skyblue

Ok, controversial post but am undecided what to do with my credit card bill.Do I pay it off or not bother and will I be able to get another in Oz ? Anyone not bothered paying it off and got a new one in Oz ? PM me. Ok I await the irate responses

Did you pay off your credit card bill before leaving the UK ?

Did you carry on paying your UK credit card bill in Oz ?

Did you **** your credit card bill off when you left the UK ?

Are you still undecided/tempted ?

Sandra

Aus Resident here - five years, and only giving personal experience advice, pay the bloody card off in total before you come.

Keep the card and the bank account open and your options.

Five years in, we use the UK card and bank account as much as everything else.

Bank account for money transfers to kids for presents. UK people put money in and we pay the kids the aus equivalent over here. This also works vice versa, gave hubbies mum access over the account (she has her own card). This means none of us have exchange charges on small sums.

Credit card - cannot be without UK one for me, we have aus ones now with decent limit but only after a couple of years and arguing.

UK one is used for all UK sites, flowers for presents, special days for rellies etc. I have trips back to UK and Europe and happily use both UK and Aus credit cards. The flexibility is great.

Not sure this will be an option for all, but really think about keeping a UK bank account even if not a credit card.

Cheers

skyblue

Sandra,

when applying for your Oz card was it the same sort i.e. Visa and did they ask if you already had another credit card ?

Cheers

Sandra

Moved initially with the Commonwealth Bank, migrant account. Offered us all sorts of help and then refused us a credit card once we got here! Took us 20 mins yelling at them to stuff the account and give us our transferred fund NOW! before they agreed to an aus credit card with limit of $2000!!!! I also had a transfer with my job, references and all sorts of stuff - they were still arseholes!

When you move to any new country...including moving to the UK you forget how little (or recent) history etc you will have in the country. That is history for credit and they can play on this a bit.

There are obviously good stories about how easy it is for lots of people and are very true for those people - the plan is to be prepared as much as possible for your circumstances. $2000 limit was not enough for us because we had not sold our UK house and had only a much smaller sum of real money to play with before the first pay cheque came in. Trying to set up in Aus buying/renting and leasing things without a decent credit card limit would have been a nightmare. Hence my advice about paying off the UK one and having it ----just in case.

We thought about all sorts of bullshit before we made the move.....credit history etc.....gosh we moved 12000 miles etc etc who would know the real us!!! Two days in, we came down to earth when we arranged our insurance for our personal belongings we had in Aus - hubby had ticked the no claims made in last three years box. While he was in the office they had it checked/verified etc etc and came back within 5 mins saying but it says here you claimed 18 months ago for a carpet!!!! WOT !!! It was all true....bloody computers these days and world wide reference! You never know.

Cheers

DrWho

Good advice... We've kept both and have been surprised about how much we still use them...

GaryKristensen

What billing address do you use though? The one in Australia, or a relative in the UK?

Pollyana

I'd say pay off the UK one if you can, and then definitiely keep card and bank account. The low limits here are very annoying, esp if trying to book flights etc - taken me four years to get a decent limit though I've had cards here since soon after arriving. UK bank accounts veyr useful if family are likely to give you money as presents, or if you want to write UK cheques to them, and you can deal with everythign by internet banking.
Used the UK address at first - everything was sent to a relatives address there and I told the bank I was here on a temporary basis. LAst year I told them I'd moved permanently and they now use my Aus address with no hassle - thats Lloyds, btw.

GaryKristensen

Thanks, we're with Lloyds as well, so that should be that sorted.

I'll have to investigate if the Goldfish credit card we have can be made into a paperless account, same as our other accounts, to save the hassle of where the bills go. Can just do it on the internet.

Anyone know please?

DrWho

We're with Lloyds too and no trouble with our address being in Oz...

isgraham

I decided not to pay my credit card bills off before I moved over here as I decided that having as much free cash as possible was more important to me that having a clean credit card. On getting a job I paid off the UK card. Having a UK credit card is good because it has a much bigger credit limit than my Australian one so it helps when buying big ticket items.

moneypenny20

I put the first option but we always clear the account every month anyway, would scare us to owe on a card - the way we were both brought up I guess. We kept the UK one for a year after arriving in case of emergencies but then got the Aus one and closed the UK one. That took a while, Halifax decided that phone calls and letters requesting closure meant sending us new cards and upping the limit to silly figures We have a high credit limit on our Aus one - didn't know until I just checked. I ain't never spending that amount of money in one transaction

Amazulu

Pay it off. You are stealing if you don't.

Mrs Jackaroo

We've still got our UK Credit card and we still use it (far too regularly if you ask hubby!! )

skyblue

1 anonymous person didn't pay it, do tell us if there were any come backs.

Wendy

Like they are going to admit to it Especially on here! Death by public stoning anyone?