Mark & Ali

We are due to fly from Heathrow to Brisbane on Saturday and last minute panic is starting to set in.

I've been watching OzForex constantly for the last two days and have slowly watched the exchange rate drop - between yesterday afternoon and today we've lost just over $2K due to the change in rate. This will be the first time I've used OzForex and I'm not sure how easy it is to transfer money from my UK bank to my Oz account once I'm in Australia. I spoke to my bank today but they advised I had to attend the branch in person to arrange a CHAPS payment - does anyone have any experience of transferring money using OzForex when in Oz? How does this work?

My other panic is that we're due to fly from Teesside to Heathrow then out to Kuala Lumpur and all I can see is snow ... anyone know of any accurate weather sites I can visit to see Friday's and Saturday's forecast for the North East and London?

We've been very fortunate in that over the last 12 months the visa and house sale process has gone very smoothly for us and can't believe the English weather will probably be our only hiccup - nothing new there!

Ali X

skye

website for weather on a 3 hour basis for the next 48 hours is www.metcheck.com - you can also check out the weather in OZ - my advice would be to go straight to London judging by the weather reports we have seen for up north!!

Good Luck - we are a few months off yet!!!!

And yes its still snowing here......

grahampaula

Sorry, can't answer any of your questions but just wanted to wish you a safe and pleasant journey and all the best for the future.

Pootle

I transferred money from my Halifax account whilst in Australia. Have you got telephone banking set up? When you agree the rate with ozforex you then telephone your bank and arrange the transfer of funds to their ukforex account. Then it's in your Oz account the next day!
Good luck with your move,

Ruth

flip

Hi

We had some trouble with communcations. Go into your branch with a letter and id confirming someone as proxy can organise payment or get a personal contact and direct line from them. If you try to do it on the 08457 number you'll need most of your finances just for the call.

Once you do get through you'll have to confirm personal details and a password but then they should do it no problem. Also confirm times to call as they can't do much after 3pm.

Ozforex are great and though we timed it wrong they waited patiently for the money to transfer.

Hutch

You'll probably shit a brick at the process, but we've used OzForex many times now with no problems. Your British money disappears into this banking void and then, about 7 days later, it pops out again in new Aussie clothes. You don't have to do anything at the Aussie end, beyond making sure your account's up and running - all you need is to set your account up in the list of benificiares in the OzForex admin screens. You need the Oz bank's BSB (like its sort code) and the actual account number and your name and a reference. If you're unsure about anything just ring OzForex - they have offices in the UK and Oz so you can phone any time of the day or night.

When we transfer stuff now, we just get an online quote from OzForex, then accept it, then go off to our First Direct account and transfer the money to OzForex's UK account (takes about three working days just to get there), then OzForex transfer it to their account in Oz converting it into dollars along the way. Then they transfer it to your Oz account.

marco121068

Not sure why it's taking so long for some of you. My funds are generally in my Oz account the next day once my UK money is in OzForex's account!

One thing to be very wary of. Barclays! They have a limit of £1,000 per day for online transactions......and £5,000 per day for telephone banking. Even with me moving money between accounts while talking to them on the phone (to prove it was me they were talking to) they wouldn't budge!

DunRoaminTheUK

Yeah, we hit the same "effing" restriction with Barclays when we transfered our last 12k across from the UK to here in Australia. We transferred our initial large amount using direct payment, arranged from within the branch.

In each case, because OzForex also bank with Barclays in the UK, the transfer from the UK to our Australian account was more or less overnight.

I think OzForex is cost-effective (on large amounts) and incredibly easy to use. They guys at OzForex are also very professional in their manner and abilities.

DunRoaminTheUK

Hi.

Just curious to know Hutch, if you see yourself as more "POM" than "Aussie" because of the footer in your posts?

SunshineGirl

I've used Ozforex a few times now and they've been excellent. Money is usually in our Oz account within about 3 days.

ANyway, hope you had a good journey, you may well have arrived by now!

Hutch

I guess the operative bit is "once my UK money is in OzForex's account" - that's what takes the time. We bank with IMB - not sure if that makes the process longer than it would if we banked with one of the big five.

marco121068

Could be.

SunshineGirl

Hi Hutch,

I've discovered your blogs and you do make me smile!

Christine