So I got a letter from my bank today (BNZ) informing me that they will start charging me bank fees this month (my graduate pack account expired)

I went in and saw them and asked them to... not charge me fees -- however they declined!

Outrageous!!

Im thinking about switching over to KiwiBank -- they have an account with no fees -- ASB also has an account with no fees the only difference is that they are Australian... so KiwiBank wins as they support the nation

I always considered that banks make mass $$ off of investing all our $$ so they really should have little need to charge fees at all.

What bank are you guys with -- do you pay fees?

National Bank here, they're pretty epic for uni students. No fees for your credit card/everything else, etc. But my brother isn't and he's paying fees for his savings account. $5 a month I think unless you deposit a pretty massive amount each month, $1000 I think.

I'm on that free Kiwibank one it's great. Just wish they had an option to charge the 50 cent txt fee to your account not your phone when you txt to get your balance. And the debit plus card is awesome too.

Im with kiwibank, have been for many years now never paid bank fees, also i lost my card a few times they waved the fee for that aswell which was pretty nice.

I'm with ANZ, because I always have been.

They are terrible and every day I curse myself for being too lazy/stubborn to change.

well -- switch my main bank to Kiwi bank

Pros: better interest rates; phone and online staff are great; no fees; competitive online banking
Cons: staff in branches generally appear to be noob; website/pamphlets lacking in need to know information

Notes:
I often emailed the bank using a secure mail form once logged into internet banking to request them to do various things (like increase credit card or move money into my term saver account) -- such a link was not present. I clicked the contact us button and it was like feel free to email us -- but no email address was provided... logged out of internet banking and found and email address on their contact us page and emailed them asking them to add an email address to the internet banking contact us page (as of yet this still hasn’t been done) as well as about the secure mail feature. Apparently, there is a secure mail feature but it’s not activated by default. I bet a lot of people don’t realise this -- as there don’t seem to be any documentation about it on their site.

There is a $5000 daily limit on Visa Debit cards – I tried to make a purchase and was repeatedly declined even though there was adequate $ in my account – I went into the branch and asked them what was up with that – they were like well I mean it’s a debit card so you must not have enough $ in your account and I was like well >> I do and they were like hmm try again. I Walked home and tried again >> declined; I tried $1000 and >> accepted >> I print screened and went back to the bank. While waiting in line I read the credit card terms and fees pamphlet which mentioned the $5000 daily limit – I told the teller well >> maybe there is a daily limit of say $5000 in accordance with this pamphlet – she said there wasn’t and that pamphlet only applied to MasterCards (it is true that the pamphlet did not mention Visa Debit cards) I said well >> check these print screens – as you can see it works with $1000 but not with $7000 so maybe there is like a limit of something like… $5000? -- and she was like hmm make a call and that person was like hmm – actually there is also a $5000 daily limit on that one, I asked if they would remove it.. They said they would not. I didn’t find any mention of this daily limit in the pamphlet or the website.

Would I recommend KiwiBank? Yes sure their branches are generally not that great (knowledge wise) however… they do have more than any bank in the nation and I rarely ever use the branches anyways.

So at this point I would say that switching was worth it

I am thinking of switching to BNZ...

As for the branches, they are now called stores.

^ whats your incentive for that? -- other than their cards look cool