kev235

Hi All

My wife and I are leaving for Perth early March 08. I expect most of you have noticed the exchange rate is not that good. I have been considering my options on when best time and way to transfer the money. One of the options is to leave the money in the Uk and transfer it over when the rate is a little better. One problem is with this is I bank with Barclays and they need a hand written letter from me to authorise this. By the time the letter has arrived from Perth to the Uk and the bank has actioned the transfer a total of around 2 weeks would have gone and any advantage on the rate may have been lost.

I feel this is not really a good way to go, any suggestions on international money tranfers from a UK bank to Aus whilst the account holder is already in Aus would be very much appreciated.

Good luck to you all.

Kevin

Nickie

Try the commonwealth bank of oz in London

deanandkim

I'm moving over in feb and have an oz bank account with anz. i've been transfering my money via a company Hifx. you join, and then when you want to transfer money, you call up and have a verbal agreement which they tape. you send the money to them, and they send the cash to oz. takes 3-4 days and you get a much better rate than the banks also.

Windsor2

Deanandkim,

If you decide to leave funds in the UK and transfer them whilst you are down in OZ, then you will have to set up an account with our Sydney office as well - really easy to do, and means you're dealing with it in your own timezone.

As for the rates at the moment, then last week we saw some more positive moves with the AUD lsoing about 10 cents against the pound as we saw a retracement from the big drop offs of late.

Unfortunately these gains may be shortlived, and there is renewed uncertainty with the stock markets in turmoil and the uncertainty in the US.

So keep your fingers crossed!

Cheers,

Oz-bound

I am doing exactly the same thing as such a bad exchange rate at the moment....:curse: Set up an account with someone like HIFX and also online banking with your UK bank, then you can transfer as and when you want in max of 2 days - if it's big sums you have to do a series of them which is an admin pain but beats a 2 week wait

yogibear1

Hi, I don't know if it was the best option but I have just moved to Australia a week ago and before I left I opened an HSBC account. They have branches in Australia so do not charge to take money out while you are here. I don't know what the exchange rate is with them but the other banks were charging £30 per transfer to an austrlian bank. Just something else for you to think about

Good luck

James

gerry

i have opened a national australia bank account and as far as we are aware we just ring up tell them we want "a" amount and coz they have papers we have already signed and sent back blank they just fill it in and transfer it straight away.

hope this helps ya???

kev235

Hi, Thanks for all the tips, I have just opened and HSBC account (thanks James) as they have a branch in Perth and my home town in the UK. With there Premier account you can transfer money in two days or instruct monies to go to Moneycorp (or similer) from Perth over the phone. This is much more flexible than Barclays.

Thanks again

Kevin