3 May 2021

A plug for a good sound non-bank

| I-filed
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And no, not the Bendigo.
This isn’t a paid plug! With all the talk of housing affordability and financial advisers, I thought I’d tell fellow Rioters they can get a loan in Canberra from the Newcastle Permanent Building Society.

I’ve had a good experience with them. Very professional outfit, much bigger than you would expect, and the interest rate I pay has been consistently half a percentage point lower than anything offered by the Big Four. I always get a friendly person on the phone (answered straight away) and it isn’t a call centre. They facilitated my loan here in Canberra with no hassles through an agent. At the time they paid my mortgage transfer fee, but I don’t know whether that was usual or a one-off for a “get new customers” push at the time (definitely worth asking them).

Newcastle Permanent do quite a lot of philanthropic, environmental and social good stuff too. They don’t have ATMS or branches here of course, so I just run mortgage and credit card with them, and annoy ANZ by making them keep my savings/eftpos account going here in Canberra with a minimal balance.
ph 131987 www.newcastlepermanent.com.au

READ ALSO The best mortgage brokers in Canberra

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troll-sniffer10:48 am 12 Nov 10

watto23 said :

Anyway as I’m a life member there now with 21 years of membership, i get the equivalent of a fee free bank account.

Doesn’t stop them exempting internet withdrawals from your fee-free allowance (and BPay too if I remember rightly). ME is free on both transactions.

I don’t like being charged $10 when their overly complicated rules about which accounts are under the old 6 digit account number and which are under the new numbers become confusing and they decide to move money between these accounts for me.

That and other issues including opening late some days because of staff chin-wags etc.

I’ve kept my CPS account purely for day to day banking, the network of ATMs is much better now they have teamed with NAB as well as all rediATMs linked again. It amuses me that a couple of years ago, if i didn’t use a CPS ATM but say another CU ATM i was charged just as much as using another bank.

Anyway as I’m a life member there now with 21 years of membership, i get the equivalent of a fee free bank account.

However mortgage is elsewhere, credit card is another institution and super is with a different instituion. I get offers all the time of combining things to save money and get bigger discounts, but yet when I do the comparison, I always lose out (funny that). I don’t pay monthly fees either, I don’t even pay fees on my frequent flyer points earning credit card.

troll-sniffer said :

caf said :

I’ve found Members Equity Bank quite good, and they’ve got actual branches here. If your Super is in one of the long list of participating super funds then you get a 0.45% discount on the interest rate.

+1
+1
+1

Hands down the best bank around. I was with CPS for 30+ years but I’ve as good as left them because they act more like a bank than a CU these days, whereas ME is abank that out credit-unions the credit unions. (Make sense of that you’ll be doing well)

+infinity, I’m so impressed with ME!!!

I am from Newcastle and I ended up in Canberra, but the Newcastle Permanent has a good reputation for being a good lending institution. The other biggest credit union is the Greater Building Society. You may have seen their advertisements here? They have Seinfeld on them, I would definitely recommend the Newcastle Permanent to anyone.

One of the benefits of being a student is that banks don’t charge you fees. I think I might have to keep my money under my mattress when I stop studying.

members equity were useless for us. we tried to change our loan from interest only to principal and interest, and they just couldn’t do it. Every time an interest rate change occurred we bounced back to our former interest only loan on their system.

A real person will answer the phone, unfortunately they won’t know anything at all. I asked for a letter with our loan details on it (as they were always wrong), and the poor teenager on the other end of the phone asked me what the figures were that he should write in the letter.

Sad to say we got better service from CBA.

Don’t touch ANZ with a bargepole.

colourful sydney racing identity said :

Thanks for posting that I-FILED, Ms CSRI and I are looking at leaping ship from the former Bank of Wales

Great! perhaps you could catch us up on whether they pay your transfer fee ..

troll-sniffer1:50 pm 11 Nov 10

caf said :

I’ve found Members Equity Bank quite good, and they’ve got actual branches here. If your Super is in one of the long list of participating super funds then you get a 0.45% discount on the interest rate.

+1
+1
+1

Hands down the best bank around. I was with CPS for 30+ years but I’ve as good as left them because they act more like a bank than a CU these days, whereas ME is abank that out credit-unions the credit unions. (Make sense of that you’ll be doing well)

when i was a kid, I used to have a savings account with them. We got plastic money boxes that were shaped like coal miners. I used to chew on the toe to get my money out.

Personally, I’m happy with CommunityCPS. They are local, they DO have ATMs, and from all reports, they do great mortgages. I also have a low-rate Mastercard through them – 13% interest suits me just fine.

colourful sydney racing identity1:16 pm 11 Nov 10

Thanks for posting that I-FILED, Ms CSRI and I are looking at leaping ship from the former Bank of Wales

Oh, I should mention that those partipating super funds include AGEST and PSS, which I should think covers a large proportion of the Riot’s readership.

I’ve found Members Equity Bank quite good, and they’ve got actual branches here. If your Super is in one of the long list of participating super funds then you get a 0.45% discount on the interest rate.

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