Finance Cheapies - Which Bank?

• 

  kiwijunglist on 08/03/2017 - 18:19

  +1

  Who do you bank with?

  ASB

  What % Interest do you have on your savings account?

  I have a mortgage, so I don't have a savings account. I use revolving credit, so essentially my day to day account is a 80k overdraft with mortgage interest rates.

  Term Deposits?

  Never used one, with a mortgage there is no point.

  What % do you have a car loan or personal loan?

  Never had a personal loan, would never go for a personal loan as the interest rate is too high. What ever you buy with I'd just wait until you can afford what you need to buy. Also I've never not repaid my credit card in full. A personal loan is invariably used to buy a depreciating asset or holiday so it is bad idea financially.

  Home loans - do you shop for variable rate or fixed rate?

  Most if fixed, and the portion on revolving credit is variable of course. Have split into 2 year and 5 year fix.

  Kiwisaver - Who do you use? What fees do they charge? Do you contribute the max 8%? Does your employer offer more than 3%?

  I contribute 6 or 8% and employer matches with another 6%. I was not eligable for taking out my kiwisaver when I bought my house.

  Investments - do you invest in the sharemarket? Property or elsewhere?

  I had shares, but sold everything when I bought my first house. Currently have two houses, one is now a rental (chch) and we live in the other (wgtn)

  The theme of this thread is split your mortgage in a fixed and overdraft, don't use a savings account if you have a mortgage, use kiwisaver for free employer matching and don't ever take out a personal loan.

• 

  singh on 10/03/2017 - 09:01

  +1

  Although its more Aussie orientated book, I recommend everyone (especially those struggling financially) reading The Barefoot Investor (2016)

• 

  [Deactivated] on 07/03/2017 - 15:01

  I'm on ANZ, used to be with the National bank. Don't have a KiwiSaver, not in debt, can't remember any of the details from way back when I was.

  • 

    singh on 07/03/2017 - 15:07

    I hope you don't have online savings account with ANZ. (Poor rates)

    Is there any reason you don't have a kiwisaver?

• 

  Kiwi on 07/03/2017 - 15:12

  Nice, hopefully get some interesting responses to this.

  I'll give it a go:

  Who do you bank with?
  Big banks or others?

  Use Westpac, reluctantly. I don't use a bank account enough to justify paying fees.

  What % Interest do you have on your savings account?

  Currently getting 2.75% with Rabo, up to $100,000. Not the best rate, but I like the physical security device.

  Term Deposits -I prefer my money liquid, does anyone still use these?

  None. Have recommended wife's parents get one though. Out of sight, out of mind. Low risk, etc.

  What % do you have a car loan or personal loan?

  Have neither.

  Home loans - do you shop for variable rate or fixed rate?

  With Resimac, rates are shit, will shop around once they start going back up.

  Kiwisaver - Who do you use? What fees do they charge? Do you contribute the max 8%? Does your employer offer more than 3%?

  Don't have it.

  • 

    singh on 07/03/2017 - 15:15

    Any reason for not having kiwisaver?

    • 

      Kiwi on 07/03/2017 - 15:19

      I am considering getting one and just putting a minimal amount in per week. Haven't decided yet though.

      Main reason for not using it at the time was that I want to have primary control of where my money goes and how it's invested. It's also too late to withdraw it for a first house now too. The only benefit would be the tax credit.

      • 

        singh on 07/03/2017 - 15:24

        Fair enough. It took me 2 years to consider getting a kiwisaver then I finally got one and am now in the process of transferring my Australian Superannuation over.

        My work already has an approved scheme in place similar to kiwisaver so I never bothered until now once I saw the fees eating away at my Aussie Super.

        I found simplicity and noted their low fees and we may look at buying a house here soon too.

• 

  quasar on 07/03/2017 - 15:47

  Who do you bank with?
  Big banks or others?
  I've only found ANZ, Westpac and BNZ offer fee free everyday accounts with an ATM card

  I'm with Kiwibank, I don't pay any fees because I have my mortgage with them

  What % Interest do you have on your savings account?

  I don't have any savings account, all my cash goes into a mortgage offset account

  What % do you have a car loan or personal loan?

  I have neither, I have a Kiwibank Platinum Visa for paying bills and earning Airpoints and a Warehouse Money card (red) for discounts - both are paid off before interest kicks in

  Home loans - do you shop for variable rate or fixed rate?

  2/3 of my loan is in an offset mortgage, the other 1/3 is in a fixed rate mortgage. 5.4% for the offset mortgage (variable) and 4.19% until September 2018 for the fixed.

  Kiwisaver - Who do you use? What fees do they charge? Do you contribute the max 8%? Does your employer offer more than 3%?
  Simplify (not for profit organization) that has the lowest fees I could find, but as they are still new, I won't be able to gauge their returns % for a while.

  I've just signed up to Simplify, I was previously with BNZ. I'm self employed so I just make small contributions but I thought I'd give them a chance.

  • 

    Encounter Ekambaram on 22/09/2017 - 10:31

    BNZ doesn't offer free everyday online transaction acount. they charge $5

• 

  singh on 07/03/2017 - 15:56

  Some good responses so far - I've added investment question to the mix.

• 

  rkl on 07/03/2017 - 16:30

  Who do you bank with?

  Currently have all my personal and business banking with ASB. No fees on the personal accounts. Service is pretty good. And like their online and app systems.

  What % Interest do you have on your savings account?

  Have a mortgage so have all my savings in a OD account to off set the mortgage. I know westpac and others can do this without setting up a OD

  Term Deposits -I prefer my money liquid, does anyone still use these?<
  Don't have term deposits. At this stage of my life I prefer to have as much money available to invest.

  What % do you have a car loan or personal loan?

  Dont take out personal lending.

  Home loans - do you shop for variable rate or fixed rate?

  Most of the mortgage is fixed at 5.29% ending May next year. At this point I will be splitting it up into 3 or 4 and fixing 3 and leaving 1 on floating. OD is floating.

  Kiwisaver - Who do you use? What fees do they charge? Do you contribute the max 8%? Does your employer offer more than 3%?

  contribute 3%, Was very helpful when buying my house. (didnt get any of the subsidies, but could pull out everything excluding the $1000 kickstart.
  Currently with ASB for ease of use. Am looking to move it to a more aggressive investment/Kiwisaver manager.
  Have 70% of kiwisaver in the high risk scheme (will change when I get older)

  Investments - do you invest in the sharemarket? Property or elsewhere?

  Have investments in several businesses.

• 

  gcnz on 08/03/2017 - 09:03

  Who do you bank with?
  ANZ for main accounts, used to have Freedom account, now Flexible Home Loan, Online Account, Airpoints Visa Platinum, Home Loan and Kiwisaver. Also have credit cards with Westpac and American Express, just signed up to get bonus deals.

  What % Interest do you have on your savings account?
  Don't use the Online Account, but rate is .1%pa, would get another account, but all money goes into Flexible Home Loan account.

  What % do you have a car loan or personal loan?
  n/a

  Home loans - do you shop for variable rate or fixed rate?
  Used a broker, made sure they got us better rates than we'd get from the anz@work scheme.
  Flexible rate = .85% discount on rate, so 4.94% right now, got $30k in there. Fixed rate = 4.15% fixed until Oct 2017.

  Kiwisaver - Who do you use? What fees do they charge? Do you contribute the max 8%? Does your employer offer more than 3%?
  ANZ - balanced fund. Looks like I pay $2 a month fee. 3% contribution, might increase that.
  We used all our Kiwisaver in 2015 to buy a house, we'd both been members for 5 years too, so got $10k Homestart Grant.

• 

  singh on 08/03/2017 - 12:14

  For the investment questions, I noticed Simplicity are starting investment funds as well (not just kiwisaver) but the minimum investment is $10k:

  http://simplicityfunds.kiwi/our-funds

• 

  nzmax on 08/03/2017 - 16:00

  TSB bank have a fee free account if you keep 5k minimum in it. You can even use your eftpos card at other banks atms without any fees! I have been with them for many years. They also answer the phone with a real person, with usually no hold time. Another bank I am with has a 40 minute hold time!.

• 

  nzmax on 08/03/2017 - 17:27

  Term deposits vs Call accounts, you should be able to get a better rate with short term deposits, than you can with oncall accounts.

• 

  singh on 09/03/2017 - 15:56

  My intention of this thread was not to showoff the how well some are doing; but more so for those who aren't doing that well and have got into debt for one reason or another - that there are better options available. ie. some may be paying 20% interest on a credit card, when there are deals available to balance transfer OR simply call the bank and ask for a better rate; or show others how to get a better deal from their bank/credit card/kiwisaver than they currently have (lot of these "deals" are never advertised)

  Interesting to see how many people do not use kiwisaver and reasons for it. (Am also interested for those who do use it, to see what employers offer more than the minimum 3% contribution)

  I see a lot of younger New Zealanders who are not doing well financially who are really in need of help.

  • 

    rkl on 10/03/2017 - 10:41

    IMO there's a lot of financial education needed.
    From what I can tell most people that post on here are pretty on to it and only use their credit cards to maximise rewards. (cashbacks, points, discounts, rewards etc)
    Unfortunately there's a large chunk of people that use a credit card for credit. Bad bad move.
    Also for a younger person who doesn't own a house its a no brainer to be in kiwisaver. The number of people who are not is ridiculous.
    Comes back to the smashed avo on toast debate.

    • 

      nzmax on 30/03/2017 - 18:22

      Banks though want people to load up their cards. They don't really want people paying it off each month, as they then miss out on the interest. But banks win no matter what, as they make a percentage off each sale.

  • 

    gcnz on 11/03/2017 - 07:18

    After I posted above I contacted my payroll team to increase my contributions to 8% and asked if they (Datacom) match it, they only do 3%, so I left it at 3%. More important to direct all money to mortgage for now.

    • 

      rkl on 31/03/2017 - 08:37

      If you already have a home I wouldnt bother above the 3%, unless of course it is match by employer(which not many do, like yours).
      Im in the same boat as you. Put as much as I can into clearing out the mortgage

• 

  Bluebird on 09/03/2017 - 16:58

  TSB No atm fees in NZ.
  plus ANZ cash back credit card.

  kiwi bank is ok but ask for mates rates.

  • 

    Kiwi on 10/03/2017 - 10:55

    kiwi bank is ok but ask for mates rates.

    Interesting. Just reading about this, how do you become a "Mates Rates" member? Apparently they require proof of this?

    Nevermind, I see.

    Eligibility
    You can apply for the Mates Rates banking package if you’re
    an active member of an eligible organisation.
    By signing up to this banking package you give Kiwibank
    permission to share your name, IRD number and member
    ID number with your organisation to confirm you are an active
    member. You’ll also need to have your salary credited to
    a Kiwibank account in your name.
    The Mates Rates banking package is available on personal
    accounts, but not on non-personal accounts, including business
    banking and trust accounts.
    If you leave your eligible organisation, the banking package
    benefits can be removed immediately or, where the benefit is
    for a term, at the expiry of that term. For example, if you have
    a home loan rate fixed for three years and you leave five months
    into the fixed term, the discount will continue until the end of
    the three year term.
    Kiwibank may change the benefits or discounts available
    under this Package by providing you 14 days’ notice.

• 

  singh on 12/03/2017 - 10:49

  There was a UK study published in 2014 which stated most people require around 15% of income for retirement savings. If you are only contributing 3% and employer is 3%, you are going to fall well short by the time you are 65 in NZ.

  8% employee and 3% employer option is much greater or move to an employer who offers more than 3% contribution. I hope that the NZ Govt increases the minimum 3% employer contribution especially given the recent changes to superannuation at age 67.

  You should teach kids about money from a young age. In the book mentioned above, Scott recommends 3 jam jar approach and advises don't bother with the bankers until they're old enough to flip burgers:
  1. For Saving (savings in a jar are better to see for young kids)
  2. For Spending (to buy comics, toys, whatever they want)
  3. For Giving (to give to the needy, charity, or kickstarter of their choice)

  • 

    rkl on 31/03/2017 - 08:38

    As a small Business owner I hope they DON'T increase employer contribution. Unless of course they support us with tax breaks elsewhere.

• 

  atnz2017 on 30/03/2017 - 17:27

  which is the best no fee transaction account to have in nz?

  • 

    nzmax on 30/03/2017 - 18:20

    TSB Premier account.

    • 

      atnz2017 on 30/03/2017 - 22:24

      thanks for that. ref "No monthly fee for balances that remain $5,000" ill wait until im establish and i have 5 k saved up before opening it. i used to have a kiwi bank account but they closed it because it was dormant. i think i only had a couple of dollars in it. does anyone know they go about getting it back? im just looking for a simple no fee account that i can use to pay off my nzd credit card at this stage.