British Expats - Cost Of Living

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British Expats (https://britishexpats.com/forum/)

- Australia (https://britishexpats.com/forum/australia-54/)

- - Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple (https://britishexpats.com/forum/australia-54/cost-living-simple-545884/)

kunjal and shamir

Jul 8th 2008 9:00 am

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seasider (Post 6546636)

:rofl: I've never had 300 grand. I've never had 50 grand, but neither am I starving.

Re. credit, we've had this discussion before on the forum. If you can use your credit card wisely, and pay it off every month, it can save you money and/or bring you rewards. If you know you can't, don't use one.

I'm a tight Yorkshirewoman so begrudge paying interest, and have used mine for regular expenses for years, paying them off with the next month's salary.

I just wish more places here would take Amex, as I'm used to earning airmiles on mine and, with setting up home, could have done quite nicely out of it.

Hi Seasider - can I ask a question about your Amex?
do you use your uk one out there? I have one that I collect BMI miles on and it would be really handy if we could use it in Oz when we get there to help with the cost of visiting home!!

thanks

Kunj

Kooky.

Jul 8th 2008 10:56 am

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple

Quote:

Originally Posted by kunjal and shamir (Post 6547217)

No Kunj but it is a Singapore one (Krisflyer) so similar scenario. You should be able to use yours IF the merchant takes Amex. Some will take it but charge you a premium, some won't take them at all.

However from when we left the UK six years ago I recall I had to leave my UK CCs registered to a UK address otherwise they would be cancelled (I used the in-laws') and also let them know you will be in Australia for some time (no need to be specific) so they don't think your card is being used fraudulently and stop it being used. We've had problems with ours on various holidays (which is good from a security perspective but bloody embarrassing/inconvenient at the time) and also a couple of times since we moved here.

Then of course you need to have UK funds avalable to pay the bills. If you have to transfer A$ over, it may not be worth it.

ray2gill

Jul 8th 2008 1:14 pm

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple

Quote:

Originally Posted by bithbheo (Post 6546509)

Totally agree with this post...once folk start to use their credit cards here as they did in Uk they will soon be floundering $$$ wise....and have noticed lot of folk here use credit cards for food shopping etc.....thankfully am not one of them......:)

Nothing wrong with that providing you pay it off every month. It means I get 55 days free money whilst mine is earning interest. I also have an itemised account of where I spent my money and therefore am better able to budget.

ray2gill

Jul 8th 2008 1:22 pm

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seasider (Post 6547574)

However from when we left the UK six years ago I recall I had to leave my UK CCs registered to a UK address otherwise they would be cancelled have to transfer A$ over, it may not be worth it.

We have a UK bank account with credit cards and use our Dubai address without any problem. Although we have had the account with the bank for many years and have been overseas for 11 years this time.

It probably depends on who's credit cards you have.

katsmajic

Jul 8th 2008 11:15 pm

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple

Our card is a debit card but we have to press the credit button when shopping, we dont have and wont have a credit card.

There was a thread on here a while ago about the average wages, i know Adelaide is in the lower wage scales but $50k is definately considered a very good wage here, obviously there would be family assistance etc on top.

maxtye

Jul 9th 2008 6:17 am

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple

Think I've opened a can of worms.

I thought it was a simple question.

Amazulu

Jul 9th 2008 7:29 am

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple

Quote:

Originally Posted by ray2gill (Post 6548141)

Credit cards, used wisely, are a brilliant way to spend your money. We have a Citibank card, with no annual fee, that gives 1 Qantas frequent flyer for each $ spent, with no limit. We put everything through our credit cards - and I mean everything. After 2.5 years we now have enough FF points to get all 3 of us to Europe and back. We have not paid 1c of interest in all that time.

Credit cards are the way to go.

marco121068

Jul 9th 2008 9:39 am

Re: Cost Of Living - Is It This Simple

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDM (Post 6516356)

I asked a similar question in another thread recently and was directed to this cost of living comparison calculator:

http://www.gomatilda.com/calculator/index.cfm

In a nutshell, the conclusion I drew from the other thread was that if I earned 100,000 groats in the UK, I'd need to earn about 75,000 groats in OZ to maintain a similar quality of life.

In other words, if I earned £100,000 (a nice round number for calculation purposes) in the UK, (this works out to AU$200,000), then I would need to earn AU$150,000 in Oz for it to work out the same.

Or, to put it another way still, £1 spent in the UK has the same purchasing power as £0.75 (AU1.50) spent in Oz.

I don't know if any of this is true. It's just based on what others on BE have quoted and a few number typd into the above web-site.

- CDM

Unfortunately that calculator is WAAAAY out of date as it uses 2001 figures. :ohmy:

To the OP's question of whether £25k is a low salary - it depends on what the job is. If it's brain surgery then yes it's low. :D

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