sky

Im a bit unclear as to how you tranfer your money from GBP from your uk bank to NZ dollars for when you arrive over there. Would your bank do it or do you risk losing thousands tranferring like that.

Ben.M

You can transfer via your bank but you'll probably get a better rate going through one of the specialist foreign exchange brokers. You'll find several listed at NZ Links in the Business & Finance section. They also provide services such as forward trading, etc.

You'll also need an account set up in NZ to pay it into. ASB can set up an account in advance and I'm sure the other main banks can too.

Hope this helps,
Ben

Coventry

can i just ask, rather than paying people to transfer money can't I just ask my bank for a cheque once my house sale is complete and then walk into a NZ bank set up an account and pay the cheque in, then surely it would cost me zilch or will the banks still charge me cos the cheque is GBP.

life is so complicated

itsasecret

I dont see what your getting at. If you do this it would mean you have to use the Banks exchange rate? and you maybe worse off.

Ben.M

You don't actually pay the brokers to change the money as such. They make their money from the spread between the wholesale rates they can buy NZ$ at and the rate they give you. The rate you get through a broker will generally be better than you can get in the bank although of course if the rate goes up before you deposit the cheque then you could be better off. This is where a crystal ball would come in handy!

I would imagine you'd also be charged for banking a sterling cheque into a dollar account in NZ but have no idea how much. Might be worth emailing a bank in NZ to ask and also ask them the rate they would give on that day so you can compare against the rates you could get in the UK on the same day.

At the end of the day you are always going to pay a hidden price for currency exchange. The aim here is to pay as little as possible!

Ben

sky

Thanks for the replys, Im not good with stuff like this so it is making me a tad anxious.
So I:
Open a NZ bank account from the UK
Sell the house and get the cheque paid into my UK bank account
Then I get a foreign exchange broker to take GBPs from my UK bank account and put NZ$ into my NZ bank account before I go.

Can you keep a UK bank account open with a NZ address
Would I be able to leave the most of our money here and then when we get over to NZ and are ready to transfer, get a broker to do it then.

Another question I have is can you front load a UK credit card and use it initially when you get to NZ .

WheelsOfSteel

Whichever way you go you need to have handy:

1/ Bank Identifier (SWIFT Code normally, e.g.MIDXGB2L) of the recipient bank in NZ
2/ Account number at bank in NZ
3/ Address of Bank in NZ.

You will need an account in NZ for receipt of funds. You don't have to use the bank for the transfer, you can use a middle man to broker the transaction.

Allow two days for the transaction to clear. Commonly called SPOT but don't worry about that.

Decide how you want to do it and instruct the bank in the UK to wire the funds to either the middle man (broker) or the NZ bankn direct... Simple as that...

NoodleSYD

Don't do it via a cheque.
Large cheques are sent back to the UK "for collection" (ie verification). Means your money's is stuck in a kind of non-interest bearing limbo for up to a month if you're unlucky.
Electronic transfer (Wheelsofsteel's SWIFT message above) is quicker and safer.

yafm

Please can someone give me the 3/4 links previously seen on this forum for money transfers as soon as possible we have to get the first transfer into our hsbc ACCOUNT AND WILL BE LOSING THE COMPUTER ON MONDAY

I have done a search but did not get any replies - think the link went stale. Help:scared:

Alan Collett

Yvonne,

I'm not sure what threads you are referring to (others might be able to help), but if you want the contact details for Halewood: 01753 859159, and ask for the Private Client Desk - and feel able to tell them I sent you!

Hope this helps, and bon voyage.

yafm

Thanks Alan as always you come to my rescue

Regards

Akaubear

Yep - I think so. But what we did was:
Open ASB bank account in the UK
Sold the house and got all the money transferred into the ASB bank immediately (it cost an extra £20)
The money was converted into NZD then and there, as we decided not to gamble with the exchange rates...

Yes. We still have a bank account in the UK, and the statements get sent to us here.

Not sure about this - but we used our UK credit card and again got the statements sent to us here. We then pay from our UK bank account. You usually get enough time if you send the cheque as soon as you get the statement!

Hope that helps,
Nicola

sky

Yes it did Thanks Nicola

Ben.M

Why don't you just set up a direct debit on your UK account to pay off the credit card every month? That way you don't have to worry about posting cheques!

Also, be aware that not all UK accounts will allow you to have an overseas address, e.g., Egg & ING Direct. However, if you can give them a UK address and do your banking online there shouldn't be a problem. If it's an interest bearing account you can reclaim the tax deducted at source each year from the Inland Revenue using a Form R43. Otherwise you can request that interest is paid gross using a Form R105.

Ben