Wilso16

Another question!

All Australian banks are cheeky buggers and apparently charge you for everything!!
I was wondering if anyone can suggest a bank which has good service and doesn't charge the earth.

I know Westpac do an account for Migrants and only charge $5 for the privalige but have been doing some research into other banks but can't seem to find much info on Migrant banking.

ShellnTez

hello
we're opening an account with commonwealth in london, that will automatically give us an account in brisbane for when we get there
to speak to some one from migrant banking call:

020 7710 3625 and they'll send you an application pack, you just have to send cert copies of id and bank statement and utility bill.

the brisbane account will be activated once we transfer some money from the london account.

hope this helps

ohippy

if you keep $2500 in your normal account then there's no charge for Westpac

sassie

Hi, we use HSBC and if we use the account wisely, then there are no bank fees. Here's what you get, direct from their website.

"A high 4.85% p.a.1 interest rate
5.85% p.a. on deposits greater than $500,0001
Fee-free banking options within Australia
Unlimited HSBC ATM transactions
Five free ATM transactions per month, at any bank ATM2
Free BPAY®, EFTPOS and GiroPost®
Free automated Telephone Banking access
Cheque book option3
Instant access to withdrawals
Interest calculated daily and paid monthly
No minimum balance after opening
Link to your online broking or margin lending account

]Funds can be accessed at over 20,000 ATMs, 430,000 EFTPOS and at 2,500 GiroPost® offices throughout Australia and worldwide more than 810,000 ATMs and 1 million Maestro and Cirrus outlets.[/COLOR]There is a minimum of A$2,000 deposit required to open an Online Savings Account, but this does not need to be maintained after account opening. Please note applicants who are under the age of 16 or not Australian residents are not eligible to open an Online Savings Account".


We also use ING as our savings account, which we have linked to our HSBC account. Again, all fee free.

jeeva

If you use online banking and hardly ever go to a branch like me, then Citibank is very good
http://www.citibank.com.au/

I've been with St.George Bank holding min balnace of $1000 to avoid any fees. But lately they stopped the 2-free use of other ATMs and very recently they raised the bar for min balance to $3000 to waive monthly fee of $6. And they charged 25c for direct debit, 30c for this & that, etc. Had enough..

So I trawled the internet and found Citibank, which gives
* Unlimited fee free transactions
* Fee free unlimited use of other banks' ATM in Aus including the private ATMs you find in local corner shop, Auspost ATMs, etc.
* No min balance required
* $5 monthly fee waived if you direct credit your salary
* You get a Visa debit card, which can behave like Visa credit card as well
* Fee free internet & phone banking, BPAY, direct debit,etc

In a nut shell, if you direct credit your salary you pay absolutely nothing (just like in UK) and you can use your Visa debit card to draw money in any banks ATM for free as well.

Wilso16

Thanks for this advice. One question though I am just wondering what you mean by direct credit my salary? Sorry probably being incredibly dumb!

Wilso16

Thanks for the advice. Just one question - what do you mean by direct credit my salary? Sorry probably being incredibly dumb!

ohippy

your salary is directly paid into your bank account

Wol

Another advantage of the ING / HSBC setup (and I hope I'm not tempting fate here!) is that you would naturally have most of your money in ING from where it can only be transferred into the HSBC account. That in turn is accessed by one of those random number gizmos. So if anyone hacks into your loaded account the only way they can transfer money is into your own HSBC account - and they would then need the gizmo to get at that.

Swerv-o

HSBC are very good here. A couple of other points:

* You can get an HSBC Visa Debit Card attached to your Online Savings account, so you can order stuff over the internet etc without needing a Credit card.

* You can link an HSBC Serious Saver account to your Online Savings, which offers 6.2% interest p/a.

* You can access all account and banking sevices at any Post Office.

S

Wilso16

Oh right - I assumed that would be standard practice!

Wilso16

Excellent thanks for all the useful tips and advice!

graceyg

Commonwealth bank are a useless bunch of ******** stay well clear, although we did transfer our money from the UK to Brisbane no probs and the account was waiting for us when we arrived! But they are nothing but a headache!!!!!!!!

Simoned1

We used the Commonwealth Bank (Migrant Account) to do the transfer and it was excellent, people on here have moaned that when they got here and went into a branch that the staff claimed they had never heard of a migrant account, it is because they did not read the paperwork they were sent. It tells you to contact a certain person and gives you there Tel No, the account itself is purely designed to transfer your money over and when you go and meet the person on your letter, they explain this all to you and then go through opening other accounts with you (as the bank accounts work slightly different here).

Personally I would recommend using them, however I also recommend that once you are settled that you then worry about looking around at other banks as when you get here getting a bank account open ASAP is very important as if you don't it stops you doing other things and believe me there is so much to do when you first get here.

Simone

Wol

We set up a migrant account from London - who really didn't want to know - and when we went into the Sydney branch they were so offhand we walked out and went into HSBC.

I tried to set it up again locally but Crimminwealth Bowral said the bank had no record of my account so go away!

I *have* had to set up a super account with them - and they took 2 months to action a change of address..........