St George /Westpac are a nightmare. After 40 years I am leaving this bank. They are CONSTANTLY rejecting automatic payments stating it is because of pending transactions when there were NONE. They have changed to a new system lately which does not work. After an hour (yet again) on the phone asking them to sort it out they deny deny deny and then invited me to go to the Banking Ombudsman and then they hung up. Show details
Online banking for business is awful. Especially when requiring an approval process. Transactions can't get approved and have to be reloaded into the bank. Especially when it comes to Direct Entry/Batch payments. Having to undo the transactions in St George and enter them one at a time. Then replicate the whole process in the accounting software. … Read more
Also logins randomly stop working from time to time so you have to call up and have your password reset. Not business friendly at all.
I'm extremely annoyed and offended by your letter today closing my accounts and saying you would call the police on me if I entered ur bank u have provided no reason on ur letter I have not at any time threatened anyone all this got started by a buying a welder of AliExpress I used my Google pay account and u admitted urself that put a token… Read more
against my account and had to cancel my card not at any stage was I rude to u or anything like that I ended up having to go to afca to sort it out and you came back at me saying u were giving me money back which again is in ur text message and I asked u to investigate this and u come back at me saying the case is closed I didn't say anything about closing it did I today u send me this threathing letter saying if I spoke on the Internet u would take action against me and if I come into the bank u would call the police on me what did I do your protecting AliExpress and do not threaten me with ur bullshit the next update will contain emails text messages with the mobile number and the mangers name u want name and shame u should do something about this is this the way u treat all ur clients I will continue to add more information if u don't get intoch and leave ur bullshit out of it I'll prove ur causing trouble don't send me ur bs letters it's discusting were do u get off
Reviews with attachments
Great home loan rate and excellent service – I switched lenders to St George back in late 2020, to take advantage of the $4000 rebate to new customers. Fantastic no-strings attached offer and I am amazed to see it still on offer for new customers. I've locked in really good fixed-interest rates too on my mortgages. The staff at the Cessnock & Maitland branches are pleasant to deal with; no… Read more
"up selling" and minimal wait times. The loan staff in Sydney (and in branches) were easy to communicate with, even during peak COVID. If you currently have a home loan with a lender which is outside the Westpac group, I highly recommend that you apply today to switch to St George and take advantage of the rebate offer.
10/08/2023 update: I recently obtained finance from St George (Cessnock) for an investment property and had a fantastic experience dealing with St George mobile lender James Warren - very efficient at processing my application. He arranged the relevant property valuations very rapidly and had my loan application processed faster than I could have ever imagined. He was happy to honour a late request that we put to him just before property settlement. I have great terms on my property loans (low interest rates and low fees).
I will always remain a loyal customer of St George Bank as long as I can deal with James for my finance needs.
6/04/2026 update: I recently purchased another investment property with finance from St George and received outstanding service and assistance from Judith Nguyen - Lending Manager. While most people were on holidays, Judith worked hard in the lead up to Christmas last year to refinance our existing St George loans and to secure finance for us on another investment property. Judith's assistance has leapt us along our property asset acquisition path to financial stability and security for ourselves and our young children. We recommend Judith to our friends and family.
Do NOT bank with them if you need daily access to your money, they will freeze accounts and withhold your own money from you with no notification, no explanation, no reason at all. You can not access their phone service it will redirect you to chat bot. I still haven't been able to get a hold of them, I work the hours they are open and there is… Read more
still NO response to my messagfood. A week with no money, fantastic. They ask for identification in person about once a month and they don't even have branches in my suburb. They can get fxkd.
St George Bank is the worst bank I have ever dealt with. My experience has been extremely disappointing for several reasons: I had to wait over 40 minutes just to speak with a customer service representative. My only request was to obtain a closing statement for my term deposit, as St George charged an early withdrawal penalty. Despite multiple… Read more
requests, the bank has been unable to provide an accurate closing statement. The online banking team repeatedly makes promises that are not followed through, making the service unreliable and ineffective.
All the staff just copy & Paste what the other support staff says, they clearly have been trained to deny all this. You’re supposed to help customers, but you’re going against “Customer Service”. I supplied the bank and AFCA the supporting documentation that proves the banks complaints manager pressured me to accept her offer of only $500.00 and… Read more
you rejected my request for $5,000.00 If I could upload all my documents here I would. The banks terms and conditions contradict each other as stated in the letter attached. What a disgrace.
When you dispute a transaction, it does not give you the option of uploading the documents for evidence. You have to wait several days and then they send you a text message about 1am or 6am to say they have sent you an email with further instructions. I currently have 2 disputes and get the text messages but I am not receiving any of the emails, I… Read more
have to call them each time to ask what the update is.
When I call, I have to explain the situation each time and the staff always ask have I checked my junk email folder despite me telling them already that I have, they make me jump through hoops to identify myself and they usually refuse to let me speak to a supervisor.
It is an incredibly frustrating procedure and St George Bank claim that they do not have a tech department but it is apparently a huge secret as to who maintains their app, website etc. There is apparently not one person at St George bank who is able to fix the issue of me not receiving their dispute updates via email.
A supervisor named Jasmine is currently handling my case and she phoned me tonight at 10.16pm tonight! So I get woken up at 5am on a saturday morning, 6am on a sunday morning, 12.55am on a work night etc with irrelevant SMS notifications for emails that I never receive!
I have been with St George for about 30 years but once my current disputes are finalised, I will be changing banks over this issue. I am sick of it and as they claim they do not have a tech team who can fix it, I am not prepared to go through this again. I will be opening a new account with Suncorp Bank tomorrow and transfering over everything and once everything is transferred over then I am leaving St George. These staff get paid to talk to me on the phone, I have been offered nothing except for lame apologies for waking me up at ridiculous hours and spending hours having to contact them for updates.
I feel like I am being ganged up upon by the retailer who ripped me off and by St George who refuse to fix this known issue. I have an account with Suncorp for savivg and have never felt bullied by them.
EDIT: 2 april 2026 St George closed the dispute claiming that I did not respond to their email asking me for further information. I didn't get their email and they know it! I asked as a goodwill gesture for all the time I have spent on the phone with them and them not fixing the problem if they will credit my account $58 and they said no! They said that I have to start the entire process agaian, I have to make a new email account then lodge a new dispute - over $58!!! This bank makes billions of dollars in profits but they refuse to give a disabled pensioner $58 to save everyone a lot of time and stress.
They are still claiming they don't have a tech team to look into the email issue. Apparently their website and app magically run themselves, there is not one tech person in St George bank! I have been with 5 different banks in my lifetime and St George is by far the worst. I don't think their call centre is in Australia either as every person I have spoken to has had a strong accent and I could barely understand them.
I'm starting to wonder if Temu has offered a bribe to one of the supervisors at St George to make this situation go away.
I’ve been a St George customer for over 40 years, across multiple accounts and home loans, and this is easily the worst customer experience I’ve had with any financial institution. I identified a series of unauthorised transactions on my account and contacted St George to report what is clearly a fraud matter. Instead of being handled… Read more
appropriately, I received incorrect advice suggesting I would need to resolve this with PayPal simply because I have used their service before.
I experienced multiple wait times exceeding 30 minutes, was denied escalation when requested, and most recently had a call disconnected halfway through the verification process with no follow-up.
To make matters worse, my formal complaint was closed without any meaningful engagement or attempt to resolve the issue (see attached image).
For a bank of this size, this reflects serious issues in staff training, complaint handling, and basic customer care. Long-term customers should not be treated this way, particularly when reporting fraud.
I have now been forced to escalate this matter externally to AFCA.
- +7
Zenik Mortgage Broker Fraud covered up by big4 including St George Bank - A division of Westpac St George bank should come clean to the Australian public about the amount of mortgages which were issued to Chinese fraudsters. To date they have swept this under the rug and Australians like myself, are now having to rent defected properties from… Read more
broke butt criminal Chinese landlords.
All they have said is that there is no arrears but I am renting a property which I am certain is one of these fraudster mortgage holders and they haven’t even paid their mortgage for years. Actually they have two mortgages and neither have been paid.
St George offered me $5k to vacate which was oh so generous of them but what I would really like is for them to cancel all of the fraudulent mortgages and bring criminal charges against the applicants. I’d also like deportation for any which are living in Australia.
The least you can do St George, at this late stage is to make the Australian public aware of the addresses of the properties so that Australians can avoid renting or buying from them.
I've called 3 times as I can't create a new credit card application as it says I have been a customer in the past and to call them. The phone AI agent hangs up on me every time. I've tried 3 times now. Someone needs to be sacked for this. I feel like they must hate their customers
Latest follow-ups
What a joke – What a joke. Try being partially blind and needing to contact someone in St George bank (now Westpac). Everything is done by text and cannot be verbally discussed. No service. What a joke. Do not sign up a new account with them. Have been a loyal… Read more
customer with them for over 30 years. Was happy with St George until Westpac took them over. Look elsewhere.
Follow-up · Service is slightly improved depending on whether you can get through to a person. I try to avoid their technology and automated questions on their chat service. Very frustrating.
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What is happening to our once great customer service banks.needed to activate my new St George card called the number on the letter sounded like an off shore call centre maybe sub continent was told No we can't do it you must go to your branch.What… Read more
branch I asked?????they are all closed.well go to Westpac bank they will help you.sorry they will only direct you to the ATM.asked could I speak with a team leader told no finally got through 1hour later.yes a call centre on the Gold coast staffed by under trained non speak english staff or should I say not understanding english.as a result this person has red flag my account of over 30 years.i ask how many others has this happened to surely the bank is aware of this.not happy at all.
Follow-up · The matter was resolved after finding the call centre employee has not understood my request I would suggest do to his lack of english.a trip to the local Westpac and the problem or should I say should never had been a problem was resolved.my suggestion is don't waist your time trying to phone st.george bank call centre for help GO to a branch for excellent service.
I will be closing and cancelling all my cards with St George. They allowed my "savings" account to become overdrawn by $1800 after Expedia charged me twice by mistake for 2 airline tickets. St George refused to say why my savings account was allowed… Read more
to be overdrawn because I had inserfeicient foods in my account. I will be closing all my accounts and I will reporting St George to the financial services regulator. So much for the Royal Commission. 50 years with St George and this is how I get treated.
Follow-up · St George bank has zero customer focus with customers expected to talk to a computer I was treated appallingly The only redeeming quality was the hard working customer service person at the St George bank Gosford who helped me with by banking issues. Apart from that I'm in the process of closing all my accounts with St George bank
Positive reviews
Dalreen of the Gungahlin Branch provided me with the best personalised service I have ever experienced in time with StGeorge bank. Dalreen's thoroughness and clear explanation made my recent visit a absolute pleasure in every way. My very sincere thanks is extended to this staff member. Best regards TONY @ Kippax
Don't waste your time on cashback offers. Their pending transactions are taking forever to be cleared which pending transactions do not meet their cashback requirement, so cashback is simply a scam in a legal way. Same merchant same bank… Read more
transactions took 2 days to be cleared if you make it before the 26th of the month. Transaction after that they will hold it until next month that makes you no way to get their cashback, because they say pending will take up to 7 days (bullshit). Same merhcant other bank transaction also takes 2 days but always 2 days whenever I make the purchase.
Follow-up · Cashback offer and amount: 30 card purchases in Aug 2026, receive $50 Did I contact them: no I eventually received the cashback at the end of Sept, so my rating is amended.
I was just served by Bella at Glendale St George. I was in a bad situation and had lost some money and was trying to deposit a check. She was kind compassionate friendly and made me feel that everything was going to be okay thank you Bella. Show details
Negative reviews
We have had all our accounts with this GODFORSAKEN appalling, inept & frustrating excuse for a bank for more than three decades. For the past two years, they have made us literally & physically jump through hoops & hurdles (both online and and at their absolute punish branches) with their relentless 're-identification' processes ... all of which… Read more
done more than once and still they botch it up or claim 'mismatching' or request more. This on top continual issues including not seeking customer authority & altering payer titles (so that your company name does not appear when paying your bills - that was a THREE MONTH BATTLE with St George to reverse). It's both beyond a level of ridiculous, bordering on sheer stupidity where common sense does not apply with St George. Once upon a time (especially when they were known as ADVANCE Bank), they were fantastic, now I can unequivocally state the ABSOLUTE WORST bank in Australia. Save your sanity and DO NOT BANK WITH ST GEORGE (I would add, neither their 'parent bank' Westpac). PS. Just read the over 90% terrible reviews here & see if you can even find even just one reply from a St George rep acknowledging the troubles they are causing for customers. You won't and it shows just how arrogant they are.
terrible service Only milking Aussies for mega profits - Merging Stgeorge with Westpac should be illegal - No competition in this sector. Australian polial system is corrupt
Being with St George from 30 years they never ask for Tax file number nor sent any message just Today 12/10/2026 get to know tax office taking money out of my account without me knowing In branch is more then one hour waiting to speak to staff most of staff said I’m from Westpac don’t know how St George running business Show details
Recent reviews
The worst online customer service ever, you dont have any control of your money to transfer to other accounts, they never allow you to do that, or keep you waiting for a long time and keep you waiting on the phone for at least 3 hours, this happened to me three times that’s why I decided to write this review to inform that stay away from this bank please, and I’ll cancel my account with them asap.
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I have been trying to access a statement account which is locked for some unknown reason. I have been trying to get help for 7 hours. All of the contact phone numbers don't take you to a human. The phone app doesn't work and the internet version is the only thing that does work. I have been waiting there in the online chat for help. I missed the… Read more
first response after waiting more than 2 hours. They gave me 15 minutes to respond. Which I missed. Trying again and waiting more than 2.5 hours for a response this time. Worst company ever. Don't go there, they don't want you business!!!
If I could give no stars I would. Rude incompetent staff and the wait time is hours. The staff must be on a go slow campaign. The staff are backward and rude. Horrible experience many times.
I have been a customer of Directshares, (Part of St George) and it WAS great. Now their new security step has made this platform from user friendly to absolute rubbish. The IT idiots should be sacked. I will be moving my stocks and closing my accounts. Very disappointed, they will lose 50% of their customers with this change Show details
Been happily using St George Direct Shares for 10 years. I am also a retired banking system consultant. However, St George Direct Shares have recently introduced “extra security” steps to login which are poorly designed, and essentially unusable on an iPad. It is a complete dog’s breakfast, brittle and unworkable. I am moving all my share holdings to another share platform… one that has a workable security setup.
RE: A GOVERNMENT DIRECTED NATIONAL ID VERIFICATION CAMPAIGN BY THE BANK TO ELIMINATE FRAUD: ATROCIOUS COMMUNICATION, MISLEADING DATA GATHERING EXERCISE AND AN UNNECESSARY INCONVENIENCE. . Every St.George Bank customer was posted a 7-8 page document titled "Confirm your personal details by 1 September 2026" (Covering letter + Customer… Read more
Verification Form).
It required verification of personal details, employment, sources of funds & wealth etc with 21 forms of ID to select from, across 3 mandatory sections - Primary Photographic, Primary non-photo and Secondary ID documents. If you can't make it to a branch it requires certified copies attached to the form by mail.
As if anyone would trust Australia Post with all your ID Docos in the mail.
This was a DATA-GATHERING ploy by Westpac on the back of a legitimate security check. They mixed in a bunch of personal and financial questions and tried to make it look like this was part of the security requirement. Then bluffed the unsuspecting customers by encompassing these questions within the requirement to respond or have your account access blocked. A slimy campaign for their own data gathering purposes. I refused to answer these questions and focused on the proof of ID.
I got all the ID documents I could - with GREAT STRESS and took them to my St.George branch on Thursday 27-Aug-26. I drove 90 klms to the nearest branch. .
I said to the teller - "I'm here to verify my ID, I have the form and all my documents where do we start?"
The teller looked at me and said - "just your license will do sir".
I said "What? Are you kidding? Why did I go to all this trouble to follow your letter ? The teller replied: "Well you only had to fill the form etc if you are overseas"
BUT IT DOES NOT SAY THAT CLEARLY AND PROMINENTLY ON THE FORM OR IN THE COVERING LETTER. The real requirement to simply prove your ID was buried in (swamped by) pages of non-mandatory questions because Westpac/St George were so focused on their own data gathering agenda.
As for ID, I complained about the trouble it took to find my documents and the 180klm round trip to the bank. The only other ID that crossed that bank counter (other than my drivers license) was my new ATM card which I activated whilst I was there.
I feel sorry for other customers who were inconvenienced and I can imagine hundreds or even thousands of bank customers who wasted their time and their anxiety and were duped into answering the bank's nosy questions. Good on you Westpac/St.George - a systemic failure in communication resulting from a deceptive data gathering ruse...
Purchased a wipper snipper of line they Took my money as soon as I clicked on the freaking button, then started sending me emails for more money for delivery, I said please refund my money, it's in my bank under pending not in my account & I'm DSP, have apparently to wait for 7 days now ? To get my own money , very disappointed with my saint… Read more
George bank, think it's very very rude & caused me undue hardship waiting that long to receive my own refund, it's nonsense yet I pay the same Day,& now I have to freaking wait for 7days to receive my own freaking money WTH putrid scum bags corrupt st George bank
This branch is makes me re-think which bank I'm with. This bank goes downhill every time I'm here. This NAB vs St George line up system to withdraw cash is a bit of a joke. When I was finally served after waiting the longest "just one second", the pin pad wasn't working, and the mag swipe reader wasn't working on the keyboard.
Having been with St George for decades I’m now disappointed with the lack of service provided. Branches have been absorbed into Westpac branches and rarely is a specific St George staff member available. I’m told regularly to phone as Westpac staff don’t have access to all my information. Phone wait times are excessive and that’s if you even get… Read more
through… more likely to go round in circles with automated responses. I recently notified St George that I would be overseas and listed the countries attending, and still got locked out of my account. Main issue was the inability to receive secure codes for validation and there was no option for these to be sent to my registered email. That meant I couldn’t check my balances or transfer funds for a month … very stressful. St George now behaves like an online only bank however without the better interest rates. I honestly feel that Westpac are deliberately sabotaging St George so that it can eventually be shutdown.
In the past days have heard from both St George and Westpac staff.all employees and most… Read more