The first time I had a bank account was during my undergraduate studies. I remember my mum taking me to GTBank on Abak Road in Uyo, Nigeria. That bank had been the only branch they had in Uyo for more than a decade before they opened the second branch off Udo Udoma Road still in Uyo. A decision they should have made a long long time ago.
In Nigeria, majority of the people default to opening a savings account. Many don’t even think of current account because of the many charges that comes with it. Whereas for a savings account, if you do not withdraw more than three times in a month, you get paid interest for that month. One has to request for a current account to be open before it is done by the bank.
So, I brought that thinking to New Zealand banking but to my surprise that rule does not apply here. The default account type is a cheque account, One has to request to have a savings account and one can only withdraw once per month anything more than that results in not only forfeiting your interest for that month but a charge of $5 per transaction.
A cheque account is similar to a current account. Besides, a range of cheque accounts are available to meet individual needs such as everyday banking, savings, term deposits, mortgage etc. There are accounts for current students, graduates, those who just started work and the likes as you would see at the end of this post.
How many banks are there in NZ?
There are a total of 27 registered banks in NZ. The big 4 retail banks are:
- ANZ, a subsidiary of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group;
- ASB which is a subsidiary of Commonwealth Bank of Australia,
- Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) a subsidiary of of National Australia Bank,
- Westpac, a subsidiary of Westpac Banking Corporation
These four own a cumulative of 90% of the gross loans and advances in NZ.
You then have Kiwibank, TSB bank, Heartland Bank, SBS, Cooperative bank. Kiwibank is a state-owned bank . There is also HSBC, Citibank, HBS, Rabobank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Bank of China and the likes.
New Zealand’s central bank is called Reserve Bank of New Zealand or Te Pūtea Matua
Out of the 27 banks only 5 have this migrant banking option. These five are the big 4 and Kiwibank.
Like I said there are accounts for students, those just starting out life and need help with adulting.
For ANZ, they student account is called Jumpstart Account while Go account is for people who love to bank electronically. ASB isn’t different with it’s Headstart, Job starter’s, Tertiary and Graduate accounts. Same with BNZ and the rest of the retail banks in New Zealand..
The beauty of this is that some of these accounts font have transaction fees, monthly fees or even card annual fees (or card maintenance fees as it is called in Nigeria.
Check out my post on how you can open an account in New Zealand from within the country or overseas.
