njek

We have a Barclays bank account here in the UK. Early days yet, as have not applied for VISA yet (!) but wanted to sound this out while I'm thinking about it

Barclays have branches in Oz, therefore what are the pros and cons of keeping the UK account open, but transfering to an Oz branch? Similarly, what are the pros and cons of opening an Oz account?

quoll

Havent seen a Barclays here at all come to think of it but yes, as long as they dont charge you for keeping an account, keep one open in UK you never know when it might come in handy. I have had a Co-op one for years and kept it open when I came here 29 years ago and they dont bat an eyelid at sending me statements to Aus. It doesnt matter which bank you go with here, it is still easy to send money back and forth.

I dont think you can just "transfer to an Aus account" BTW, you will have to open an Aus account in your own right with all sorts of identity checks etc

njek

I think the woman in our local Barclays branch has been telling us lies...just checked the Barclays.com site and it would appear Barclays does not exist in Oz! That would explain why you haven't seen one in Canberra

I was actually thinking of closing the UK account by transfering it to Oz, but it's irrelevant now it would seem!

brissydeb

You are right, Barclays do not exist in Oz....the nearest branch would be Singapore!!!

quoll

Well, there might be one

Barclays Bank
114 Christie St
St Leonards, NSW, 2065
Australia

But not a regular pop into your local branch type bank in the High St.

Streaks

Hi there, we have a Barclays account still open so that rellies can pay in birthday money etc., but I wished I had shopped around before coming out here. Barclays Bank so say use Westpac as their nominated bank out here and I was told it would be cheaper to use their cash points - wrong! At christmas I drew out $500 and it cost me in the region of £9.50, my brother who is also here left a account open with hsbc and he drew out the same amount and it cost him £2.95. Neither banks charge a fee for keeping the account open but it would seem Barclays charge a hell of a lot more for transaction fees. I would definately shop around before coming out here as it appears different banks charge varying amounts. My Mum actually went into the bank to challenge this and was told there is nothing they can do as that is the charge for the amount I drew out

djamesburgess

Keep all your UK accounts/credit cards going even when you move over here.

They come in very useful for making payments for purchases for friends' presents etc. when you're here back off UK websites etc.

Also, if you do go back to the UK to live in the future your credit rating will disappear if you cancel what you currently have.

I still have 2 current accounts open and 3 credit cards from the UK. Rather than use my Westpac accounts to pay for Sterling items I use them instead. Also, when a friend came over at Christmas I paid for everything in $ to avoid him getting hit by transaction fees/commision charges on his trip. He then paid me back in £ into my UK account.

Also, due to the current exchange rate, it's best to hold off transferring £ to $ at this time.

You can therefore enjoy the best of both worlds.