Bankwest

I would not give a rating to his bank as it does not deserve it. This bank has to be the pits of all banks. Please, I'm begging prospective new customers, DO NOT JOIN. They have the most untrained arrogant customer service reps, wait times are intolleable, no braches etc. The amount of times I have had to escalate to the banking ombudsman just to… Read more

get something rectified about my account. Constant internal transfers, nobody has the correct info, apps do not fix issues etc. One headache after another, totally frustrating dealing with them. GIVE THEM A VERY WIDE BERTH.

Had opted for their Creditcard which offered 24month at 0% on balance transfer. Called their representative to set up a direct debit to make my monthly Bankwest Credit card payment from my Savings account, to only have bankwest drawout the full 24month payment taken out through Direct Debit, cos the guy who set up my direct debit had listed… Read more

payement of my outstanding amount (which is the full 24months installment reflected in my payment). If left unresolved further, i will have ended up paying them their inital 3% balance transfer fee along with the annual account fee for nothing!

Terrible service. Long wait times and when you finally do talk to someone, staff tell you the wrong information, so that when you call the next time everything is completely WRONG. Back to square one. Bank with someone else because it's just not worth the hassle.

I recently applied for a BankWest Credit Card, As a 70 ish self funded Retiree, such an application requires the gathering of significant and complex information. Suffice to say that I do not even qualify for a ‘part’ age pension for obvious… Read more

reasons. Unfortunately a ‘credit card’ has become a virtual necessity today to complete many transactions. EG, hiring a car overseas, prior booking and settlement of hotel expenses and many emergency situations where neither a debit card or cash are accepted.

My banking history spans more than 40 exemplary years. My reason for applying to BankWest was two fold: 1. To change over from a ‘higher fee’ competitor, who I have been with for many years and never defaulted on any payment at any time. 2. BankWest’s attractive offer to ‘new customers’, an incentive of Frequent Flyer points.

It was a total waste of my time as they rejected my application on the basis of my ‘not meeting their commercial criteria’, which they are not prepared to discuss or divulge. However, they do state “it includes stability of employment, and your ability to meet repayments.” So I have no idea if they even understand/comprehend my own financial structure/status as they did not seek clarification of liquidity of any income producing assets and won’t discuss their own ‘commercial criteria’, making it impossible to have a reasonably transparent, informed and intelligent conversation.

So, given my experience I would advise that you may waste a lot of your precious time with BankWest, given this significant risk factor and their lack of transparency, I wouldn’t recommend this bank to anyone, especially if like me you require an open, honest, trustworthy and transparent banking relationship. I spent a further 2 hours on the phone with BankWest seeking clarification, it turns out their income ‘assessment’ is dictated by extremely narrow and draconian guidelines that revolve around their ‘simplistic’ definition of income’ which ‘excludes’ your spouse or partners income and assets, (which most couples split in retirement to be tax effective) and also excludes planned liquidation of perfectly accessible ‘income stream assets’ like property, whole of life insurance, art, motor vehicles or any other asset/investment.

Case managers are completely restricted by inappropriate, simplified and draconian commercial corporate procedure guidelines. “The bank’s decision to decline a credit application is based on its own commercially sensitive credit risk assessment criteria which we are unable to disclose”. There must be tens of thousands of self funded retirees who manage incomes in a similar efficient manner, that are failing “commercially sensitive assessments” and increasingly need credit cards.

Contacted customer service to ask about transfer issue to a newly opened transaction account. Received a response regarding savings account, which was completely unrelated and irrelevant. Always a huge red flag when customer service can't understand… Read more

a basic question. Either so careless that they can't bother reading it or so incompetent and illiterate that they can't comprehend it in the first place. Regardless, can't possibly trust them with anything money related. Guess this is what happens when a bank hires people who should have never gone past Fiverr gigs for $5 an hour.

Reached out to BankWest Chat to check why Tax was taken from my interest, when they had my TFN. The operator checked and said that they had my TFN and the tax appeared to be a mistake. I was told to ring BankWest to get this fixed. I have now been… Read more

on hold (listening to their ad on repeat) for over an hour. On seeing the reviews, this seems to be the norm now. I guess they just hope I'll just hang up like the others. However, how am I going to get my TFN fixed? This is ridiculous. I'll stay on hold for as long as I can and update here if it goes much longer.

I applied to Bankwest because of their introductory savings rate (5.75%!!) on their easy saver account, and subsequently opened both that and an easy transaction account both of which are proceeding very well. The app is a bit jarring for newbies, but a bit of fiddling around and I got my head around it soon enough. I also applied then for a… Read more

Qantas platinum credit card, and was approved with great communication through the whole (Short) process. No complaints.

Likewise, the support staff - with whom I have communicated with via the app - have always been swift, kind and pleasent in my interactions asking them my silly questions. I cannot recommend them more from my own perspective.

We bought a $595 flight with a well-known international Asian airline, who promptly cancelled it. Not ideal, but not exactly unexpected in this travel climate, and not the first time this particular airline has cancelled on us. To their credit, they… Read more

did the right thing and offered us a choice — a new flight the next day (which didn't suit our plans), or a full refund. We took the refund. They quoted 30 days to process it, which already wasn't great, since we now needed to book a replacement flight $400 more expensive than the original.

Fast forward 37 days. No refund, no response from the airline's customer service, and nothing on the horizon. So I contacted Bankwest, who advised me to lodge a transaction dispute, since I'd paid for a service I never received.

It took them two days to review the situation and push through a chargeback, crediting the full $595 back into my account. From a month of uncertainty and frustration to sorted, just like that.

Naturally, if the airline eventually does refund us, Bankwest can claw their money back — and I'll send it without hesitation, given they did right by me when it counted.

Intended to open a new saving account with bankwest but was unable to verify my ID through the app and verification in person at the Australian Post twice. Received an email stated that my Australian Post verification was failed and asked me to call… Read more

customer service for assistance. I waited for 45 minutes to get connected to a customer service, was told the reason for the failed verification was because the scanned image of my ID was not clear and asked me to resubmit my verification form at Australian Post. I went to Australian Post to see the same person who did the verification me, she was surprised for the reason of failed verification. She did the verification process again and even show me the scanned ID to make sure it is clear before the submission. However, I received a failed verification notification from Bankwest again. I rang Bankwest customer service again but decided to give up after 1 hour of waiting.

I joined Bankwest in July 2026, drawn by their competitive 5.75% introductory savings rate. After depositing a significant sum of around $200,000, I attempted to transfer a portion back to my established external hub accounts. This triggered an incredibly frustrating loop of blocked and delayed transactions. Bankwest employs a strict security… Read more

protocol where Faster Payments over $200 to a new payee may be subject to a four-hour hold, and this hold can continue to apply to subsequent payments to that same payee for up to 48 hours. While I understand the need for robust fraud prevention, the frontline chat staff seemed completely unaware of these specific rules. Because they could not clearly explain the mechanics of the delay, my wife and I experienced significant anguish, fearing our funds were effectively stuck. Furthermore, the in-app chat facility operates with a noticeable time delay—feeling more like sending emails back and forth rather than a live conversation—which heavily exacerbated the stress of the situation. On a positive note, the Bankwest Customer Care and Complaints team eventually provided excellent, thorough service. The case managers researched the technical reasons behind the delays and clearly explained the 48-hour security hold to us. Bankwest also provided a $300 goodwill gesture to acknowledge the frustration caused. However, they declined my request to reset the four-month introductory interest period, which I felt was a missed opportunity to fully make amends for their systemic communication failures. Overall, Bankwest's security systems are highly rigorous, but their frontline communication and chat infrastructure need serious improvement. Note: In the interest of accuracy and balance this review was submitted to Bankwest for comment before publication. No comments were received.

Worst bank on the Planet. I joined just as the Commonwealth Bank took over. After a while they advised everyone to move their accounts because they were getting rid of bankwest or some other problem. They got the bulk of the customers to move. That was a deliberate ploy. I thought their services were unacceptable so I tried to my close my… Read more

account but could not find a way to do it. Communication was practically impossible unless you had a whole day to spare. I took all my money out and left it at that.

Three years later, I’m trying to close my account again. In a chat they said, the best they could do is to hibernate my PAN number. I told them it wasn’t good enough. I want it closed permanently

Apparently I can close my account through their app but not through my computers. They didn’t mention that. I installed their pathetic app but couldn’t log in.

This time I rang them. They hibernated my PAN without me agreeing to it. So is my account really closed? I don’t trust them. Not for a second. All I wanted is to have my account Permanently closed. I don’t have any evidence of that whatsoever. It seems they don’t want to do it. Nowhere near enough bank! Not even close.

Great interest rates, but that's it! Terrible app and online banking. Hopeless customer service - can never answer your query. Useless SMS security only, which is banned in many advanced countries, doesn't work in black spots (many in backward Australia) or overseas. Very hard to do payments and forget setting up a recurring payment if the first day isn't today. VERY AMATEUR BANK. Show details

I paid $320 annual fee to join Qantas World credit card and 10 months later they just change the terms of the card so i don't even get 12 months of what i paid for. The new terms offer about 1/3 of the points and I'm meant to just accept that? Isn't that illegal to sell something and not provide what was sold?

Horrible bank experience no empathy or common sense, applied for a CC account incorrectly and was approved, I never accepted the approved offer and declined the cc offer. Was told to apply for the cc I wanted and then they stated the intro offer isn’t applied as the offer I never accepted meant I had a CC account with them… declined the 2nd offer a second time and closed account.

Long term customer here, it's really hard to communicate with this mob now that they have closed their branches, online waits excessive, no empathy when you get there, don't even try to phone unless you have a good battery as it will take forever, customer communications terrible1/5. On a positive note, their security as top notch 5/5. Show details

I called for getting help because of a small set up that the app's functionality is severely lacking. But the phone service is very bad. I can feel their Ignoring and neglecting clearly. It's like the whole company is about to fall apart. I am thinking to transfer the loan to other banks.

App not user friendly as tried to create pin for additional card. Told email or text sent to additional card holder and nothing sent. Tried to call no answer. Had to cancel cards before even using as very poor customer service. Show details

Don't use this bank, system simply does not work. Hard to believe in 2026 any company could be so incompetent. Fortunately I did not deposit any money. From m my brief experience of how nothing works, personally would not be confident do any banking with them at all.

Absolutely bast#rds to deal with over twenty years of my mortgage repayments Someone just rang me from Bankwest as my repayment was 4 days late for 31 dollars Told me they will be reporting it to credit rating Asked me if I need assistance lol To pay $31

My Macquarie Working Acct has a current 2:75% interest, and my Macquarie Savings Account has interest rate of 5%. My Bankwest working Acct has an interest rate of 0.05%!!! Go figure.

Be very wary of banks that require a selfie. You cannot get a new face issued when they get hacked. And they will...eventually. And when that happens they will only say "sorry, we did our best to keep your personal details safe". Yeah right. They only tell you that a selfie is required at the end of the application, after you have already given them all your personal details and ID. Without a selfie you cannot finalise the application. Show details

After many years as a loyal customer, I have reached the disappointing conclusion that Bankwest has become one of the most unsophisticated and uninspiring banking institutions operating in Australia today. What is most striking is not simply the charging of petty fees — though that alone speaks volumes — but the complete absence of refinement,… Read more

loyalty, and customer respect in the way the bank now conducts itself. There was once a time when banking institutions understood that trust and long-term relationships were assets to be valued. Bankwest, unfortunately, appears to have traded those principles for short-term revenue and administrative indifference.

What a joke the bankwedt app is try& get in touch with customer service online can't connect yo anyone its keeps saying taking longer than usual to connect so I gave up on that after 1/2 an hour tried calling them but eventually had to hang up.afer about 30.minutes as well customer service what a joke next they'll be charging you to talk to a real human !! Show details

What a terrible bank, they changed the window for credit card payment, so now if I pay my credit card every fortnight, I miss the payment window, and I get a $25 late payment fee. I feel sorry for the people on the chat. who have to deal with angry people every day. Show details