Bank of Queensland

I have been dealing with BOQ since 2012. I give 3 top reasons why I hate this bank and my decision to move to a different bank.

1. Terrible online internet bank. Very behind in technology with internet banking. This makes the business quite inefficient. Example. Transaction history appears weeks later.
2. In competent staff and customer service.
3. As per my recent conversations with BOQ it is quite apparent that the whole sale funding costs are gone down significantly. However the profits gained were not getting reflected in their variable rates. To me this is illegal and I am officially going to complain and put an enquiry.

My review of BOQ over four years.

Our first issue was when we applied for the mortgage they lost all the forms we had filed in and we had to fill them out again.

Next I asked for the first homeowner grant to be paid into our account when we applied for the mortgage and not to be taken of the principal. But the manager said it had already taken of principal and it could not be changed now when we went into the bank for settlement. I check the numbers in his office using my calculator on my mobile and they don’t add up it’s like the grant had disappeared and I had an argument with the bank manager stating this, but he won’t even check the maths but keeps saying it had been taken of the principal.

This was strike two and I wanted to pull out of the mortgage then and there, but it was too late and we needed the deal to go through as we had to move into the new house asap. So, I sucked it up and against my instincts I signed the mortgage deal. I great example of always trusting you gut.

Then a few weeks later the grant arrives in my account having not been taken of the principal no apology. Guess it doesn’t take much to be a bank manager these days when an average joe has better math skills than you.

The app is so bad don’t even bother downloading it if you’re with BOQ.

The internet banking is not much better than the app, cuts out regularly, every time I used it, I had to log in several times as it had booted me out. It feels clunky and standard features are lacking or confusing needs to be deleted and complete re done.

They put our wrong address, telephone numbers and email on their system multiple times with the worst being our email which over the four years had not changed and I told them the correct email approximately four times, I have never received an email from BOQ to this day??? Also, our address being wrong was especially jarring since our address was the home, we had mortgaged with them.

Interest rate continually going down in Australia since we got our mortgage but somehow ours keeps going up multiple times since our fixed period ended.

Our local branch closes and now suddenly our local branch is five times the distance away, would not be a big deal with a normal bank but BOQ requires you go into branch for pretty much everything.

We approach ANZ to switch our home loan to them and all the paperwork on ANZ side is completed without us having to leave our home as they send an employee to your house. Really friendly and professional and I can say that the transfer was so easy except for the fact we had to deal with the worst bank I have ever come across BOQ.

First thing was as soon as they got wind that we were transferring our interest rate went up on our mortgage this is at a time when every bank is decreasing their interest rate, could have been a coincidence I don’t know.

Next, I have to get a mortgage discharge form from BOQ, every other bank lets you download this form from the internet as a pdf. Not BOQ of course I must drive to my not so local branch so the teller can print a standard form and hand it to me. Whilst there the bank manager asks me why I am switching, and I tell them that I believe ANZ is a better bank to deal with. The manager then offers me 3.99% interest rate which was slightly better than ANZ which I turn down and the manager was quite angry about this and not at all professional. So, I left with my form filled it out that night and returned it the next day to the branch.

ANZ then contacts me and informs me that BOQ states they have never had an account for me or my partner at BOQ. As such they could not find the mortgage to transfer to ANZ. We had the mortgage for 4 years at this stage and we joked we could just stop paying it if we did not exist on their books.

Eventually after a few days BOQ decided we did in fact exist, but they stated that they never received a discharge form from us and that it would have to be resubmitted. So, I drive to our not so local branch again and inquire about the form and they cannot find it, but they will keep looking and email me when they find it. I ask them what email they have for me, which was some random numbers, I give them my correct email and because of past experiences ask her to repeat the email it is still wrong, and I tell her again.
I wait all day and no email arrives try to ring the branch can’t get through and it’s the weekend. Monday I ring tell them and the teller informs me she emailed me and I tell her I did not get an email. I ask what email she has for me, its wrong again and at this point I give up correcting the email its clearly a lost cause. She informs me the employee that I had given the form to was in today and she would post it today.
Great I am nearly free of this horrendous bank and a few weeks later the mortgage is transferred to ANZ. ANZ inform me that they have reduced the interest rate we had agreed on and it was now 3.80% a lot better than what BOQ had offered and without asking. So I transfer any money still in BOQ and I only have a current account showing $0 with BOQ and a direct debit to the old mortgage account which had been closed.
So, I go online thinking I will cancel the direct debit and then close the account. I cannot close the direct debit to a now known existing mortgage account on the prehistoric internet banking BOQ provides, I don’t know why I was surprised at this.
I look online how to close an account with BOQ, I have two options go into my not so local branch or call the number. I decide to save the drive and call the number. I cannot close the account over the phone she tells me I have to go into the branch. I say on the FOQ’S it says I can call this number. She says that is so you can call this number and they tell you how to close the account which is go into the branch. Does this make sense to you? Not to me.

I realise a lot of these things are relatively minor, but it was just due to the quantity like death from a thousand cuts that has drove me to being so bitter towards BOQ. I do not give bad reviews, even when I get a terrible meal, I will not let the restaurant know. But I actually want to stop other people doing business with this bank and hopefully spare them some of the pain I went through.

I do not get time to go into a Branch during business hours as work in an area without a Branch but like to make deposits to my account often, at the Post Office..The couple of times I have been to the Branch over the years, I have found the Customer Service very good in Mornington, Victoria. With Post Office service cancelled I will have to change to another Bank, very disappointing!

20yrs 2 of us on the title..last 7yrs just myself paying the loan... 2yrs am unemployed due to my daughter 14 with a mental illness suicide tendencies.
Your hardship polocy is different with who calls you. You also haressment via text and calls.
130,000 left to pay single mum of 2 daughters who's struggling but still paying 99%. You now want my home and leave my 2girls U15 and myself aged 49 with no home
I'm beside myself

Absolutely useless both in-branch and online.

The app is slow, quits during transfers, not very secure and you can't even use a pin or fingerprint to login you must enter your full login.

There branches high a turn-over of staff making it difficult as a business to have a friendly face to regularly deal with.

My bank card was damaged but still usable so they ordered me a new one with the same number, supposedly checked my address, it never arrived.

Explained this to them and they were unsure why it didn't arrive so they checked my address again and ordered me a new one and it never arrived.

On the third time they realised someone had made my old address an alternative address and both card had been sent to my alternative address. So they said they would cancel those two cards and keep the card I had active. Well they cancelled all three cards and I was left without a debit card an unable to access funds as I get paid on Fridays and Friday of that week and the following Monday were public holidays so I wasn't even able to withdraw cash.

When my card finally arrived to my correct address it had a different number despite being told it would be the same and I didn't notice, as a result I missed payments on my online subscriptions an was hit with late fees from 3 different companies.

This is the worst online app I know in Australia. About the same what we had ten years ago. No pin to login, slowest response you can experience, extremely limited functionality, and bad bad bad user experience overall. Takes days to reflect transfers. Suggest you go to a bank with professional tools, not outdated toys.

When you deal in person things move very fast. Example: Create a term deposit account, fill in paperwork at the branch and all setup within 30 minutes and you get that days interest rates. Do it online and this bank time warps to an unknown dimension. When you do the same application online it takes 3 to 5 business days and you have no idea what the interest rates will be in 5 days unless a psychic. The reason I give 3 stars i they have better interest rates than most otherwise Id give 1 star. Dealing with this bank DON'T DO IT ONLINE as you will get a headache and need a psychic to predict interest rates. Best thing to do with this bank is do it in person at a branch, they don't want that because need to keep more branches open. BOQ, if you want to save money and sack all branch staff, you need to get your ONLINE staff doing their jobs. The botttom line, don't deal with this bank ONLINE, if you must deal with the bank, do it ONE ON ONE in a branch and you will get great service.

I applied for a credit card with BOQ mid Dec 2018 and my issues with them were from day one;
- Incorrect information requested on their webpage. This has yet to be corrected and set my application back by ~two weeks. Had the correct information been listed in the first place, I would have taken about 30 seconds to submit the correct documents instead of wasting hours on multiple phone calls going back and forth
- Once my application was finally approved I wasted entire mornings on the phone trying to get internet access to my credit card
- I was eventually told this is not possible
- Apparently documents submitted to the credit card department cannot be accessed by the internet banking department
- I had to open ANOTHER account, submit my identification documents AGAIN, set up internet banking for that account, then get my credit card account linked to that account

If you ever look for home loan, avoid BOQ at all cost.
My partner was looking to refinance from BOQ to another bank, he's been contacting BOQ many times regarding the discharge process, they kept giving promises but never actually doing it. Interest rate is not that competitive comparing to big 4 banks.
If I can give them 0 star, I would.

Opened up some accounts with BOQ in January.

First thing I noticed is that the website and the application are terrible. Re not user-friendly and make things really complicated.

Second thing is that their PDS is not clear on their reverse Charges account. I believe it is ambiguous to be misleading and deceptive. The PDS states that if you have an account balance of $2000, you will pay no fee. BoQ interpretation is that it has to be for the full month, which is not stated in the PDS. What is stated in the PDS is that there is no bonus will be payed if you have not maintained $2000 in the account for a full month. This astrix is only marked on the account bonus of the PDS and not the monthly fee.

Third, their website states you can close an account by calling them, which they refuse to do and say I have to come into a bank.

This is the worst bank I have ever deal with and I have accounts with uBank, BankWest, CBA, and have previously had accounts with INGDirect. I will be closing my accounts when I can get to the bank.

I would not recommend BoQ to anyone and that is the only ever time that have said I would not recommend a bank.

I have requested to close off account since 2013. I never activated the account. I never used it. No transactions, never used. I Called BOQ customer service. I sent email to customer assistance team. Sent letter to the branch. With all my signature.
Still communicating with me and saying they issued me a debit card in 2019. 6 Years since account has been dormant. New debit card is being issued? How pathetic is that. They can't close off customer account.

Have had multiple loans with this bank for 7 + years, every time there is a rate rise it is above what other banks advertise
Constant battle shopping around to get rates reduced - loyalty is not rewarded
Poor service, hopeless internet banking - no access to interest rates or any information about your loan without calling their 1300 number and a typical 10-20 min wait to speak with someone, no phone pay app and interest rates that are constantly increased above other banks

Am a dentist and was originally with Investec 9 years ago great to deal with then BOQ brought them out. My husband was dying of cancer and passed away I asked for leniency for 3 months on my $12000 overdraft while I took care of his affairs and our children before I could go back to work, they said no and took me to court, smeared my name in the town and made me file for bankruptcy. That was just over a year ago and things are back on track now but if you want a heartless bank Bank of Queensland is it- I had other bills at other banks, and they showed me leniency and now all paid off and they were more than $12k!! Use ANY other bank but this one!! ! They offer incentives that you never use, make you feel soo important but are useless!! Horrible experience!!

Been with them for 7 years.
Absolutely terrible.
Absolutely disgusting. You would think it was run by children.
They have made so many mistakes and cost me so much money. Upon finding it was their mistake
cam a very friendly apology, but they would not give me my money back.
Pack of morons.

Been with BOQ for 10 years only reason I stay with them is because of my branch staff are awesome

Bank of Queensland is a franchise product: this shouldn't make a difference but,judging by the reviews - mainly bad reviews - it does.
We have been banking with BoQ for a dozen or more years - the Bowral branch - and found them to be consistently orders of magnitude better than the big four or five banks.
The staff are helpful, friendly and know their stuff, which is more than can be said for others with which we have dealt. We have to manage a fair number of term deposits both personal and for our self managed super fund and you would not believe the hoops that one has to jump through with most banks. One will insist you do it this way (government rules) whilst another says you have to do it the opposite way (government rules). We find their treasury is more flexible to custom interest rates than some. Their statements are in an easily read format, unlike some other banks which can be indecipherable. And the BoQ website is easily navigated with a random number gizmo for security.
I can understand that many reviewers have had bad experiences but, as the title says , don't forget the BoQ is a franchise, with the manager having a personal stake in his/her branch.

Customer of BOQ for 27 years. They lost my mortgag3(I should have walked) multible times mischarged or incorrectly debited account. When I joined we had a branch 15 minutes drive, they are all now shut nearest is 2 hour drive(Mackay) where the service is rude, condescending, and unprofessional.Staff have to get a 2nd person to check trans@ctions due to frequent mistakes. Possible to love a bank? Not this one!

Been with BOQ since it took over the Building society. Went into Mandurah Branch today, as I am caring for my frail mother who has lived in Mandurah since 1978. She almost died and requires 24/7 care. Im from Yanchep. Im also a Professional Licensed Business woman. I only had thongs and shorts and tshirt on, and the judgement was evident. The young clerk [name removed] was so rude and aggressive in nature considering how a banking customer should be treated that I asked if someone else was available to do what was required as it was obvious her EGO was bigger than BOQ, I was told no and that SHE is the only one that can cancel a Direct Debit. mmm, and you know what how can I ever recommend BOQ for my business clients when respect is required. Shouldn't judge a person by her looks, when she is up all night with an ill mother. Shame on your customer service. BOQ.

Recently I settled my mortgage repayment with BOQ. Initially I was told to wait 4 weeks for the bank to release the property title. However it's been 8 weeks past now but still no news of it. The branch manager tole me that this is a low priority work for them. Really disappointed at how they treat their value customer.

I have been with this bank from the start of getting my first account. They will lose another customer for their sneaky fees, rude customer service (something that has happened from the beginning), and their horrid banking options. I am one among many that despise this money hungry establishment.