Vernons

Hi

We should hopefully be heading off to Brisbane to start our new life in 8 weeks (pending on completion of the house sale) and want to open a ozzie bank account here before we leave.

I am thinking of Westpac. Who have you all gone with and how have you found them?

Thanks

jayr

"which bank" is the advertising slogan for the Commonwealth Bank (original, hey). Avoid them.

Vernons

Why? I am guessing they are rubbish then.
Thanks

pete jackson

We have just set up with commonwealth as it was easy, just print out the online form send it off to there offices in london along with some certified ID and should be back within 5 working days. Not gone out to Aus yet but will be there in a month so will see what there service is like then. pete

jayr

They just seem expensive to me - though I haven't compared for a while.

On a different banck, I went into St George bank recently to buy some foreign currency - they were the only bank open after 4PM in the afternoon.

I wanted to buy 50 pounds and they asked me if I was a customer. When I said I wasn;t they said they couldn;t sell me currency. A bank not selling money, what next?

Imagine if I went ino Woolworhts and they wouldn;t sell me milk because I wan;t an existing cutomer.

pete jackson

It was just because it was easy that we set up with them as we needed an account before we got there, our idea is to shop arround when we get there if we think that they are crap!

MartinLuther

Have a look at HSBC as you can get fee free banking with them if you play within their rules.

pete jackson

We did that because we are with the HSBC in the UK and thought it would be a good idea but when you look at it in Brisbane they only have one branch and a couple of ATM's. When we went into HSBC to ask about setting one up she even said that if you were going anywhere else in Aus them yes but she said in brisbane there is not much point as little facilities. Pete

ianandhelena

we have an account and CC with ANZ who seem to be ok so far.
we also have an online saver a/c with HSBC; you can pay in and withdraw from the post office, and use NAB and Commbank ATMs free.

MartinLuther

I can see what you are saying and there is a distinct lack of ATMs outside of QLD. However, you will probably find that you don't use ATMs in Aus as often as you did in the UK. The main reason for this is most people get their cash from the supermarket (via EFTPOS). HSBC does allow you to use anybody's cash point up to 5 times a month with no fee. If you set up a separate account for the wife then you can get 10 a month. You can also get cash (fee-free) from the post office (although they have to be open for this). It's also worth noting that the post office queues here are not full of people picking up their benefits so long post office queues are rare.

pete jackson

How did you set up your HSBC account? sounds ok if you can use commonwealth ATM's free? Is there a limit on using them? Pete

ianandhelena

we just went into our local branch in carlisle before we left and they organised it-allow plenty of time though: see here

not sure how many times you can use the atms-there may be more info here

we just get cash out when we go to the shops.

Vernons

My husband is currently with HSBC in the UK so it might be worth him going with them in OZ. In terms of a mortgage how are they? Is it better for us both to go with the same bank to help with getting a mortgage or should I go with someone else. maybe Westpac?

Thanks

CadburysFingers

I posted a thread recently to try and collate some info before we changed banks from the very expensive Commonwealth Bank. The result of all the info received was I opened two accounts with the National Bank (www.national.com.au) Seems an excellent bank from the staff I have encountered thus far.

We opened a Smart Saver account $3 per month, with unlimited EFTPOS and ATM transactions, which suits us perfectly.

We also linked it to an I Saver account (5.45% interest calculated daily) The good thing about this account is it has no minimum balance required to get your 5.45% so we simply keep all our dosh in there, then transfer it via the net to the other account if we know we need some money for anything.

$3 a month for everything we need from a bank, at the Commonwealth we were paying around $20 a month and had to keep a balance of over $5000 to earn the higher rate of interest in our second account. It was an easy choice to make.

mand8002

I bank with the Commonwealth and it only costs me $4 per month for unlimited transactions. The only thing I have to pay for on top of this is if I write a cheque, but as that is extremely infrequently it is not a problem. If I had wanted unlimited cheques in the deal too it would cost me $6 per month. My 11 year old daughter has opened an account at the Commonwealth too and they were brilliant in their dealings with her, actually treat her as a person and not an inconvenience which is what we experienced in the UK.