sara-anthony3108

who is the best company to transfer money with .. we have had a look at ozforex can anyone recanyone esle who may offer a better rate ..

Shaun&Dee

Best to do a search, question asked lots before so lots of various threads on this. However I have found that for a few thousand pounds i have got a good rate at the money x-changes in London by haggling with them all. Airport rates are bad at LHR & BNE. Good luck.

sara-anthony3108

thanks I will do a thread search and chk to exchange

AmandaJ

Hi

We've now been in Melbourne for a year and we used hifx.co.uk to exchange our money. You need to set up an account with them but it's pretty straight forward. They offer the best exchange rates (better than banks and high street), and don't charge for transfers, subject to the amount being exchanged. We used them for all our major exchange and money transfers from UK to Aus - and this is also the company that all of our expat friends use.

You can also set up bank accounts in Aus before you arrive here with the major banks - ANZ, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank (Commonwealth do have an office in London especially for migrants to set up accounts before departure - migrantbanking.co.uk).

Hope this helps.

Amanda

miss piggy

I'm interested in using ozforex as well - they seem pretty clued up - but would also like to know if anyone has used them ? I have this awful vision of them disappearing into the night with all my hardearned pennies - how does one check whether these money changing firms are the real Mccoy ?

spalen

Hi -
Ozforex are safe - used them tons of times. check out my other posts on the various other offerings hifx, natwest, tranzfers - do a search for my id and tranzfers and you'll find them

Their MD - Matt - posts on here sometimes when people need help and they wrote the guide on the front page of british expats on currency ocnversions.
They are under the same obligatoins/scrutiny as any other brokerage house so have to have X$ on reserve, to cover their liabilities, etc etc etc. So pretty safe.

dadpad

Just to add re Ozforex. I have just used them to exchange the proceeds of my house sale and they were brilliant, very professional.

spalen

I found my post for you - now you better use my referral id ;-) (Please!!!!) ;-)

The original question was about opening a bank in Aus and moving money before you move to Aus - but the advice is the same - good luck.

You can open with hsbc or commonwealth or others before you leave. Lots of people are fans of HSBC because they are pretty low on charges but to bank over here in aus you have to go to post office I think which if you see the queues in the post office would put you off ;-) .

Commonwealth also have an international account you can open from UK but they are often slated for bad service. My advice is to not bother - but open one when you get here - its just so easy its unreal so dont bother with the headache.

What we did was opened a bank of queensland account - you can open it immediately when you are here very easily and get given eftpos (switch) cards immediately over the counter. Walk in with passport, etc, wihtin the first 14days of arriving and you are allowed to open it without 100 points of ID. AT least then you have an account - can use it - and buy things. Then take your time and decide which bank is best for you based on where you live/with atm's nearby / with branches are nearby etc. You dont want to endup banking with someone when their nearest atm is 3 miles away and end up paying 2$ a for taking some cash out every time. Also - BOQ only give you an EFtpos card so you cant buy things over net or over 1000$ in a day - but its only your 'first' bank account so sort that out later or get a visa card application filed.

BOQ is not the only bank that will allow you same-day opening and giving you the cards etc - the message is - dont sweat it, its easy to do here, there are FAR better ways to get more value when transfering GBP to AUD

If you are opening an account to transfer money - then this is not a good thing to do. You are better off using a foreign exchange broker HIFX (www.hifx.com) or www.tranzfers.com are two. Tranzfers are more friendly and have had better feedback on here + other sites - if you do register use my referral id if you like so i get more brownie points

http://www.tranzfers.com/refer.asp?r=ijcollins

When you look at the rates to compare on their websites - you need to ignore the rates offered on the 'front page' only the rate that you get inside the website is the one tha tmatters when you actually want to trade.

With Tranzfers you can 'load' money into tranzfers -so you can for example put 5 x 5Kpounds lump sums into the tranzfers system - send them the money , then step on plane. When you get over here you open your bank account, logonto tranzfers website - chose one of the 'lumps' of money and click on the 'trade' button, 24hrs later the money is in your account in Ausie Dollars. The reason you would split the money up like this is to be able to manage the exchange rate - or if the rate is fantastitc when you move then do it all in one go - its up to you. They charge 7 quid per transaction. They are tremendously easy to use.

HIfX will not let you 'front load' like this . If you register in UK for HIFX you have to -re-register again in Australia since they have regulation rules stipulating you cannot trrade in australia on a UK account. HIFX trading is all done via fax + Phone - Tranzfers is all online just like online banking. Tranzfers use barclays bank. Trading with HIFX involves faxing multiple 'instructions' and making phone calls to trader etc, its a pain in the ass to be frank.

Tranzfers is all online, you can track your money - see what stage its at, and they are a phone call away both UK end and Aus end so you get help when you need it. I have used them 15+ times for amounts from 1kgbp to 20kgbp. Tranzfers + Ozforex are same company.

If you leave money in a uk bank account and plan to transfer it later - be aware of the daily banking limits for the account a 1k per day transfer limit becomes a pain in ass.

Nationwide(or maybe natwest I forget) have a pretty good/cheap visa card for international use - it uses close to inter-bank rates wihch are better than tourist rates so might be a good short-term access to money for you.

Do Not exhange your money at post office / via your bank - they will really cream money off you compared to the deal you get at HIFX or Tranzfers.

Finally - Read the insiders guide to foreign exchange article on BE under articles, written by the chap who runs Ozforex/Tranzfers - its pretty impartial and good advice contained therein.

Hope this is useful and sorry to cut +paste from another post but didnt know if you'd seen it and im bummed if im going to type it all in again.

sara-anthony3108

loads of info thanks again everyone .. feel much better now ..