Hiver Is Closing and All Existing Accounts Will Be Migrated to UniBank

Ave Maria on 28/02/2025 - 23:35
Last edited 03/03/2025 - 17:17 by 1 other user

Today I noticed a new tab in the Hiver online page under the label "Hiver is Closing"

The key date is 04 April 2025. No email communication has been received yet. The provided info indicates that account numbers will remain the same/usable but advise to use the UniBank BSB for future payment instructions. That makes sense as TMU/UniBank offers the exact same products with a different BSB.

List of UniBank products
UniBank Term and Conditions
Fees & Charges & Transfer Limits

My first impression is that migration will be transparent and Hiver users would not be impacted much, other than logging in as UniBank customers.

Anyone that may have any additional useful info, please use this forum topic to post updates.

Update on 1st March 2025

The Investment Products Leaflet has been updated as of 1st March 2025. The new Target Saver rate is 5.00% (dropped like everything else)

Products & Investments

Update on 3rd March 2025
I received a call from Teachers Mutual at about 2:46pm that I did not get a chance to answer and did not follow up.
Then I noticed I have received an email at 2pm giving me the option to book a time for a call back. I did so from the email and they called back at 3:54pm. The call lasted about 5 minutes and after asking if the conversion can be done today, I was switched over to Unibank on the fly. This was as easy as pi -:).

To summarise, other than a new BSB number & the UniBank logo everything else remains as is.

Access is enabled via UniBank Online web page or the UniBank app using the existing member account & password logon.

  • PayID remains active and ported over
  • All existing accounts & Balances, history of transactions ported over
  • Payee Address Book ported over
  • Interest Rates remain the same
  • Daily Transfer Limits per account remain the same

I also received some additional answers from Hiver via email that I am quoting exactly as received below.

  • You can continue to access your accounts with Hiver until the 4th of April, after this you will be required to log into your account via UniBank's online banking.

  • Any existing Direct Debit arrangements will work using the old BSB - for new payments, please ensure you use the new UniBank BSB number.

  • At this stage we plan to keep the Hiver BSB but it would be best to use the UniBank BSB going forward to avoid any delays/confusion.

In other words Amazing

Please note that once converted to UniBank you can no longer logon onto Hiver.

Financial

Related Stores

Hiver Bank
Hiver Bank

Comments

  • McMaferMur on 01/03/2025 - 00:19

    We have mebank ubank and unibank.
    Not so creative

    • Ave Maria on 01/03/2025 - 00:37

      MyBank would be a good one to have but it has been taken by loan sharks

  • Wiadro on 01/03/2025 - 00:28

    Never heard of it

  • Stingo on 01/03/2025 - 14:22
    +2

    Excellent as now telephone support will be officially and fully supported rather than depending on the rep you speak with at one of the other brands. It would be somewhat helpful if they explicitly stated how long they will support the existing BSB for. Is there much of a cost in maintaining a duplicate BSB? I wonder what it means in terms of UI. From what little I can tell the other brands have different UIs so I wonder if they will be getting a update or we will get a downgrade. It's slightly interesting that every Hiver member will be going to Unibank as some don't meet the membership requirements of Unibank but do for other brands but the TM constitution give them the flexibility to do so and obviously it is simplest just to transfer all Hiver members to the one brand which is presumably the one the majority of members meet the qualifications for.

    Thanks for heads up.

  • fredblogs on 03/03/2025 - 15:45

    Got the email. Any idea why they need to call, if they're going to convert the account regardless?

    • Ave Maria on 03/03/2025 - 16:13
      +1

      as I posted below - book a time today before 5pm - they will call staight away (beat the crowds kind off) and you will be a Unibank customer with minutes.
      PayId will remain the same. Payee address book migrated. Only difference is the Unibank BSB but old one will still work for payments in (I use PayId anyway).

  • Ave Maria on 03/03/2025 - 16:10

    That was the best service/experience I ever had with a bank - and saying that for Hiver means a lot.

    After I send them an email - the "Hiver is Closing Tab" was removed and I received an email to book a time to complete my conversion.

    I booked for today at about 1:30pm and they called back within 15 minutes.

    After a quick identification and answering some of my questions (all good) I asked if I can convert to Unibank today.

    It was done within 2 minutes.

    I can logon online (and also download the UniBank App) to Unibank and everything looks exactly the same as it was in Hiver.

    A very pleasant surprise.

    • fredblogs on 03/03/2025 - 16:17

      how about interest rates?

      • Ave Maria on 03/03/2025 - 16:36

        It's all the same as per updated TMU/UniBank leaflet

        • fredblogs on 03/03/2025 - 16:45

          Hmm didn't realise it had gone down from 5.25% to 5% for Target Saver.

          But still - what is the point of the phone call if they're going to change it regardless?

          • Ave Maria on 03/03/2025 - 17:11
            +2

            @fredblogs: I added an update on 1st March in my post about the rate drop (even if Hiver did not) -:)

            Admitedly the email was not well worded and does bring that question up.

            Putting that aside you are probably better off letting them do the conversion for you as early as possible.

            You can do it tomorrow as it is now past 5pm & verify everything is fine as soon as possible rather than sit and wait until April 4th and wonder if something will go wrong.

            If you do not want to call & let them convert on 4th April that is an option as well. Entirerly up to you.

            More accounts converted earlier = less accounts to convert on April 4th. It make sense to me.

            It also minimises the number of cases (there is always one) that would claim they knew nothing about this or I did not want to convert but you did it anyway.

            I personally feel better now that I know the converssion was trouble free and I can logon as a UniBank customer from today.

  • Ave Maria on 03/03/2025 - 17:25

    I update the original post with what I verified so far and also additional answers from Hiver/UniBank regarding the use of the old Hiver BSB

  • Stingo on 03/03/2025 - 18:34

    Thanks for the post. I haven't made up my mind about whether to call them or not. Probably not. Aside from the huge cost that the Hiver exercise must have involved they are now wasting their resources by suggesting that people call them and reissuing cards before they expire. FWIW, the St. George, Bank of Melbourne, Bank SA don't have this sort of nonsense where you can only login to the brand you signed up for so you can choose to login to whichever one has the most pleasing colour scheme.

    It would be much less worrisome for people if they just straight out committed to keeping the old BSB as an alias forever. What they've written leaves open they possibility they may choose to remove or deprecate the old BSB with very short notice at some time. I expect the old BSB will be kept indefinitely. That's typical bank practice when they shutter a branch. (Yes, I know about the UBank shit show but that was changing accounts from one system to another.) There isn't any special magic in the system that differentiates existing DDAs from new ones. What are they going to do reject credits or debit to the old BSB if they haven't occurred previously? I don't think so.

    • Ave Maria on 03/03/2025 - 19:22
      +1

      You don't need to call them. When you receive the email there is a link to book date & time for them to call you back.

      If nothing else talking to someone introduces a personal element into the new relationship with UniBank and buids trust into the process.

      I found the conversation with the UniBank rep very pleasant, whatever needed to be done was completed in minutes & questions asked answered with confidence and checked before provided to me.

      They seem to know what they are doing, planned it well & kept it simple (unlike Ubank's migration of SMSF account to NAB & the 86400 merger).

  • Stingo on 03/03/2025 - 22:10
    +1

    When you receive the email there is a link to book date & time for them to call you back.

    That's what I meant but thinking about it, it would be preferable if you can call them and have it done rather than schedule a call for a 4 hour windows even if they will give you some advance notice of it.

    If nothing else talking to someone introduces a personal element into the new relationship with UniBank and buids trust into the process.

    It's just a cosmetic change not a new relationship. I rang Unibank to open my Target Saver as I failed to do it with the app.

    They seem to know what they are doing, planned it well & kept it simple (unlike Ubank's migration of SMSF account to NAB & the 86400 merger).

    The hard bit is maintaining the fiction between the brands. They could if they chose allow any of the divisions to use any of the others UIs. The underlying system doesn't care.

    As a owner I object to the inefficiency. They should merge the divisions into one give it a decent brand name and open the membership to all.

  • fredblogs on 03/03/2025 - 22:16
    +1

    That's what I meant but thinking about it, it would be preferable if you can call them and have it done rather than schedule a call for a 4 hour windows even if they will give you some advance notice of it.

    Also, identifying yourself by giving your personal details to someone who's called you is not great from a security perspective.

    • Stingo on 03/03/2025 - 23:12

      Yes, I had thought of that. Which is probably at least in part a reason of why they state they will be sending a secure message prior to the call on the "Conversion" page, Not really good enough unless they can include a verification code in the message which they will subsequently quote in the call. Alternatively, they could have asked people to nominate a code on the page. Given you've already given permission to convert the account do they really need to identify you just in case somebody hacked into your email and triggered the callback? Premature conversion doesn't matter. (If it persists see your doctorfinancial advisor.) The option to resign on the form and disperse the funds is more of a problem. Now that you've enabled paranoid mode: what about the dodgy looking links in the email I clicked on. I might have been phished already!

      • Ave Maria on 04/03/2025 - 04:06

        I received the call without receiving any secure message. I appreciate that security is paramount but it is standard practice to identify yourself. If they send me a code via SMS and asked me to quote it back to them I would have refused as that is how hackers operate -:). I have also refused providing answers to secret questions when some other banks asked (hey its SECRET ok stop asking). As long as you do not hand over your password and any other means of accessing your account it is OK. I got 2 calls and both came from the same number (I did not answer the 1st time even though it was id as Teachers Mutual). I checked the number and it was the legit Teachers Mutual phone number so in combination with ame initiating the call back I trusted the 2nd call. After confirning what the call was about I was OK to id myself using name, DOB and address, member number and when I opened the account. I was asked if I had any questions (I did) and after I got answers I asked to be ported over to UniBank, I got online while on the phone and everything checked OK. So there is nothing to worry about, but if you are worried too much don't talk to anyone and wait until they do the conversion for you.

        • Stingo on 04/03/2025 - 07:53
          +1

          I received the call without receiving any secure message.

          Ha, they don't follow the procedure they outlined.

          I appreciate that security is paramount but it is standard practice to identify yourself.

          Unfortunately. My first response is always "Hey, you called me."

          If they send me a code via SMS and asked me to quote it back to them I would have refused as that is how hackers operate -:).

          No, I was suggesting that a more sound procedure would be for them to provide a code in the secure message (that they didn't send you) or that you provide a code when booking the callback.

          I checked the number and it was the legit Teachers Mutual phone number so in combination with ame initiating the call back I trusted the 2nd call.

          No need to justify what you did. I've done the same sort of thing when I'm expecting a call even though I know full well that CLI can be spoofed. I try to reduce the gap for the leap of faith I have to make before I trust them but when it comes to the ID step I usually give in at the mexican stand off stage rather than take the usually offered option of calling back because that's a pain. I hate myself for doing this.

          So there is nothing to worry about, but if you are worried too much don't talk to anyone and wait until they do the conversion for you.

          I'm not that worried just pointing out the vulnerabilities that can be exploited by attackers in what I see as an unnecessary process. I do appreciate you sharing your experiences and please don't consider anything I've written here to be any criticism of yourself as none is intended. One question though: I notice in your description of your experience you asked if the conversion could "be done today." Was it your sense there would be some delay in the "conversion" ? (perhaps makeover is a better term for such a cosmetic change.)

          • Ave Maria on 04/03/2025 - 11:57
            +1

            @Stingo: I have a feeling that the "conversion", "migration", all meaning the same, to Unibank is simply a case of activating the existing logon credentials for UniBank and disabling it in Hiver (basicaly moving to the Westpac set up for its subsidiaries St George, Banks of Melbourne & Adelaide). They probably have a automated script for the support team that does that. I am saying this on the basis that it took less than a minute to move me over to UniBank, the lady I was talking to said give me a second -:), and I could log on in Unibank online.

            The ony oddity is that I was initially told that I have to download the UniBank App to logon but when I asked can if I logon online now without downloading the App first the answer was yes and that is what I did.

            I did download the app later and used the same logon as for online initially, but after setting a PIN for the app then it is just a PIN based (6 digits) logon from the app. The UniBank app is not as good as the Hiver one, just ignore the slow response & tendency to show an error when there is no error. I do mostly online banking anyway.

            Interestin enough, the only new account offering hat I was not able to take from Hiver is the Essential Saver account that hs a slighly better offering than the Hiver Saver (the replacement of the Target Saver). It is only offered in pairs with the Existing Everyday Diret account that was never changed or replaced recently. Having the essentil Saver does not offer you an extra account with a $50K daily limit (as you have to use the Everyday Account) unless you do not already have a Target Saver (but does offer an extra option to park money on the way out of UniBank if needed minimising interest loss).

            I am not sure if everyone is aware but having more account types in Hiver multiplies the number of times you can use your $50K daily limit. In my case is the EveryDay Direct account plus 3 another Saver Accounts (not the Essential one).

            There is always a chance the Teachers Mutual will come up with another market beting savings account like they have done in the past (bait new fish & then close to new business a short while afterwards). It is not an ethical practise but if benefits stick for existing savers why not.

            • Stingo on 04/03/2025 - 13:19

              @Ave Maria:

              I have a feeling that the "conversion", "migration", all meaning the same, to Unibank is simply a case of activating the existing logon credentials for UniBank and disabling it in Hiver (basicaly moving to the Westpac set up for its subsidiaries St George, Banks of Melbourne & Adelaide).

              I can't claim to know how TMBL set up their systems but it could be a simple as switching the division field in the member record and kicking off the card re-issue. The St. George clone arrangement is similar but they don't bother restricting you to whatever brand you signed up for.

              The UniBank app is not as good as the Hiver one, just ignore the slow response & tendency to show an error when there is no error

              So that is definitely different? I was half-expecting that it was more dated but I somehow got the impression it was the same. I wonder why the haven't replaced it with a Hiver look alike one yet.

              I suspect online banking is subtly different based on scant evidence. I once got customer service to enable a secure message alert which is not something I see as an option in Hiver IB.

              I am not sure if everyone is aware but having more account types in Hiver multiplies the number of times you can use your $50K daily limit. In my case is the EveryDay Direct account plus 3 another Saver Accounts (not the Essential one).

              I'm not aware. So the Hiver Saver allows you to withdraw directly then? I guess I should open a few before I am converted. Thanks for the heads up.

              There is always a chance the Teachers Mutual will come up with another market beting savings account

              A chance but I'm not optimistic. I like the bait but hate the switch. Thankfully there is OzB and Whirlpool to alert you to interest rate changes.

        • fredblogs on 04/03/2025 - 10:18
          +2

          As a general rule, if someone calls you claiming to be "your bank", assume they are lying and ask if you can call them back on the bank's number.

          Now in this case - the odds of someone intercepting your Hiver email and then impersonating them is very low, so I'd be fine with that level of risk. But they should not be training customers to think that that's ok.

          • Stingo on 04/03/2025 - 10:48
            +1

            @fredblogs: They don't have to intercept the e-mail they can just take advantage of the situation which is now public knowledge. I reckon they might have a fair chance with someone who has read the email even if they hadn't made a booking but unless they specifically know you have a Hiver account I don't think it would be worth their efforts given what a small market share Hiver would have. I can't resist pointing out that the Hiver process provides a nice template for targeted phishing to emulate: an e-mail with links pointing to tmbank.com.au with the text providing a plausible explanation about why the links don't point to hiver.bank and a booking page that doesn't ask for much information (not even a phone in this case but an attacker might know that or ask that it be verified on the call back page.) What was that advice about never clicking on links in emails again?

  • peter on 04/03/2025 - 11:09

    I should have saved my Hiver card*, one for the trophy cabinet. Is this the shortest-lived Australian bank ever? It looked great but the back end and particularly lack of customer service let it down in my opinion. I wish them well and hope they learn from this probably costly mistake.

    • Cut up and disposed of securely because I'm a rule follower!
    • Ave Maria on 04/03/2025 - 12:02
      +1

      It was never really a new bank was it? Just a Digital/Online only version of Teachers Mutual that is now merged into one of the other incarnations.

      I am adding the Hiver card to my collection of past & present - I think I still have my US Citi bank card & Credit card from the 80's -:) and my 90's UK Royal Bank of Scotland card.

      It may worth a lot of money some day -:)

    • Stingo on 04/03/2025 - 12:50
      +1

      Hiver is just a digital brand of a Teachers Mutual Bank Limited though they refer to it as a division and makes their divisions appear as if they are separate banks - which happen to share everything except branding related stuff. St George, ANZ and Westpac have had their own digital brands in the past. The St. George one was called dragonDirect and you can think of that like the currebt BankSA and BankofMelbourne skins which allow you to access your accounts via any of UIs so a particularly thin veneer. The old ANZ brand One Direct lived from 2006 to 2009 according to Banking Day but existing home loans lived beyond that. They used the same UI as ANZ with a different colour if I recall but their systems were partitioned apparently with ANZ retail staff claiming they couldn't view them. RAMS an acquisition of the Westpac group offered a savings product on their own systems. In more recent history neo-bank Xinja was founded in 2017 and closed it's banking product in 2020. Hiver was announced in Jun 2021 but stopped accepting new customers in November last year. So depending on how you measure it I would say One Direct, Xinja and Hiver but the difference with Hiver is the accounts aren't being closed or even changing their account number so I wouldn't be including it in the race. If I were running the show I wouldn't be replacing the debit card with a Unibank one until it expires. Does Hiver even have a unique BIN of it's own?

  • peter on 04/03/2025 - 13:26

    Good points. I don't remember One Direct but Xinja and Volt I do, I had accounts with them both and both now closed. Xinja would definitely qualify as one of Australia's shortest-lived banks and probably Volt too.

  • test8888 on 04/03/2025 - 13:46

    I recall there would be $10 refund to close hiver account, will they still honor?

    • Stingo on 04/03/2025 - 14:00
      +1

      Yes, resigning from Hiver is actually an option on the "Book a call" form linked from the e-mail.

  • Ave Maria on 04/03/2025 - 15:39

    • I changed most of my other bank payee address books to use the UniBank BSB.

    • I tested the PayID from CBA and it works as is for payments to UniBank (translating to the Unibank account as this is what the PayID is now linked).

    • I changed the RaboBank nominated account BSB and send them a $1 Verify account transaction (just to be on the safe side). If I need to take all my money out of Unibank quickly at one go same day that is the best way (Direct Debit from Rabobank). Likewise if I need to empty my Rabobank account I can do a direct debit the other way.

    • Finally I did another set of payments in and out using the Unibank Bank Account to receive an OSCO payment and send an OSKO payment back out.

    Everything so far is working as expected in Unibank for both payments in and payments out.

  • Ave Maria on 04/03/2025 - 19:21

    Please note that when sending a $1 Verify account to Rabobank, as it was the case for Hiver, Unibank uses the Teachers Mutual BSB 812-170

    St George is another bank that does that (uses a different BSB than the actual account BSB).

    Just send a secure message or call the 1-800 Rabo number to explain the missmatch and they will approve the update (otherwise auto-approved).

    Despite UniBank claiming that the Hiver BSB will still work I did not want to risk a failing direct debit/credit request.

    It will be interesting when I need to tansfer money out from UniBank as 806-036 is operated by CUSCAL (and we al know what that means = unecessary holds & delays). I was fortunate not to have anything held or delayed while using Hiver.

    • Stingo on 05/03/2025 - 03:12

      Despite UniBank claiming that the Hiver BSB will still work I did not want to risk a failing direct debit/credit request.

      I'll bet you can you use one from any of the brands. When BECS direct credits fail funds are returned to the sender. A biller may charge a dishonour fee for a failed BECS direct credit as can the bank that receives the DDR but no such fee is listed amongst the Hiver fees. The only risk would be if the use of a different BSB matches a different account but it appears that account numbers are unique amongst the TMBL brands.

      It will be interesting when I need to tansfer money out from UniBank as 806-036 is operated by CUSCAL

      I think you'll find that TMBL uses Cuscal to handle all their payments and probably provide additional services. Did you know that CUSCAL originally stood for Credit Union Services Corporation Limited?

  • Ave Maria on 05/03/2025 - 12:35

    I also think that it does not make a difference if you use any of them (but why take a risk -:) - I believe internaly it is all 812-170

    • BSB 812-812 (TCU - HIVER)

    • BSB 806-036 (CRU - UNIBANK)

    • BSB 812-170 (TCU - Teachers Mutual Bank)

    All 3 BSBs map to the same Branch = Teachers Mutual Bank Limited, 28-38 Powell Street, Homebush, NSW, 2140

    • Stingo on 05/03/2025 - 21:18

      but why take a risk

      For science! Thinking about it, there is a possibility it may not work for some divisions now. TMBL occasionally absorbs other credit unions so there is a possibility one of their BSBs has account numbers that belong to different members accounts because TMBL chose to retain original account numbers when absorbing the original bank. Without further information we can't make assumptions about other BSBs working. What we can tell though is that when TMBL absorbed Unicredit and created Unibank they migrated those accounts to new numbers.

      All 3 BSBs map to the same Branch = Teachers Mutual Bank Limited, 28-38 Powell Street, Homebush, NSW, 2140

      That isn't particularly meaningful. Incidently, TMBL is looking to absorb another bank subject to members' approval. As it will likely get its own division without membership restrictions should the merger go ahead Hiver would be completely redundant so it may be they've decided to wrap up Hiver now rather than later. Australian Mutual Bank seems a much better name for a bank than Hiver don't you think?

  • Ave Maria on 05/03/2025 - 22:55

    Seems to me that the CEO Anthony Hughes has embarked on an empire building path with TMBL eventualy becoming just a single large big bank.
    Based on previous announcements the plan is to also reduce the number of physical branches, even though there are only a few anyway.

    • Stingo on 06/03/2025 - 01:12
      +1

      I don't think any money changes hands with these mergers and I suspect it's more of a case that the smaller banks recognising that it would be better for their members if merged with another mutual with similar aims. In the longer term getting bigger reduces the management overhead. As to who knocks on whose doors I think it probably a case of both.

      Based on previous announcements the plan is to also reduce the number of physical branches, even though there are only a few anyway

      That doesn't surprise me as both consolidation and shutting branches is part of cutting costs but the merger FAQ does state that TMBL members will eventually be able to use AMB branches so in order for that not to be an outright falsehood they will need to retain at least one AMB branch for a period after that AMB accounts are migrated to TMBLs systems. It's hard to imagine that all 6 NSW AMB branches will continue to exist long term as TMBL has only 7 branches nation wide to service almost 4 times as many members. You might think AMB's merger FAQ might contain a question along the lines of "Will all the branches be maintained?" but it is a mirror image of the TMBL FAQ so that question conveniently doesn't appear.

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