Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just shows how things can change a friend just got divorced and sold every thing up he went to the bank with his check $300,000 and wanted a bank cheque to buy his Winnebago they said 4 working days to clear he argued and they said thats the rules he said ok close my account and i will go somewere else 'oh' no problem how much would you like the cheque for he walked out with cheque in hand
I would have changed banks just to stick it up them
tell you what if ever i win big money i will go into my bank just to wave the check under there nose

You should not start me on banks Fand F.
But grrr here goes. Last October I noticed a $60-00 debit to Leejay Pty Ltd-, did a search and left messages on the answering machine, turned out to be somewhere up north. We had not heard of them and they did not know us. May not actually be the same one
This was around November by now, Royal show, flat out, xmas etc. New yearish thought I should query the bank, did so. It will take 60 days (what the?) Then came a form, no information will be released until you have completed this and we can get the transaction form wherever. Said to Joel, this form wants us to give authority to cancel the cards in the case of it being comprimised, in other words to go ahead we had to sign the form. Uncomforatble feeling starting to happen, but wanted to get to the bottom of it or we would not get our $60 back and just let go of it. (not really a big deal anyway being $60)
Anyhow signed the form, sent them back, no answer about the transaction.
Joel goes shopping (retail therapy on his day off oops sorry business shopping, I mean)- credit card cancelled. Grrr
Comes to our shop and I try my card cancelled.
I ring the bank immediately for explanation- they say overseas fraud and keep me moving through different departments but will not explain how much, what country, amount- no details available.
How do they know we haven't done an online transaction anyway. For our protection, they say.
Leave it until next week and ring the bank, speak to the manager as well as others, he offers an assumption which I know is wrong, so I tell him so and ask why we were not informed about the cards being cancelled.
He says I will find out- tells me that the details had been incorrect and they had tried- I told him that in the last few days in order to identify ourselves we had gone over all the contact details and NO they were not incorrect, they were accurate.
Still waiting for an explanation!
But since Joel was the primary card holder they rang him .HUH, his patience ran out before mine. He told them clearly not to bother.
We still do not have a reason why the card was cancelled, funny that the $60 appeared 2 days later. In the meantime all access to the credit card was cut. I told them that they would lose our accounts over this. I actually think it was probably just a mistake and not a deliberate fraud. Very poor customer service Westpac. Extremely unsatisfactory to tell me things that I know are not true. I am sick of people telling me what they think I want to hear. Just tell the honest truth and dont make it up as you go.

I guess you found out why the banks are always increasing interest rates and blaming the increased cost of operation on the GFC... the reality is they are suffering due to people without a clue working there... although it sounds like a good place to work...

Had a similar case Faye... where I challenged some "overseas" transcations... that occurred while I was away...

The bank raised the credit limit on the card ... without notifying me...while they disputed the transaction... they ultimately reversed the transactions, but left the limit up...

Four months later, again without notifying me... they lowered the limit back downward... then rang me the next day with an "immediate demand" to pay the over limit amount ...

When I said I couldn't do so, but would try to do so by the end of the month.... they cancelled the card on the spot...

And in another instance... I sent some money to NZ to pay for some family reunion photos... a set $NZ amount... which attracted a fee at my bank...

The photographer didn't receive the "full" amount... with another fee apparantly taken out by the NZ branch of the ANZ... without notification...

When queried, and to this day... neither the ANZ, or Westpac, the destination bank... will admit to taking out the fee...

In short a $150NZ transfer... cost $54 in fees... and I still had to send the photographer another $27NZ (by money order) to make up the difference...

Westpac

We had trouble while we were travelling. We knew our credit cards were about to expire when we were a long way from home, so Athena went down to the local Westpac, told them the story, and arranged to have our new cards forwarded to the local branch for us to pick up. Expiry date came and no cards - they had been sent to our home address (which had been rented out) and not even to our postal address (in-laws, so the cards would have been safe there.) But, not even our tennants saw the cards, so everything had to be cancelled. We were along way from home, with no cash, and no credit cards.

We dont have alot of problems with the bank. but Telstra (Big PONG) needs a new thread

You have to feel sorry for them, Wepac has a half yearly profit of only $3B or $3,000,000,000 I hope the GFC ends for them

And that represents not only a profit.... but a 30% INCREASE in profit... at a time when they CLAIM that lending margins are very tight...

FFS... how much bullshit are we prepared to take from these bloodsucking parasites...

We have to take all that we are given and there is stuff all you or I can do about it!
Try and operate legally without a Bank Account!!
I've been informed that I can't get paid in Cash, too many security risks apparently in toting it from the bank to the Office. You can't receive any Tax refunds, Government rebates or the like from any Government department without a Bank Account.
Any Business, Non-profit organisation or Incorporated Body MUST have a bank Account by law.
It's all about TAX gathering and the Government (Tax Office), trying to get rid of the cash economy. (Something the Greeks don't really like at the Moment)

And now, Woolworths has announced a 2% surcharge on using a DEBIT (not CREDIT!) card for any Transaction. So, you pay to put your money in a bank and now you pay to take it out again! as well as being slugged by the Retail sector for using your own money. Great systems we have.

Cheers IanK

Yep Ian... the banks rubbed their hands in glee... when we handed them complete control of the countries finances... by introducing direct deposit of wages...

Legal tender... is now effectively a non sense....

Granted it has convenience.... but now, as you say, that convenience has become theirs... not ours...

I'm all in favour of the "Greek" approach... burn the bastards I reckon...

Or impose a 2% flat rate transaction tax... on every financial transaction...

My in-laws (who are Greek, but that's another story) dont have a credit card, and like all good Greeks deal mainly in cash. But when they go to pay some of their bills they are slugged fees for paying by cash. Now you get fees for paying by cash, paying by credit, paying by debit, and for not paying at all.

Don't get me started on banks !!!!!!!
Everytime they withhold a cheque that money is invested in the short term markets making millions from our money.
How come other businesses don't receive bailouts when things are tough.
Most banks would not have folded but simply had reduced profits
This stinks
Like I said don't get me started !!!

Wow, your in laws are Greek and they have money?

Sorry, that's a pretty poor joke....

Gee I really don;t know where to start on the banks subject, there's just so much wrong, I've already made a comment in the venting thread so maybe I'll leave it at that...

I asked them about the staff assisted transactions I get on my statement. They couldn't tell me what they were for. Told them they better not charge me for telling me that and that there staff have never assisted in helping with anything. They do seem more helpfull now, but thats more to do with my tendency to close accounts. Do the same thing with coca cola reps that like to dictate what goes in there fridges and what range we have to stock. I just point at one of there fridges and say take that one back.

I had a long term argument with the banks over credit card repayment, example my minimum monthly repayment was $100 per month so I paid $75 a fortnight (pay time).........right.........no! some months when we got 3 pays a month then it was fine, but banks computer system recognized the second payment as a late payment and slugged me $30 each time, so then why wasn't the so called late payment classed as an early payment for the next month? if that was the case I would have only got one late payment fee, right.........no! why? not enough space to post the 25 pages of correspondence we had on the matter, problem is because I am so efficient it was 12 months or so before I picked it up, I never open the statements, I thought I was paying heaps more than I needed, the actual payment period was from the 5th - 5th of the month and not 1st-1st or something ridiculous, what ever the period was almost every month 1 of my monthly payments fell outside the time, I actually am still confused on how it worked, my online banking was just set to make the fortnightly payments, so some months had 3 payments that counted as 2 on time, the extra that was made in the month was counted as a payment for that month and not the next month because it was made that month but outside the statement period, confused, me too as I said I can't get my head around it, I suggested the bank was penalizing people for getting paid fortnightly, why didn't I just change my payment then to once a month, basically because I'm a pigheaded prick, or if I had known what was happening I could have changed the online banking payment period by a couple of days, in the end I paid the balance and closed the card, when they asked why or did I want another card, I said yes I want another card but not from NAB unless they repay the $300+ they stole from my account, the lady said she didn't have access to my correspondence and also couldn't credit my account, but she said "the bank has decided to waive all late payment charges to new customers or customers that re-sign", I didn't sign back up, arseholes

Credit cards are EVIL

we used to live off ours, the theory was that we bought stuff then paid it off when we got paid ... but it always seemed that there was more stuff to buy when pay day came and what to you know we maxed out

wasnt a huge amount but we slowly clawed it back and not ever do i want another one, id rather get a personal loan for big items and save up for everthing else , its amzing to me how much stuff we say lets save up for that and never quite get but it makes me think we pehaps didnt realy need it in the first place

CHeers
pete