53 days till we leave - advice about banking and mobile phones please
 

Hi

I know there are many threads about these topics but I cannot directly find my answers. 53 days till we go and just over a million things to organise.

I would appreciate help on these issues.

Banking
we are leaving our equity in the UK for a while

Q should we tell the bank we are overseas?
Q what are the tax implications for our savings?

Mobile Phones

Me and both kids have lovely Motorola flip phones (they work in Australia because we used them when on holiday)

Q should we take them and will a new Australian pay as you go sim card work in them, I think they are locked to orange and vodaphone here

THANKS
Tara

Re: 53 days till we leave - advice about banking and mobile phones please
 

I may be wrong but i think you need a code from your phone operator so you can insert a different sim card in it and use it overseas.

Re: 53 days till we leave - advice about banking and mobile phones please
 

Hi,

Re: Mobiles. We are with O2 so had them unlocked and have ordered a vodaphone sim card via internet. You can probably use the vodaphone network if you are already able to use them but may need it unlocked to change network. Try www.0044.co.uk for info!

Hels

Re: 53 days till we leave - advice about banking and mobile phones please
 

Banks: Most UK banks will change your details to an Australian address. We still have our Natwest and Barclaycard accounts, and both the bank and the credit card company send statements to our Australian address. Even return envelopes have airmail and 'Great Britian' on them :-) You'll need to take financial advice on leaving the money in the UK, try a search on here to see what others have found out.

Mobiles: Just buy a Vodafone sim when you get here, should work fine in an O2 phone, mine and the wife's didn't need unblocking at all.

TBEB

Re: 53 days till we leave - advice about banking and mobile phones please
 

There are tax implications to leaving your money in England. I think you pay tax on any additional money you exchange above what the exchange rate is when you moved out to Oz. So if the exchange rate was 2.4 when you arrived in Aus and you transfered your money in 6 months time when the exchange rate had gone up to 2.5 you would be liable for tax on any additional money you got from an improvement in the exchange rate. The same applies however if the rate was to go down you would be able to offset some tax against the loss.

Check it out for exact details, I'm no expert there was a few posts on this subject several months ago.

Good luck hope you get everything done it time. You'll def need to unlock your phones in order to use in Aus.

Re: 53 days till we leave - advice about banking and mobile phones please
 

Some banks are Ok with this, some aren't. I have an Egg account and they told me that if I move overseas they will just close the account immediately. This seems to be true for most of the high-interest/internet banks but the high street ones no problem. I wanted to keep my Egg account so have just given them my mum's address.

There is a form you can complete and then you don't get taxed because you are non-resident, but you do have to declare the interest where you live and pay tax on it there.

Re: 53 days till we leave - advice about banking and mobile phones please
 

thanks everyone, I knew about the change in exchange rate, I guess if it goes up and we make more money (even though we lose some in tax) this is still good

I will get that form about UK tax. Cahoot also told me they would close my account if I moved so I will also give my mums address.

Still not sure what to do with the mobiles?!
Tara

Re: 53 days till we leave - advice about banking and mobile phones please
 

To check if your phone is unlocked - borrow a friends SIM card who is on anther network to yours (though not Virgin or T-Mobile as Virgin uses T-Mobiles network).

If it works then fine - your phone is unlocked and will work with any SIM you get in Oz. If it doesn't you'll need to get it unlocked.

You've got a couple of choices.
1. Either get the code from your current provider (they'll probably charge you for it).

2. Get it unlocked by someone on a phone stall at your local market (prob. £10).

3. See if you can do it yourself. Nokia's are very easy. Take a look at http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...play.html?f=14.

Re: 53 days till we leave - advice about banking and mobile phones please
 

My experiance was that an Oz sim card would not work unless the phone was unlocked first. Relatively cheap and easy down a back lane phone place,in Melbourne anyway.

Re: 53 days till we leave - advice about banking and mobile phones please
 

thanks to everyone who has replied
Tara

Re: 53 days till we leave - advice about banking and mobile phones please
 

Got mobiles unlocked (mine already was) at local shop. When in Oz went into Vodaphone shop and bought Oz sim card. That was that. I think it was $3 ish to phone UK for 10 mins.

Cheers

Ginny

Re: 53 days till we leave - advice about banking and mobile phones please
 

Vodafone UK and Vodafone Au are seperate companies and the sim cards dont work...you need to get the handset unlocked in the UK it cost me 18 quid, then you can just buy a vodafone sim card here. any one for that matter. We have virgin mobiles....sim card cost $15......there is a 20c connection fee on calls then virgin ti virgin calls are 5c a minute, texts are 5c to virgin mobiles and MMS 25c