Fardell

Things have improved then... and the site is up. It says "TD Waterhouse offer a Trading Account to residents and expatriates living in a wide range of countries." But it doesn't specify what countries .. Australia is often exluded for whatever inane reason .. and then when I request more info:

=================================================
Unfortunately the account opening system is currently unavailable. To open an account or for further information please call a TDW representative on 0800 138 1900 during opening hours
=================================================

why couldn't they just list the countries??

Guitarfish

Anyone got any recent experience to add to this?

We've just arrived in Melbourne, and I have one batch of UK shares (paper certificates) that I now want to sell. I'd assumed I could just do it thro any of the UK brokers, but have just hit the 'non-resident' issue.

This is a one-off, so I don't want to open a 'trading account' as such unless it's the only way to do it...

Anyone know of a stockbroker that will allow me to do this over the phone then send them the share certificates

cheers, Chris

Skittle

After reading all the replies to this thread - would you recommend selling any shares before leaving the UK? It sounds like that would be the easiest option to me.

Fardell

Go through www.exfin.com - they'll put you in touch with a local broker that will sell your shares. Should be able to do it the same day as long as you've got the papers, and no need to establish a trading account unless you want to. As said a while ago though it's not cheap - brokerage was 1 to 1.5% if I remember. Would suggest my previous broker but he seems to have immigrated to the ...UK

I haven't/wouldn't sell all my UK shares - I find the UK income quite useful and and I intend to keep them long term. If I have to sell urgently then 1 to 1.5% isn't going to fuss me too much. So, I think it depends on the quality of the shares, your timeframe and any "emotional attachment"

marco121068

Don't forget to declare them.

Fardell

"Naturally", it's not worth the hassle ... and even if you so weren't inclined there is a very high level of info transfer between both income tax authorities

Guitarfish

A quick update in case it's of use to anyone...

I took Fardell's advice and contacted exfin. They contacted 2 different brokers on my behalf, who then contacted me and each other to agree who would best be able to deal with my transaction.

In the end it was Bell Potter that handled it. It took a while but that was due to regulatory red-tape and the need to send paper certificates to UK - Bell Potter did a great job and I would recommend them to anyone else with a similar problems. And as it happens the share price went up 10% while I was waiting for the trade to go through, so I was a very happy customer!

Also a quick plug for exfin, who took the trouble to set me up with right brokers even though there was nothing in it for them.

Nico

Found this an interesting discussion as I too will be heading for Melbourne hopefully once I get my visa and have just committed to a small but fairly risky AIM investment here..wasn't aware that it could be even harder to sell from Aus. So your joint experiences could be helpful. Thanks for sharing the info.