tripawaymars

Hi

I have been reading all of the horror stories about Westpac and although I have opened an account with them I am not yet in Oz so am seriously thinking about cancelling the account!
Has anyone managed to open an ANZ account from the U.K? They seem to need an Oz residential address to so so online. Has anyone managed to do it over the phone? Also, do they have plenty of ATM's around.
A lot of people have mentioned Citibank but you have to have a lot of money floating in your account to get the free banking people are talking about!

Has anyone opened an ANZ account in Oz and got their visa debit card through almost immediately?

Thanks

cinderella

Yes just go to the ANZ bank website, there is a link to the uk site and on there you will find all the details and online forms to open an account while you are still in the UK. Looks very simple. There is a lot of other useful info on there as well.

SunshineGirl

Yes, we did it, no problems. Need to activate once you're ove here.

bridie

http://www.anz.com/aus/Personal/Movi...UK/default.asp

4Reids

We did it no probs and are still with ANZ, still no probs. You just can't withdraw any money til you get here and activate your account. But they'll tell you all that.

TillyG

We did it really easily from the UK and even transferred money from our UK acct to our Aus one. All it meant was that we couldn't actually withdraw any money until we had verified our account, which was a doddle really.

I would recommend the ANZ Access account - the one where they charge you $5 per month for unlimited transactions. A lot of banks, as you probably know, charge you per transaction and, especially at the beginning when you're getting used to the way Aus works from a financial pov, it's worth it.

wardy2

Do you get charged for using other banks ATM.

Thanks

Kaye

bluekipper

No I didnt get charged for using other atm`s when I was in OZ, the $5 a mth is the best one to go for as you can use your card as many times as you like.

bluekipper

TillyG

Yes, we do. The $5 per month covers all online banking transactions (I do a lot of them, mainly between accounts), all counter transactions (ie paying stuff in at the ANZ, doesn't have to be your "home" branch), all EFTPOS transactions (Aussie equivalent of Switch) and all ANZ ATM transactions.

However, if you use your card in, say, a StGeorge ATM, you will get hit with a charge of (I think) $1.20. We've only had that happen once and I tore such a strip off DH that it's not happened again LOL.

wardy2

Thanks Tilly.

I was talking to someone who says she was getting charged on top of her $5 a month fee.

Dont know what was happening there then.

I think I am going to download the forms and start the ball rolling that is my job for today.

Thanks for your help

Kaye

TillyG

Yep, if you use a non-ANZ machine you WILL get charged extra on top of the standard $5 fee. It can be a faff, as we don't have an ANZ ATM in our suburb but if I need cash I just buy a bottle of milk at the supermarket and get my cash out that way

MDA

I am in the process of opening an ANZ account. I understand that there is a charge for this account of $5 per month. Does anyone know if I will be charged for this from when I open the account or from when the account is activated on arrival. I don't want to open it now and then they take the fees off when we first transfer some money.

Also, as I am not depositing any money at the moment I am right in thinking that I can only open a ANZ Access Advantage account and I cannot open a savings account?

Thanks for your time.

Mandy

TillyG

It's worth asking them, to be honest.

If I recall correctly (and this is a couple of years ago now), we didn't start getting charged the monthly fee until we had moved to Australia and "activated" the account. Up until that point, we could deposit money in but couldn't withdraw it or access internet banking until we went into the branch with our ID and officially "opened" the account.

I opened an Access Advantage account (it's actually a "savings" account in terms of that's the option you press when you use your Eftpos card at the supermarket/ATM) - haven't actually got a "proper" savings account over here as had no savings at the time LOL.

To be honest, until you get here and get started, you only really need the one account - the Access Advantage is just like a current account, it's easy to use and the $5 fee isn't really that much. We chose it because we would rather pay $5 per month than get charged for every single transaction. To be honest, we might save money if we were on a "pay per transaction" account but I like the freedom to know I can use the account however I want, if that makes sense.

HTH a bit

PS - once you're here, you may want to get a Visa Debit account as well - that's $6 per month but gives you a Visa card (it's a debit not credit card) which makes online & phone shopping a lot easier. You can't use your Eftpos card online or over the phone.

MDA

Thanks for the reply TillyG.

I will ring ANZ tomorrow and talk through our options.

Thanks again for your help.

cheekivimto07

We have just applied for a bank account with ANZ, seems simple enough to open from the UK, plus it gives you step by step instruction so theres no confusion.