Ex Aucklander

I am moving back to England after spending 19 years in New Zealand & need to open either a Bank or Building Society account before I arrive. I need to transfer the proceeds of my house sale (which is a significant amount) in order to purchase a property in England. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

ianandhelena

Impossible until you're in the UK unfortunately. You need to provide proof of residence. If you absolutely have to have something set up before you arrive, the best bet might be either a Transferwise borderless account, or an HSBC Global account.

Can you wait until you're in the UK to open an account and then use a currency transfer service such as OFX to move your money online?

BritInParis

Contact your last UK bank. They may be able to reopen your account with your NZ address.

Ex Aucklander

Contacted Barclays & had a very positive response from them.

brits1

HI, It may be a little different now but we opened a Uk account with HSBC while living in Australia, we called into a branch in Perth, we used our Australian address, everything was sent to our Australian address and we transferred money through oxforex, when we arrived in the UK we informed the bank ...all went fine. Good luck with the move

riv

Not what you asked about [ though I agree that the simplest option would be to retain moneys in a NZ account which you can however operate via Internet, or maybe by simply walking into the branch in NZ now and explaining that you will need them to send X amount when you so notify them to a new UK bank acc, and that you will do this by Fax maybe or however they think is most secure .]

However I am intrigued to know what prompts you to return to the UK ?

Never been there but from what I read NZ is like some kind of idealized / old fashioned version of England : temperate weather, beautiful scenery / countryside / seaside; much much cheaper housing; far less crime ( do you know how very bad that situation is now in the UK ? ) and generally far less crowded roads and cities.

What is the attraction of a return to England ?

Ex Aucklander

Thanks, yes we always use currency transfer service, had good experience with Forex & others, better exchange rate than transferring through banks.

Ex Aucklander

[QUOTE=riv;12786924]
However I am intrigued to know what prompts you to return to the UK ?

Never been there but from what I read NZ is like some kind of idealized / old fashioned version of England : temperate weather, beautiful scenery / countryside / seaside; much much cheaper housing; far less crime ( do you know how very bad that situation is now in the UK ? ) and generally far less crowded roads and cities.

Good Question
OK to answer I was born in England, migrated age 9 with my parents to South Africa, remained there for 10 years then spent 2 years in Glasgow, then 32 years in Australia & last 19 years in New Zealand. However during the same time lived for periods up to a year in each of France, Spain, Canary Islands, Cyprus, Sri Lanka & back in England (various counties) & I have also traveled extensively to other countries.
Australia had a population of 12 million when I first arrived & almost 25 million when I left, New Zealand was like Australia was 20 years behind when I first arrived & I lived in a beautiful eastern suburb of Auckland for 12 years before moving to Hawkes Bay 7 years ago, but over time NZ has changed we have a government in power that has taken the country from a surplus when the Nationals were in power to a country in debt of $900 Billion & growing higher since the coalition government of Labour, NZ First & Greens have been in charge. We have given so much foreign aid & are currently supporting a certain group of people who are unwilling to work, & taxing those that work hard to give to those that don't. We have a health system in debt & many people cannot access medical care for life threatening conditions. A 37 year old male was diagnosed with cancer & told he had 8 weeks to live but could not get an appointment with an Oncologist for 12 weeks! I have to wait 2 weeks to see my GP & in some instances my symptoms have disappeared Or I have forgotten what my reason for seeing him was by the time I see him.

Apart from that although NZ is certainly beautiful one cannot exist on beauty alone & if one is not a fan of rugby or other sports the country is young & lacks culture (other than Maori) arts etc.
I love England for the history, museums, live theatre,Countryside etc. I do not intend living in an area you describe but intend to settle in a Dorset town with small population & country lanes.
So hope that answers your question.

Benson55

Last time I looked Transferwise had an account limit of 1million PDS.
HSBC have no limit on their account but they do verify where the funds are coming from, property sale is easy to verify of course BUT their exchange rate is none too good compared to Transferwise but I guess its the cost of doing more than 1Million.