Which banks are the best? Should we open an Oz account now or wait until we get there?

hi rachie,
were waiting for our visas we applied oct so guess we will hear by march april? anyway ive opened an account already with westpac it wsnt too bad downloaded forms off internet faxed them to westac they emailed account numbers back we had to transfer money into accounts to activate them and when we arrive there open to use great eh no waitng unable to do anything coz u aint got a bank account lesley

Must say Westpac are pretty good. The mortgage advisor up here NOR in Perth, is one of the best.

did you open your account before you went sandra and if so was everyhting fine when you went in with docs to prove id etc
lesley

We opened ours with ANZ before we left and transferred money across with no hassles. We arranged to go into the bank the day after we landed and picked up our cards

With the account we have, we pay $5 per month to have unlimited ATM and EFTPOS transactions. To new ex-pats, this is one of the big gotchas with banking. With most accounts you get charged for all or most transactions, which can work out pretty expensive if you're not expecting it.

We were going to go to london and open an account with the commonwealth bank...not sure now Wespac look ok too

ive found them to be brilliant sent emails etc and got response immediately set up accounts in less than 2 weeks just a shame you have to telegraphic transfer money into 2 accounts to open them as you obviously have to pay transfer fee for each one but at least its done lesley

HI rachel We opened an account with Westpac and they are really good. we sent money into the account through HIFX, as there is no transaction charge. Lady from Westpac phoned and confirmed everything and also sent Email.

Word of warning with banks *have a big look around first*. Don't just open one in the UK because it seems easier as those banks often charge huge rates for banking with them.

We came with the Commonwealth and have now changed because we were getting charged for so many things.

The bank we are now with doesn't charge us for EFTPOS, own branch ATM usage and gives us money as long as we keep a certain amount of pennies in the account and it works great for us.

Definitely shop around.