leechy100

we have sold our house and all things being well we should be in receipt of the money in the next two weeks. i have been looking to open an aussie account, possibly with the commonwealth bank or hsbc. the later in the form of an offshore account. are the exchange rates much of a muchness between banks and companies such as HIFX ? and does anybody know any pros or cons to the afore mentioned banks. all advise is welcome. cheers

wongstonn

Well the main disadvantage of HSBC is that it does not have many branches. For instance, there are 6 in Victoria. Some people are content with electronic banking, so it is your call. I think HSBC has some kind of agreement with Post Offices too. CBA has stacks of branches. Not sure why you are thinking about an offshore account. Last time I looked at HSBCs website (admittedly about 2 years ago) even it stated there wasn't much advantage in having one if you were about to reside in Australia and to be watchful of Aussie tax law on offshore accounts. Why do you want to do this? UK banks are quite happy to keep existing UK based accounts open for people living overseas. I still have my First Direct account, and for a while kept my Barclays and RBS accounts open too.

Neil

sunshinesarah

We didn't open accounts until we got here. We just popped our card into ATM's here and withdrew money (coming out of Uk account) as we needed it and left my mum as power of attorney over Uk account until we'd decided when to close it.

We found the general banks offered the worst exchange rate and used a specialist money exchange company to send it across. We found a whole list of them featured in the Money Mail section of the Mail on Sunday. With the amount we were bringing, the small difference in rate gave us loads more $$$$$. Can't remember the name of the company we used but just do a google search. When you ring them, you get put through to a dealer and get offered a rate. It's a waiting game and you just have to suss out if the rate's going to shift up or down.

Good luck
Sunshine Sarah

Wol

Do a search on the Commonwealth!

HSBC has few branches but you just don't need them: you can get cash from any PO or supermarket by swiping the white card. I had to visit the Sydney branch once to get a bank cheque for a car but that was it - oh sorry, twice, we had to get another cheque for land purchase!

simpy

Not yet in OZ but I opened a V2 account over the phone with ANZ. Can deposit but can't withdraw until showed passport and 'boarding card' to local branch in Melbourne where account is. Going to use OZFOREX to transfer and exchange money as it's free and a better rate than banks.
Using the V2 account because it's a better interest rate AND more importantly there is no monthly fee for the account. Upon arrival we will also open up a visa debit account with ANZ for our everyday needs ($6p/m) so that we can withdraw free from ATM's. With the V2 you are limited to the number of withdrawals before you start to get charged.
Hope this has helped.

OZFOREX

ANZ BANK CONTACTS

Simpy