MartinH

No smart ass answers please - heard them all before

So here's the situation, we have a large sum of A$ from our house sale which we want to invest (>500K). We will want instant access to the funds and to be able to transfer via the internet.

Best offer I can see is 6% with OneDirect.

Anyone do better than that?

sj oldfield

No..not seen anything better than that!

Red_V_Roger

Didn't somebody say the other week on here that one of the Arab banks with offices in Oz was offering the best rate?

dcousins2k4

Maybe Short Term depo's with a bank, not sure what interest rate they are offering though.

JAJ

In the current financial climate, maybe better to stick with an Australian bank?

dmpp

As part of your investment have you thought of buying sterling, the interest rate is good at the moment, its safe ( I don’t know how much is still protected by law) and it could be transferred for only 10$-20$. With the sterling you could also purchase premium bonds as part of your investment, they are 100% safe and can be surrendered within 7 days or so, 30K GBP max and a chance to win 1 million GBP each month.

I suppose a problem of putting this much into 1 bank account is if all of the funds are protected if the bank collapses. It might be worth spreading your money around several banks.

renth

British Pounds? are you serious? Sterling is tanking, Gordon Brown is about to fire up the money printing presses. The pound is going the same was as the Argentine whatever or even the Zimbabwe dollar.

My advice, spread 33% in to two or three AUD deposit accounts (the govt. guarantee is worthless, they'd never be able to deliver on it) 33% govt bonds and 33% precious metals (half gold, half silver).

harrip

Crazy Talk Do not forget the exchange rate spread so even if you had the same exchange rate when sending the money to the UK and bringing it back again your costs would be more than the $10-$20 mentioend above. If your looking for a safe bank to put the money, unless your a professional currency speculator, you are not going to want to open yourself up to exchange risk. Find a bank covered by the Aussie protection scheme and put your funds there if low risk and therefore low returns are required.

hevs

ING (.com.au) are doing 5.9% on term deposits of 90 days
120 days plus are sitting at just under 4%

stu-carol

Just remember the Australian Tax man will take his share, no matter where you stick it.

harrip

Useful comparison site for instant access online saving accounts - http://www.raboplus.com.au/savings/compare/default.aspx

Swerv-o

There's an interesting article that touches on the future of the pound in todays Australian:

The Australian

Doesn't make for particularly pleasant reading...


S

MartinH

Thanks for the replies.

My situation is that I have now left Australia (to live in continental Europe) but I don't want to transfer to € as the A$:€ rate is poor at the moment. Also the € interest rates are pretty rubbish.

Nevertheless, although I am a permanent resident in Aus, I will be resident for tax purposes in Germany.......still with me?

I have spoken with my Aus bank (Westpac) and to be honest I am tempted to leave the money there as a) Pretty safe and b) they can offer me an interest rate of just under 5%. Also becuase I am not living in Aus anymore I can get the interest paid gross.

I have thought of buying sterling as I think it must be near the bottom. I will think about that in the next few days.

dcousins2k4

its never been a better tiem to buy GBP. Natural Market cycles suggest that GBP is bottoming out. However on the same note the USD is about a year ahead the rest of the Markets / countries in terms of the recession so investors are confirming this as a safe haven.

Rideaway

Is there a list of banks with Australian Government guarantees (it is $1 million I believe) ?

I haven't got that much before anybody asks.