Switching banks is a big deal. I have been with ANZ since I was about 14, it was my first bank that my first job salary went into.
But times change and now I’ve switched to Westpac. Whom I also got a mortgage through as well.
There were many deciding factors, but a couple of biggest ones were:
I was stuck on a legacy account
Even though my bank was Visa Debit enabled, I was told at the bank I was on a legacy account they stopped offering years ago.
What is the problem you ask? My card didn’t support PayWave, every time I got a new card, it wasn’t PayWave enabled.
After many phone calls of being told I would be sent a new card with PayWave and that they don’t have cards that don’t have it, I finally got onto someone.
I was told because I was on a legacy account, I couldn’t get a PayWave enabled card. They then explained if I wanted it, I would need to close my current account and open a new one.
As a developer my brain was asking, “Isn’t it just changing a accountType field in the database?” apparently not.
Tap and pay isn’t always a great feature, but it is convenient and being repeatedly asked if I was paying on PayWave and having to say I didn’t have it frustrated me.
Third world online banking experience
Even though ANZ went through a recent redesign of their online banking, it’s friggen archaic. I mean, literally, you are limited in what you can do.
You can’t change your pin number online, you can’t remap accounts, you can’t setup direct debits or intelligent recurring payments and the list goes on.
The first time I logged into my Westpac online account, I was blown away with just how many settings I could access, how I could customise the UI and even change my card pin numbers.
Westpac also seems to support two-factor authentication for most operations (especially transfers), from what I could see, ANZ offers nothing like this.
For a big 4 bank, you’d expect ANZ could afford to hire some decent designers/developers to create an awesome online banking experience.
Horrible mobile applications
I don’t think ANZ realise that it is quite common to check your bank and do transactions via your phone. Doing this via the ANZ app was cumbersome, buggy and painful.
On the contrary, the Westpac mobile apps support logging in with your fingerprint, considerably more useful, better designed and offers features like cardless cash at Westpac ATM’s.
Not first home buyer friendly
ANZ are the least first home buyer friendly bank out there. I would have loved to get a mortgage through ANZ, but they seem to favour those with large deposits or investors.
This is a massive difference to Westpac who have packages tailored for first home buyers, including taking rental history into consideration in lieu of a deposit, realising not all renters can save massive deposits.
I could seriously keep going on about why ANZ is horrible and why I am smitten with Westpac thus far, but I’ll leave it there. Avoid ANZ if you like nice online banking experiences and features that banks like Commonwealth offer as standard.
