Is it right?
If I open a Westpac account from UK, do I have to be there within 90 days of opening account to present identification?
What if Im not there in the time limit? Do they then close the account?

Thanks Susan

Yes. You also have to deposit funds within 30 days of opening as if the account is empty/inactive for more than that they close it. I have just opened an account with them and tranferred cash from UK to Oz and it was quite a painless process - they also have 24 hour telephone banking where you actually speak to a real live person. I registered for that and internet access from the UK - no problems at all.

Unless you go into the Westpac branch in London to activate - which is what we did.

You can contact westpac in london and you can verify your identity in the uk(from your current bank) and open an account with westpac without the 90 days senario. The number is 02076217000 and ask for customer services and explain what you require and they will help you.

ian

Wish someone had told me that before I went through the rigmarole I just have!

Aussie banking. Get used to it, there are always hoops to jump through and they don't make it easy

Opened ours in the UK, transfered £50 from what I recall within a week.

Validated at the main branch in Brissy when we got here about 5 months later.

If there was a 90 day validation thing we weren't aware of it or it didn't matter as long as there was money in the account.

Does this rule apply to all oz banks?
thanx

We validated ours by contacting the London branch then verifying our ID's through our bank. And cause we went to hifx first they recommended us to westpac which means we have six months before we start getting charged banking fees. Then we will just send over $3000 in that time so its effectively free banking.
We dont even have to use hifx to exchange our money. we will use ozforex as its slightly better rate.
Ian

No

http://www.anz.com/aus/promo/internresaccount/

I setup an account with Westpac and chose the migrant package they have. thats a choice account and an esaver account. Looked straightforward. stay above 3000 aud and you get free banking. But, when I arrived and validated, the guy sat me down and advised me better and told me that an echoice account suits me better with a high interest savings account. keeping most of my money in the esaver account (which i can access whenever i want) meant i was actually earning interest on the money i thought was keeping me free from bank charges. it works out better. Westpac have been spot on all the way through and extremely nice. I'm setting up my superannuation account with them as well.

If you setup the account and the validate it in the London Branch to get away from the 90 day limit, how do you pickup your Oz credit cards etc?

Won't be in Oz for a while yet but was thinking of setting an account up so get some funds transferred to take advantage of the rates at the moment.

You can have hem delivered to your branch in Oz

Thanks. Don't have a branch yet so I take it this can be arranged at a later date after opening/validating the account?

I am in the process of opening an account with westpac as we are validating next month When you validate your account, are your cash cards etc waiting for you to collect or do you have to wait for them to be sent out? We were gonna transfer some $'s in b4 we go with the exchange rate being so good but dont wanna be stuck not being able to get money out when we get there in Nov.