explained about the POA. Waste of time. Walked out in disgust and will never go back.

 

[chops_a_must]

Have been really happy with ME Bank.

Great rates. 5.1% for a websaver. No fees. They use Westpac ATMs for their cards, so no problems there.

Will be using them for a term deposit as well.

The family have been using them for home loans, which are about 1% below anyone else apparently.

All you need is an Aus Super number, which you can get for free anyway.

It's been good, because I had been severely disappointed with the banks since my Statewest banking got taken over by BOQ.

Highly recommended.

 

[qldfrog]

Good timing:
I am probably going to leave CBA: it has been my bank (personal + my company for more than 10 years but are making error after error, I had a wealth package (paying 375$ for it) and decided to dropit as it was of no value for me, this started a chain of events for the last month.
I ended up today with fee still appplied more than a month after formally requesting to be out (they will be waived but that is another call, 3 sets of credit cards sent so far (I refuse to pay a fee to have a CC):
I am not using comsec anymore: not competitive even when I try to explain that at 30 trades a day, 20 a pop was really too much...
not using their TD or online savers..
what's left?
And they have never been able to allocate me a dedicated contact even when I made the effort of dealing with the same branch during all that time
Julia is happy with ANZ, any other feedback from the big banks?

 

[Mad]

Westpac get my vote. I've been with them 50 years with a dead perfect credit rating and $250,000 in deposits. I asked them for an investment loan a few days ago and they said that they would not match Commonwealth's rates because for 0.01% they were "sure I could not be bothered changing banks."

My response was that "I agree that it will cost me more in time and trouble but I can't come into your bank every week knowing you were the guys that shafted a loyal customer just because you could." The guy said he didn't get that reasoning but if enough people do what I did he may start to.

 

[tech/a]

CBA Brilliant.

But a piece of advice.

If you owe a bank enough for it to hurt badly if you default
you'll find the best service you can possibly get will be yours.

If your paying your interest and paying off or down loans
and turning through big dollars your the person for them.

They even allocate you a Business bank manager and he
can do all sorts of things.

Doesn't matter which bank---Pun not intended.

 

[burglar]

Westpac get my vote. I've been with them 50 years with a dead perfect credit rating and $250,000 in deposits. I asked them for an investment loan a few days ago and they said that they would not match Commonwealth's rates because for 0.01% they were "sure I could not be bothered changing banks."

My response was that "I agree that it will cost me more in time and trouble but I can't come into your bank every week knowing you were the guys that shafted a loyal customer just because you could." The guy said he didn't get that reasoning but if enough people do what I did he may start to.

My bro just up and left the Comm and took his business to NAB.
He is delighted!!
He says this is the first time in 50 years he has a reasonable human-being helping with his banking.

 

[tech/a]

My bro just up and left the Comm and took his business to NAB.
He is delighted!!
He says this is the first time in 50 years he has a reasonable human-being helping with his banking.

1987
Didn't owe enough to hurt NAB
So in their wisdom as my cash flow couldn't
cover interest at 18% they cranked it up to 24%
really helpful.

Cost me a marriage and all but my business property at the time.
House IP's industrial practically every cent I had.No interest in
helping---eg hold interest rate---Stop payment for 6 mths.
Sell some and review.

These guys were ruthless--- so if NAB were the last bank standing
Id choose the mattress.

HINT 2

Youll see how great your bank is when you get in the poo
not when all is dandy.
They love to hand it out but hate it when you cant pay it back.

 

[burglar]

... They love to hand it out ...

In the past I have been with NAB, a marriage of convenience!?
But now I deal with CPS Credit Union.

 

[FlyingFox]

CBA Brilliant.

But a piece of advice.

If you owe a bank enough for it to hurt badly if you default
you'll find the best service you can possibly get will be yours.

If your paying your interest and paying off or down loans
and turning through big dollars your the person for them.

They even allocate you a Business bank manager and he
can do all sorts of things.

Doesn't matter which bank---Pun not intended.

+1 . Or you happen to have a large deposit with them.

 

[Logique]

St George used to be a brilliant little bank. But then it merged with Westpac, and suddenly it was.. fees for this, fees for that, and can you verify your identity please. After 25 years as a customer.

My response..see you later, close the account please.

With ING Bank now, excellent, wondering why I didn't leave sooner. ING say they have an Australian banking licence and are covered by the Govt Guarantee.

 

[YMI]

...With ING Bank now, excellent, wondering why I didn't leave sooner. ING say they have an Australian banking licence and are covered by the Govt Guarantee.

+1

My parents used to have a huge amount of debt or better big bank loans and I remember walking into the branch was always a joy. They knew my name and made jokes although I’m just one of the kids…

Today I have no loan and can just tell what I experienced about bank fees. A bank doesn’t need to charge service fees imo. I closed my ANZ account because I think they are one of the more expensive banks, $5-18 per mon. that’s ridiculous and I can’t see any better services that would justify the fees. Although I’m convinced they’re just a bit behind and probably will also offer a free transaction account soon.

I have accounts at two different banks now. One bank that has enough available branches to deposit cash and an Internet bank I’ve chosen because of higher interest earnings, I can use the bank card at any ATM without fees and they have promotional offers like refunding 5% of all my shopping for half a year or once they paid $50 because I spent $250 in December… I know that's just peanuts but I like it anyway.

I always thought it’s safer to go with a big bank but the example of Cyprus shows that over there apparently all banks are fine but the largest two. So I guess that's another example that the size doesn’t always matter.

 

[Julia]

Today I have no loan and can just tell what I experienced about bank fees. A bank doesn’t need to charge service fees imo. I closed my ANZ account because I think they are one of the more expensive banks, $5-18 per mon. that’s ridiculous and I can’t see any better services that would justify the fees. Although I’m convinced they’re just a bit behind and probably will also offer a free transaction account soon.

?????
You are obviously not asking the right questions about fee free accounts.
I've been with ANZ for ever and have never paid any fees on any account, other than a mortgage.

 

[Gringotts Bank]

unrelated:

Banks in Aus are 4x more profitable than those in Europe and US.