Friday, May 1, 2009

what's up with Kiwibank?

At the risk of sounding like 'grumpy of Waingaro' I have to ask what decade Kiwibank thinks it is in?

Actually, its kind of ironic because I was just talking with one of my economics lecturers about some of the obstacles to increased productivity in NZ - which I think in this case was econ speak for bloody annoying stupidity that wastes everyone's time.

Anyway, the story is that I went to deposit a cheque into my 6 yr old daughters savings account. It was a birthday gift from her grandparents, who live in England.

The woman at the desk seemed to think this was a significant challenge and requiring of rigorous scrutiny. So, the cheque needed to be countersigned by the recipient. Well, ok, Pirimaia does know how to write her name, but, y'know, its hardly a consistent mark of authenticity. Anyway, why?

"Oh, well you are not the person it is made out to, so the recipient has to endorse it to show that you're not misusing the cheque".

"But I'm trying to put it into HER account. I'm not trying to put it into mine".

"Well, you are doing the right thing, but its just in case you're not"

So they rang head office for advice, to deal with this unsolvable dilemma presented by a father trying to put a cheque, made out to his daughter, into her account. The resolution was that as a guardian, I could countersign the cheque!!!

So I can't just put it into her account, but if I sign the back, I can?

This operation took about 45 minutes. It was one of the more bizarre and pointless exercises of the day (yeah, I don't have to go to question time anymore). I wonder how often Kiwibank has to deal with situations like this, because I would have thought it's pretty common.

So I'm going to boost my personal productivity by moving her account to TSB.

5 comments:

deleted said...

I was gonna ask whats up with the green party and their lack of support of J Day this year.

Durham said...

Nandor, you must have a little bit tucked away. Do yourself a favour and put it in a real bank.

Marty Mars said...

It seems that this darling of the little people is really not in good shape. Notwithstanding poor communication and service, what you think about their anti-aussie-WW2-resistance imagery advertising? To me it just seems wrong.

http://mars2earth.blogspot.com/2009/04/kiwibank-use-kiwis-or-change-your-name.html

Anyway will be good to go back to exchange around koha, barter, trade and a little money here and there.

Anonymous said...

My wife experienced this with her portion of her deceased mothers estate cheque. Kiwibank wanted the party the cheque was from to sign it, and no the solicitors signature would not suffice. Needless to say, we just said OK then, and walked to Westpac.
Kiwibank is not really out of nappies yet, in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha - gotta laugh at the Kiwibank expertise, aye? They're like the retirement home for the perpetually bewildered...

My little gem is our repeated efforts to make electronic payments from a society account (requiring any 2 of 4 signatories to approve). Theoretically possible, according to my local Kiwibank manager and the Kiwibank phone helpdesk. Never worked so far.

Recently Kiwibank upgraded their website (and it does look good, and work better), so we tried again, but no luck. When I rang Kiwibank after the 2nd go, the woman said "yeh, the online transactions don't actually work yet". They were very reluctant to notify me when they do actually get it working...so far, haven't heard anything ;)

But it's better than Kiwi coin going offshore in Oz bank profits, largely creating our Balance of Trade deficit.