Mrs Kiwi

Thanks guys, appreciate the replies.
Everything is starting to seem clearer which is great.

mad.chef

Hi,

When we got our Westpac card we were a bit confused. They told us at the bank that if we wanted our transactions to be 'more secure' to say credit and sign for the transaction. The money that is used is still your own.

We also could use a pin number and say savings, this then changed for some reason as they told us they had made a mistake and we now have to select 'cheque' if we want to use our pin number. When using EFTPOS and using the cheque function you can get cashout too. If we want to withdraw money from the ATM, we select cheque and put in our pin number.

To confuse things even more, you can now select credit when paying in a shop and use a pin number. It seems very strange to begin with but now I am used to it I probably would find it weird going back to the UK way of things.

I hope this post wasn't too confusing as it sounds it!!LOL

Sarah

kar-kier

We landed 4 weeks ago and have the westpac debit mastercard.

We were told always use credit when paying for anything by EFTPOS, that way you have the same protection as you do had you bought it with a credit card (that is for signing or pin). If we are withdrawing from an ATM then we have to chose cheque. With regards to the cards, we only applied once we arrived, they did manage to send the cards to the wrong address, then they sent my husbands to the wrong address AGAIN!

ABCDiamond

I have a Westpac card and I select "Savings" when taking money out of the ATM.

I also have a St George card, and select either 'Savings' or 'Cheque' for the ATM, depending on which of our 2 'savings' accounts I want to draw from, neither of which are cheque accounts.

I also have a HSBC account with 'cheque' book, I use the 'savings' button at the ATM, not cheque.

Never assume that one answer will be right for everyone

snow-white

on my card with westpac it used to be savings but then they changed it and sent me a letter to say press credit instead form now on has anyone else had this happen to their westpac mastercard
lesley x

bourbon-biscuit

We bank with Commonwealth and have a mastercard debit but press savings- we have an online saving account, an account that we get paid into and then an account that we move the money we want to spend to. Sounds complicated but keeps banking costs down and enables to shop online etc. Had an EFTPOS card in NZ and I wouldn't recommend it.

Mrs Kiwi

Help! I was getting the hang of it all thanks to all your replies until your last reply ABC Diamond!

You said at an ATM you press "cheque" or "savings" depending on which account you want it to come out of?

I will have 2 Westpac accounts - an e-saver account and a "choice" account - but I will only ever want to take money out of an ATM from my everyday "choice" current account.

I don't even want a card for my e-saver account, I just want to have all my savings in it and not touch it except online to transfer money into my current account if necessary.

So will my "handycard" or debit mastercard be linked to BOTH my e saver and my "choice" account?

How do I then ensure any transaction, be it ATM withdrawal or EFTPOS only ever comes out of my current account?

Thanks guys - sorry for more questions!

dejags

They do a Mastercard Debit Card - I am not a citizen but we applied as PR's from within Australia. HTH

RCoight

I have the same set up as you.
I only ever select 'Cheque'.
Money only ever comes out of my current account.
The only time money enters or leaves my savings account is when I transfer money to / from it.
I don't recall doing anything to set it up specifically that way; that's just how it came.
Hope that helps!

ABCDiamond

Sorry about that

I did expect I would compound the confusion.

If you want it set any other way than how the bank initially set it up, you would need to discuss with your bank, as they appear to be able to set it whichever way you want, if they wish to..

I can't remember which is which with mine now, so I transfer by internet to our Westpac account and draw out from a Westpac ATM if we need funds from the St George account.

Using HSBC though keeps it nice and easy

Too many accounts can be confusing though.... We don't actually need all these accounts, but when things are free, I just can't help myself

TMRE

e-saver account is online only, you will need to transfer money in to your current account to get it out. For your everyday Choice account options at a checkout etc you can press either Credit or Cheque (forget about the savings bit it's not important) either way it will come out of your choice account. If you choose credit you can not get cashback at a shop, if you choose cheque you can. Same for ATM press cheque to get money out out of your choice account. Handycard is what my 13 year old has, it means she can use it in a shop, ATM but not for online shopping. Just to recap pressing Credit does not mean it is a credit card, money leaves your account in up to 3 days(just like in the UK with debit cards) you do not get a bill each month.

snow-white

thank you for that post it always confuses me at the till i cant understand why i have to press credit or savings when i dont have a savings account. immnot using it off a credit card just my normal account
maybe its just me ???
lesley x

bourbon-biscuit

Yeah, it confuses me too because I have to press 'savings' when it is not my savings account and I always get a slight alarm feeling that I'm blowing my savings on the groceries and I feel odd in the bottle-o pressing 'savings'

RenShen

Hello, this is a very helpful thread.

My husband opened a Westpac account in the UK and did the 100 points ID thing when we arrived here 3 weeks ago. However, they have only sent him a card to withdraw money from the hole in the wall. It has no visa/mastercard sign on it. I had assumed that we need to wait till his wages go in (this Thursday) before we ask them for a visa/mastercard but is this not the case? To be honest its a total pain not being able to use a card to pay for things and having to make sure you have enough money on you.

We are here on a 457 (temp sponsored) visa.

Thanks,
Ren

Swerv-o

Of course they are going to ask you to press Credit instead of Savings - They then get to charge the retailer the $3-4 fee for processing a credit transaction as opposed to the 30-40c fee for an Eftpos one!

I imagine that if you pressed savings instead, the transaction would still be processed...


S