Banks charge too much says Consumers survey

WELLINGTON - Some banks charge far too much while others hardly care about smaller customers at all, says the Consumers Institute.

An article in its magazine Consumer said ANZ and WestpacTrust were shown by its latest survey on banking to have a "very poor commitment to service."

ANZ rated much worse than average on all five of Consumer's indicators: charges, quality of service, queuing, information and an overall rating.

WestpacTrust was below average on four and because it was the largest bank, its performance strongly influenced the survey results. For it to rate below average indicated a very big gap in its performance and those of the better-rating banks.

Consumer said the results were particularly galling because when Westpac bought Trust Bank two years ago, it had rated poorly while Trust Bank rated well.

"We've been waiting with interest to see which 'service culture' would prevail ... Now we have the answer: the dead hand of Westpac has killed off the customer service standards for which Trust Bank was renowned."

The magazine said that given ANZ had been through a spate of branch closures, its poor rating was no surprise.

"Both banks have a lot of work to do," said institute head David Russell.

Consumer said that some of the new "telephone banks" with no branches, such as BankDirect, claimed low overheads allowed them to offer great deals.

But its analysis of fees found some BankDirect deals were very poor.

BankDirect charged more than $100 in fees on a $100,000 mortgage and it was the only bank that still charged superannuitants standard fees for direct-crediting their pensions.

Consumer said some banks, notably the National Bank, TSB Bank and PSIS, met very different standards.

The ASB was not far behind.

Mr Russell said it was extraordinary how much people could save by shopping around or using a bank's services selectively. A family with two young children could save $431 a year.

- NZPA