Teachers Mutual Bank (NSW Teachers Credit Union)

Talk to a rock. You will get a more polite conversation. Has moved to a call centre with the most passive aggressive, poorly communicating, ill-informed people possible. One didn't understand I couldn't stay on the line because I am a teacher ... they work for TEACHERS Mutual bank!! Oh, they get to see all your accounts and activity to verify your account - what a breach of privacy!!!! Moving elsewhere, my money deserves better than this.

Absolutely useless customer service. I can't even call it that. I wish I had never bothered. As if teachers have time to incessantly call and get no resolution to issues. Steer well clear, it's not worth the hassle. The worst bank I have ever come across. Just pathetic. Show details

Have been a member for more than 25 years. Was happy with the service till it got taken over with god knows how many highly paid executive staff. Services have been cut, I guess to fund executive salaries and CEO bonuses. After being able to quickly and easily pay bills with 'bpay' for years you now have to ring and queue. Today I had urgent bills… Read more

to pay after getting out of hospital for surgery. I rang and queued for 45 minutes until the call dropped out. I tried again and hung up after another 40 minutes as I couldn't take the canned music and looping nonsense messages anymore. Had to pay a credit card fee for each bill as I was forced to use a more expensive payment option. A serious deterioration in service.

Very happy with the service – I have been a member of Teachers Mutual Bank (NSW Teachers Credit Union) for 45 years and have always been very happy with their service. Today I visited the bank in Homebush and was treated with courtesy, patience and understanding as I needed to do some complicated financial transactions. With so many reports of scams I was very nervous about… Read more

transferring a substantial amount of money to a family member. The two members of staff at TMB explained the process and I felt very reassured that the procedures put in place protected my money. Thank you to Steven and Naz for helping an elderly person navigate a daunting process with dignity.

Great service! Highly recommend the Teachers Car Buying service to anyone – Bought a car for my son.. the team at the car buying service did all the work for me... no stress and time saved! Highly recommend the teachers car buying service.

A puzzlement – I have been a member since 1981 and have always been treated fairly but am wondering if anyone else has had this strange experience. I have a $1000 per day limit on my withdrawals (though never used anywhere near that) but yesterday I noticed that 2 lots of $500 making $1000 had been withdrawn from my account but certainly not by me. I… Read more

contacted the Fraud section but they could not accept it as being Fraud as a debit card would have had to be used and these cards are encrypted for more safety so that you have to use a code numbers and that I or somebody else must have had access.. Fair enough, but I am the only one with access to my debit card I carry it with me everywhere and I certainly did not draw any money out that day though used my swipe card to pay for lunch. I am wondering if there is some new horror out there that can steal money from us not yet widely lknown as yet & if anyone has had similar experiences.. I am now resigned to losing the money. I have to say the lady I dealt with could not have been any nicer but I would love to solve the mystery.

Over an 1 hour wait time at best. They do not return your calls. They do not address the question. They are generally unhelpful. The moment i complained the response was to resign my membership from a membership services officer (Daniela). Services have a new meaning by the sounds of it. Even the big 4 do not treat you with such disdain. Absolutely pathetic. STAY AWAY from this pathetic excuse for a bank.

I have been a member for over 35 yrs. Have lost their way poor service…incompetent people who don’t know anything about their job m. Too many accounts to monitor. Can’t access in time of need. Insane wait times. Staff does not care or want to help. Access impossible with too many stages of proof. So unhappy with this process. Nothing of there professional statements are true …. Been waiting for 3grs not an offer of a call back…

I have been sent secure messages from customer service recently that are about the wrong account. I am waiting days for the paperwork to be completed so that I can see an account online but i can transact on the account by phoning tmb. I have been a member for 50 years and the customer service has gone downhill in the last 5 years. It is now hit and miss and very frustrating. Show details

I havee been with Teachers Mutual Bank since 1969 when it was a credit union. It provided a fabulous service and was always easy to access and easy to resolve any issues. Since it became a bank, it has been a nightmare. The first issue came when I was overseas and they decide to block my credit card, presumably because there was no activity. All… Read more

my household bills electricity, rates etc were not paid. When I enquired to ask why this had happened, no valid reason was given. Hence when I went overseas again at a later date I rang them to organise my cards so that the above didn't happen gain. They explained that they used a third party and that if my card was blocked I would have to contact the third party. I was given numbers and an explanation of the convoluted process. TMBank should handle these enquiries! Every other bank does!! Simple process I realised that this was going to be a nightmare and got a credit card from another bank...much better!! Now I use the TMBank to pay other bills with my security token which does not work any more. This is very disadvantageous when paying bills overseas. I then attempted to use the SMS code having rung TMB to set it up for me. It doesn't work! Clearly this account and this bank have become a white elephant with antiquated processes as well as lacking diligence and care when looking after its customers. When overseas, I have no way now of paying bills by TMB as I do not use an Australian sim card Overseas. Other banks allow you to use an overseas number when away which means that security is still certain and the codes are sent to that number. TMB does not do this . IT is time TMB was run by bonafide bankers who understand today's efficient protocols and security measures used by other banks. It is now time for me to close with TMB. I advise anyone who is thinking of using TMB to think very carefully. It is not the institution it used to be! Ver disappointing.

They have seriously gone downhill since we started our mortgage through them. Customer service is pretty much non existance now. Trying to get in touch with them is painful. 30m-1h wait times only to be disconnected or needing to be transfered because the person can't help you, or if you request a call back they simply forget to even call you… Read more

back. It takes days of going back and forth to try and get something done through them, horrendous. I wanted to refinance through them but forget it, I'm not going to refinance with a company that is impossible to get in touch with. Now that I am asking for a mortgage discharge form they tell me I need to fill in the security release online and I will get the form (that this is supposedly the only way to get it) what a joke - I filled it in only for the site to tell me I need to speak to them before I can get a release because they want to convince me to stay and refinance through them hahaha. None of them know their own products or policies/procedures!

Thankfully have stopped banking with them. I was trying to chase up details regarding my banking with them. The person on the phone had no customer service skills, they asked me to sign a document in a different name which is illegal and were revolting to me when I refused. Horrendous!

Saw I didn't receive my bonus interest a few months ago when I had made the appropriate transfer. I phoned and they said their systems are down could I call back in 30 minutes which seemed incredibly third world but I just assumed their systems were a bit janky and they would give me my bonus interest. I called back and the systems were up but… Read more

apparently I wasn't receiving my bonus interest. I escalated it and the second person was very rude and smug and again refused to correct the error. I raise the complaint with the afca and the person handling it for TMBL could not spell and kept forgetting the issue and stating incorrect facts. At one point they called me a liar in writing which horrified the ombudsman. They then disclosed private recorded phone conversations without my consent which in this country is a criminal offence. The afca is interrogating them over it now and the Commonwealth privacy ombudsman is liasing with the police about potential criminal charges although it seems the offender was based offshore which means they are off-shoring their afca complaint management function to some other country which seems very irresponsible and unAustralian.

I don't expect common sense to prevail so this will end up in the civil courts as an absolute minimum and probably also the criminal courts so steer clear of this bank at all costs.

I have been trying to get a $10 balance left on my account after closing for months now. I have called multiple times and submitted a form authorizing this. Complained and received no help, complaint reference 2389124. Close to having to lodge with AFCA as a last resort.

Review on credit card card - When I go overseas with my TMB credit card, they block it after the first day or two. I find myself unable to pay for anything including food and accommodation. They say that they have live chat available on their app but this is not true. It can take them days to respond to my requests to unblock my card. At this… Read more

time I am traveling through South America and they have blocked it twice within the same week and so the process starts again. This is not a credit card that you can travel with.

20 minutes … still on hold… When the recorded blurb at the start of call warns members to be pleasant to their staff you know something is wrong with the business! Change banks now, make a stand for client services!!!

UNTRUSTWORTHY AND DISORGANISED. not caring as they advertise – disorganised, long waiting times, i had target saver accounts and missed one of their conditions so i lost over 1000 in interest. They made it so confusing to earn their bonus interest and dont have any alarms or let you know there is a problem. Its a long and confusing process to withdraw your money. They have a no forgiveness no caring policy.… Read more

They will change your savings interest rates halfway through the month so you can not make an informed decision where it should be.

Closing down? – Looks like the Hiver brand is being discarded and closed down. They have this notice on their website now: "This product is only available to existing Hiver members" for all product offerings. Yes, you better believe I'm taking credit for this :-) I never expected that my review of this appalling 'bank' would actually have the effect of closing… Read more

it down, but I couldn't be happier that it has. Disgusting, vile institution that never deserved to have a banking licence in the first place staffed entirely by souless, unthinking, remorseless thieves without a scerrick of shame as they blatantly ignored their own policies and commitments in their customer charter to screw over as many deposit holders as they could get away with.

Good riddance Hiver, you won't be missed. Scum.

Worst bank/financial institution ever – The absolute worst bank/financial institution. I am not sure who is worst TMB or the scammer. This bank despite being advised of a scam on the very first day refused to take any action to block or monitor the activity. When I called them they became hostile, unresponsive and totally disinterested in assisting me in any way. Their HQ is located… Read more

somewhere in Silverwater. I wonder whether the crims that get released from the nearby jail get a job to work at TMB. Sounds like they do.

Declining rates and service – Was great when a credit union but ordinary now. Long waits on phone and out of nowhere ended their high interest saver recently. Their other online saving rates are dreadful. Need to get competitive once more and match some of the other banks out there!

Terrible Customer Service – Been banking with the TMB for over 9 years and they were quite good at the start. They currently have terrible customer service and can not get the simple things done correctly the first time. I needed my sons account changed over to him and I followed all of their instructions carefully and each time I was told yep all good that's fixed. 6 months… Read more

later, 25 phone calls at least and about the same number of emails later and my son still does not have access to his main banking account. Unbelievable. There are numerous other annoying issues as well so the whole family has now lost patients and are now looking to move elsewhere.

Slow service! – I have my home loan with this lot and wanted to also take out a personal loan recently. I applied, provided the required documentation, however at just before this, on the same day, I applied for a personal loan through another place. I changed my mind and thought I’d go through TMBank as I have the previously mentioned home loan with them… Read more

already. The first place has given me a loan and will release the money tomorrow. TMBank’s, after asking for more info which I have provided, haven’t said a word since lol. They are MIA. I look forward to telling them to keep their loan with their appallingly slow customer service, however, I haven’t even had that delight as they have give silent! This seems indicative of all dealings with them. In terms of the home loan, it’s fine. No issues. In terms of responding and timely customer service, they suck.

Dodged a bullet – As a student teacher in my final year, I chose to open an account with Teachers Mutual; makes sense right ? Well, I filled out the forms, submitted a copy of my passport, medicare and drivers licence, as per expected. Opening was easy. I have a double barrelled name, and unfortunately I made an error on the form and did not leave a space between… Read more

my two first names, not a problem I thought, this is an easy fix. I called them!!!!! Well, this form is a legal document spouts the person on the phone ( a little knowledge can be very dangerous when it comes to people in customer service). Um no, my passport, licence and medicare card which all have my name correctly are legal documents !!!!!!! Now I want a bank, where the small things are not difficult, this was a simple spacing error, I was not asking to change the context or anything else, just wanted both of my first initials to appear. So I chose not to bank with them, cut up the card before it was activated and will not bank with a bank that offers this level of poor customer service before I have even started. If something so trivial proves so difficult, I can only imagine what a challenging situation will look like. I shall remain with CBA where my name is spelled correctly.

Representative bullying me into joining – If I could give 0 stars I would. I was in my first year of uni studying education and I was interested in what the Teacher’s Bank could offer. A representative came to our university and was trying to convince me to sign up. When I told him I would consider the options and sign up in my own time he responded with a condescending, passive… Read more

aggressive and sexist remark in an attempt to bully me into joining. I was so appalled and now I will never join the bank if these are the people they hire to represent them.

Will be leaving after 20 years – The app is so unreliable and not easy to navigate. Can’t do things on the app that you can do worse where. They lock you out and you have to change your password because you’ve been locked out for nothing. No osko and can’t even receive instant payments.

Continues to disappoint – I have been a member since the start of my career… they were great… good service, competitive and responsive. Totally the opposite now..poor service, not competitive and aloof. Our children banked with them but now they have moved away, and we are joining the exodus. What a shame, it was at one time a banking model to be admired.

Absolutely disturbing with knowledge – Lied to me about withdrawing my own money out of my account subsequently lost purchasing my dream vehicle that I saved for 30 years for .

Technology Doesn’t Work – Increasingly when I try to make an osko payment there is some issue and I have to use standard payment which takes up to 3 days. People expect immediate payment now. It’s completely unacceptable. Show details

Remote customer service almost non-existent – I rejoined TMB after a long absence. I had a question relating to a transaction account waited a few hours for a ‘call back’, then was transferred to another department and put on hold where I had to request another call back. Later I received an sms stating that they were too busy to call me back. So I just gave up. Remote customer service is… Read more

almost non existent, even more hopeless than Westpac. If this is important to you then give TMB a wide berth.

Performance has slipped terribly—-can you rate at minus 4 stars? – The TCU in Homebush used to be the cheeriest little place, with helpful smiling people bustling to and fro. Now, as a bank, it is more like a mausoleum, with dour statues standing immovable in their designated places. They must know that something is wrong, as they have sent out surveys—but nothing changes. They must stop paying PR firms for… Read more

surveys and just read these reviews—I agree with all of them. As for service—-I think it has stopped. Full stop.

DON'T BANK WITH THEM – As a retired teacher, I had been with TMB since 1978 – when it was the Teachers’ Credit Union. I never took a loan or insurance policy from them because they were more expensive than the opposition - but their deposit rates were at least close to par with the others. I was satisfied at being part of a members' society with fellow work mates.… Read more

However, that has all changed over the last few years with Deposit rates being next to zero - in fact actually zero for day-to-day Acc. The gap between deposit rates and lending rates is enormous. Where the profits go is anyone's guess as even the bonus pay + salary of the CEO and cohorts could not possibly absorb such a huge amount. Certainly, none of that profit is going back to members. I have cost myself a lot of money - and I mean a lot of money, because I remained loyal and felt secure enough believing I was still with the old Teachers Credit Union and their philosophy. Now that they are a Bank, all has changed with the first warning being the new glossy mail outs with models to give the product a razz matazz that was pure marketing from America advertising. If you want to pay an arm for mortgages, pay a leg for insurance, and be given bread and water on deposits, then stay with this mob. I am very happy to have left that ship. I only regret not doing it years ago. Shop around – this crew is left for dead when you discover what the competition is offering.

Gives back to teachers...HA! – The highest home loan rates in the land. I don't know where all their 'not-for-profit' money goes. Absolutely no benefit to teachers and sneakily stole money from my broker. Show details