lesleys

Has anyone set up one of thiose migrant accounts offered by Comm Bank?

I know you all think HSBC is the bee's knees but our dealings with them here have been more than a little disappointing......

sj oldfield

Dont think everyones of the opinion that HSBC is the bees knees, think they reported to be the best of a bad bunch!!

nosuchluck

I am in the process of setting up a Commonwealth Bank account, seems to be alot easier than when i went into the local HSBC!
good luck
rach x

HiddenPaw

I set up a COmm BAnk a/c before leaving UK. They give you a London a/c so you can transfer funds into it, just like any transfer between UK a/c. You tell them what day you will be arriving in Oz and they make an appt for you with the migrant banking dept. Your EFTPOS cards will be ready to collect the day you arrive.
You can issue them instruction as to what day to buy AUD - so we put our money in the London a/c and then kept watching the exchange rate and just gave the the go-ahead to transfer when we were ready (while we were still in UK)
When we got to Adelaide sure enough, eftpos cards ready and they also organised Mastercards for us there and then - no credit checks, no credit history required - as she said, probably the easiest application you'll do for a credit card - didnt even need to fill in a form

Unfortunately, since opening the accounts in 2002, their service hasn't always been brilliant, but then again, I had probs with banks in the UK. People complain about their bank charges but to be honest I never paid any fees (I think it depends how much money you bank with them)

Good luck

lesleys

Hi Hiddenpaw,

Thanks, that is very encouraging. We've just got the application form from Comm Bank and we just want something which goes smoothly and works first time.

Lesley

floweroscotland

Hi

I filled in my commenwealth bank application and sent it to the london office on Thursday 12th feb and i got my letter this morning with my sort code and account number on it, i couldn't belive it, 2 days was all it took, i was very impressed, lets just hope they keep up the good service

Lisa

HiddenPaw

I certainly had no complaints about the process when we first migrated. It was brilliant to be looked after on our day of arrival and be issued with working EFTPOS cards there and then. It was one less thing to worry about and meant with didn't have to mess around with UK accounts when we first moved over.

They have a great telephone banking system in Oz too. The Comm Bank's system is probably no different to other AUs banks but i was really impressed. I love the BPAY system in Oz where you can pay all your bills over the phone, just by using the phone keypad, and you can pay as many bills as you want in one go - it did make for easy banking - one phone call and the phone, electricity, gas, mastercard, rent, car rego, etc etc could all be paid off in one call.

podgypossum

We are about to close our Commonwealth bank account and move it over to HSBC. Their charges are extortionate and interest rates are not that great either. On top of that, i was not impressed when i went to a branch the other day and was told i was not allowed under any circumstances to have a statement print out over the counter. I could only have one sent to me which would take several days and cost me $2.50!!!

HiddenPaw

Crazy! I walked into the Comm Bank the other week and they did a print out there and then. But this is what I mean about Comm Bank service - there seems to be a lot of inconsistency within the branches. One branch would let me do one thing, and another branch wouldn't (and neither would be my 'home branch' cos that was in Adelaide and I was in Melbourne).

I went in for a bankers draft in Nov and it took half an hour. The teller was a trainee and the trainer was watching over her shoulder advising her how to do a bank draft. The trainer got it wrong and ended up calling in the branch supervisor to sort it out. I also asked how I could transfer some money to the UK. I was told that I had to phone the London branch to organise the transfer of funds from Oz to UK. I didn't believe this to be true so went into another Comm Bank branch and they straight away gave me an international money transfer form.

maxpaxx

..just one piece of advice! We have opened up an account with these guys recently. We are using Halewood to transfer all our money as they give a better rate. However Commonwealth lead us to believe that we could not get the Australian side of the account set up unless we used them for the transfer! I smelt a rat - there is no way that can be legal holding you over a barrel, and the whole point of opening the ac was to give the details to Halewood for the transfer. Anyway after much confusion they admitted that we could just deposit a nominal fee and ask for it to be transferred to Aus straight away we could do it that way and we would get that side of the account open!

So far not too impressed but will give them a go!

Another thing to remember is that you need to stipulate wether you want them to hold onto the money here or transfer it directly. For instance if you pay £100 in tommorrow they will transfer it across without telling you unless you have asked them not to!

Max

Bix

I made out an online application for details 2 months ago and got no reply.
Sod them

floweroscotland

Maxpaxx,

That is exactly what I planned to do, use halewood to transfer my money, do we need to transfer a small amount initially with commenwealth then, and will it be ok for halewood to transfer once we have done that, thanks for any info you can give me.

Lisa

floweroscotland

[QUOTE]Originally posted by maxpaxx
..just one piece of advice! We have opened up an account with these guys recently. We are using Halewood to transfer all our money as they give a better rate. However Commonwealth lead us to believe that we could not get the Australian side of the account set up unless we used them for the transfer! I smelt a rat - there is no way that can be legal holding you over a barrel, and th

floweroscotland

[QUOTE]Originally posted by maxpaxx
..just one piece of advice! We have opened up an account with these guys recently. We are using Halewood to transfer all our money as they give a better rate. However Commonwealth lead us to believe that we could not get the Australian side of the account set up unless we used them for the transfer! I smelt a rat - there is no way that can be legal holding you over a barrel, and the whole point of

floweroscotland

[QUOTE]Originally posted by maxpaxx
..just one piece of advice! We have opened up an account with these guys recently. We are using Halewood to transfer all our money as they give a better rate. However Commonwealth lead us to believe that we could not get the Australian side of the account set up unless we used them for the transfer! I smelt a rat - there is no way that can be legal holding you over a barrel, and the whole