Hannah-Banana

Hey guys,
I'm not sure if this is the correct place to leave this thread so if not, if someone could please re-direct it that would be great

I'm leaving the uk for sydney in 2 weeks on a pmv - i'm leaving a bank account open here in the uk and am going to open another one when i get to oz but i just have 2 questions:

1) I have a direct debit that comes out of my account in the uk every month to pay off a loan - it's not very much and i'm leaving money in the uk account for the first few payments after i leave so i dont have to worry straight away. I called the loan company and they said that it has to be paid from the uk account so cant change it to the oz one.
Is there any way i could set something up to transfer the cash out of my oz account into my uk account every month? Or will i have to send a cheque home every month?

2) I also have a credit card which we used for all the visa costs - is it possible to open up an oz credit card and transfer the balance of pounds to aus dollars on the new card? Then we could also take advantage of the 'no interest' period that most new credit cards offer!!

Just wandering if those of you who are already enjoying your new lives down under had any similar situations when you first moved?
Please let me know - any help would be appreciated

Pollyana

Sorted for you

Hannah-Banana

Thanks Polly!! Didn't think it was the right place but i knew you'd make it work!

rab

Welcome to banking in Australia - get ready to be cheated and ripped off!

I use HSBC here for my savings account (which is what we would call a "current account" in UK). I get "free" banking as long as I do nothing. If I want to withdraw money I will get charged (cashpoint or cheque). You can transfer money easily to the UK via the internet but they charge you a hefty transaction fee. If I remember rightly it's about $20 (8 quid).

As for your loan you would best just settling it striaght away if you have the funds.

I doubt if any Australian bank would accept a credit card debt from UK but gain try HSBC they might be able to help.

It's funny that even with no job in UK now (obviously) I still have a free gold card with 13,000 pounds credit limit.

Here the maximum that Commonwealth would give me is $3,000 and you have to pay $59 a year just for the card plus $15 on top for my wife's card.

Australian banks are a rip off.

Angela Marie

It's funny that even with no job in UK now (obviously) I still have a free gold card with 13,000 pounds credit limit.

This is a good point actually - we will obviously be using our UK CC. for first couple of weeks (have already openned an account with westpac)

Do UK cc companies cancel your visa if they find you have left the country - ie have an australian address?? (Dont mean not pay the bill or anything).

Angela

esperanza

I would be interested if anyone has firm info on this - I am under the impression that you can still use UK CCs whilst abroad, but I don't know how it will work once I am no longer UK resident. I have a 0% that I'd like to keep!
I understand there are less (or no?) 0% deals in Oz like there are here.
Maybe I'll get a new 0% here just before leaving!

Leeds_to_Perth

I'm interested in info on this subject too.
I need to transfer money to England to keep paying a loan and am looking for the cheapest way to do this.

Don't suppose there's ever the chance of just walking away and leaving it all behind!?

Australia_bound?

Yes there's a chance, but will probably bite you in the arse in the years to come :scared:

The Bloke

It won't matter where you live, as long as you have an address they can contact you on (preferably friend/relitave in UK that can forward any mail to you). You can always transfer funds over the internet as well to pay, though it will not give you any credit history in Australia if you want to get a loan etc here.

yafm

Don't understand the costsw you mention..... We have had HSBC on line and savings a/c since we left uk (LLoydstsb in uk) but have not had any charges. We can have as many direct debits or standing orders as we like without charge, we can have 6 atm uses each month free and take out money free from any post office as well as use the post office for all other transactions as if it were the bank we have not had problems with this and also have their credit card which gives us travel insurance as well (charge annually from the second year but worth it for the insurance)

All other australian banks make charges for everything which is why we picked HSBC Howebver we have just found out about an australian credit card which does not have an annual fee and does not charge you for using foreign currency transactions (same as Nationwide c/c in uk) I am going to take one out when we return to australia from our uk trip at present it is with WIZARD home loans - told about it by friend on recent cruise - he lives in Queensland.

Swerv-o

You evidently have a different HSBC account to me then. Mine allows me pretty much fee free banking across the board. Unlimited direct debits, transactions etc. I get unlimited withdrawals from HSBC ATM's, and 6 a month from anyone elses. Also unlimited transactions at the post office.

As for Credit Cards, try Virgin. It's fee free, and gives up to 56 days interest free if you clear your balance. Interest rate is about 12%. All with a $23k credit limit.

S

MartinLuther

And me. My HSBC account only charges for cheques or if I make more than 5 withdrawals a month from someone else's ATM. Other than that I can do as much as I like and they charge me nowt.

Wol

The only fees I've ever paid with HSBC have been for bankers' cheques - as has been said every post office and almost all supermarkets will give you cash on the HSBC grey card without fees. More convenient actually than having to use any banks' branches!

Big Galah

1) I have a direct debit that comes out of my account in the uk every month to pay off a loan - it's not very much and i'm leaving money in the uk account for the first few payments after i leave so i dont have to worry straight away. I called the loan company and they said that it has to be paid from the uk account so cant change it to the oz one.
Is there any way i could set something up to transfer the cash out of my oz account into my uk account every month? Or will i have to send a cheque home every month?
ANZ online allows you to set up your own overseas payments, I'm sure you could make this a regular payment, say, on the first of each month. I'd imagine other banks' online services allow you to do this too. Or, if you have the cash, would it be possible and worth your while to pay it off early?

2) I also have a credit card which we used for all the visa costs - is it possible to open up an oz credit card and transfer the balance of pounds to aus dollars on the new card? Then we could also take advantage of the 'no interest' period that most new credit cards offer!!
I was told it is not possible to do this between cards issued in different countries.

Hope this helps,

Big.

Swerv-o

My personal experience is this:

I found that the following card companies were more than happy to change me to an Aus address:

Barclaycard
MBNA Europe Card
American Express Blue (With an extra charge for postage)

The following were not:

Egg (Immediately cancel card(s) on discovering that you are overseas)
Capital One - Couldn't get a straight answer, but the girl was pretty sure they wouldn't.

I hope this helps.

S