Opening a Commonwealth Bank account for the bond money.
 

I've just been telling my aunt, who is my sponsor, that she will need to open a CBA account for the bond money that we will be sending her. She couldn't believe that it costs $150 just to open the account!
She asked if it was possible for her to just open an ordinary account with them (which costs about $20), and then keep it open to deposit the bond money when the time arises.
Any one know if it's ok to do this or is it a special account?
Thanks
Julie. x

Re: Opening a Commonwealth Bank account for the bond money.
 

Paying money to open an account !!

Not something I have ever had to do here ! Must be something special :confused:

They aren't just talking about an initial deposit are they ?

Re: Opening a Commonwealth Bank account for the bond money.
 

I'm sure I've read on this forum somewhere that people have had to pay $150 for opening this account.
Too late now to look, so I'll do it tomorrow. Maybe I'm wrong. I often am :o

Re: Opening a Commonwealth Bank account for the bond money.
 

I know the CBA have a bad name for Bank fees, but that is taking the biscuit !!

Re: Opening a Commonwealth Bank account for the bond money.
 

Found the thread I was looking for:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=353399 Post #3

Re: Opening a Commonwealth Bank account for the bond money.
 

I see what it is now:

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia will provide a bank guarantee to cover the AoS bond. It is the only bank approved to provide this service.

The bank charges a fee for each bond to cover the cost of establishing and managing the bond. As the charge is not part of the bond, it is non-refundable.

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/990i/990i_aos.htm

There are no charges for establishing bonds for contributory Parent visa subclasses.

If they can do it free for those, how come they need to charge for the others ?

Re: Opening a Commonwealth Bank account for the bond money.
 

She couldn't believe that it costs $150 just to open the account!

We thought it was odd. We obviously were reluctant to do this but had to. We've heard about the bank charges in Oz, When we eventually get over there is one bank that we will definitely avoid because of this. :mad:

John