Kiwibank?

[GreenMeansGo]

Researching banks, Kiwibank looks to be a good basic account with features that we want. Any one with them? Or anyone that switched and why?

Also, looking at their locations, many are in the Post Shops. Does this mean that I have to stand in line with people and their packages to mail or are the banks just located in the same building as the post shop? I hate standing in line here at the PO and don't see that changing once we move Don't seem to be many freestanding branches, at least in Hawkes Bay.

One thing though, it seems we need to mail the documents to start an account- any way to speed up that process? I don't see that we can do it online, perhaps a fax would work? We leave the US on the 26th of Jan and hope to get an account started before we go. thanks!

[Wooly_Cow]

Kiwibank have often been rated the best for several financial products. Their interest ratesd seem to be amoungst the best too.

I do bank with them for one of my acocunts and cerdit card and find them good but yes I do have to stand in line in the Post Shop

[KelvinAng]

KiwiBank's pretty good. One thing that puzzles me though is that you cannot change your bank card's PIN at the ATMs. I guess being the only NZ-owned bank, it does have its... uniqueness.

[TonnyTessa]

I bank with them, I so far I have found to be very good. The help line people are indeed helpfull and really went out of their way to make the impossible possible (wanted to use my credit card before I actually got it). No complaints from me so far, which is a big relief after having had to deal with several different UK banks. And the line at the post office is usually not too bad. THe only thing to keep in mind that banking hours are not always the same as post shop hours!

[jeffanar]

I bank with kiwibank and find them really good. Yes all the branches are Post Offices but I do nearly all of my banking online so very rarely go into the bank - I think I have done twice to get bank cheques and once to get a new cashflow card after I lost mine, and I agree their help line is very helpful.

KiwiBank's pretty good. One thing that puzzles me though is that you cannot change your bank card's PIN at the ATMs. I guess being the only NZ-owned bank, it does have its... uniqueness.

I'm pretty sure you can't do that with any bank cards, and can't imagine why you would want to!

[Ally Bally Bee]

I am a new kiwibank customer. I've switched from National as we have joust bought our first home and kiwibank was our preferred mortgage lender - government guaranteed, low interest rates and kiwi-owned.

I discovered yesterday too that kiwibank don't charge you for paying in cheques form overseas, National charged me $5 per cheque, although they said it could take 30 working days to clear.

And you don't have to fill in forms to deposit money either, just swipe your card at the counter.

[newarrival]

We started with Westpac because of their connection with a German bank, but I switched to Kiwibank last year- no fees for the account if you do you stuff online! Standing in line is not too bad here, and it is not often that I more often use the post office service than the bank's one!

[Kitten Witten]

I love Kiwibank. We opened our account ahead of time from UK. Yes, you do need to post the forms - http://www.kiwibank.co.nz/personal-b...t-overseas.asp

but if you feel you can get them to Wellington in time then you'll be all set. We actually got emails confirming when our joint account had been set up rather than posted letters and it was quick.

We then went into a branch 2 weeks ago with passports when we arrived and had the friendliest but also very professional woman look after us and talk us through everything without boring the pants off us

Our cards were ordered that day and turned up a few days later, our pins were set up there and then as was our internet banking and we could have had telephone banking too if we'd wanted it. Compared to the myriad of hassles I have had with 3 different banks in the UK I wanted to kiss this woman! So far so brialliant and the symbolic thing for me is supprting a 100% Kiwi owned bank, gives me that warm fuzzy feeling plus it helps that we got talked through our account options and have gone for the one with no chequebook but also no fees at all.

And yes as others have said you do need to queue up with post customers but as long as you're happy with internet and/or phone banking that shouldn't be too much of a hassle if it's once in a blue moon. One last thing - we actually paid in a sterling cheque yesterday (TV licence refund ), and the no fees thing on that is fab, and I just took it in with my card, saying to my OH we'll come back if we need to fill in a slip or do something and it was easy as pie. Love it!

Should point out - I definitely don't work for Kiwibank, in fact I don't work for anyone as no one seems to wants to interview me!

[tea drinker]

I applied for Kiwibank Now account from the UK online
found their email responses very quick
sent me details of my new account
arranged an International Money Transfer from my UK bank using those details
when I arrived had to present passport and driving licence to activate
card with no name available straight away
card with name on takes a few days
if you take the no name option then want to change you will need passport to make changes

[KelvinAng]

I'm pretty sure you can't do that with any bank cards, and can't imagine why you would want to!

You can do that with ASB, which was the other bank I used. Granted, it's usually nested somewhere many pages under "Other Transactions" or something similar, and sometimes only available at ATMs located at a bank branch. In fact it's recommended to change your PIN every now and then... It's good security practice. Kiwibank is the only bank that I've found that didn't have that option and you have to queue at the post office to get it changed.

In Singapore, all the banks I've used have that option at any of their own ATMs.