SMBC Comics Forum

I need to ask the Australians among you how you do banking.

Is Australian banking like European banking:
You want to give money to someone: Go to bank. Fill out a form with your account, the amount of money, the name, account number and bank number of the recipient. The employee checks that you are really the owner of the sender account. The money gets taken from your account and put into the account of the recipient, which may be at another bank, within 1 to 3 days.
Online banking: You log into onlinebanking on the website of your bank. The sender account is already verified by this of course. You type in the recipient name, account number and bank number as well as the amount. You are asked for a TAN as additional security. The money gets taken from your account and put into the account of the reicpient, which may be at another bank, within 1 to 3 days.
Checks/Cheques are rare or almost unknown.
Credit cards may be used for paying online or in (some) shops, but not for paying bills.
Bills are most often paid by automatic debit.
Rents are most often paid by standing order.

Or is Australian banking like American banking:
Everything, especially bills, can be paid and is most often paid by check|checque and/or credit card.
Money transfers are extraordinary, rare things.
If you did a money transfer, e.g. by online banking, you would not just type in the recipient (name, account number, bank number). There would need to be some kind of verification process (if it's at a different bank). Could be it takes some days and the bank would need to contact the other bank to check that this account exists and belongs to the person specified. Could be that you transfer a small amount of a dollar or so first and see if that works. Could be that you have to sign (real-life or virtually) some kind of agreement that whereever this money is going, it's gone, if you mistype a number or something.
Once the recipient is verified in some way, you would choose from the list of verified recipients in a dropdown menu when filling out the online form for making the money transfer.
It may be only permissible to make small transfers like this.

Erg, those were words. Let me try and answer them as quickly a I can:

We store money in our mattresses, that's how we've avoided the recession so far.

Yay for no longer being stone tired.

If you want to give someone money:
1. Take it out of your wallet and hand it to them.
2. I'm a modern age person who uses the internet for all money transfers. In this case you merely log in, type in the account name and details you want to transfer the money to (any bank) and the money goes from your account immediatly but may not show up in theirs (if it's another bank for sure) for 3 or 4 days.
3. I suppose if you want to go into a bank it's similar to what you've written for Europe.

If you want to give someone a bank cheque you must go into a bank and fill in a lot of information and be verified. Then whoever cashes the check gets that money. I had to do this once to buy a computer as my card limit was much smaller than the price of the computer.

Online banking: I pay all my bills this way. We have a system called BPay which every decent business has a number with, and you simply type that number into the pay details and it knows who the money is going to and from whom.

Cheques are used by some businesses and some individuals, but they are rare. They are generally used when you don't actually have the money and you want to delay someone a day or two. >_>

Credit cards and bank cards are used for almost all purchases. They are used for paying bills as well, but that is at the Post Office, where they use the BPay code and sort it out for you very quickly.

Bills are paid any way you want to pay them and they are very rarely automatically debited since they change all the time. Some times you can sign up to have them withdrawl whatever amount of money they need.

The only time I've rented it was done in automatic withdrawals from my account. But as long as you get the money to the office... some people still pay in cash (I think!)

Also if you put the money in the wrong account they will help you track it down and give it back to you. My sister once got a couple thousand dollars extra in her account, but they took it back.


Does this help? I don't know the whole banking system so you only get my experiance with it. Enjoy.

Yes, that helps a lot, thank you .

We are about to implement an online and mobile banking solution for the Australian market. It is very much targeted at the USAmerican and Canadian style of banking the way it is set up currently. When I was first shown a demo, I was like "WTF? What's this verification stuff? Why do you have to select a recipient from a list and not just type in their account?" Then I was explained that US and Canadian banking actually works this way.
Then I asked whether the Australians bank American style, too - and nobody knew. So currently the assumption for the prototype is that Australian banking is like American banking. We have people on the team from Israel, India, some Arabic country that I have forgotten, and, well, Germany ... and no direct connection to the customer to ask what they are actually expecting :sigh: . It's just some small tweaks, like drop-down list vs. text input fields and disabling the verification, but can prevent "WTF?" moments when demoing the prototype when it's done.

Bills are paid any way you want to pay them and they are very rarely automatically debited since they change all the time. Some times you can sign up to have them withdrawl whatever amount of money they need.

I thought that's what automatic debit is ... debitting/withdrawal of monthly changing amounts like phone bills.

Kimra wrote:Also if you put the money in the wrong account they will help you track it down and give it back to you. My sister once got a couple thousand dollars extra in her account, but they took it back.

That's a bit different here.
"Old style" transfers without IBAN: The name has to match the account. If it's not the right name, the money will not be put into the account and will come back. (This gives people problems who have a tiny business and use the private account for it, when people put the business name into the recipient field.) They take about three days.
"New style" transfers with IBAN and BIC: No checking of the name. Done within one day. I think this has only been put in place one year ago.
But my brother recently paid some bill cash in a bank, and the cash desk officer put it into the wrong account, and there they retrieved it when he complained.

Hmm surely they have research people who would look into all this sort of stuff? Strange.

For the real implementation they will, but not for this prototype. We need to finish it this year.

Well err don't trust me on anything. Because honestly I have no money to bank. Quickly other Australians! Assemble!

I have no income at the moment. The bank account I had stopped giving me interest about a year ago, which is about the time when I stopped caring. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Well, I pay my rent through direct debit from my account, and same with with car registration and insurance. Any online transactions are through my debit card (set up as a credit card, but takes money straight from my savings account). Online banking involves logging into the bank website with id and a password, and any payments i make to other people I transfer online using their account details and with sms confirmation. And thats about it. I don't have a phone bill to compare notes on

Thanks

I am from Australia.
Fuck cheques.

Yeah cheques are pretty darn rare. I think I've seen about one or two in my life.

I got a chequebook once. Filled it up with my name as the amount, so I could go up to random people, ask their names, give them the slip and say 'Cheque me out' or 'I want to make a deposit'

All the while thrusting my hips forward in the manner those executive clicky balls thingo's.

vv85 wrote:All the while thrusting my hips forward in the manner those executive clicky balls thingo's.

It's not just me right? This makes no sense what-so-ever.

p.s. Do I know you? I think not because you have not introduced yourself yet. Soon you will only be a ghost who gets no replies. That's how it works, you know.

Yeah, those things don't really do "forward" so much.