Hi

Just thinking ahead a little....

When we finally sell our house :lol2: (hope you can detect the hint of sarcasm there!) , and the completion money comes thru, we will have lots of bills etc to settle. We are planning to stay with relatives for a few days/couple of weeks after completion on the house, so we have time to tie up all lose ends etc.

What's the best thing to do?

Keep your english bank account, have the completion money paid into that, settle everything, close bank account and go!

Is it best to keep an english bank account open?

Should i be thinking about getting a ozzie bank account now?

any advice

greatly appreciated

many thanks
lorraine

If you think that the exchange rate will improve as time goes by (I'm dreaming for the 2.6 we had 12 months ago!) you may want to keep some money in the UK to exchange at a later date (but make sure it's in an account which has been opened before July 2003).

Bank Accounts in Oz - there are quite a few who have specific migrant banking services (Commonwealth, Westpac & HSBC). I opened an account at the ANZ (www.anz.com) when I was in Adelaide (but you can also do it from the UK). I have internet banking set up, so I have been able to pay for things such as my house deposit direct in Aus $. A doddle to pay money into with currency broker I used (www.tranzfers.com).

Hi

Have just checked the ANZ website and they won't let you open an account from the UK unless the signatories on the account can go to Oz to be identified prior to opening!! - so unless you are going over before your actual final move it is not an option from the uk. I may be wrong on this but that is how it read to me.

Suzy

Hi Lorraine,

Would recommend you keep your UK bank account open for a while after leaving. There will be a number of little things going in and out I'm sure - not to mention hopefully a rebate from the tax man!

Louise

Ok if this is the case and you can't open a bank account in OZ from the UK,

how do you get your money?

I know this may sound really thick..... sorry....

but you have sold your house and the funds are in your UK bank account... you get to OZ - how do you get your money?

sorry, guys ...... no experience of intl finance!!!


thanks
lorraine

I was told by the HSBC in the UK and by email from one in Adelaide that I could open an HSBC account by post. I would have to go to a branch in the UK to have id verified etc They said it would take a few weeks due to the posting back and forth of the paperwork.

Gavin

Hi

We have opened an account with the Commonwealth bank and I have to say have been impressed with their service. Fill out the forms which you can download from their web site, send to London with a certified copy of passport and utility bill, to show your address and bob's your uncle. Took less than a week. We opened a joint account, before we realised that I may need to got to Adelaide on my own and the migrant account lady in Adelaide has been so helpful. She has agreed to activate the account with just me attending the interview and Martin can see her when he arrives. Also you don't usually get your Aus account number until you have paid some money in, but I needed it for my new employer. They e mailed me the day after with the info. Very impressed with the service so far.


Lesley

Hi Lorraine,
(it's bu**er this waiting around, eh? :( )
We opened 2 accounts with westpac bank. Pretty straight forward procedure, no references or anything like that from current bank. Only took about 2 weeks for e-mail to come back saying accounts have been opened but they needed transfer of funds within 2 weeks to activate, so, tongue in cheek I e-mailed back "how about if I put $1 in each?"
"no worries" was the reply "as long as you transfer a bit more than that before you come to pick up your bank cards!". Didn't bother with their credit card as the rates were a bit steep & it had an annual fee so we checked out this link for fee-free card with 0% on balance transfers wizard
We're using HIFX to transfer funds between UK & Oz (it was an HIFX rep. that suggested the westpac bank as their charges are much less than Commonwealth Bank?).
:sign03: David.

It certainly seems to be the case Suzy. Maybe they've just changed it. I'll check with my friend tomorrow and let you know.

Hi

We opened an account with Commonwealth via the internet and they sent our papers through the post. There's nothing in there at the moment and we will have to go to them to activate it once we get to Oz.

Mandy :bouncy:

We have opened up an account with the Commonwealth Bank so we could transfer funds over to Oz for the bond,when we get over there we will look at other Banks and their charges.

As said before it's real easy to open,your Commonwealth account in Adelaide becomes live once you transfer money into it,whilst in the UK you will have two accounts,one in London the other in Adelaide.

Best of luck


Kev :cool shake:

Right, so correct me if i am wrong ......

If your keep your english account open it must be one dated before 2003 - why?

and yes you can open an ozzie account here, transfer money etc but need to "activate" it by going in when you arrive in adelaide?

Ali ;)

Worth checking before you open an Oz account - will they give you a credit card? Commonwealth did for us as an unexpected but welcome part of the deal. Since you're likely to be unemployed and with no credit record when you get here you might find it hard to get one otherwise :blink:

cant tell you much about aussie banck account but i work for Nationwide and the Flex account (current account) is one of the only 2 i think that does not charge you for doing withdrawals abroad either ATM or paying by Visa all the other banks charge 2.75% for every transaction so you could keep some money in there until you get sorted and then when you have opened your account over there transfer it over by swift you may need to speak to your local manager and see if you can leave a form with them which they action on your say so.

emma

Thanks very much for this!! It just happens all our banking is with the nationwide including a flexaccount!!!

I did wonder if nationwide charged for withdrawals abroad as i withdrew cash in spain recently and noticed i wasn't charged.

Thanks
lorraine

Your welcome. I would certainly keep my money in esavings as it pays such a good interest rate and just transfer when i needed it. I dont know what the rates on savings are like in oz but i think the esavings is about 5% gross. It is so easy to use the online banking for nationiwde.

Hmmm - I'd say Nationwide's website is :sign53: compared to Barclays or First Direct.

Back to the original point. If you leave it in the UK - make sure you fill in the form to get your interest paid gross (especially as you'll be taxed on it in Oz).

Regarding transferring your funds - even though they don't charge you foreign comission but I'd suggest checking what the rate is before proceding.

oh well we all have our opinions cant please everyone.

And yes you will be charged if you transfer your funds via swift because Nationwide has to use one of the banks as a third party and they levy the charge. At present it is about £20.00 to do the transfer and whenever you transfer money or use exchange facilities you should always check the rates.

Had the same problem with smile (co-op) bank & SWIFT payments, they charge 0.25% of transfer, minimum charge £13 maximum £45. As westpac haven't asked for a specific amount to activate account I'm trying to keep the charge to the minimum.
Charges get even worse if you ask for a bankers draft, there must be some way round this if you're not transferring all your money over in one go? :help:

Went into the abbey national yesterday to close 1 account down and find out about keeping 1 open.

Couldn't close the account i wanted to caus i needed to bring the cheque book with me.

Was then told that i'm not allowed to keep a uk bank account open unless i hold down a registered address here. They recomended i open an off shore account if i wanted to keep one linked with the uk.

Think i will leave 1 open for now as i guess by redirecting post i can keep theaccount active for at least a year. Shouldn't need it by then anyway!

Bit of a pain having to have a UK address?
Not had any problem like that with smile, they'll also pay interest at gross amount on all our accounts if we give then proof we are non-UK residents.
David.

Pieman - get yourself an account with one of the brokers. You transfer your cash to them (in sterling) and they buy and transfer your Aussie dollars to your account. HIFX have a minimum £5,000 deal, whereas with Tranzfers you can do it with as little as £50. The charge is £7 per transaction - regardless of size.

PM me if you want more info.

Just got an idea of rate from HIFX versus Nationwide rate- on GBP80k makes around AU$1100 difference...

I am keeping my UK bank accounts open - may well be useful. Not telling them I've left the UK - my post is simply being redirected to my mum's house....

Shan't tell them till I have to :P

I got an HSBC offshore account when I worked in Kuwait, still have and use it as my everyday account. They will post your statements anywhere and operate it in all kinds of currencies.

I will be keeping it open when we move and probably have the statements sent to my mums till we get a permanent address in Adelaide.

Gavin

Cheers Marco,
have pm'd you :happy03:

Commonwealth Bank has no charges if you transfer over £15000 in any transaction,anything below £15000 carries a £15 charge.

Don't know what happened when we transfered our bond money over which was less than the £15000 I never paid any charges.


Kev :cool shake:

I opened a HSBC account in Adelaide whilst still in UK. Its an online account which I can acess from anywhere and they sent our debit cards and cheque books to us in UK, so I can use them as soon as we land. Only stipulation was we had to deposit A$2000 in the account to open it.

This is probably the best thing to do if you want to keep account in uk. The reason the banks dont like it if you have a foreign address is a) because of credit score and b) because it cost them more to send the statements abroad and there printing systems cant cope with the difference in address styles

I really dont think it is a massive problem coz if you are planning on staying in oz you wont really need to use the uk credit score system.

Do as you have said keep it at your mums address until you are told otherwise.

Was the rate alot different?