Speargun

After being a customer of HSBC for the last 15 years I went to get some information about opening an International Account...to be told if im not a Premier Account holder (something you pay a monthly amount to be!) I would have to pay £100 Typical just so they can make even more out of you....as my loyalties are now less than nil....can anyone recommend a bank to open an account with - and if they also charge for this???

Thanks guys!

paula&lee

hi there

we had the same but our branch said that they could send the referral and if we did all the work we wouldn't have to pay anything hence 2 say still waiting and haven;t heard anything yet. They did say could take 3 months to open tho!!!!!!!!!!!

Lucky 4 us my sister in law is a bank manager of ANZ in Adelaide she said she could open us an account for deposits only and when we arrive in Perth we need to go into local ANZ branch to do 100 point check (id check) and they will open account fully.

Have u got anyone in Oz who could do the same 4 u?

Speargun

To be honest the billions of pounds they are making....makes me so they can treat people this way....I guess they think people will see it as an easier option...my sister lives in Oz so she could possibly do it for me...but what is the 100 point check??.....and if we dont pass it will they give us our money back????

paula&lee

100 point check is just id (passport etc) as it's only deposits untill u arrive and it won't earn any interest it may b better if your sister can open it on your behalf. We r only sending small amount of money over just in case we don't get residance as can't get the money back so i'm told.

HSBC the world's local bank !!!!!!!!!!!

Plug

ANZ - nice and easy to open an account from the UK but real pants service since we have been here !!

renth

HSBC are going down in my estimation. They royally ballsed up our credit card renewal. This has been going on for 2 months and my wife still hasn't got hers.

Geordie George

I'll start by saying that it's two years since we opened our overseas account. But, the HSBC did charge us and so we wrote to complain (pointing out the irony of their local bank campaign) and they refunded the money in full. May be worth a try?

Centurion

LOL - If your moaning about being charged by a bank...just wait till you get here!!

HSBC isnt a smart move anyway since the branchs are limited to the city and frankly you WILL end up doing some face to face banking, especially in the first few months of settling with bank cheques, cash etc. Means a trip into the city any time you want to do something.

Much better idea is an australian bank. ANZ, National etc

chugo101

We've found HSBC to be good so far.... we tried to open an account from UK but they said it could take months so we opened our account the first day we arrived by visiting the branch with our passports; it was all fairly straighforward without problems and then we received our cards and chequebooks through the post a few days later. We live in Torquay so are a good drive away from our 'local' HSBC which is in Melbourne but I do all my banking online (paying bills etc) and through the post office (paying cheques in or taking money out); so far we have found no need for 'face to face' banking and have been 'free from charges'.

poshrice

we opened our account with ANZ the day after we arrived and have never had a problem we have the access advantage account which you pay $5 a month but get unlimited eftpos and unlimited atm withdrawls (yes some banks do charge after a certain amount of usage per month). i would definitely recommend ANZ

poshrice

sj oldfield

you can open an HSBC account on line.......most people coming out to Oz do this

Downies

Hi

we opened a migrant account with Westpac from the UK, we have been in Perth for a couple of months now and I have switched our household account into HSBC Online Savings account and I am in the process of opening a personal account the same as the $5 a month fee is driving me nuts! They are a most frustrating bank service - mind you I have heard most banks here are the same - the customer service sector give the impression of not being in a hurry or giving a shit at times, put apart from that all is great!

Good luck - if interested you can apply for Westpac acct from www.westpac.com.au and I believe you can do the same with Commonwealth bank website.

Paula

iPom

We ignored HSBC and opened a Westpac account here. I kept the First Direct account open and have only just told them I've moved abroad. There was no reason to tell them I'd changed my address as we were having our mail forwarded for a year.
They've just sent me a letter telling me I need to have special clearance to have a UK account whilst being abroad, so I've ignored it. Business as usual.
Westpac have been excellent and I cannot fault their service. Getting a mortgage through them too tomorrow. No charge to open the account.

Best wishes.

HellasAU

...The World's local bank... Yeah right!
Do yourself a favour and don't bank with them...

I opened my ANZ account from the UK and when I arrived in Perth, all I had to do was to show my passport to prove that I had arrived in Australia within the past 4 weeks and they unlocked it.

This was in October and I haven't had any problems with them since. They even extended a line of credit for AU$10,000 in the form of a credit card until the proceeds of my house sale in the UK came through. Although their interest rates are higher than the UK, if you pay all your balance, you are not charged interest.

Also, you can use ANZ online banking service to transfer money back to the UK for FREE. Unlike the banks in the UK who want to charge you around GBP25.00 to transfer money abroad. However, if you use BACS and not CHAPS, the fee is waived.

PS - I am on a TEMPORARY 4 Year 457 Visa

brad

Hi Paula
When you applied to open a westpac account from UK how many sheets are there to the application form.I only seem to be getting 2 sheets it then tells you to go to section 5 which dont exist on the forms or where to sign
Thanks for any help
Brad