BNZ bank really should have said sorry and given us our money back!

July 22, 2009 by Avalon
Filed under: Banks, General Budgeting, The Book and Website 

In Avalon’s Guide, I relate the story of a bit of a cock up that BNZ bank made with our credit card. It has now made it into the New Zealand Herald, as the other party in the tale was finally in a position to move banks, and could therefore publicise the events in the hope that others will learn from this.

BNZ Credit Cards: Why you need to check your statements!

We had a new credit card with Bank Of New Zealand (BNZ), which we only ever made one payment with. We recently had a statement saying we owed $22.50 for some digital photos paid for at an online store.

We queried it with BNZ – who eventually said that we wouldn’t have to pay the bill till they investigated it. The “investigation” resulted in them sending us a letter stating that “Should we wish to further dispute the charge, please advise us in detailed writing with your signature (!?) by [Date]. If we do not hear from you by this date, I will presume that you now accept the charge and no further action will be taken.”

Well! Along with this utter garbage – we got details of the person who had made the purchase. We were sure it was just a mistake – rather than an attempt at fraud – after all – I assume anyone fraudulently using our card would buy something more interesting than photos. However – we got her name, address, email, and mobile phone number. None of which was in anyway us, nor could it be linked to us.

We sent a snottogram (of epic proportions) to the bank telling them to do their job and figure it out, and in a call to us we found out the following:

· Because it’s under $50 they don’t bother with any online security checks such as the 3-digit number on the back of the card.
· So anyone who has stolen your card will get away with it if they don’t spend up big.
· The bank assumes that the person using your card details is a relative of yours, and so they don’t worry about it, even if the name and delivery address is completely different.
· And yes – they do expect you to prove that you didn’t spend what you didn’t spend.
· Basically what this means is the banks won’t bother checking for small purchases that are not made by you.
· You have to check the statements.

By the way – we closed the card down, as BNZ were beyond obnoxious about the whole thing. The lady whose information we were given (in a serious breach of privacy laws), is “having a few words” with the bank and the Privacy Commissioner.

I am so grateful to Mrs Hansford for doing this. This occurred about 18 months ago, and because they had a fixed rate mortgage, they were not able to close their accounts with BNZ the way we were. She also turned down $2000 compensation (we were not offered any by the way), which I assume would have meant they could not publicise the issue.
It really is vitally important to keep a track of your spending and balance it with what the bank claims that you spent. It is too easy to trust the bank records – and they are often incorrect. I personally feel most people would be horrified at how much money gets paid for things that they never bought, or were charged for twice. We have saved hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the years because we check our banks statements, and keep spotting mistakes.

BNZ claims these incidents are “extremely isolated”. I beg to differ. Certainly bank statements are often incorrect. And the attitude at BNZ when we contacted them about the privacy breach suggests that they really didn’t seem to think there was an issue. It seemed to be the way they usually handle such transactions.

So thank you to Mrs Hansford, and Ms Beck for publicising this issue.

More details on how to handle your money, including who to run your accounts and how to check your statements can be found in Avalon’s Guide.

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Related posts:

  1. Avalon’s Money Thread: Banks and Bank Charges.
  2. Why are Credit Cards still charging such high interest rates in New Zealand?
  3. Avalon’s Money Thread: Revolving Credit Mortgages.
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Comments

3 Comments on BNZ bank really should have said sorry and given us our money back!

  1. Hubby on Fri, 24th Jul 2009 10:01 pm

    2. Third most popular news article on the NZH website on the day! wehey – people are interested.. Here’s hoping the message about checking bank/credit card statements gets through.

  2. Hubby on Wed, 5th Aug 2009 6:43 pm

    3. And it got into the local paper too;

    http://www.times-age.co.nz/local/news/credit-card-blunder-not-the-first-transaction-erro/3901911/

  3. Jeff on Wed, 26th Aug 2009 9:05 pm

    4. Great story. If you google ‘BNZ bank’ you will find in the first page another story. Here is the link.

    http://www.nhc.net.nz/index/BNZ-bank.htm

    This one is a real horror story – after the BNZ bank placed a company’s name on a 3rd party account, a whole company and its money went west. The bank also lied to legal counsel and got caught. The BNZ bank’s letters and internal e-mails are uploaded for all to see the porkies of the BNZ Bank. I ask is the bank a psychopathic entity if it demonstrates the character traits, (such as lack of empathy or remorse) that define a psychopath?

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