'A truly Australian bank at heart'
Kate Henderson has a strong appreciation of knowledgeable people, especially in the banking and finance sector. A clinical psychologist by trade, she runs a private practise specialising in anxiety disorders and relationship stressors.
Prior to working as a psychologist, Kate honed her financial expertise working as a Business Development Manager for third-party mortgage providers. It’s meant she has become a highly skilled banking customer, “I feel like my early experiences in finance helped me engage with the market and have a certain expectation around how my information and what information is assessed.”
With husband Troy, the 44-year-old has banked with all the major banks, and had either a bank account or credit facility with them, so she has an excellent understanding about how to identify a good lender, find a suitable product suite and determine the specific facilities available.
The couple were customers of a ‘Big 4’ bank in early 2026, when Kate realised the interest rates were going to rise. “That big bank wouldn’t negotiate with me around the fixed rate offerings, so I started to investigate alternative banking options”.
Initially, she had no knowledge about BankVic, “my understanding was the bank used to be the Police Credit Union and serviced that community, so I didn’t think we were eligible”.
But after finding BankVic’s website which she describes as “very easy to navigate and gave me the information I needed,” Kate says she was “happily surprised” to find as a psychologist she qualified as part of BankVic’s allied health offering. She says, “we could get access to what is essentially a community-funded lender.” It was the first significant step in the couple’s decision to change their banking arrangements.
When she first contacted BankVic, Kate expected to wait on the phone for at least an hour before speaking to someone. “I got through in an incredibly short period of time, it was only about 4 minutes” she enthuses. “The person I spoke to was knowledgeable, warm and patient, so I found the service at the very first touch point – exceptional”.
Kate decided to submit an application online. She was aware her submission was complex as she is self-employed and a director of multiple companies “so my income verification process can be tricky”. Following up her application, Kate reached out to BankVic and after a short wait “spoke with someone again who was warm, friendly and helpful."
The Member Experience team consultant advised her application had been allocated to Home Loan Manager Angela Butera and knew her back story.
“I thought how interesting! I’m calling a call centre and yet this person has personal knowledge of this lender I’ve been allocated to. It told me there’s a longevity to the staff with BankVic – which was another green flag,” Kate recalls.
But it’s been her dealings with BankVic’s Angela Butera that truly astonished Kate.
“Angela is by far the most exceptional person in this field I have had the opportunity to come across. She was able to set my expectations and worked day and night for us. I had some initial complications because of my self-employed income and we problem solved it together. She went into bat for us a number of times to hold rates that had been increased. I could not speak more highly of Angela – she was absolutely brilliant.”
Having worked with mortgage brokers across three states in her previous work, Kate says working with Angela “was the best experience I’ve had in borrowing funds in 24 years."
She believes Angela genuinely cares for the people she deals with, a rare quality in an employee. “I kept saying to her ‘look we’re so blown away by the effort you’re going to is there a commission or some bonus I can get you? I really want to see you acknowledged in some way’. And she always responded ‘I’m on salary – it’s ok, this is what I do!’”
Kate and her husband are now exclusively BankVic customers and have a fixed rate mortgage, off-set mortgage, off-set variable mortgage and joint and single primary transaction and savings accounts.
“I would sum up our experience with BankVic as exceptional service, people that care and that feel truly Australian at heart."
Her final advice for anyone considering becoming a customer is “to pick-up the phone and make a phone-call because once you have the opportunity to speak to someone from BankVic – you won’t be questioning whether you should be a member or not.”
