New Zealanders' increasing love affair with the Internet is proving to be good news for BankDirect, which has recently revved up home lending and other services available via its website.
Since early last month, its customers have been able to tie down a mortgage online. What's more, they can also keep a close watch on how their application is progressing.
Marketing Manager Valerie Walshe says that approving a loan or even opening a cheque account isn't immediate, as credit checks are run on all applicants. With that in mind, the virtual bank has set up a new feature on its website called CheckPoint.
"You can log in to CheckPoint and there'll be messages there for you such as yes, we've received your application; yes, you've got provisional approval," Walshe says. "You can also leave messages or queries for us."
She says that CheckPoint has already proved hugely popular. "Providing services online is just a whole lot faster. Especially with loans, people just want to get it all sorted out as soon as possible."
Walshe won't give anything away on the growth of the bank's lending business except to say that it's overachieving its targets. She also professes unconcern at the prospect of increased online competition (BNZ, ANZ and AMP Banking have all announced plans to provide Internet banking services later this year).
"We've been surprised it's taken so long for other banks to come on board," Walshe says.
"However, we have 18 months' experience under our belt running a website and sorting out what customers want and what they don't want; so we'll just keep on moving the bar."
