The Co-operative Bank

"Been with this bank for 13 years differently have changed since then only one brunch in Christchurch can't wear my hat inside,closes early,go to deposit money was told won't be in till 4pm what a joke. I've moved over to ANZ"

"Please read if you have a mortgage with this bank: (I will try to keep this short and factual) They use lending calculators - beware. It has taken a while for me to write this review as we still can’t get our heads around what happened. We were customers at the Co-operative Bank for 7 years. We had a mortgage with the bank along with insurances and other products. We needed to sell our home to relocate to a different part of the country. We were aware that we would incur a fee for early repayment but were not prepared for the calculation the bank made. The bank advised us: “early recovery payment is based on the current fixed term only, not beyond”. The bank calculated the fee based on the whole term and slapped down a $9000 fee. We also learnt that the fee was at the discretion of the manager. Firstly we tried to walk through the calculation with the bank to work out what had gone wrong. The bank would not do this as they put numbers into a formula on a spreadsheet, whatever it offers as a value is what they use. It appeared no one knew how the formula worked or could check the calculations for errors. We argued the point until we were blue in the face as we had time prior to the settlement. The bank would not waver any portion of the cost. Finally we paid the fee and moved home. It took us a year but we finally closed our account. We received a call shortly after from the same manager that had dealt with us previously, wondering why we were closing our accounts after being with them for quite some time. The manager had forgotten us and our mortgage saga. He denied that would ever have happened so we reminded him by forwarding him his own emails. Our accounts were very healthy as we had a lump sum in a term deposit prior. Here is the killer blow - the manager came back to us and asked “if we refunded the early repayment fee would you stay with us ?”. We nearly fell on the floor, what a bunch of ‘un-mentionables’. Absolutely not - a bunch of untrustworthy individuals. I wish I could give them -5 stars. They use lending calculators and don’t know how to make calculations without them - or check that they are working correctly."

"They operate just like every other bank and don't have any flexibility . I tried to consolidate 25k of debt onto my mortgage saving me $195 per week and we're denied under the new Lending rules . When my fixed rate changes in a couple of months it will go up by another $110 a week making things worse but they only use lending calculators not common sense . You may aswell use a big bank with branches everywhere because there is no personalization and less and less branches"

"Me and my wife have both been members of cooperative bank for a long time even back when it was psis not once in the many many years of going in to there stores have I ever been asked to remove my cap however me and my children ( 9 & 12 ) went for an appointment today at the christchurch riccarton branch and we were all asked by one of the staff members to take off our caps which I found to be very rude and also an invasion of privacy to be fair. The thing that I found to be very unfair about the whole thing was that we had to wear a mask but couldn't wear out hats now thats messed up. Anyway because of this I have decided after many loyal years of being a customer and supporting this bank both me and my wife are definitely thinking of changing to another bank and one that doesn't discriminate against people wearing an everyday basketball hat absolutely ridiculous."

"Very average. Best not to bother them with your banking. Can't be bothered supplying RWT summaries for example (if its just a paltry $600 or $800 per annum saved). Can't park at branches (unless you have a lucky parking leprechaun on hand) can't get through on the phone without leaving a message and hoping for the best. No secure messaging via your account. Very sloppy."