Local banks rated the best for service

Local banks rated the best for service

Consumer NZ’s latest bank survey found local banks achieved the highest customer satisfaction ratings.

Overall, 89 percent of Consumer members rated their bank’s service as good or very good. “This level of satisfaction is markedly higher than for ISPs, energy companies and mobile service providers,” Consumer NZ chief executive Sue Chetwin said.

The Co-operative Bank and TSB both achieved scores of 99 percent. SBS and Kiwibank were close behind with scores of 98 percent and 96 percent.

The larger banks were weaker on their overall service ratings with ANZ remaining the bottom-ranked bank on 87 percent despite improving since the last survey.

On specific performance factors such as “competitive rates and fees” and “value for money”, two-thirds of members rated their bank as good or very good. However, the local banks tended to rate better than average. More than 90 percent of The Co-operative Bank, SBS and TSB customers rated their bank highly on “value for money”, compared with about half of ANZ and Westpac customers.

Bank switching was low with 3 percent of members having switched banks in the previous 12 months. Kiwibank had a higher level of new customers with 6 percent of its customers having switched to it in the previous 12 months. The appeal of a New Zealand-owned bank was seen in comments by members such as: “Belonging to a New Zealand-owned bank is very important to me.”

Internet banking usage was high with 89 percent using it regularly. Only 12 percent were regularly using branch banking. Just over a third of members had used a smartphone banking app. ASB, BNZ and Kiwibank had highly rated smartphone banking apps with 93 percent of users rating them good or very good.

A total of 9308 Consumer NZ members took part in the survey. Members rated the bank they used most for their everyday personal banking.

Survey results are published in the April issue of Consumermagazine and online at www.consumer.org.nz.

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