Cancelling A Credit Card With ANZ

Do you remember, about two years ago, ANZ wildly fucked me over by closing my account just before Christmas? Well my day to day banking went elsewhere pretty damn quick. But I still had one account with them. My credit card. 

 

Cancelling A Credit Card With ANZ

 

Cancelling A Credit Card With ANZ

 

As you may have read in this post, I did a balance transfer and chose to use a 0% interest credit card with another to pay it off in 2018. Which means, woooo hooooooo, I could finally close my last damn account with ANZ! (Obviously this happened at the start of the year, but I found this post in my drafts recently.)

 

Closing my account was yet more fun with a bank I strongly dislike.

 

On 8th Feb I went into a branch on my way home from work. I told the queue manager dude that I was there to close an account. He took my name and I sat down to wait. 

 

My name was called and I went to see a (theoretical) human being. I said to them “I want to close my credit card”. She made a sad face and did that air sucking in between the teeth thing that an overly patronising teacher would do. 

 

My rage level rose. Don’t you fucking act like that to me. 

 

She asked why I wanted to close my account. I said because ANZ stuffed me up 2 years ago and I now bank elsewhere. She kept making “oh no” type faces. Infuriating.

 

She picked up the phone and called someone. I thought that was odd but anyway, how the hell do I know their processes? It turns out the staff in the branch can’t actually do squat. All they did was give me somewhere to sit while they dialled a call centre for me. FFS. Pointless. 

 

The person on the phone was so unclear. They told me to cut up the card but also that they couldn’t close the account until the next billing period. And they also couldn’t give me the $36 they owed me on the credit card until the final billing period. Again, FFS. 

 

It was SO unclear if they’d actually done anything.

 

I called the credit card department again a day or two later and got an actual helpful human being, who told me that the account had indeed been closed, and all I needed to do was call after the billing cycle to arrange a pay out of the money they owe me.

 

Also, they sent me a letter saying they’re sorry to see me go. I’m not sure I believe that. And it was printed on heavier paper than usual letters. Subtle.

 

Why:

  • Can’t their staff be clear that it is closed?
  • Did I have to follow up to get MY DAMN MONEY out of them?

 

Anyway, I am pleased to say I no longer have any accounts with them and I plan to never ever ever ever use them again.

 

Ever.

 

12 Replies to “Cancelling A Credit Card With ANZ”

  1. I too tried to cancel and ANZ credit card. I finally gave up and a year later… they agreed with me and cancelled it for free… Never again.

    SSG xxx

    1. It must be all these “little” things that have added up to need a banking royal commission (or whatever is going on at the moment). Basically I’m just not surprised when things come out!

  2. Geez. I have some concerns about them. They shut a bunch of branches where we live lately. Fired/transferred people and opened one supposedly awesome branch in the big shopping centre. They had to re-hire some of those people a few weeks in because they had messed up. My mum has to do business type banking and she said that if she did it the way they recommend then the whole shopping centre and every person in the branch at the time could see every single cent and every single name on every single deposit because there is NO privacy. Basically, you’re getting LESS service too. WTF. My elderly grandparents need assistance (and there are a lot of people like that in our community). Unhelpful! How can a bank go backwards so hard?! I remember my husband closed a credit card he had with NAB. They tried to give him better rates and make the situation better in order to keep him. He didn’t take them up on their offers, but surely that’s better service than you were receiving (for the benefit of all involved)!

    1. I get that they have business costs to consider but we do have an ageing population which means local branches are increasingly important, not lessening in importance!!

  3. We’ve always banked with NAB and for the most part they’re super helpful and friendly, especially in our local branch. I think call centres are a sign of the times, so often I’ll go with a query and speak to a real human in the branch and they have to phone someone a million miles away just to give me my answer. What’s with that?! Pleased your ANessZ chapter is finally closed!

    1. Yep, my entire hope of going into the branch was avoiding a scripted call centre situation…nope.

  4. Have never banked with them, never will. Glad you’re FINALLY rid of them.

    1. Me too!

  5. What a pain. It should not be that difficult and why even have employees there if they’re just going to get someone else on the phone? How infuriating for you. Glad you’re finally free.

    1. That’s what I didn’t understand – why did I interact with two staff members in person if the person on the phone did all the work? Bizarre.

  6. Isn’t it incredible that they cannot just perform the task requested…grrrr.
    Thanks for linking up this week for #lifethisweek Next week’s optional prompt is Travel Tips. Denyse

    1. It felt like a lot of effort for…just close….

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