Kim wrote: blood leaching maggots the lot of them.
Took the words right out of my mouth Kim
Seems funny that they "claim" (when it doesn't work in their favour) Westpac Australia is a seperate company from Westpac NZ Seeing as I heard that Westpac OZ is our's parent company & both's major shareholder is the Bank of Scotland. If everybody withdrew
their money from the banks, lets see where they'd be then! Mind you they'd probably charge you half of your balance for the priviledge of withdrawing it!
Interesting info from Wikipedia which would seem to somewhat contradict what you were told Kim
Westpac (a portmanteau of "Western-Pacific", registered as Westpac Banking Corporation, ASX: WBC, NZX: WBC), is a multinational Financial services company and became the largest bank in Australia (by market capitalisation) after it took over St.George Bank[3], and the second-largest bank in New Zealand. The bank is one of the Australian 'big four' banks, joining NAB, ANZ, and the Commonwealth Bank.
As of the merger with St.George in December 2008 the bank has 10 million customers, Australia's largest branch network with almost 1200 branches and an ATM network with more than 2800 ATMs. The bank is Australia's second largest provider of home lending and Australia's second largest provider of wealth platforms by funds under Administration. The bank is Australia's second largest business banking lender and Australia's second largest bank by assets.[1]
Westpac was recognised by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index as the most sustainable bank in the world for five years running, until ANZ who shared the title in 2007 was solely awarded in 2008.[4]
And here's an interesting piece from the same entry-
Westpac New Zealand
In 1861 the Bank of New South Wales opened seven branches in New Zealand. Some of the old buildings still stand, including one in Oamaru and another in Tokomaru Bay. Today this unit offers a whole range of consumer and corporate services to clients throughout New Zealand. It is the dominant provider of banking services to small to medium business, corporate and institutional organisations, and is the banker of the New Zealand government [5]. Currently Westpac is the second largest bank in New Zealand, after the merger of ANZ and National Bank of New Zealand, with around 1.5 million customers, 3,000 shareholders and 197 branches nationwide.
On September 29, 2006 Westpac was forced to pay NZ$5.1 million by the New Zealand Commerce Commission over hidden foreign transaction fees; most of the fine is reimbursement to affected customers, in the order of 12% of the fees actually charged. All other banks operating in New Zealand have either already been fined or are awaiting a court case.[6]
In October 2009 Westpac Banking Corporation (New Zealand branch) was ordered to pay the Inland Revenue Department (New Zealand) NZ$961 million in avoided taxes.[7]
Last sentence backs up the theory of being a bunch of robbers.
I know that recent dealings with NZ sales has been less than fortunate for one of our members who has been stung with about 30- 50 buck worth of bank fees just for a transfer to an aus account. For future reference use paypal and the small charge is neglegable. I feel violated for our NZ friends on this one, but when it comes to the rugby you guys should be charged double for the tickets!!!! 
