Hi, just wanted to say what a great way to spend a weekend, my kids would love that hot spring. Fingers crossed that we make it to Tas it sounds fantastic. Cant wait Jane

Hi we opened a Commonwealth account here in London and also one from here for Oz, they were fantastic at the branch in Rosny Park (just by Lindisfarne) so can recommend them, we have not had any probs, got our car insurance and house contents insurance via them too as they were cheapest!! Good luck with the valuations, hopefully they wont have dropped too much if they have dropped at all! We also kept open our Natwest accounts and had mail delivered to our Oz address, we also kept our UK credit cards but called them to put a note on our account that we would be in Oz so not to panic and freeze them due to "unusual activity" (although they did with one of Marks!!). Its easier to keep a UK account as people pay birthday, xmas monies into it for us and kids and we then do online banking to transfer it over to our oz account, that way money dont get lost in the post! Hope this helps, Corinne x

Ohh dead jealous, we tried to go there a couple of times but the days we chose always had low cloud so we turned round half way there!!! One thing to make sure I do if I can get to come back to Tas.

ohh dead jealous!!! freezing my butt off here, darnt venture outside incase I get frost bite!!!!

Hi, bet you are glad your boys are back. Did they have a good time? (albeit missing their mum!). Hope your BP's better now. Wont be long and you will be on your way, the time will go really quicky.

we're with ANZ for our day-to-day banking, a/c service fee is $5/month which covers all transactions, some of my Aussie mates reckon Commonwealth is crap but I've never used them.

also we have an HSBC Serious Saver high interest a/c-the nearest branch is in Melbourne but we access it online, transactions can be conducted at any AusPost branch.

we have 2 UK a/cs open, both of them send statements to our Oz address and we maintain the a/cs online.

we opened a commonwealth account from London they have been great, the online banking is so easy to use, if you have over $40k in savings there are no bank charges.

here's a link to Tas population growth:

http://www.iris.tas.gov.au/activity_...n_demographics

and here's a gloomy forecast:

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/3222.6

cool that was some good reading!! Not sure I like the thought of loads coming to Tassie!!!! he he he!! Mind you I know that alot are coming over from the mainland buying up land etc,

We opened up a Westpac account the first day we arrived, they have been really good. I know you can also open one up online whilst still in the UK and activate it once you arrive in Aus. They charge $5 a month, but we have 4 accounts with them (don't ask!) and that covers all 4. We have also got our mortgage with them and have an offset account where we put our savings into and that helps to pay the mortagage off quicker, also incase of emergencies we can drawer on it. I also do online and telephone banking with them.

I kept my Nationwide account open, I can withdraw funds out here and they don't charge me. I deal with all my banking online, it is really simple. Duncan still has his Natwest account open too, again we do online banking with them too.

Its also worth thinking about, when you stay at home mums come over to open a savings acc just in your name, as you won't be earning, you shouldn't get taxed on your savings.

But I think that most banks are much the same, I know that The commonwealth and westpac have good reports on this website. Our rellies I think are with ANZ and they are happy with them too.

I dont get taxed on my half of the savings with a joint account

next one is on Fri Feb 22nd if you fancy coming along-we start about 9pm.

Will try, should be good!

Hi All - thanks for all the replies about which banks you opened accounts with I'll get my finger out this week and start getting something sorted!

Corinne - nice to hear from you - at least it's not too cold today here in Sunny old Romford - i think the weather's warming up a little bit! It has been cold recently though hasn't it! Hows it been since you got back? I bet you've enjoyed seeing your family...

Sammy T (Sam) and Talisman (Jane) - fingerscrossed you all get buyers really soon! We'll have to start a competition amongst those of us about to sell/ or already selling to see who gets over 1st this year! I hope we all manage it - i cant bear the thought of it not being till 2009!

Jerzo (Zoe) - Hope the boys of the house are all recovering from the journey home! Did they have a great time ?

Ian & Helena - Thanks for the information links! Good luck with the next gig, hope you have a full-house to play to!

Kerry - You just reminded me that i'm going to get to be a stay at home for a while when we 1st arrive! Hooray! I'm looking forward to a break from work for a while....It's awful at the moment - some of our work is being outsourced to India and our offices are full of people from Bangalore being trained up to do our jobs. They say that they're "phasing" the transfer of work, but eventually it's inevitable that it'll all go - and just the difficult / rubbish stuff will have to be dealt with by those left in the UK. For every 20 Indians employed by this company in Bangalore - it means that 12 of us in the UK are going.... I've stood my ground and have refused to train any people from India (as i worry about the staff that will be left when i've gone) - but following my principles wont stop the inevitable - it just makes me feel a bit better knowing that the 20years experience and knowledge in my head is leaving with me when i go!!!!!
and this situation reminds me that they'll be a lot less jobs around in about 15 years time in this country as all major companies are looking for cheaper outsourcing options and cost cutting! Another good reason to leave the UK!

Anyway, enough moaning about that!
Cathy

Australian companies outsource to India as well. But don't worry - there is a backlash from customers who will not use companies that do this and many people hang up as soon as they hear an indian accent (bad luck to New Australian's with Indian accents getting lumped into the same basket).

Pretty soon these companies will realise they are not saving any money if all their customers change to those that use Australian labour - hopefully!!!

Nothing worse than having to explain where Tasmania is to someone supposedly helping you with an Australian service ( 3 mobile phone company :curse: )