ukjoiner

Hi all.

Off to Adelaide in Feb on PR visa.

We are in the position of collating monies into a UK account at the mo and wanted advice as to how everyone sorted this and accessing it from abroad? Are there better ways of getting your money to and fro? We don't want to transfer all our money (crap xchange rate!) but want to obviously access it easily.

Any advice as to the Oz side of banking would also be really appreciated.

Thanks!

Pollyana

Check out www.tranzfers.com.

renth

Ozforex are good too. I'd get it over in 1 hit. I reckon the rate is only going to get worse.

bingobob777

approaching new lows this morning, 1.487. Not a good time to make the move Uk to Oz

Beoz

If you are walking straight into a job that pays $A then it's an excellent time to move.

bingobob777

why? The exchange rate makes no difference to the best time to earn an Australian wage unless you're sending money back. If living here and earning here then what matters is the cost of stuff here, not an exchange rate to a foreign currency.

An Australian earning and spending here has gained very little from the exchange rate halfing, other than cheaper CD's and holidays.

pomE

If yo have >50k GBP, get an HSBC Premier account in the UK, apply for an Aus HSBC account also, and you get Global View whereby you can transfer funds between your two accounts for free.

Beoz

Point taken I guess. I do like to be a little creative with my expenditure and savings and try to make use of an international market

Beoz

...... and instantly

Scotty1

........and at an almost mid market rate.

You also will have no hassle getting a Oz credit card with a $15k limit and you get free banking and ATM withdrawals from westpac and st george

But they have like 10 branches nationwide so not good if you want to speak to someone face to face.

harrip

I'd be interested to compared the exchange rate on this. Is the one used by HSBC on a Premier account published anywhere? I have a standard HSBC business account and OzForex beats them hands down.

Scotty1

Don't think they do - today I could get 1.45 on the normal hsbc rate, 1.471 with premier and I think the mid market was 1.48

The main advantage is instant free transfers, which if you transfer money every month like we do is quite useful.

Hope this helps

harrip

Thanks Scotty. Just got a quote of 1.4756 with OzForex so a similar ball park. Agree the instant transfer sounds good.

ukjoiner

I don't have >50K.

pomE

(and the Prem account also gives you free worldwide travel insurance....)