Term Deposit Reviews - RaboPlus NZ

Reviewer: Andrew

I love your current 6 month Term Deposit rates. Very easy to setup a new term deposit. Great stuff.

Reviewer: Susan

Your TD rates are very competitive but we are really looking for a Term Pie. Any chance that you will be getting into this in the near future?

Mike Heath: Susan to be honest, until recently when we resumed offering very attractive TD interest rates, we felt there was not going to be much demand for PIE TDs from us unless we were able to offer competitive rates. We are currently reviewing our position on this. Regards Mike

Reviewer: James

Hi I note you currently have a table comparing your 6 month TD rate with that of other banks using data off Interest.co.nz. One NZ owned bank you have failed to include is SBS and coincidentily they are offering a better 6 month rate than Rabopus of 5%. In the interest of fairness shouldn't this also be included. James

John Baird, Operations Manager: James, thanks for the feedback. We have chosen to compare ourselves to the major banks in NZ simply because they are the largest players in the retail deposits; they each have a nationwide presence; and are the nearest to us in terms of credit rating. Whilst we are the only one with an AAA rating, they each have at least AA, or AA- in the case of Kiwibank. Also if you were to look at the list of institutions offering On Call accounts on Interest.co.nz , for example, you would see that there are there is a very long list so in the interests of relevance and user experience I’m comfortable with the approach we take (note no other bank even compares themselves to their competitors on their own website).

Reviewer: Sean W.

Why is Raboplus the safest bank? I am not sure what it's based on, as I've had no luck finding any comparison or analysis of which banks in NZ are safe in any respect.

John Baird - Operations Manager: Hi Sean, RaboPlus is a division of Rabobank New Zealand. We are considered the safest bank based on our AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's being higher than any of the other banks in New Zealand. The rating agencies are independent and use a large range of financial & business data to determine the ratings they apply. There is a section of the RBNZ website that will give you a good overview.

Reviewer: Mark

Interesting point Randy makes. It's difficult though making the graph right. The only solution I'd see is making a three dimensional graph comparing $1k $5k and $10k deposits between the banks. Sounds complicated, but it could be done perhaps. I've gotten used to looking at the fine print, but Randy is right that the average person doesn't like having to look at the fine print and thinks the first impression shouldn't mislead. But RaboPlus is clearly trying to do the right thing. And I'd rate them above all other banks for having such a low minimum deposit for term deposits and managed funds. It's very democratic and non-elitist. It's great that they make investing possible for very small investors. Thank you RaboPlus. But this comment box I'm writing in is very small, and it was better when it was was on the main page, and you didn't need to click 'more reviews' to find it. Please fix this. This capacity to comment adds to the democratic participatory nature of RaboPlus.

Mike Heath: Mark thanks for the comment and the point re the comments box. We’ll get on to this with haste.

Reviewer: Randy

As Jim had commented before, about the integrity of your marketing, I too must also question the integrity of your marketing, when I today find an advertisement in my inbox from RaboPlus. The subject stated "You've had one before... why not have one again?" (i.e. investing in a new T/D). The mailer has a bunch of great stuff about RaboPlus, and then displays a graph, comparing RaboPlus' 6 month rate to other big-banks. Of course, RaboPlus' six month rate right now, is the best (4.95% - Beating the next best, BNZ's, by 0.05%, which isn't a lot, but it's still a nice feat), but the graph shows little integrity by comparing your $1K+ rate, to the big-banks $5K+ rate, which in most circumstances, is often MUCH lower than the big-banks $10K+ rates. Obviously, this graph shows RaboPlus in very VERY good favour in comparison to the other banks, but surely you could create a graph, with just as much "OOMPFH!" in it, showing you kicking ass, while still keeping the integrity to show the big-banks' higher $10K+ rates. Poor show, RaboPlus, poor show.

Mike Heath: Randy thanks for the feedback.  The reason we chose $5k for the big banks was simply because that is the lowest principal amount they promote with their advertising for TDs (refer interest.co.nz), with the only exception being Kiwibank who like us offers their rates from $1k.  As is always the case, we wanted to make sure that the promotion was relevant to as many people as possible – hence looking at the lowest investment needed to earn the rates and take up our great offer.  What is pleasing, from my personal perspective, is that our 6m rate of 4.95% for $1k is higher than the rates that the big banks offer for amounts of $50-$100k (we don’t actually have a cap on how much you can invest in a TD whereas some banks ask that you contact the branch if you want to deposit more than $250k in a TD).  However the pool of people who have this much to lock away for 6 months is not as large – hence the focus on the $1k.  I trust this gives more insight into the logic we apply when preparing our promotions.

Reviewer: Roy

We have had about 5% of our money sitting in the call savings account as you have been best on that in recent times. Unfortunately 95% has been with other banks on term deposits as, until the current 6 month rate, your rates have been woefully low. Have just taken up the 6 month rate and will move more to you while you remain competitive.

Mike Heath: Roy, thanks for the acknowledgement.

Reviewer: Jason

4.95% for 6 months seems to be competitive now , and to me looks like a great rate ... Has everyone forgotten the state of the economy ? I'm a little suprized that these rates can be so good . So to finish i would like to say thankyou Raboplus and keep up the good work , and lets all try to remember times are tough . We should be trying to support each other not complain ... It's people expecting somthing for nothing that has pulled the economy down to where it is . Just my opinion ofcourse ;)

Reviewer: Jim

Five stars for integrity and honesty and listening to your customers for re-establishing the practice of showing the most recent reviews on the first page of the term deposits section, and not picking out the best reviews. Though I think you could return the comment box to the first page too (and made it bigger; it's tiny), to keep encouraging comments.If you could manage some competitive short term term deposits that would be great too; I'd love to have one of these with RaboPlus.

Mike Heath: Jim, thanks for the feedback.  Transparency is key to what we do and say, and by ensuring that we show the latest reviews is an essential part of our relationship with Kiwis.  I’ll have a chat with our designer re the comment box.