1 post tagged “cheques act 1993”

I went to deposit, as I often do, a US dollar cheque into a New Zealand dollar account.
   The nice lady, Bev, tells me that there is now a $5 fee for depositing a foreign cheque.
   ANZ is totally f***ed up if it believes it can do this.
   I already have spoken to Lynne Russell at the TSB and I’ll be opening my account there at the end of March. It seems TSB is one of the few banks left in the country that understand what banking means.
   To Sir John Anderson and the other assholes making these decisions at the ANZ: when I deposit money with you, it is not a privilege for me. It is a privilege for you. I am loaning you money.
   For that, I expect you to pay me interest.
   You do not ask me for money.
   Why do you think I left the National Bank when Sir Spencer Russell retired? Because the last of the old guard went and all I saw were hot-shot assholes putting up bank charges across the board.
   You were there, Sir John. I know you are a nice guy in the regular scheme of things but why do you have to be the man at the top of banks that make these ridiculous plays?
   Dudes, you don’t realize that despite consolidation, you still ain’t the only game in town, though there should be more competition in banking.
   Banking management is, on the whole, incompetent in this country, though I understand we are still streets ahead of the UK. We certainly are when it comes to service, though in my experience the Swedes are well ahead again.
   You can tell when the Cheques Act 1993 needed to be drafted up because the banks were too incompetent to operate within the law up till that point. We have a perfectly functioning Bills of Exchange Act 1908 that covers cheques, but no—the banks were too confused about it.
   I still operate as though the 1993 act did not exist and mark my cheques based on the earlier act, which is still on the books.
   Most banks have refrained from charging me fees but they cannot do much about these head-office rules, so I will be withdrawing my deposits at, I mean, my loan to, the ANZ Bank and placing it with a New Zealand-owned operation that seems to understand banking and finance better.
   I’d encourage fellow New Zealanders to do the same. There is nothing morally acceptable about these bank fees, especially when it comes to deposits.
   When you borrow money from the bank, you pay them interest. When you lend money to the bank—which is technically what happens when you make a deposit—they should pay you. Even if they didn’t pay you and left it at a zero-sum game, that is still fine, but only just.
   Someone at ANZ forgot what banking is all about.