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kidco
27th November 2007, 12:29 PM
Anybody in the Wellington area able to recommend a good bank and branch, that is happy to facilitate opening an account while we are still overseas, awaiting our upcoming move to NZ?

I know there are lots of banks and credit unions out there, Welly-way. But, we are interested to know if there are any in particular who are actually interested in taking on new clients - not with heaps of $$$, but with a decent salary coming down the pipe in NZ, and with the likelihood of being able to sell us a home loan in the near future.

I ask this because our experience with banks (Canada and NZ in the past) is that some don't seem much interested at all in acquiring the patronage of a middle-class family - even with the long-term potential to make a lot of money from that family over time with regular home loan payments, etc. It's not a huge mystery, really: seems like the bigger the bank and even the branch, the more we as new customers seem to be asking them a favour just to open an account!

Our experience in Canada recently, was that after finding the cold shoulder from a bigger credit union we'd actually patronized for years, we stumbled across a tiny out-of-the-way rural branch that practically rolled out the red carpet, fired 21 guns, and woke up the neighbours, just to sign us up. Which we did - dropped the old branch like a hot rock, and now the little branch is making a good little business off of all our mortgage interest!

So, what I'd like to inquire about is if anybody knows about a Welly-area bank or credit union branch that will actually be happy to take on a new family, and even provide a level of customer service to match. What's out there? We are not necessarily averse to larger institutions - as long as they can offer good service and products...

Thanks,

Kidco

Anita & Marco
27th November 2007, 12:39 PM
As far as I know both Westpac and ASB have special 'migrant banking' divisions and are very willing to open a bank account for you from overseas.

Good luck,
Anita

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