Mark & Ali

Hi everyone

I apologise in advance for sounding thick but must admit I'm confused by this. We're looking to move over to Oz at the end of January and am presently looking at bank accounts to open over there. At present I have monies in my account in the UK which I would obviously need to transfer to Oz before we move and I'm trying to understand the best way of transferring the money.

Over the months I've noticed that most people have used OzForex which is highly recommended, but I'm just trying to understand what the benefits are of using this facility rather than just sending the payment via my Bank's CHAPS system?

After a year of Visa applications and forms I'm looking for a nice easy stress free way to transfer our money without having to do too much work Any guidance and advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks.

Ali

marco121068

At the end of the day it all boils down to one thing.

How many Aussie $$$$ you'll get for your £££'s.

Money brokers tend to give you a better rate than banks - but you can always try getting the bank to better their rate (unlikely in my experience though!).

Centurion

CHAPS is a way of transmitting funds but someone has to convert it to AUD$ from GBP somewhere along the line. Your bank will do that for you but you will get a worse rate than a broker, like Ozforex.

To see the different ask your bank for the rate they will convert to AUD and send the money to an australian account. Then compare that you Ozforex and you'll probably see a difference of a few cents per pound and a difference in the fixed bank charge for doing it.

When you convert with ozforex you send the money to a UK account which will attract a charge by your bank for just making that transfer. Your UK bank will charge you more for making an overseas payment most likely.

Davelynd7

Hi Mark and Ali!

like you we're waiting to leave for the Sunshine Coast early '07...

Thats not a silly question at all mate!

We've used HIFX several times to transfer funds to Oz (house purchase, open bank accounts etc), and have found them excellent and much better rate than standard banks. (We recently got $2.50!!), so would recommend them - although the rate does depent on how much you're transferring over.

We did have to move some £s to Hifx from our building society and they charged us £30.00!!!! for the priviledge (but it was a 'same day' jobby), and boy did we begrudge every penny!!! So personally Id avoid using the banks. We have Westpac accounts open in Coolum and can access via t'internet, so can keep eye on everything too. You can open from Uk via their migrant banking place in Sydney.

Hope this helps and look forward to us all being out there soon!!!
Merry Christmas, Davelynd

Wave the Sails

For ease.........

Open a Commonwealth Bank Account in London. They will then set everything up for you over here. To start with it will be an Investment Account which has a good interest rate but high transaction charges. Once you are settled change it to a Streamline Account.

To transfer money I have used HIFX and Ozforex, but www.moneycorp.com for large amounts as they will do the best deal. Get quotes from two others and then haggle.

Just an idea. It's what we did and was simple. If you don't like CBA when you've arrived swap to another Bank.

HTH