alrobson

Hi All,

Is it possible to open an Australian bank account now but not use it yet. I'm concerned that the Oz dollar is gaining strength against the pound so I would like to transfer the money quite soon. The thing is, I won't be moving to Oz until 2005 so can I do this. I realise that this could go back up again but I'd be happy knowing what I've got!!

Regards,

Adrian

Enzo&Chloe

Yes you can open an account now, to transfer money.

However you can buy a future contract on the forex market where you can fix the rate of exchange up to two years in advance. (talk to halewood or somebody like that)

http://www.hifx.co.uk

Wol

I found a convenient way is to buy units in a currency fund unit trust.

Fidelity do a good one. The units vary in value, depending on the exchange of course, and also reflect the underlying interest that the deposits accrue.

So if you bought say £1000 worth today, and got $2400 worth of units, in five years time they might be worth say$3000 including the "interest".

Fidelity give a very good exchange rate, too - negotiable on larger amounts.

Regards

sofistek

There may be money laundering laws to comply with. The Aus bank may want to have some assurance that you have a genuine reason for opening an account, when you don't live there. I talked to a couple of NZ banks about this and they are happy with a letter from the immigration service to say that an application has been submitted. I don't know if the same applies to Aus; best to ask an Aus bank about it.

BKate

I have an offshore Australia dollar account from about five years ago when exchange rates were really good. It's through Llloyds TSB, you could open one of these in the mean time.

johanne

Hi
I opened an account with the commonwealth bank in London and use it to transfer money from my co-op bank into the aussie account, it is based in London and when you arrive in Australia you take your account number and some id.
You will need a statement from your bank to say its a genuine account, if you need the number just pm me and i will send it on to you...
good luck
johanne