The father of a 10-year-old is upset by ASB's "disgraceful" action for charging his daughter $300 after a cheque she tried to bank from her grandmother in Ireland bounced.
Jason Knott's daughter Alana was saving up for her first cellphone, and really looking forward to the €500 (NZ$815) from her grandma over Christmas.
"I had been saving for a long time for a phone with pocket money and birthday money. I was upset when I found out the bank took money from my savings," she said.
When her parents contacted the bank, they were told the €500 cheque had been dishonoured, and the $315 deducted from her account was an accumulation of bank fees from international banks (the Irish bank, a linked German bank) plus conversion fees.
On its website ASB states, it takes 21 working days to clear foreign cheques, but Alana's parents were not told about this until after the deduction was made from her account.
On its website ASB states it takes 21 working days to clear foreign cheques, but the parents were not told about this until after the deduction was made from her account.
If a foreign cheque gets dishonoured, it is also deducted from the receiver's account. In this case, it was Alana's account.
In November, ASB began requiring customers to deposit foreign cheques in person at a bank branch, no longer allowing customers to post in foreign cheques or bank them using a deposit box.
"If we knew it would take 21 days we would have told Alana's grandmother to keep that money aside. But she must have thought the bank had already cleared the amount and spent the amount around Christmas," Knott said.
"Alana's mum was not told it takes 21 days to clear. We're talking about a child's bank account here. It's disgraceful."
This was the first time the Knotts' had had to bank a cheque through ASB.
Alana set up the ASB account through her primary school about four years ago, but her parents banked with ANZ.
"Everyone else was able to receive their Christmas money from grandma, but because ASB took so long clearing the cheque, it was dishonoured."
Alana's parents have since closed her account with ASB and transferred her remaining savings to another bank.
Massey University's banking expert David Tripe said Alana's story was a cautionary tale for Kiwis transferring foreign currency via cheques.
"It sounds like a substantial amount, and I don't know how ASB clears their cheques, but I'm not convinced ASB has profited from this transaction. It is a cautionary tale in relation to foreign cheques," Tripe said.
ASB has been approached for comment.