Westpac says I’m not a person.

May 7, 2009 by Avalon
Filed under: Banks, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ, Life in New Zealand, Property & General Investing 

One of my Rental property mortgages is with Westpac bank, and I’ve had the mortgage for about 18 months now. I have had nothing but problems and agro with it – despite the fact that the only thing it needs to do is take a single payment each month from my ASB business account to pay the mortgage with. You would not think that was too tricky would you – especially for the “most advanced banking system in the world” (allegedly).

You would be so woefully wrong.

For a start – Westpac (and ANZ it turns out – so it’s a NZ wide problem) cannot – simply cannot – take a direct debit from another bank to pay the mortgage. Instead – I have to have a second account with them from which they can take the payment. Personally I think this is simply a scam so that they can claim they have 2 new accounts instead of one! The first problem with this – is that I have to make sure I deposit enough money into the fake “second account” so that Westpac will always have the funds to pay the mortgage with. (Because it would also be too easy to work out the interest payable for a year – and divide by 12, so each month they charge a different amount of interest on an interest-only mortgage).

The second problem this causes – is that over a few months – money builds up in the fake Westpac account – and is neither usable (because it is not my working business account), nor do they even have the courtesy to pay interest on it. So every few months – I have to log into the Internet banking system and manually transfer the extra back to my real business account at ASB.

Only Westpac won’t hold my user ID and password for more than a few weeks. Which means every time I need to do this I have to go through a farce to get MY money out of THEIR account. The reason? I’m not a person!

If I want to be able to speak to customer services – I have to open a THIRD account in my personal name( for which of course I have to pay!) Then they will talk to me!  Because my accounts are in a Business name – they cannot and will not deal with me. I was told for the first time last week that the way round this if for my manager to provide me with a pin number which allows customer service to determine that I am in fact real.(Seriously – I am NOT making this up). My new manager was going to provide me with said Pin – but funnily enough it hasn’t materialised yet. A letter introducing the new manager to me has however come through – inviting me to  a financial review to that they can “better understand my financial goals”.

With westpac – I have one goal – to get access to my bloody account and not have to go though all this stupidity.

Until then – I have to
a/ find out who my manager is (it keeps changing without notice,)
b/ try and get hold of them (bearing in mind that Customer Service cannot tell me who they are because Im not a person)
c/ get them to renew my user Id and Password
d/ go into the internet banking and then re-change the password because the one the manager gave me will only let me in to do that – it doesn’t actually give me access to the damn account.
E/ Pay the money back to my real account.

Guess what the excuse for this? Security. What a load of old tosh. It is pure incompetence and laziness and idiocy.

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Comments

3 Comments on Westpac says I’m not a person.

  1. James on Fri, 17th Jul 2009 8:58 pm

    2. You’re joking right? What a load of whinging b…s..t. You have a mortgage with them, not a tiny little hire purchase. If you can’t work out that calendar monthly payments mean you are only charged interest actually owed month to month on a daily basis then get some advice. They open a personal cheque account so they can ID you and deduct from that account. The difference month to month is negligible.

    As to internet access, insist on a business banker looking after you as you are obviously self employed.

    If all else fails next time use a mortgage broker and get it done properly!
    Cheers

  2. Avalon on Sat, 18th Jul 2009 12:08 am

    3. With all due respect – you are an idiot and maybe you should read the post before being rude and obnoxious :)

    There is no reason for any bank to insist on a second account. This is purely a result of the New Zealand banking system being antiquated, and Kiwis not understaning that they are being diddled :)

    I also have a business manager looking after me – one who apprently understands investment property – though as with many people that seems to be moving target :)

    Banks in countries other than NZ can and do manage perfectly well handling interest payments from other banks. I am perfectly capable of working out the interest thanks – it is Westpac who cant. Given that they are too backward to take direct debits – and they insist on standing orders (you understand the difference I take it?) they should indeed work out a standard monthly payment.

    You may also be interested to know that the mortage was organised through a mortgage broker. Please do not make assumption – it makes you look stupid :)

    The difference in interest payments from month month will depend on both the interest rate and the amount of the mortgage, and is often not a negligible amount. Again – please do not make assumptions, or assign your own life experience to me or to other people. It again makes you look a bit stupid :)

  3. Avalon on Sat, 18th Jul 2009 12:12 am

    4. BTW – it appears James is a mortgage broker from New Zealand, which is perhaps why he is so offended, and why he thinks that the way Westpac handles mortgages is perfectly sensible :)

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