Jolyn

Spoke to various banks and cluey relatives in Oz to make some sense of banking plus added in what we remember from living there. Aim is to maximise interest on dosh from sale of our UK house until we buy in Melbourne plus minimise ripoff bank charges.

Our plan is below. Hopefully might save someone else a bit of brain space figuring it out.

Basics:

- Govt debits tax is taken on all transactions from accounts with chequebook facility - not just on cheques from those accounts. Daft.

- Impossible to avoid charges for using ATMs from other banks so you need to bank with a 'biggie' that has loads of machines: Top four are NAB (National Australia Bank), CBA (Commonwealth), ANZ and Westpac (Bank of Melbourne in Victoria). First two are the biggest. Check who's the biggest where you're going.

- Banks charge ridiculous amounts for current accounts unless you have lots of money with them. You have to have a $20K 'relationship' in total with the bank to avoid all charges. So it's possible to have a basic account charge free with minimal money in it (earning even more minimal interest!) if you keep $20K in something with better interest with the same bank (eg term deposit).

- You can get an instant access account with someone like ING (see their website www.ing.com.au) paying 4.75% on any balance. You need an account with another bank as a 'front' and the money can be transferred in and out same day by phone or web (none of this 3-5 days rubbish!)

We're going with Commonwealth so our strategy is:

- Use credit card for most transactions - look for one with decent bonus points/offers - direct debit full balance monthly from bank account

- CBA high interest current account (aka Cash Mgmt A/c) - keep minimal money in it, enough for day to day use, request no chequebook so no debits tax, transfer money from ING to top it up monthly/whenever

- CBA basic account (aka Streamline A/c) - with chequebook, keep $1 in it, transfer money across if cheque written (instantly done at ATM)

- CBA term deposit - eg 90 days pays 4.4% if set up on web (can only do it once in Oz), not as much interest as ING but difference more than offset by saving on bank charges with free banking

- ING a/c - rest of dosh earning 4.75% - can set this up on arrival, application form on web, need copy of CBA bank statement, takes 1 week to open

Hope this is some help to someone - my brain's fried...

james & bev

great mail very useful

what a mine field

james

Paul and Steph

Cheers Joleyn

That was really handy

Steph

yafm

Thanks Jolyon Clears up a few anomolies - trying to get your brain around the different banks ways of explainng things sends you blind.

karen and andy

wow, well done, really good info.

Cheers

karen

jwatsonoz

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jolyn
Spoke to various banks and cluey relatives in Oz to make some sense of banking plus added in what we remember from living there. Aim is to maximise interest on dosh from sale of our UK house until we buy in Melbourne plus minimise ripoff bank charges.

Our plan is below. Hopefully might save someone else a bit of brain space figuring it out.

Basics:

- Govt debits tax is taken on all transactions from accounts with chequebook facility - not just on cheques from those accounts. Daft.


This [govt debits tax] has been scrapped by some states. For example, if you open your account in NSW you will not be taxed this way - even if you live in Queensland. You can normally open accounts by post / internet and there is no disadvantage having your bank located outside of the state that you live in. If you walk into your local branch and tell them that you want the account based in another state (that avoids debit tax) then they will probably let you do it on their phone.

HSBC do not really have any bank charges and does not require a balance as long as you open it with 2k. With HSBC you can draw money out of post offices free (unlimited) or from any cash machine (5 free non HSBC transactions a month) or from any HSBC cash machine (not many about though).

I've been with HSBC for a couple of months now and never been unable to get cash (without a charge) when I've needed it. Their card doesn't seem to work in Mobil fuel stations for some reason - I have always had to use cash or VISA there.

Kiwipaul

Basically a cheque account is bad news for bank charges and you don't really need one. Gave mine up years ago and never had a problem.

Just get a normal current account with ATM card and credit card. pay as much as you can by CC and pay off the balance in full each month automatically (direct debit) from your current account.

Most bills that won't accept CC you can pay by BPay, which is like an electronic cheque, or pay anyone which just requires billers Account no and sort code. Works a treat. Even paid my rent to property owners account using pay anyone.

Most credit cards are now chargeing you a fee, but VirginBlue has just introduced a guarenteed free for life Mastercard, with low intrest rates (just applied for one). Once I'm happy with it I'll ditch my ANZ Visa card to escape the new annual charge (about $40).

Got to agree that ING direct is the best investment account with instant access, but DragonDirect do the same thing with the same interest rates.

ayanem

Thanks Jolyn.

That's saved us a lot of effort.

Alan

stotty

Hiya,

Jolyn and jwatsonoz: thanks for the info Good post - the kinda thing that's really useful, and better to know before you get to Oz!

Steve.

dibrucewillis

Jolyn

Thanks very much for sharing that useful info.
These are the posts that are so informative and well worth reading

Diane

dotty

I'll give one tip. If you are arriving with a lot of cash dont just settle for the great aussie rip off bank fees. See the Manager, negotiate a cash investment rate, plus get your fees dropped for having so much dosh. Some fees they have to charge but heaps of them can get dropped if they want.

Treat Australia like a bit of Asia = Haggle over the price. Obviously this wont work in Kmart or similar but individual business here is very competitive and they usually want every sale.

young_lad

Thanks for the contributors to this post - good stuff.

From reading previous posts and then looking on the relevant websites, I'm interested in the HSBC online account.

Following on from what jwatsonoz contributed, are chequebook charges (regardless of use of one) avoided on the HSBC online account by requesting not to have a chequebook, or is it by opening up the account in NSW? Or even 'either', ...... or even even 'neither cos you can't avoid them on this account'?

Cheers

jwatsonoz

HSBC do not charge for having a cheque book on their online savings account. I think there is a charge of $1 per cheque you actually write (competitive to others). I have never had to write a check - everybody accepts Bpay or transfers. Most places accept FPOS which is a bit like SWITCH. However, I value the option in to pay by cheque in case I get stuck. Many places don't accept cheques though - there are no cheque guarantee cards here. May be useful if you need to send money in the mail, but I have always managed to use VISA. You need a mastercard/visa card here....FPOS does not work over the phone like SWITCH does. I recommend the VIRGIN mastercard as they do not charge an annual fee. I am currently using HSBC visa, but they charge a fee after the first year is up so I will change to virgin by then.

best regards,
Jason

Jolyn

Thanks Jason.

I agree with you about HSBC. Just looked at their website and rang them up to clarify some points.

The HSBC option wouldn't work if you tended to take out cash regularly during the week though. Hardly any cash machines (only 5 in Victoria!) would mean that you'd rapidly exceed 5 free non-HSBC transactions a month and start paying $2 each time. The Commonwealth option works better then.

Fortunately there is an HSBC branch near where we'll be living and we don't take out much cash anyway. Plus it seems straightforward to open the account over the web with a referee from the UK.

So I guess we'll go with HSBC instead of Commonwealth. The Online Savings Account is the one to have - the rest seem the usual ripoff. 4.1% will mean we won't have to remember to transfer money from ING so regularly and can keep a higher balance in the account without feeling like we're losing out.

I'll skip the chequebook though - we wrote only a handful of cheques in a year in Oz 10 years ago and electronic banking has moved along since then. Without a cheque guarantee card noone will take a cheque anyway. We can open a basic cheque account later if it seems needed.

So...HSBC account + credit card + ING account.

Now just have to decide whether to convert dosh to dollars here and send dollars or send sterling and have it converted there. Our past experience is that you usually get a better rate sending sterling and crossing your fingers about what the rate will be when it gets there! Anyone have any pearls of wisdom on this???

pabloako

With the HSBC account you can still get cash out (Cash back) when you pay for things by EFTPOS.
This doesn't count as an ATM withdrawal and you can do it as much as you like. (As long as the shop doesn't mind).

We have just been through the process of opening the HSBC account. We filled in the forms over the Internet and they then e-mailed us a signature form and also a 'proof of ID' form. We took the ID form to our local bank (doesn't have to be HSBC, UK) and they filled it in for free!!!, we then posted both of the forms off to Oz.

Within a couple of days we were e-mailed the account number and we just have to transfer across a minimum of $2000 to open the account. (SWIFT transfer costs £10-£15). They then send you the ATM cards and things, so you can have them before you leave the UK for Oz.

No monthly charges.
You can spend YOUR money as much as you like without having to pay the bank any fees.
Good interest rate compared to most banks
Easy to open

This seems a much better deal than Commonwealth and ANZ etc...