jam76

The g/f just popped into our local HSBC (been customers since it was the Midland bank) to enquire about opening an account for the Aussie branch.

£100 to open one up!!! :curse:

£10 to transfer any funds no matter what the size and we would get whatever exchange rate is applicable at that time.

Now I am thinking of looking at Westpac or ANZ as I know its free to open, but we won't be using Hifx or Ozforex as we only have say 6-7 thousand british pounds to transfer over and it will be in dribs and drabs. (ozforex is 10,000 australian minimum before transfer)

Does anyone know how much these banks charge to transfer funds from uk account to australian account and would the rates be comparable to what is listed on xe.com? How easy is it also?

Wol

I don't know where the £100 comes from: opening a HSBC account in Oz costs nothing. Remember that HSBC UK has nothing to do with HSBC anywhere else. Phone their London International number and they will know how to set up an account - local branches usually know nothing about overseas banks.

Tranzfers are the "small amounts" branch of OzForex: £7 to transfer ££ to $$ and a good rate. They will do any amount" - OzForex deal mainly in larger amounts.

manc1

[QUOTE=jam76;6870949]

(ozforex is 10,000 australian minimum before transfer)


What, is this correct?

Wol

Give 'em a ring and find out!

My understanding is that OzForex deal with substantial and/or regular payments whereas Tranzfers - same company - are more for smallish one-offs.

I have found them both to be friendly and reliable

Kooky.

Nope, cost us nothing to open an HSBC current/internet account.

hereshoping

We were also told 100 quid to fully open the oz account from the UK, including transfering credit history. If you can't become an HSBC premier customer (which makes all this gumpf free) I'd use another bank as there are very few branches of HSBC out here.

Kooky.

Ah, we opened ours here on our looksee. That is a rip-off.

HSBC has (I think) four ATMs in the whole of Sydney, not one of them near my house. Fortunately most shops do cashback on the debit card.

steve`o

[QUOTE=manc1;6871613] no its 2000 dollars

bridie

open an account with an aussie bank and use tranzfers

sonlymewalter

Are you sure it's not just to deposit - but it's yours to draw out of the account when you get here

Downies

Hi

I opened a Westpac account in the UK and upon arrival in Oz and the tax file number at the ready I opened a HSBC Online account which requires a $2000 deposit (can take it back out if you want). It is quick and easy but need to be here unless you can get HSBC International in London to assist you as a longstanding HSBC customer.

Tranzfers is very good for smaller amounts to be transfered - used them several times and recommend them.

HSBC Online is one of the few banks that does not charge monthly account fees. There are a few now that have waived the account fees as long as your salary goes in monthly.

They dont have the branches here - however you can use five free ATM transactions from any bank, free cashbacks from stores and free banking services through the post offices.

The only charges I have received is to transfer money to the UK - but still substantially less than Westpac.

Good luck.

Damson

We bottled it when things were looking tough for BOS and transferred money into mine (Lloyds) and OH's (HSBC) accounts. Unfortunately to tranfer it back, we can only do it £10,000 per day (this is working capital for our small business by the way) or pay £30 to do it in one go. Cheeky buggers!

Scuba Steve

So you can't link your Oz and UK account to transfer funds? (Dumb question probably) like you can here.

alipally

We banked with Nationwide in the UK, excellent service free banking no charges for international withdrawals and a really great exchange rate to boot... If you're a regular here, you'll have heard all this before!

I think that the account that the UK bank was trying get you to open was a foreign currency account.... Barclays do one too... that's also really expensive!

We bank with HSBC here.... lowest cost banking we could find without a TFN to open the account, and you can have your address as your UK one too, so you can open on a Reccie trip, All of your banking can be done at Post shops... free, so it's as good as having loads of branches.. EFTPOS are all free, so you can get cash out with that if you can't find a cashpoint or at the post shop which is also free, and up to 5 withdrawals free from other cash points. The only draw back was opening the acccount... all the staff were Chinese, and seem to have a natural talent for confusing us with 'Chinglish'! It took us about 2 hours to open two accounts

However, we're thinking of opening a Citibank account as this seems to be fee free, from what I've read!

Anyone else have any ideas for free/lowcost banking? (sorry if I've hi jacked!)

jam76

Thanks so much for all your input!!

We decided on opening a Westpac account (just completed it online) and will be using transferz.com.au to send the money over.

Thanks god thats, that taken care of... what else can I stew over and worry about now...

lol!