Need to open Bank, but need to land in next 90 days?
Feb 10th 2011, 9:39 pm
#1
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Need to open Bank, but need to land in next 90 days?
Want to open westpac account, to put some money in it and start depositing funds. But it says online need to be in country within 90 days....
But i might mot be going till september !
Any suggestions? x
But i might mot be going till september !
Any suggestions? x
Feb 10th 2011, 9:56 pm
#2
Crazy Cat Lady
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 65,493
Re: Need to open Bank, but need to land in next 90 days?
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Feb 10th 2011, 10:01 pm
#3
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Re: Need to open Bank, but need to land in next 90 days?
Will call them tommorow. Both the application letter and online says " I am arriving in Australia and able to complete an identity check at my Westpac branch within 90 days of application
Feb 10th 2011, 10:55 pm
#4
Crazy Cat Lady
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 65,493
Re: Need to open Bank, but need to land in next 90 days?
See what other banks say. Even if you open one to put money in, doesn't mean you have to stay with them once here if you don't want to. Seems like a daft rule to me and maybe there's another account with them you could open that doesn't have that restriction? As I said, Comm had no such rule, just that you could put money in from overseas but not withdraw until you were resident which seemed fair enough.
Feb 12th 2011, 9:42 am
#5
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Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 144
Re: Need to open Bank, but need to land in next 90 days?
We opened a Westpac account 4 months before arriving in Oz in September last year. According to the Oz banking rules you need to have your identity checked in person within 90 days of opening your account, and most banks, and their forms, assume that you will do this when arriving in Oz. However it is possible to have all the identity checks done at the Westpac branch in London, which is what we did. They are incredibly helpful there so I strongly suggest calling them and asking for the migrant banking department.
They did tell us that in some cases you can ask your local bank to do the identity check on their behalf and then send the forms to Westpac, however some of the local UK banks were not being very cooperative. So in the end we decided to make the trip to London and do the id checks there. Once you have done the id checks your account is fully functional and you can start to use internet banking etc. Please PM me if you need more details.
Good luck
Lynette
They did tell us that in some cases you can ask your local bank to do the identity check on their behalf and then send the forms to Westpac, however some of the local UK banks were not being very cooperative. So in the end we decided to make the trip to London and do the id checks there. Once you have done the id checks your account is fully functional and you can start to use internet banking etc. Please PM me if you need more details.
Good luck
Lynette
Feb 14th 2011, 8:23 am
#6
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Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 359
Re: Need to open Bank, but need to land in next 90 days?
We opened a Westpac account 4 months before arriving in Oz in September last year. According to the Oz banking rules you need to have your identity checked in person within 90 days of opening your account, and most banks, and their forms, assume that you will do this when arriving in Oz. However it is possible to have all the identity checks done at the Westpac branch in London, which is what we did. They are incredibly helpful there so I strongly suggest calling them and asking for the migrant banking department.
They did tell us that in some cases you can ask your local bank to do the identity check on their behalf and then send the forms to Westpac, however some of the local UK banks were not being very cooperative. So in the end we decided to make the trip to London and do the id checks there. Once you have done the id checks your account is fully functional and you can start to use internet banking etc. Please PM me if you need more details.
Good luck
Lynette
They did tell us that in some cases you can ask your local bank to do the identity check on their behalf and then send the forms to Westpac, however some of the local UK banks were not being very cooperative. So in the end we decided to make the trip to London and do the id checks there. Once you have done the id checks your account is fully functional and you can start to use internet banking etc. Please PM me if you need more details.
Good luck
Lynette
Im going to open it today online...xx
