Petals

Sounds like "Which Bank" Although Nab are not much better remember sitting in an office and young lady was adding up and my husband had to point out that her addition was incorrect.

asprilla

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banks_in_Australia

who on earth writes these pages?!!

jorgon

Here's a comparison site for the Australian bank accounts and other financial thingies:-
http://www.which4u.com.au/bank-accounts

mad.chef

We opened ours with Westpac from the uk and have been very pleased with them and we have lived here for over 10 months. The good thing with this bank is that your debit card is a Mastercard which comes in handy when you want to buy things over the internet. My friend opened hers with Commonwealth but was dissapointed at not having a visa or mastercard option on her card.

Sarah.

Wol

And doesn't it just prove the point that people have made?

No sign of, say, Virgin credit card, ING or HSBC banks! It's as if they don't exist if they are not Australian.

NickyC

HSBC is at the top of the list.

And Virgin Card doesn't exist (well it does if you already have one - but they're not issuing any more).

Wol

You are absolutely right! RTFQ....

I hadn't heard that Virgin have stopped their card though. When was that?

knockoff nige

I was reading that you can only apply for a bank account when you have a TFN but can only get a TFN when you are in Australia. Is this right?

NickyC

Back in April. They had a five year contract with Westpac to issue the cards which ended then. Westpac still runs the Virgin Card (for those that already have one) but aren't issuing any more. I suspect it's because the Virgin low rates and zero fees meant they weren't as profitable as other cards..

leave_n_on_a_Jet

We have HSBC opened in the uk
phoned up uk telephone banking and they posted out the application, which i then took to the local branch.

No problems as yet, havent had any charges during the past 2 years, only place the card dont work so far is Total Filling station.

James

RCoight

No.

You can open a bank account without at TFN. However, the bank is obliged to deduct tax at 48.5%, until such time as you do provide a TFN.

I believe you cannot get TFN's offshore but I may be wrong.

http://www.infochoice.com.au has some comparison tables for a wide variety of financial data, including current accounts.

I tend to find banks in Oz similar to banks in the UK in that they are all much of a muchness: you can easily find people with both horror stories and good stories to tell about any of the major banks.

Tellyaddict

I have been looking at Westbank which I think is affiliated with the Halifax in the UK. It says on their website that it is fee free banking. Has anyone had any good or bad dealings with these?

nickywes

Hi there - We opened a Commonwealth London a/c and another one was opened in Brisbane. Asked for their exchange rate yesterday and it was pretty comparable with HIFX etc. so transferred a bulk of money in there for them to call me before exchanging to dollars. It can stay there for a time until you tell them when to change it. It then goes over to an investment a/c in Oz at an interest rate of 6.8%.

I have a question though, will it get taxed as we don't have a TFN yet?

RCoight

I believe so yes, at 48.5%. It's probably all explained on the ATO website http://www.ato.gov.au but as I'm only logged on quickly checking my emails at half time of the football I haven't looked it up in full myself

thribble

I can't recommend strongly enough not using Commonwealth. They were very good at transferring our money over from the UK, but their service we found to be terrible. We're with ANZ now and haven't had any problems. I also hear very good things about Westpac. Plus, I believe there's talk of a takeover/merger between Westpac and St George, so the lack of ATMs for St George shouldn't be a problem after that goes through.