Westpac tightening the screws

[albatross710]

I've noticed that Westpac is really standing their ground on fees, charges and disputable interest charges lately.

I've been with them for 20 years but now they will not budge even on a charge which I think is not justified,

Just a heads up that in particular they seem unwilling to budge on anything to do with the Westpac Krisflyer card. I guess they want people off that card and onto their new 'enhanced' products.

Most recently they have have changed the way they treat a purchase credit in a monthly cycle and not treating that towards a settlement of the amount. The T&Cs have always read the same, but now they are implementing it.

Anyone else having issues with Westpac?

 

[jamesatfish]

Yes, I've been finding Westpac's service and offerings on the decline lately.

My company has been banking with them for 36 years and all of our personal banking is with them also.

In the last few months our 'relationship manager' left and we haven't been given a replacement yet. They've capped points on all our business Altitude cards so instead of 1,500,000 points per year we'll get 240,000. They've been pushing me to upgrade my low rate visa (bugger all credit limit just used for online purchases) to a Platinum card with a 20K limit - which made no sense until I found out that they're also upping our merchant fees from a flat rate of ~0.6% regardless of card type up to 2.1% for a Platinum card, so clearly the more people with Platinum cards the more money they'll make from merchant fees.

The only things I'm happy with at the moment are their internet banking with the RSA token (allowing unlimited daily transfers) and the instant merchant settlement.

I will be paying out some 7 figure loans with them in a few months and will definitely be taking the opportunity to shop around for a better option.

 

[N860CR]

I was always a large Westpac customer but the service over the last few years has gone from acceptable to absolutely atrocious. Every single dealing I've had with them of late has been stuffed up and the service is absolutely terrible. One particular individual made a written commitment to me l then didn't go through with it and has ignored 5 emails and phone calls...

They were once the best of the lot but now they're far and away the worst

 

[albatross710]

OK, thanks I thought it was just me that was taking them off my Christmas card list.

I think maybe they are just maximising profits until the customer losses exceed the extra margins.

 

[cove]

In August Westpac will be detailing the split up of all the costs when you deal rather than hit you up with a bank bill rate renewal that looks like it was plucked out of the air. If the traded rate is 2.71% why did you get hit with a dealt rate of 3.90%. Shortly you will see who grabbed a slice of your pie and who grabbed all the cream.
In our AFF forum I have been delighted to run up points on a suite of Westpac cards to travel on SQ. It is my idea of fighting back where I am running 6 overseas in the pointy end.
Try to pay everything by either credit card or by electronic transfer as the fees otherwise get bigger and bigger.

 

[albatross710]

bank bill rate renewal that looks like it was plucked out of the air. If the traded rate is 2.71% why did you get hit with a dealt rate of 3.90%. Shortly you will see who grabbed a slice of your pie and who grabbed all the cream.

But can we as consumers bring any weight on moving that percentage?

 

[cove]

Gail Kelly is hoping that answer is no but a lot of Westpac customers are noticing that head office has really jacked up all the fees for any service. Westpac needs a new CEO but we cannot orchestrate that change other than go to the AGM as shareholders and ask good questions.
I took Mrscove to the NAB AGM and it was obvious that Michael Chaney was no banking wizzard with mental arithmetic and the crowd was pleased that he was leaving the Chairman role this year.
We split up our forex and Bell Potter gets most because they are cheaper and have saved us. If you would like a referral just PM me.
You get noticed more when not all the car financing goes Westpac's way so we get NAB to quote and that saves quite a bit.

 

[jamesatfish]

The only things I'm happy with at the moment are their internet banking with the RSA token (allowing unlimited daily transfers)

And the next day after saying that, Westpac manage to send their banking system offline for more than 12 hours. No payments in or out, no payroll processing, no account access online or on the phone. Nothing.

For 10 hours their response was "we will tell you when it is fixed" and "no we don't have an ETA". After 10 hours that became "we have fixed the issue" and "oh you still can't connect? You must need to clear your cache". Now silence.

Jumping on a last minute flight to NZ tomorrow - can't even move some money into my account with ATM access to withdraw cash overseas.

 

[cove]

Missed that by a day! I did get a $3000 Holden rebate this week so I mentally offset that against all those bank fees.

 

[DeKa]

Missed that by a day! I did get a $3000 Holden rebate this week so I mentally offset that against all those bank fees.

I've never owned a Holden but I'd consider one with a $3000 rebate. How did you get that?

 

[cove]

We ran up $1xx,000 Holden Credit card rebate on Westpac 3 years ago. A great idea for buying cars.
The Holden was not for me as I have a nice new second hand car ....I buy at 40,000kms!

Just changed the rebate figure so I remain anonymous to Westpac!

 

[Muztel]

I had a Westpac GM card quite a few years ago, If I recall they canned it maybe 3+ years ago, Did very well from it, I would say easy $8k in rebates as we purchased holdens a few times a year. must have been to good

 

[cove]

We have averaged $21,000 saving per year for about 10 years. Our time is running out on this one with less than 2 years left.

 

[cove]

Welcome to AFF Muztel.
You must be related to another AFF member with your pic!