Bank Account

[ali]

12 hours ago, Marisawright said:

How often have you sanity-checked you mortgage rate and fees since you got the mortgage?  Did you compare rates before you got that mortgage 12 weeks in?

I used to work for RAMS (in its heyday, before it was bought over).   Most people who have a mortgage with the Big 4 are happy with the service, that's not an issue.  But they usually get a shock when they work out how many thousands of dollars they could have saved if they'd got a mortgage with one of the smaller players. That's my point.   The Big 4 know people see them as 'safe' so they don't bother competing on price, especially if you're an existing customer.

Of course we checked mortgage rates - we were not (and still aren't)  naïve.  You  seem to make an awful lot assumptions about people without basis Marissa and seem to counter anything positive with a negative. 

[Amber Snowball]

On 16/12/2020 at 12:49, ali said:

We opened with Wespac prior to arrival and activated once here - we haven't had any problems with them.

I had my current account with Westpac the whole time I was there and they were fine. I used a mix and match of other banks for savings and mortgages depending on the best for me at the time. I assume that’s what other people do as well .
I didn’t open an account until I arrived and the Westpac were really helpful getting the cards delivered to the branch within a couple of days.

[ramot]

8 hours ago, ali said:

Of course we checked mortgage rates - we were not (and still aren't)  naïve.  You  seem to make an awful lot assumptions about people without basis Marissa and seem to counter anything positive with a negative. 

Same here, we check mortgage rates and then go to our bank, either match rate or we move. Works every time.

[Marisawright]

11 hours ago, ali said:

Of course we checked mortgage rates - we were not (and still aren't)  naïve.  You  seem to make an awful lot assumptions about people without basis Marissa and seem to counter anything positive with a negative. 

I didn’t make an assumption, I asked a question. You’d be astonished how many people don’t check properly (e.g. they look at the basic rate and don’t check fees) or they check at the start and never revisit again. Statistically it’s the majority of mortgage holders. It’s how the big 4 make their money. Glad to hear you and Ramot aren’t among them. 

As  Ramot says, the big 4 will match rates if you challenge them but they’ll rarely do it voluntarily 

Edited December 19, 2020 by Marisawright

[Parley]

3 hours ago, ramot said:

Same here, we check mortgage rates and then go to our bank, either match rate or we move. Works every time.

Exactly. There is usually no need to move banks.

Ring your bank and ask for a better deal, It is usually not in our nature to do this but it certainly pays off.

[Parley]

Not sure if it would happen today but chasing higher rates on deposits can be risky.

If anyone remembers Pyramid Building Society, thousands of customers lost their money chasing an extra half a percentage or so on their term deposits. As long as you are depositing in a bank these days i think it is protected, but i stick with the bigger banks personally.

Citbank among others essentally went bust in the GFC and was bailed out.

[Marisawright]

22 minutes ago, Parley said:

Not sure if it would happen today but chasing higher rates on deposits can be risky.

If anyone remembers Pyramid Building Society, thousands of customers lost their money chasing an extra half a percentage or so on their term deposits. As long as you are depositing in a bank these days i think it is protected, but i stick with the bigger banks personally.

That's what the bigger banks rely on.  That's why they can offer lower interest rates than the smaller players and still get lots of deposits - the unfounded fear of the average person. 

These days, all bank deposits are guaranteed up to $250,000 and it's the same for all banks, so there's no need to worry about small banks.

[Parley]

6 hours ago, Marisawright said:

That's what the bigger banks rely on.  That's why they can offer lower interest rates than the smaller players and still get lots of deposits - the unfounded fear of the average person. 

These days, all bank deposits are guaranteed up to $250,000 and it's the same for all banks, so there's no need to worry about small banks.

And if it took 6 months for the government to reimburse people would that be okay ?

Are you assuming that if the the bank goes bust over the weekend the government will pay you on Monday ?

I think even if you get your money back you may have to wait a while and that could be a problem for you.

[Marisawright]

3 hours ago, Parley said:

And if it took 6 months for the government to reimburse people would that be okay ?

Are you assuming that if the the bank goes bust over the weekend the government will pay you on Monday ?

I think even if you get your money back you may have to wait a while and that could be a problem for you.

Not if you don't put all your eggs in one basket...