Couple of daft questions

[triple-bee]

Hello, probably been covered many times but as i,m a fat lazy bastard who can,t be arsed looking around, was wondering who where the best (not the cheapest) for

banking

mobile phones

car/bike/house insurance

a good sat nav

where to buy a car

furniture

phone/tv/broadband providers

gas/ electricity suppliers

i will think of more as we get a bit nearer but thanks in advance for any info on this lot

cheers Neil

PS. any one that saves me money gets beer

[BMWST?]

might help if you tell us where you intend to put down yer roots....might save you a ferry trip

[Headbanger]

Due to the size of our market all the providers are expensive and provide shit service. It doesn't really matter who you go for to provide your Mobile phone, internet, house phone, gas, electricity, TV.

likewise the banks will rape you and leave you naked and distressed in a ditch.

[p.dath]

Hello, probably been covered many times but as i,m a fat lazy bastard who can,t be arsed looking around, was wondering who where the best (not the cheapest) for

banking

mobile phones

car/bike/house insurance

a good sat nav

where to buy a car

furniture

phone/tv/broadband providers

gas/ electricity suppliers

i will think of more as we get a bit nearer but thanks in advance for any info on this lot

cheers Neil

PS. any one that saves me money gets beer

This will all be personal preference, but my preferences are:
Banking: National Bank (avoid ANZ, even though they own National Bank). Also avoid BNZ (tend to make lots of mistakes, and have been bailed out once by the Government 20 years ago or so).
Mobile Phone: Hands down, Vodafone. Avoid Telecom or the new player 2 Degrees.
Sat Nav: Tom Tom is easier to use initially, NavMan better once you have learned the interface. I'd go straight to the Nav Man.
Buy a car: From a dealer to begin with. Gets you a minimum of a 3 month warranty by law, and some legal protection.

And before anyone climbs on the bandwagon, I did say this was personal opinion.

[vifferman]

banking
KiwiBank
mobile phones
Vodafone - but there is a new player about to launch soon.
car/bike/house insurance
House/Contents Insurance - AMI; KiwiBike for bike
a good sat nav
TomTom - prices are the same everywhere, but TradeMe is worth a look
where to buy a car
See Frosty (member on here)
furniture
Big Save Furntiure chick or Trade Me if you've got the time
phone/tv/broadband providers
TV is either free or Sky; Phone and broadband probably Telstra Clear
gas/ electricity suppliers
Much of a muchness
[/QUOTE]

[Weeruthie]

Hey
I just moved over here last year from Scotland and to be honest it's all been really easy..... There is nowhere near as much paperwork and crap as you get back in the UK and the vast majority of people I've come across are genuinly keen to help.... As said before there isn't as much variety and a lack of competition but I just picked companies at random when I got here and have had no real issues at all..... Good luck

[cowboyz]

banking
No contest. Westpac just give away money! I bank with national though.

mobile phones

They are all average but where I live Vodophones coverage is very very average with a heap of blind spots. I am with telstraclear who use telecom network and they are average but the phone does what I need it to do.

car/bike/house insurance

kiwibiek is strongly recommened for bike. shop around for everything else. We have everything lumped with AMI and again, average but there is no better options.

a good sat nav

The country is not big enough to require a GPS.

where to buy a car

As above. A licenced dealer will give you some comeback. However, cheap run arounds have never been so cheap.

furniture

Buy your beer by the crate and that will soon be sorted.

phone/tv/broadband providers

They are all the same. I refuse to pay for TV that I never watch. Sky is over rated and you need a degree to work out their pricing plans and channels.

[Edbear]

Depending on personal experiences, some have had good and bad with most providers.

Personally;

Bank? Westpac or Kiwibank though ASB is good too.

Telco? Orcon did real well for my son-in-law, I'm with Telstra Clear for home, Broadband and Mobile and am very happy. Especially with their inbuilt anti-spam/virus software, second to none!

Ins? For bikes - Kiwibike, Classic, (over 30?), or get hold of Jetboy on KB he's with John Baker Ins. and did me a great deal on the bike.

For everything else I've gone with Tower after a lifetime with State. State have just priced themselves out of the park and after checking with a broker, went to Tower direct and they gave me a very good deal.

Buy a car? No contest around this site, call Frosty! If you know what you're doing, you could try TradeMe.

SatNav? Our Uniden is good but Navman and Garmin are good too. As said, though, NZ is pretty easy to find you way around.

TV is free to air but I'd also recommend Freeview which is in competition to Sky and I refuse to get Sky because of the expense and lack of personal choice in packages, making it dearer than it could be.

Just my 2c...
Furniture? We're in a recession, play hardball with just about anyone...

[YellowDog]

www.move2nz.com is where UK people go to discover what is what and learn from othe experience of others whom have already done the same.

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

Hello, probably been covered many times but as i,m a fat lazy bastard who can,t be arsed looking around, was wondering who where the best (not the cheapest) for

Im to lazy to answer...

[varminter]

Westpac is great for a loan but you may have to do a runner and live in Hong Kong. Kiwibank seems to have the lowest charges...none for me anyway. Cars, get it checked whatever the slimeball salesman says. Satnav well we only have the one road

[triple-bee]

Now this is one of the many reasons i can,t wait to move over, Christchurch for the geezer that asked

If i had asked on a UK site non of the lazy idle fekless morons would have given an answer and on here i get 10, all different ones but still a good result

thank u everybody, beer on me when i get there, August we think

Neil

[Mikkel]

Good luck. Coming from Europe you're bound to find umpteen different issues with each service that is questionable...

No matter, at the end of the day you'll be better off down here than anywhere else. (Provided you have a desire to enjoy life in the first place )

[Jantar]

banking Kiwibank, TSB or SBS are all New Zealand owned, so don't rape their customers quite as badly.

mobile phones Vodophone. They are still expensive by world standards, but have pretty good coverage and are slightly more customer focussed than Telescum.

car/bike/house insurance AMI for general insurance. John Baker for bike insurance, and contactable through Jetboy on this site.

a good sat nav Any Garmin with the locally produced (and free) maps.

where to buy a car There is so much choice in Christchurch that you'll soon find one without any difficulty.

furniture Big Save, Furniture Court, etc are all good.

phone Vodophone, Telstra/clear

tv The main channels are free to air. Sky is the only suscribed provider, but bloody expensive.

broadband providers Ihug, Telstr/Clear

gas/ electricity suppliers I should recommend Contact Energy as that is who I work for. But Meridian is also a good provider. Stay clear of Trustpower. Genesis is currently making a move in the South Island and may be cheapest in the short term.

[Grant`]

As to the banks, It does come down to where you live as some banks don't have as much presence in certain areas on the country.

Saying a bank makes a lot of a mistakes, is normally just the branch in question, no one is perfect and everyone is prone to mistakes at somestage.

Kiwibank can seem a lot cheaper but that doesn't actually make them a better bank, I work for BNZ and if you actually check out what your looking for its not overall a bad bank especially if you are looking at getting into the mortgage sector, But National, Westpac, BNZ, ASB, or even ANZ are all good in there own ways, they do have fees for varying services you just have to work out which one is the most convenient for you once you arrive as Locale can be sometimes as bigger issue as the $10 a month you maybe charged for an account.