zggale

Hello,
(and may I firstly apologise for the dull title of this thread!!)
I'm new to these boards, having only really looked briefly at them during our immigration process, but I'm hopeful that people who have moved from the UK to NZ will be able to offer some advice/their own experiences.

We are leaving the UK in mid September, and will be travelling the USA for 2 months before arriving in Christchurch in mid November. In that time we want to transfer the proceeds of our UK house sale to NZ, and to (hopefully!) get a decent interest rate on the funds.

I've looked at a number of NZ banks online but they all seem to offer 'migrant banking accounts' which are separate to any decent savings/term deposit accounts with good rates. I'm thinking of asking my family in NZ to open an savings account on our behalf and that way we can get a decent interest rate for a few months. Does anyone have any experience with this? Advice and lesson learned gratefully received.
Thanks

Purrball

Might be wrong, but since 2001 or so, especially with the Patriot Act and a global crackdown on banking secrecy, a large number of Western countries have tightened up on opening bank accounts, mainly to prevent money laundering, although I suspect it goes further than that.

That's why you need a full set of ID and proof of address these days to open a bank account... and that's why the transferring of large sums into accounts can be queried, even swapping relatively small sums at foreign exchange needs a passport.

Even if it were possible to open a bank account on behalf of someone else, which I don't think it is, unless it's a child's saving account, without an IRD (Inland Revenue Dept) number (aka National Insurance number), you'd be charged resident withholding tax, I believe. Some other forum members might be able to clarify this, though.

Personally, I'd go for convenience than looking for loopholes and relying on others to follow through. Large sums of money and families: rarely a smooth mix.

zggale

Thanks for you reply.

We're not looking for loopholes. Perhaps I was not 100% clear but I was really seeking advice from anyone who has recently moved to NZ and used foreign exchange services, and advice on which banks they used to open accounts from the UK and any other info/pertinent advice.

You only seem to be able to open a bog standard account with no interest paid when you open an account from the UK. We would like our money to 'work for us', for a few months til we buy a house etc, if we can! Maybe we will hold our cash here and move it when we arrive in the country. The way the exchange is going that may be no and thing! : )

Stormer999

We moved over 2-3 years ago and opened an account with BNZ on line whilst in the UK, they fixed us up with a branch on Fitzgerald Av in the city. We transfer ed cash from our UK bank to BNZ via Moneycorp all went smoothly. My UK bank told me after we were in Chch that they would not support me here and I had to close the account! so I opened an offshore account with Lloyds TSB. When we arrived in Chch we went to BNZ and all was activated instantly

jmh

I transferred my house sale proceeds recently and used Moneycorp too - I found them very helpful and when I checked rates, they were one of the best. Just remember that you are the best person to decide on the best rate - I decided to delay transferring by a week because the rate was the lowest (almost) in history, and gained $11,000 in just that week. That's what a difference a few points on the exchange rate can mean. Dealers try to get you to exchange quickly so you may not get as good a rate as if you had waited. It's your decision though. You can also ask to exchange when a set rate is hit, which is an option. You should open a NZ bank account for the proceeds to be paid into - check with them that this is the best way - maybe they have interesting-bearing holding accounts.

I'm not aware of any interest bearing accounts available to expats either in NZ or elsewhere. Check with your solicitor about their trust holding account. My money was kept for 10 days in their account and I was surprised that I got interest from it. Maybe they can agree to keep hold of it for a period. The rate will be low, but better than nothing. They can then forward it as a lump sum to your forex broker when you are ready. I had problems getting the money from my halifax account to Moneycorp and am currently sending them GBP25,000 a day.

Depending on where your house is, it might be worth hanging on to it for a bit and benefiting from capital gain instead of interest. The property market was sluggish in 2011 when I came out so I decided to rent it out. About the same time my neighbour, who owns the attached terrace sold their property. In 2014 I sold for nearly GBP50k more than they got which trumps any interest I would have earned. You probably need to have decent rental income to do this.

Hope that helps.

jmh

Regarding tax on accounts, you would, of course, only be charged tax on any interest earned. If you don't have an IRD number they may take a higher level of tax initially but once you supply the number it will adjusted to your correct tax rate. You will get the difference back - not sure but you may need to apply for it, but you can check with the IRD.

Most banks have migrant services which will set up an account from overseas and then await your arrival with ID. It's pretty straight forward. It might be worth contacting them directly to ask if they can provide an interest bearing account on the basis that you will turn up with the ID in due course.