showdan

I have opened a Westpac account in anticipation of being asked for my Capital Investment, this will enable me to use which ever territory I want to, to invest my $100000.

I believe to activate this account I need to transfer some money into it, so I would like to send approx $30, this is so they can take out my $5 per month charges and gives me 6 months before I need to put any more in.

I believe I can do a bank transfer thing but they charge about £25 for the pleasure, I may be sounding tight but charging £25 to send about £13 is a bit steep.

Does anyone know a cheaper way that has a minimum amount no more than say £50

cheers
showdan

Wendy

You won't be able to withdarw any cash from that account until you have verified your identity to the branch in person.

Brisben

Wendy is correct.

My bank also charged me a high price for a transfer to a Westpac account, I just took it on the Chin, I also thought to open or activate your account you had to put more than £30 in ! I amy me wrong but just double check !

showdan

I dont want to take any money out of it, just activate it. Also put enough in it to keep it open so they can take their $5 per month.

I have only opened it because to invest your $100K with Western Australia (who tend to pay the best interest) you need a bank account in Oz. Now I just need to active it and keep it open until I get there.

bridie

I use www.tranzfers.com costs £7 per transaction so much more reasonable than the banks, plus usually a better rate (they are part of ozforex)

Wendy

Ah, I read it as you wanted to transfer the bond money into it to pay the Australian Government your bond, which of course you can't do as you won't be able to transfer the cash out. To activate an account, you have to verify your identity but if you just want to open it and put money in then it's pretty easy, and it will stay open providing you keep enough cash in to cover the fees (I didn't get any fees from the ANZ until after I arrived and started using the account, and in fact didn't have any funds in it until the day I verified my identity.)

From reading the westpac site, you can activate it before you arrive but it's very difficult.

http://www.westpac.com.au/internet/p...rseas+accounts

To transfer money in, I'd also say use tranzfers as they seem to be the best value for money

jayr

I highly recommend Tranzfers. If you click this link and sign up you will get me a referral point:

http://www.tranzfers.com/refer.asp?r=nitsch01

Costs are much lower than using traditional banks and you may wish to continue to use when you get to Australia if you have any ongoing need to transfer money back to the UK.

It costs me $15 to send money to to the Uk using Tranzfers. Previously I used Commbank who charged $22.50 and it took me a long time to realise that every time I sent money the amount that arrived was always GBP11 less. This was a charge levied not by my receiviong bank but an intermediary used by COmmbank in London. In effect they were charging me nearly $50 every time I sent money to the UK!

CathnPaul

how does transferz rate with hifx??

GaryKristensen

HiFX do free transfers and guarantee you get no bank charges at the Oz end or they will re-imburse it.

It would be interesting to know if anyone compares the exchange rate from the major currency exchange companies on a daily basis to see what rate you get from each.

Anyone?

Wendy

Is there a minimum amount of cash you can transfer with HIFX?

kporte

no. I used my credit card to pay hifx and they transferred it over to activate my westpac account. no charge as such but on such a small amount - $48- the rate is poor. I figure that taking this into account the transfer cost around £5. you're correct wendy, the account can't be drawn on till activated in person . all very painless

Wendy

It would be very interesting to see the difference in exchange rate between HIFX and Tranzfers then.

showdan

Thanks all,

I have a Hifx account, but for some reason I thought it had a minimum transfer of £1000, God knows where I got that from.

Weasy

I have used 3 different currency exchange companies - Sterling Exchange, Excel Currencies and World First. None of them charged no matter what amount. I used different ones as each one gave the best rate at the time I wanted to transfer and i made it very clear when I called them that they were in competition with other companies. It pays to shop around if you are transferring a bigger amount and it seems that different companies have more leeway at different times.

However, there won't be much variation in the rate on such a smaller amount (OPs) though but none of these companies would charge you a fee.

Lou
xx

CathnPaul

so did you do it like a balance transfer onto your card and changed it into cash instead???