Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 71
Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
Hi All
Have searched for a while now to find some threads I remember reading ages ao with regards to bank versus Hifx etc, however can not find them and transferring monies in 7 days time.
Hubby insists that there is no diffrernce between lets say commonwealth bank and Hifx in interest rates, that makes me wonder is it hidden costs that people are picking up on, we have been give a load of small print to read but with movers coming tomorrow and hubby still not got round to this I am now panicking about the financial boo boo we could be about to make.
Does anybody have any advice or know of a comparision website, where it compares all companies / banks and their various rates instead of trawling through the individual websites?
Many thanks
Madster
Have searched for a while now to find some threads I remember reading ages ao with regards to bank versus Hifx etc, however can not find them and transferring monies in 7 days time.
Hubby insists that there is no diffrernce between lets say commonwealth bank and Hifx in interest rates, that makes me wonder is it hidden costs that people are picking up on, we have been give a load of small print to read but with movers coming tomorrow and hubby still not got round to this I am now panicking about the financial boo boo we could be about to make.
Does anybody have any advice or know of a comparision website, where it compares all companies / banks and their various rates instead of trawling through the individual websites?
Many thanks
Madster
#2
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Oct 2006
Location: Nowhere - I'm a travelling (wo)man!
Posts: 2,362
Re: Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
I take it you mean exchange rates not interest rates?
What we did was set up accounts in advance and then check the online rates/ring round the companies (in our case, Barclays, Ozforex and HiFX) on the day we needed to send our funds and used the one quoting the best rate. You can try setting one against the other but rates move quickly so you have to do it all pretty sharpish for them to hold a rate for you.
I don't think there is any way to compare in advance because it all depends on how much you are transferring/how much they want your business on any particular day.
What we did was set up accounts in advance and then check the online rates/ring round the companies (in our case, Barclays, Ozforex and HiFX) on the day we needed to send our funds and used the one quoting the best rate. You can try setting one against the other but rates move quickly so you have to do it all pretty sharpish for them to hold a rate for you.
I don't think there is any way to compare in advance because it all depends on how much you are transferring/how much they want your business on any particular day.
#3
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: Bayside, QLD
Posts: 136
Re: Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
I take it you mean exchange rates not interest rates?
What we did was set up accounts in advance and then check the online rates/ring round the companies (in our case, Barclays, Ozforex and HiFX) on the day we needed to send our funds and used the one quoting the best rate. You can try setting one against the other but rates move quickly so you have to do it all pretty sharpish for them to hold a rate for you.
I don't think there is any way to compare in advance because it all depends on how much you are transferring/how much they want your business on any particular day.
What we did was set up accounts in advance and then check the online rates/ring round the companies (in our case, Barclays, Ozforex and HiFX) on the day we needed to send our funds and used the one quoting the best rate. You can try setting one against the other but rates move quickly so you have to do it all pretty sharpish for them to hold a rate for you.
I don't think there is any way to compare in advance because it all depends on how much you are transferring/how much they want your business on any particular day.
#4
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 71
Re: Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
Yes sorry meant exchange rates, can you tell I am stressed
Transferring about 200k, so from what I understand as long as over 30k, there should not be any extra charges from Commonwealth bank.
Did consider leaving the money here waiting for better rate, but everyone we have contacted are advising against it, saying if antying stick it in a high interest savings account over in Oz where rates are better.
Suppose better wait to the day, talk about extra stress, esp as we are in mid air when the monies come trhough on our way to a beach in Malaysia somewhere, hope they have decent phone connections over there.
Cheers
Maddie
Transferring about 200k, so from what I understand as long as over 30k, there should not be any extra charges from Commonwealth bank.
Did consider leaving the money here waiting for better rate, but everyone we have contacted are advising against it, saying if antying stick it in a high interest savings account over in Oz where rates are better.
Suppose better wait to the day, talk about extra stress, esp as we are in mid air when the monies come trhough on our way to a beach in Malaysia somewhere, hope they have decent phone connections over there.
Cheers
Maddie
#5
Re: Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
Out of interest, how did you actually trabsfer your money out of your UK account? Our bank says we need to do a CHAPS, but we are leaving our money here to see if the ER increases, so not sure how we are supposed to take CHAPS in to the bank? We originally thought we could via Interent banking, but that's too simple for our bank! :curse:
Then transfer the money from your bank account into the Halifax account (as you are still in the UK at the moment, you can do that with CHAPS to keep your bank happy).
Then later on, when you live in Oz and want to transfer the money, you can do it with internet banking. I phoned the Halifax recently to find out if they have a daily limit for transfers from the Web-Saver account and the answer was that the daily limit is £2 million. So, unless you're absolutely super super rich, I reckon that should do you .
Gina
P.S. I forgot to say that you can open the Halifax account over the internet, but then need to prove your identiy first before you can use it. So, don't leave it till the last minute before you're off to Oz.
#6
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: Bayside, QLD
Posts: 136
Re: Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
Open a Halifax Variable Rate Web Saver account. (It's got to be the Variable Rate Web Saver account not one of their other ones.)
Then transfer the money from your bank account into the Halifax account (as you are still in the UK at the moment, you can do that with CHAPS to keep your bank happy).
Then later on, when you live in Oz and want to transfer the money, you can do it with internet banking. I phoned the Halifax recently to find out if they have a daily limit for transfers from the Web-Saver account and the answer was that the daily limit is £2 million. So, unless you're absolutely super super rich, I reckon that should do you .
Gina
P.S. I forgot to say that you can open the Halifax account over the internet, but then need to prove your identiy first before you can use it. So, don't leave it till the last minute before you're off to Oz.
Then transfer the money from your bank account into the Halifax account (as you are still in the UK at the moment, you can do that with CHAPS to keep your bank happy).
Then later on, when you live in Oz and want to transfer the money, you can do it with internet banking. I phoned the Halifax recently to find out if they have a daily limit for transfers from the Web-Saver account and the answer was that the daily limit is £2 million. So, unless you're absolutely super super rich, I reckon that should do you .
Gina
P.S. I forgot to say that you can open the Halifax account over the internet, but then need to prove your identiy first before you can use it. So, don't leave it till the last minute before you're off to Oz.
#7
Re: Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
Hi
I compared the commonwealth bank one with the HIFX one, a few weeks ago, and the commonwealth bank one was a few points shorter than HIFX. I know talking cents isn't much (think it was .05 less) but if you're talking 200k, that will chalk up a bit i'm sure.
Good luck
Karen
I compared the commonwealth bank one with the HIFX one, a few weeks ago, and the commonwealth bank one was a few points shorter than HIFX. I know talking cents isn't much (think it was .05 less) but if you're talking 200k, that will chalk up a bit i'm sure.
Good luck
Karen
#8
Re: Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
Thanks to rules and regulations it's not so quick to set up a transfer account than it used to be, so you should have been researching this some time ago. I use OzForex most of the time - phone their Sydney office and you will find them helpful: they might be able to sort out an account in time.
#9
Forum Regular
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 65
Re: Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
Hi
I have been looking into www.abbeyinternational.com (santander group 6th largest bank in uk)recently and they keep your money offshore in jersey meaning you do not pay tax on your savings.
They pay around 6% gross and upwards depending on account and amount of money in account. Only takes around 3 working days to open an account and if tranferring large amounts of money to oz no fee would be charged. Check details out on there website or a phone number is provided. All looks good to me.
I have been looking into www.abbeyinternational.com (santander group 6th largest bank in uk)recently and they keep your money offshore in jersey meaning you do not pay tax on your savings.
They pay around 6% gross and upwards depending on account and amount of money in account. Only takes around 3 working days to open an account and if tranferring large amounts of money to oz no fee would be charged. Check details out on there website or a phone number is provided. All looks good to me.
#10
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 7,834
Re: Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
Out of interest, how did you actually trabsfer your money out of your UK account? Our bank says we need to do a CHAPS, but we are leaving our money here to see if the ER increases, so not sure how we are supposed to take CHAPS in to the bank? We originally thought we could via Interent banking, but that's too simple for our bank! :curse:
#11
Re: Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
Depends which bank mate, I know we could only transfer something really small every day. It would have taked us 56 days to get all our money out (and we didn't have a great deal to transfer)
#12
Home and Happy
Joined: Dec 2002
Location: Keep true friends and puppets close, trust no-one else...
Posts: 93,806
Re: Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
Thanks to rules and regulations it's not so quick to set up a transfer account than it used to be, so you should have been researching this some time ago. I use OzForex most of the time - phone their Sydney office and you will find them helpful: they might be able to sort out an account in time.
#13
Account Closed
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 9,316
Re: Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
Hi
I have been looking into www.abbeyinternational.com (santander group 6th largest bank in uk)recently and they keep your money offshore in jersey meaning you do not pay tax on your savings.
They pay around 6% gross and upwards depending on account and amount of money in account. Only takes around 3 working days to open an account and if tranferring large amounts of money to oz no fee would be charged. Check details out on there website or a phone number is provided. All looks good to me.
I have been looking into www.abbeyinternational.com (santander group 6th largest bank in uk)recently and they keep your money offshore in jersey meaning you do not pay tax on your savings.
They pay around 6% gross and upwards depending on account and amount of money in account. Only takes around 3 working days to open an account and if tranferring large amounts of money to oz no fee would be charged. Check details out on there website or a phone number is provided. All looks good to me.
Beware that although an offshore bank does not take the tax automatically, you are supposed to declare the interest earned to the tax office of the country for which you are tax resident. So if you're tax resident in Aus or the UK then failure to declare these earning (if tax is due) is considered tax evasion.
#14
Re: Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
We transferred all our money, at various times through First Direct. Each time bar one we got a slightly better rate than HiFx and another one were offering. It definitely depends on your bank.
#15
Re: Bank Vs Hifx, Ozforez etc, surely banks are worse?
Hi
I have been looking into www.abbeyinternational.com (santander group 6th largest bank in uk)recently and they keep your money offshore in jersey meaning you do not pay tax on your savings.
They pay around 6% gross and upwards depending on account and amount of money in account. Only takes around 3 working days to open an account and if tranferring large amounts of money to oz no fee would be charged. Check details out on there website or a phone number is provided. All looks good to me.
I have been looking into www.abbeyinternational.com (santander group 6th largest bank in uk)recently and they keep your money offshore in jersey meaning you do not pay tax on your savings.
They pay around 6% gross and upwards depending on account and amount of money in account. Only takes around 3 working days to open an account and if tranferring large amounts of money to oz no fee would be charged. Check details out on there website or a phone number is provided. All looks good to me.