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Filed under: Banks, Customer Service, Personal Finance

79 comments

According to numerous make-believe statisticians, there’s a 99.9% chance that you think banks are bastards. This obviously means whenever you see a bank advertisement, you’ll roll your eyes thinking, do they actually do half of the things they promise to do?

Here at The Punch, we’ve done the hard work. We visited five of Australia’s major banks in a “taste test” of their front-line customer service, to see whether it fit with the claims of their multi-million dollar marketing campaigns.

Is it scientific? Not at all. Fair? Nope. And it doesn’t review or take into account specific product details - so you can’t tell from this bank which suits your needs best. (David Koch addresses some of those questions in his first column on The Punch today here.) But it does paint a picture of actual service received. And the winner is ...

ST GEORGE
Marketing slogans:
Big enough. Small enough
“All the strength of a big bank, with the soul of a small.”

Waiting time: Three minutes.
How nice were the staff ? Pleasant and understood their products really well.
How quickly can you get your internet account/online banking up and running? Immediately, my password was written down on the spot.
How many days does it take to receive a card? Because I am a uni student, I received my card on the spot.
Response when you ask about other services? Before I could even ask that question, the staff offered me several other options which were suited to my needs, including asking whether I wanted a debit card and a savings account to go along with my measly basic bank account.
Rating: 5 out of 5

WESTPAC
Marketing slogan: We’re a bank you can bank on

Waiting time: 15 minutes.
How nice were the staff ? The staff were nice, and reassured me every few minutes that a representative would be able to answer my questions.
How quickly can you get your internet account/online banking up and running? My internet account was set up immediately and I had to create my own password.
How many days does it take to receive a card? Three working days.
Response when you ask about other services? Again, before I could utter that question, the staff offered me several alternatives, including upgrading my basic bank account to a salary based account – where you need to put at least $2,000 a month to avoid monthly fees and opening up a superannuation account with the company. None of these alternatives serve my needs.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

COMMONWEALTH BANK
Slogan: Determined to be different

Waiting time: 10 minutes
How nice were the staff ? The bank manager came towards me after ten minutes, and asked the staff to serve me immediately.
How quickly can you get your internet account/online banking up and running? Immediately, again they set this up and wrote down the password.
How many days does it take to receive a card? Since I’m with the Commonwealth Bank, this question isn’t valid.
Response when you ask about other services? While I already have an account with the Commonwealth Bank, the staff was eager to spruik the latest campaign. If I opened a new account with the bank and placed at least $500 into my savings account, I’ll get a free platypus money box.
Rating: 3 out of 5

ANZ
Slogan: We live in your world

Waiting time: Five minutes
How nice were the staff ? They were sharp - in the good way - in dealing with customer queries, especially when a few customers were complaining loudly that closing at 4pm was way too early on a weekday.
How quickly can you get your internet account/online banking up and running? Before I could say, “I want an online account, please.” The staff went ahead and set up my internet account, while I could create my own password.
How many days does it take to receive a card? Three working days – though I did hear a few customers complain they hadn’t received their key card, and they had set their account with ANZ over a week ago.
Response when you ask about other services? Before I could utter a question, the staff was introducing me the option of a debit card. However, the staff spoke to me as if I was a child, double-checking to see whether I was going to use the account.
Rating: 4 out of 5

NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK (NAB)
Marketing slogan: More give, less take

We didn’t manage to set up an account with NAB. I waited over 10 minutes at the top of the queue without any acknowledgement, in contrast to Westpac where I was constantly reassured or CommBank where a manager came and insisted I get served immediately. There appeared to be an influx of customers in the bank at NAB changing currency, which perhaps makes it unfair on the bank to compare it to the experiment in other branches. However, walked out of the building mumbling they had been waiting too long. I eventually followed.

At the end of this mischievous project, I feel sympathy for the advertisers who make these ads for banks – mainly because banks have an image problem. With all the advertisements I saw for each bank, they all want you to love them. We’ll never love an institution that treats us like disobedient children.

Instead banks should focus on giving customer’s good advice, preferably advice catered to the customer’s needs. Or just stop treating customers like naughty kids.

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Most commented

431Australia, you have nothing to fear but fear itself

390There's no one Thomson won't burn to save his skin

336Animal experiments won't cure me from cancer

313Thomson didn't answer the question everyone is asking

266Who murdered the Arts degree?

246A big day for Thomson, who thus far is guilty of nothing...

231Craig Thomson speaks. Meanwhile, in Australia...

231South Australia. It's the middle bottom bit.

79 comments

Show oldest | newest first

- Marion says:
  
  07:40am | 01/03/10
  
  David go to the Bank of Qld and you will find a difference
  
  Reply
matt says:

09:10am | 01/03/10

Agree - awesome service - I changed my account from Westpac to BOQ.

Westpac carries on about having bank managers in each branch, but at BOQ the manager actually OWNS the branch.

Service is much better when they’ve got skin in the game.
Zeta says:

09:53am | 01/03/10

I won’t often shill for a product, but BOQ is one of the few things I think deserves it.

My relationship with BOQ is like my relationship with God, we respectfully acknowledge each other’s existence, but otherwise want nothing to do with each other. Their ‘net banking service is first class, ultra fast, accessible from any device you want without having to download some wanky application. Their fees are low, and if you ask, they won’t send you a statement. Not only that, they won’t send you anything. No stupid credit card offers. Home loan info packs. Nothing.

And the best part is, their debit cards don’t have your name on them, so you can shop with complete anonymity. Also, you can walk in and get a new card on the spot for a nominal fee each time you accidentaly drill a hole in one, or melt it in the microwave.
Dee says:

12:35pm | 01/03/10

Don’t get too carried away with the Bank of Qld. It depends which Branch you go to - some of their “owner managed” branches have very poor general Banking knowledge. Just don’t ask them anything out of the ordinary. I know from experience.
Like all banks now their staff are purely salespeople and have to make targets.
- hobgobdog says:
  
  07:54am | 01/03/10
  
  Each branch will differ from one to the next. Each branch has different staff. We’re all human.
  
  Your “research” needs a larger pool too. One of each is too small.
  
  I go to some Coles and they’re garbage, I go to some and their great. The same applies with Woolies.
  
  Reply
Susan says:

08:18am | 01/03/10

Yes, that is fairly true, but you hope to expect a basic standard across the board.
- Susan says:
  
  07:57am | 01/03/10
  
  How about each of the banks essential ombud? I referred a matter years ago to the Combank’s one and he was awful. Acted on the phone like I was a militant out to damage the bank rather than being a neutral problem solver. I posed an issue and had accusatory assertions yelled down the phone at me. ‘Was I suggesting the bank was acting criminally?!” Pardon? I never said that, I was only saying that… (and he interrupted again). Huge turn off. Maybe he was told to be aggressive in order to turn people off using the service. I certainly never rang again because he was actually quite frightening. I felt I was going to be charged with a crime - simply because I was ringing up about repeated problem with my pay being entered into my account, correctly, by the bank.
  
  The P.S. is that I never had that same problem again but did he resolve it or did it resolve itself? Heaven knows.
  
  Reply
Another Susan says:

11:59am | 01/03/10

Or something like dealing with a fraudulent transaction on a credit card - when I had one with CBA it took four months before they resolved it, and the $2500 transaction sat on my account the whole time (rendering most of my credit limit unusable) and every month when they charged a late fee or interest on it I had to ring again and fight to get those charges dropped.

In contrast, a friend had a similar issue with St George, who seemed to presume innocence rather than guilt and cleared the money pretty much straight away and had the whole thing fixed in 6 weeks.

I’ve now moved all my money to a smaller bank, Member’s Equity. Great rates and so on, as long as you don’t really need to use a branch much. But they also don’t try to sign me up for stuff I don’t need.
- Susan says:
  
  08:00am | 01/03/10
  
  Whilst I regret the privatisation of ComBank and the disappearance of many smaller branches and outlets in rural centres, the Commonwealth is the only ‘we are here’ bank in places like Redfern and the staff do do a great job there. It’s not the cleanest or the most modern looking branch but they deal with diverse and often difficult clients very well. They also have a large international student population. I have to give props to the Redfern branch.
  
  Reply
- Ben Ryan says:
  
  08:01am | 01/03/10
  
  NAB = Not Able Bankers. In my personal option, i know i left nab for suncorp and never looked back
  
  Reply
- skeet says:
  
  08:45am | 01/03/10
  
  @hobgobdog, you’re an idiot. it was all implied by the preamble
  
  Reply
- Mat says:
  
  09:14am | 01/03/10
  
  I used to work for the NAB. It would take a very long time to convince me to open an account there.
  
  Only bank worse than that is queues-out-the-door Commonwealth Bank.
  
  So much better to just to go an ATM and use it straight away, while the CBA sods are all in line waiting for theirs.
  
  Reply
- Michael says:
  
  09:24am | 01/03/10
  
  Because going into each bank only once at a branch is the most scientific method for examining bank service.
  
  Reply
Matt says:

10:02am | 01/03/10

no it’s not. hence why she said this wasn’t at all scientific.
- Paul Wood says:
  
  09:28am | 01/03/10
  
  Anybody with the commbank is making a mistake.
  commbank = crimbank
  People should try CUA, your treated like a person, not a number or an inconvenience.
  I left CUA years ago, only because I got a job working for ST George Bank, walked in after about 10 years to reopen an account with CUA, and they still remembered my name. How many credit unions or banks do you know like that.
  
  Reply
Barry says:

12:32pm | 01/03/10

Its funny how people have different experiences with the banks - I’ve had all of my banking products with CBA (loan, credit card & savings account) for about five years now - and they have never once upset me. They we’re very good to me when my home settlement went pear shaped - and the staff in the Adelaide City King William St Branch went out of their way to help….. I can’t sing their praises enough.
Your name: Destry says:

01:34pm | 01/03/10

Every time I need customer service at the CBA’s Hornsby branch, the staff and service are faultless. I’ve been in many times in recent months, because of fraud where my mastercard was charged $2,000+ for various overseas transactions. The whole matter was resolved to my satisfaction, staff were always polite and did all checks asked for while I waited, and they remembered my case during each visit. I’d walk in, take a seat, and was always attended to within 1 minute of arrival. It’s a pleasure to go to there. I can’t speak for other CBA branches but that one is a model service delivered with class.
Megan says:

07:53am | 02/03/10

I’m with the Teachers Credit Union and have been for 20 years. Their service is good, they practice responsible banking ie. they don’t lend you more than you can afford and the staff are easy to deal with.
- Sick of the Whingers says:
  
  09:28am | 01/03/10
  
  Having run Retail Customer Service for a major bank I never ceased to be amazed by the things that people complained about. The colour scheme of branches, the slogans, why the bank wouldn’t sponsor their son or daughter who was going to be the next world champion at karate and so and so on.
  
  Try dealing with the diversity of clients (all with differing needs and a belief that they are always in the right) that all major organisations do and then by all means tell me that banks are in the wrong.
  
  I got out of banking and went into IT and it was a great career move.
  
  Reply
- Paul Wood says:
  
  09:35am | 01/03/10
  
  Paying some American 10’s of millions to come out and manage an Australian bank. ” Incompetance ” closing branches and sacking Australia workers. To end up with crappy service. ” not very smart “. Who wants to be americanized, not me. We’re supposed to be the lucky country.
  not the stupid, can’t think for ourselves country.
  Whats going on.
  
  Reply
- Deborah says:
  
  09:48am | 01/03/10
  
  I recently opened an account with ANZ to take advantage of their 2.9% balance transfer offer for credit cards. They are currently running an ad campaign which compares them to ‘A Bank’ and it really was like on the ad when I walked in there. The branch was lovely and modern, they had a pretty good ticketing system, loads of seats and funky tables to sit at, and free coffee and tea making facilities. When I sat down with a staff member, he was very friendly, introduced himself and shook both me and my partners hands (partner just happened to be with me, isn’t a ANZ customer).
  
  I do all my main banking with CBA, I can’t complain about them TOO much….. I do like that they have so many ATMs, plus I can use BankWest ATMs with no fees now too. Considering there is a BankWest ATM in every single 7-11, this is very convenient when out and about as its never more than a few metres to a free ATM.
  
  Personally I put all my savings with RaboPlus…. completely online and very good on-call savings rates, much more so than CBA can offer me. It just takes a couple of days to deposit and withdraw money (which is both a very good and bad thing).
  
  Reply
- Renee says:
  
  10:00am | 01/03/10
  
  St.George Bank is the best by far. They are so much better than the Big Four Banks which includes their owners Westpac.
  
  Reply
Marcus says:

12:24pm | 01/03/10

I couldn’t agree with you more Renee. Always get excellent attentive service from st george & nothing is ever a problem for them!!
- NiceGuy says:
  
  10:06am | 01/03/10
  
  We almost switched to NAB when looking to get a cards with decent foreign conversion fees, we dodged a bullet there!
  
  Our card came in and we were called and we made an appointment. We went into the branch and were told that one of the staff with the key to the safe had gone to lunch so we had to wait a full hour for her to return so they could open the safe and get our cards.
  
  We provided all our ID etc, and when setting up the cards, one of the cards was never correctly linked to the account so we had to revisit the bank and waited another half hour to get the card linked correctly.
  
  For several weeks we were depositing money into the account without issue and then went to use the cards to withdraw and we were faced with ‘insufficient funds’ by the POS system (tried multiple stores). Took the cards back to NAB (visit 3) and were told “you need to activate the card by using them in the ATM first” we did as instructed and went to the ATM to ‘activate the card’.
  
  The next day we attempted to use the card at a POS and once again, still not working (either card). Returned to NAB for the 4th time and the person behind the counter finally said “it seems your cards haven’t been activated, you need to complete the ID check”.. which was the ID check we initially did when we got the cards. As we didn’t have all the required forms of ID we asked to immediately cancel the cards and draw the funds out…
  
  The cards were cut up immediately and then we were told that we couldn’t withdraw all the funds because a deposit had been made the same day that hadn’t cleared. So we now had no cards, an account with our money in it we couldn’t access and a staff member unwilling to help. Only after the manager was dragged in was the money released and I am happy to say I have never stepped into an NAB ever again (the whole time they treated us like the source of the problem).
  
  Took our money straight to St George and haven’t looked back. Completely agree with your experiences above.
  
  Reply
NiceGuy says:

10:19am | 01/03/10

Oh, I forgot the icing on the cake…

About 2-3 weeks later a statement for the account turned up in the mail with a negative balance due to the account keeping fee. They never actually closed the account. We had to go in to a branch and speak to a manager again as they were insisting over the phone they had no record of us requesting to close the account and they would not close it until we cleared up the negative balance!
- CJ says:
  
  10:12am | 01/03/10
  
  We moved to a credit union a few years ago…better service, lower fees, more flexibility. Plus, we’re actually ‘members’, so we get voting rights at the agm if we wish, etc etc.
  
  Reply
Fiona K says:

11:40am | 01/03/10

I totally agree, CJ. I divorced the banks about ten years ago and have been in a happy, respectful and consensual relationship with my credit union ever since.
NiceGuy says:

12:18pm | 01/03/10

I was looking at doing the same, but the lack of ATMs was a major turn off.

From what I could figure, you would end up paying in 3rd party ATM fees what you pay to a bank in account keeping fees anyway.
James says:

01:36pm | 01/03/10

NiceGuy, check out your local credit unions, but in Canberra they all allow fee-free access to Reditellers - which are at pretty much every shopping centre; I have always been able to find one if I can find the banks’ ATMs. Because they do not run their own ATMs for each individual credit union, they save heaps of money which means less fees for you. I haven’t paid any fees in years, and love my credit union. Personally, I do not understand why anyone even uses banks any more.
Pixie says:

03:00pm | 01/03/10

Best move I ever made…I have a little giggle every now and then when I hear people griping over their greedy banks…my credit union is the best (Southern Cross). I would never go back to the bank…as for the ATMs….no problem as I only use my card weekly to draw my wages.
- Evan says:
  
  10:17am | 01/03/10
  
  I though the collective noun for bankers was a wunch and not a bunch.
  
  Reply
- ?? says:
  
  10:20am | 01/03/10
  
  i have to admit i have been to the same branch for the last 9 years. its around the corner, and most of the staff has stayed same in that time. i have never ever got crappy service. the product knowledge and investment help has always been spot on. actually, i did once get attitude from a gen y dick about 3 years ago. before you rant about gen y, take note, i am one too. he is no longer there.
  
  Reply
- Arios says:
  
  10:28am | 01/03/10
  
  Yes I have to agree St George hands down. I switched to them in full about a year ago, my mortgage, personal and business accounts. The customer service has been excellent and everything very convenient. I noticed such an improvement over Newcastle Permanent Building Society *eeek*. That place was so dated and out of touch it was scary. Even the simplest things had to be done with huge complex pages of paper forms and fax etc, nothing was modern etc. But St George are very efficient.
  
  Even from OS St George said I can make adjustments to my loans and open up a Line Of Credit and so forth over email by simply signing and scanning a document to the email etc. Pretty cool. That would have been a 20 page international fax with the dated Newcastle Permanent and others in their class.
  
  Reply
- cityboy says:
  
  10:30am | 01/03/10
  
  My experience with Westpac is that if you have even a minor account problem you need to go into a branch to fix it. The call centres seem to have very limited powers. As it happened the problem was not fixed months after visiting my own branch; still isnt! Thinking of taking this account elsewhere!
  
  Reply
Andrew K says:

03:09pm | 01/03/10

True. When we had an account with them and moved to the country they couldn’t answer a simple question over the phone. When they said you just need to pop into a branch, I replied that it was a 300km round trip because our town did not have a branch. They said that there was ‘no way’ that we could be that far from a branch. The telehone operatior obviously had no understanding of Australia geography then…
- Brian says:
  
  10:47am | 01/03/10
  
  Biggest disappointment from the GFC was that CitiBank Australia didn’t go under. They are the most arrogant useless bunch of liars offering the most ordinary service imaginable.
  
  Reply
- DW says:
  
  11:14am | 01/03/10
  
  My experience with NAB is much the same as the story. There never seems to be enough tellers on at any time. I mostly only have the chance to go during lunch time. Most people would be the same and you would expect that the bank should know this and ensure all tellers are active. In my bank there is only 4 teller spots which is too few for any branch.
  
  Reply
- Abhi says:
  
  11:20am | 01/03/10
  
  Wow, which St george did you go to, please visit parramata St george you will see the real world, where people dont even understand english, i understand they have people from different nations to build multicultural envoirment, but lets dont forget english, St george 5 out of 5, LOL, live in real world Tina
  
  Reply
Ed says:

01:41pm | 01/03/10

I go into Parramatta Stgeorge Branch everyday to do my banking and they understand me. Maybe you should try taking your foot out of your mouth and they might understand you a little better.
James says:

03:15pm | 01/03/10

I think your problem Abhi is that (if you speak like you write) you need to use sentences, not fragments interspersed with commas.
- suzanna says:
  
  11:34am | 01/03/10
  
  You obviously didn’t visitng a ANZ on the northern beaches of sydney.
  
  I would give them 1 out of 5 just beacuse they where open
  
  Reply
- Max says:
  
  11:41am | 01/03/10
  
  Gys dont forget CBA and NAB are Huge, not like st george or westpac, bigger they are busier they are, 2 out of 10 bank with ST george, lets just not Consentrate about the waiting service, where people have been declined in past with Unsecured loan, CBA ,ANZ, I could not understand, 1 day my loan was declined By st george, but CBa approved for 12000, in my eyes CBA helped me in tuff times, they are the Best, St george wont last lonf in this race
  
  Reply
NiceGuy says:

12:09pm | 01/03/10

That could also be interpreted as St George potentially having more stringent lending standards, so in this context could be seen as a more responsible lender.

I don’t think we should base anything on how quick a financial institution will hand out money in ‘tuff times’.. if we did, GE Money would come out on top every time.
Bruce says:

12:06am | 02/03/10

Max: Agree. I have no real favourite bank, at the end of the day banks are a business and not benevolent societies. However, St. George is a small player in the market with a predominately consumer base. The big 4 deal with all aspects of the banking market, from Billion dollar commercial loans, housing loans, international transactions to small credit card limits etc, etc. Personnaly I will always go with one of the big 4. If you measure a bank by its face to face branch telling network and want quicker service, maybe you should go to a smaller bank, building society or credit union.
- Locco says:
  
  11:48am | 01/03/10
  
  Used to be with NAB, then ANZ, then Westpac, then Citibank, now with HSBC for the past 4 years and going strong. They are fantastic in all senses - no useless marketing rubbish, no fees *AT ALL*, good interest on the linked Serious Saver (which has instant deposit/withdrawal to the linked account), good service when required, no problems whatsoever. I can’t understand how people can complain about a bank, the fees, the ‘service’, and then not change. The Big 4 are rubbish - fees for everything, no service - yet they are so successful because of human nature… it’s easier to complain about something than to fix the problem. HSBC - fantastic.
  
  Reply
- Col says:
  
  11:53am | 01/03/10
  
  Unfortunately recently I have had to deal with a large number of banks. My experience was that if you could have the matter done via a branch they were all pretty reasonable. However try dealing with the faceless morons in the call centres, in particular deceased estates and you will understand where the banks seem to place all their dead wood. The stand out positive exceptions to this were NAB, BOQ and Bendigo. The worst by far were ANZ and their subsiduaries and HSBC. The most common words I use to describe this lot are useless, incompetent and lazy. All at the same time as trying to deal with a major personal loss.
  
  Their most common trick was to ask for one set of paperwork and then follow up with a demand for additional paperwork certified by a JP or judge or similar. When I pointed out that under Australian evidentiary regulations a police officer can certify copies this was not good enough. Then I say well as your request is in excess of legal requirements, there will be a fee of $100 charged per set of documents for time and travel. A police officer will be acceptable in this case was the response every time after consultation with their legal department (bankers plus lawyers eek). Like I had nothing better to do than chase up their preferred witnesses to documents.
  
  Reply
- Peter of East Gippsland says:
  
  12:06pm | 01/03/10
  
  When approaching age 80, standing in a que for 10-15 mins at our local NAB is a bit hard to take. Surely seats combined with a numbering system is a bit more humane to me and my elderly friends. Alternatively, perhaps a special service for older people would not go amiss.
  
  Reply
- J says:
  
  12:19pm | 01/03/10
  
  I’ve banked with the NAB for neary 10 years and never had a problem with them. Now they’ve abolished fees on their accounts, it’s brilliant.
  
  I do all my banking online though, so no waiting in line…
  
  Reply
- The pigeon says:
  
  12:24pm | 01/03/10
  
  Love the adertising spin from ANZ that concentrates on their security via the ‘Falcon’. The ‘Falcon’ is nothing more than a little pigeon in my experience.
  
  Got caught in that Eftpos scam last month. Thing is I had made 2 transactions in Sydney on the morning in question, then the ‘system’ allowed the exact same card to be used in the UK a few hours later. Call me a sucker for still using long-haul flights to get to the UK, but I thought teleporting was still a pipe dream? Simply time/distance should have = ‘computer says no’. This has happened on other cards with no issue, incl Amex and Mastercard. The only reason I was involved in those instances was when they rang to say it had happened, no money had come out of my accounts, but they were sending me a new card.
  
  Now the ANZ spiel suggests that they are the best at this type of prevention, when the exact opposite is the case. True they refunded the money (after a few weeks and a number of lengthy follow up calls towards the end), but other protections systems don’t even let the money out of the account in the first place.
  
  Reply
shane says:

02:23pm | 01/03/10

‘The falcon’ security system is used by all banks however ANZ are the only institution to deploy as a marketing gimmick.

The irony lies in the fact that ANZ are useless at stopping credit card fraud. I know/have heard of so many people having there card stolen and have been put through a process of c. 3 months to get there money back.

The worst story I know is…My girlfriend had her ANZ credit card stolen, the theif then went into an ANZ branch and via possession of a credit card only, managed to access my girlfriends Tran account and savings account and completly wipe it out. How this was allowed to happen I really dont know?? especially when there was no ID available/presented and my girlfriend is white and the theif was black (CCTV footage) - clearly a LACK of security checks. It took 4 months despite the wealth of evidence for her to get all the money back.
At the very end of the process the bank manager did offer an apology of sorts and then stated it was beacuse the security checks between theirTran accounts system and credit cards aren’t linked and has happened quite often. which also sounds VERY worrying
- AlanM says:
  
  12:32pm | 01/03/10
  
  Some people here are on the right track with regional banks or credit unions.
  We are happy customers of Bendigo (B&A), wonderful service and good over-the-counter term deposit rates.
  
  Cheers
  
  Reply
- Cleo B. says:
  
  12:41pm | 01/03/10
  
  Don’t you love it when you go into almost any bank and see 10 teller positions, with a maximum of 3 tellers serving? Did they learn this trick from Coles and Woolworths?
  
  Reply
kitten says:

07:43pm | 07/12/10

i work in a major bank and the staff agree totally with you! But we are told that we have a service efficency that we have to think of, meaning we can only have so many man hrs on the counter. WT?? branch staff are always the ones that cop the crap from people but truth is we agree with everything customers say and wish the bosses up higher would pull their finger out and listen to us and customers ,or better still, come work in a branch for a month.!
- Monty H - UBank says:
  
  12:42pm | 01/03/10
  
  It’s interesting to read about “opening an account in a branch” and “activating internet/online” access…
  
  My thoughts when designing and delivering UBank were motivated by a simple question: “Why is it harder to open a bank account online than booking a flight to LA”, let’s face it - most airfares are booked online these days.
  
  At UBank most applicants accounts are opened and active in around 5 minutes - you get your BSB and Account Number instant online access, all through an online application, 24hrs a day, 7 days a week.
  
  Whilst online is not for everyone, and face-to-face service meets the needs of many Australians, the convenience of opening an account at home with little/no paperwork at any time of the day/night certainly appeals to me as a consumer.
  
  Full disclosure: I run online for UBank, and it’s blogs and comments like this that keep us focused on the customer.
  
  Reply
cityboy says:

01:23pm | 01/03/10

Yeah, UBank is ‘real convenient’ to open an account; not!! I got to open a Term Deposit account for my SMSF after so much drama! The dope at the call centre didnt know the difference between an ABN & an ACN, insisting I must have an ABN (a SMSF must have an ACN to exist, but an ABN is optional and generally undesirable).
Then I had to snail-mail a slew of certified copies of various documents (ever tried to find a JP lately?). So, OK, that all worked out eventually.
Months later when thinking of opening another new Term Deposit for the same fund, I was asked to repeat the whole process again even though I was an existing customer!
Sorry dummies, I went online and opened a new account with ING Direct in about 4 minutes instead!
Monty H - UBank says:

03:42pm | 01/03/10

@cityboy Sorry you didn’t have a great experience with us, however as you’ve pointed out it is a little more difficult to open accounts in a individual/corporate trust than a personal account. You’ll be pleased to know we’re working on a more streamlined process for Self Managed Super at the moment. If you have any further feedback, we’d love to hear from you - drop us a note to hello@ubank.com.au Attn: Monty H
YellowTrolley says:

06:06am | 16/03/10

@citiboy - Sorry, you’re wrong. All SMSFs must have ABN - if you set them up properly. You can contact the ATO if you don’t believe me and they will confirm this. The trustee of the SMSF can be a company and this company has an ACN.
- Allan says:
  
  12:43pm | 01/03/10
  
  I used to live in a small country town (about 4000 people) and the main bank was NAB.
  I didn’t have an account with them but i did enquire about a home loan through them with my girlfriend. She had a NAB account.
  This is where the problem started. NAB changed my girlfriends account details to have the small country town as her home office. (She lived and worked in Brisbane).
  Everytime she wanted to enquire or change something with her account she was told to contact the small country town office,
  In the end she closed her account. NAB couldn’t understand why even though she told them of the problem a dozen times. They were just thick.
  She even told NAB to tell their marketing people to never call her and guess what….they did.
  NAB ...Never Again Bud.
  
  Reply
- Ben says:
  
  12:51pm | 01/03/10
  
  two words.
  
  Bendigo Bank.
  
  absolutley fabulous!
  
  Reply
- stephen says:
  
  01:22pm | 01/03/10
  
  I don’t understand ‘money psychology’. I apply for a credit card, and 3 days later the bank halves my overdraft. (Didnt get the card )
  I suppose they think all people view credit the same way, like all people who eat potatoes are Irish.
  True, my credit’s as good as bin laden’s ; just takes some people a bit longer to pay back. And if we were all good with money, we’d all be bankers, wouldn’t we ?
  ‘Least the retailers like me.
  
  Reply
6clegs says:

02:21pm | 01/03/10

No, “Stephen” - ‘‘we’’ wouldn’t. Didn’t you know that being born into Banking families is how one ‘becomes a (serious) Banker’. . .
- Gordon Akman says:
  
  01:50pm | 01/03/10
  
  I found BoQ incompetent and rude. On one occasion when their systems failed I called into the branch at West End Brisbane to enquire what the problem was. A teller told me that they were introducing a new system and funds should be in my account in the next couple of days. He acted like it was a total non issue. Like your bank changing their systems so your pay doesn’t go in until the following week is a non issue? No courtesy notification or anything. Needless to say I changed banks.
  
  Also, why does everybody pretend like the BoQ is a family friend? If you let me overcharge you I’ll be really nice to you too. When I got my first car loan they quoted me 13%. I got the loan from a major bank for 8%.
  
  Reply
- Brett says:
  
  01:57pm | 01/03/10
  
  I don’t think the hate for banks is so much about customer service. I think the “bastard” tag come from pure greed on behalf of the banks, and the cold way they can take your home from you. Banks are in a privileged position. They are not like any other business. Consumers have no choice but to use banks for their daily activities. The market is a closed market with very few players. Their contract and fee structures are all very similar. And we cannot negotiate on their contract terms, and they take are money for fees and charges without asking first and if we cannot afford their service the charge us more. Banks are booming because they are tied to the housing market and they push every way to keep them that way. Even though they treat us with contempt and have no conscious we, the tax payer guarantee them. We always have guaranteed them and always will. What makes is worse is the cosy relationship they have with government. The fact I have to wait in a que or on the phone is nothing. It’s the greed, the obscene profits even in a recession and the fact they are immune from regular market downturns.
  
  Reply
- formersnag says:
  
  02:14pm | 01/03/10
  
  The big 4 banks are all a bit slack, sometimes. In particular, was disappointed in the pressure they put on the government (during GFC days) for the guarantee of deposits, when our banking system was nowhere near as bankrupt as the rest of the worlds banks were. No sooner was the guarantee in place and they were taking over smaller banks.
  
  It was also disgusting of the red/green/labour coalition government to allow those takeovers as well. Might have been better to encourage a merger of some of those smaller banks into a larger coalition of competitors to the big4.
  
  Reply
- No more interest rate hick please. says:
  
  02:23pm | 01/03/10
  
  Our banks have a excellent customer service all most second to non. Most people have a pet hate about banks and interest rates. Most people complain lie in the area of rate hick. About the right banks have to increase their interest rate to such an extent that the poor humble customer would have not been eligible at that rate in the first place. The banks answer is that they have accounted for that future hick and they are sorry that they didn’t know the rate would have to be so high now. This is the subject ‘interest rate hicks’ that all most every one grips about.
  
  Reply
- Bec says:
  
  03:12pm | 01/03/10
  
  I have had accounts with CBA, Westpac, NAB and ANZ. I got sick and tired of their incompetance and switched to St George. I haven’t looked back. St George have been fantastic
  
  Reply
- Squid Taylor says:
  
  04:03pm | 01/03/10
  
  I wish we could just get the banks to get rid of their smarmy slogans…I’d be happy to pay a monthly account fee to stop seeing the crap their marketing people come up with. Who changes banks because one is determined to be different another wants to live in my world (sicko’s) and more give less take sounds like a special at a local brothel!!!
  
  Reply
- richard pride says:
  
  04:18pm | 01/03/10
  
  I just want a bank who can hook me up with hot easy women !
  
  Reply
- mummaluigi says:
  
  05:00pm | 01/03/10
  
  I think that the NAB must think I am an idiot. I deposited $200 to my account through the Post Office and I received a receipt with the balance on it. (The balance was correct). To my amazement when I went on to internet banking the next day my account was overdrawn, and didn’t the NAB go haywire with the fees. The $200 had not been credited to my account. It took 2 days for this money to finally reach my account. When I inquired as to the whereabouts of this $200 I ended up with a list of excuses. I then proceeded to contact the head of the region of the NAB who flicked it on to some else. The final excuse was that the lines were down. (I have the banking transaction report from the Post Office which shows that the NAB did in fact receive this money) This is very strange because if the lines were down it would have not accepted my deposit being an EFTPOS transaction nor given me the correct balance. To prove a point a week of so later I had my son take another deposit to the Post Office and I logged on to the internet. He was instructed to phone me when the deposit was being processed. This deposit went in in seconds. Now I am blonde does the NAB think I should change my hair colour.
  I have printscreens of all this garbage.
  
  Reply
- worng page. says:
  
  05:21pm | 01/03/10
  
  Hey richard pribe - sorry wrong number - your on the wrong page. SSHHHuusshhh. In the back pages - classified HEHEHe
  
  Reply
- John says:
  
  08:19pm | 01/03/10
  
  What ever you guys do don’t come to the UK for customer service, it’s so bad over here that you have expect it, and no point complaining as they don’t care. I tried to set-up a bank account here with Barclay’s, it was a nightmare and a waste of time, lucky there was another bank called LoydsTSB that handled my new bank account with much better service and efficiency. Honestly Australian bad customer service standards would be called good customer service here. I mean that’s how bad it is over here.
  
  Reply
- Kylie Moss says:
  
  09:20pm | 01/03/10
  
  This is an interesting debate and one close to my heart as I work at the financial comparison site Mozo. Even though Tina’s test isn’t scientific her top bank actually matches our data, which is made up of over 20,000 real customers reviews. If you take a look at our reviews (http://mozo.com.au/rate-and-review/best-banks) you’ll notice that the smaller challenger brands out rank the big banks.
  
  Data aside the other comments on this thread shows what a huge impact our banks have on our everyday lives. I hope that stories like Tina’s and sites like Mozo will help consumers have a voice and get increasingly better service from the big banks.
  
  Reply
- Sam says:
  
  10:24pm | 01/03/10
  
  The idea that anyone could believe an ad from a bank about how great they are is laughable. I thought they just made ads to entertain us not for us to take them seriously.
  
  Reply
- astounded says:
  
  12:25am | 02/03/10
  
  i recently changed my banking from the CBA to the NAB- purely so that i did not see my savings! i work for the CBA so i cant say that i have ever had a problem and had had the same account since early primary school. The NAB and i have experienced numerous problems together, from credit card ‘system errors’ to blatant, obvious discrepancies on bank statements when applying for a personal loan through them. it took me 5 weeks to finally get someone to say what information was needed to verify my application, to then have a verification officer (for the 4th time mind you ) query a description for a branch withdrawal i made!! the ‘description’ was a back office one used when customers made a counter withdrawal with no keycard!! still, i persevered but the real icing on the cake was when i applied for a LOW RATE credit card. 15k was the limit offered!! which made me eligible and then some for a platinum card!! excited, i called to change the card to this option. 5 phone calls, over the course of 2 weeks it took for again someone who knew half of what they were doing to change it for me. i was rudely told that i didnt earn enough to sustain that ‘type’ of card, perplexed some what as to me the limit was the biggie there? but finally yes it could be done!! i have to say that even though i work for one of the major banks and i do have a level of expectation when it comes to customer service etc it really does show just how bad some of these banks operate, what sort of training they must get and how they treat there customers. i know that NAB are more known for their ‘business customers’ than there personal customers but i would expect they try and develop what customers they have. just because they offer free banking does not mean that people will continue to put up with bad experiences, often customers dont always want the cheapest products!!
  
  Reply
- Bezza says:
  
  07:38am | 02/03/10
  
  As long as you don’t need a local branch to walk into, Members Equity is a good bank when it comes to fees and interest rates on standard accounts. However their internet banking is slow and funds transfers can take a while. At the end of the day I honestly believe they are all the same, some are just less competent than others.
  
  Reply
- Old Bert says:
  
  07:39am | 02/03/10
  
  They’ve all got their faults, I’m taking my business elsewhere, to the First Bank, of Nigeria. That’ll learn ‘em.
  
  Reply
- Danny Wu says:
  
  02:29pm | 03/03/10
  
  I’m with the NAB, easy to bank with at the branch and online.
  Hate Westpac, how you need to fill in deposit forms.
  Hate ANZ for cheap bank staements.
  Hate CBA fro monthly bank account fees.
  
  Reply
- Matt says:
  
  01:24pm | 15/03/10
  
  I would steer clear of the CBA. I have had 2 home loans with them and a personal loan. Paid off each without skipping a beat. I recently applied for a personal loan. Two weeks later, I was still receiving phone calls from them raising the bar on what I had to provide for a small pl of $5k. After banking with them for over 20 years, they simply DO NOT KNOW ME.
  I have taken all my business elsewhere, and had no problem getting a loan through another financier funded within days.
  
  Reply
- kitten says:
  
  07:53pm | 07/12/10
  
  i work at a major bank and i have to say that all we talk about in meetings is customer service. If you banked with my branch you would never go anywhere else! we do a bloody great job!! we love our customers and they think we’re pretty awesome too! we’re not all bad!!
  
  Reply

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