Forres

The best and easiest way is to do a wire transfer. I transfered it into a family members account before moving back. Or alternatively you can probably open an account over the internet in Spain. Thats what I done with a few phone calls and with this account you can move money anywhere you want.

davo453

Got my approval for a HSBC passport account today (12th Jan) I applied on the 2nd of Jan so thats pretty quick, inspite of the terrible online form.

Can't actualy use the account until in the UK though.

Planning on transfering money using www.ozforex.com.au once we have landed in the UK, they seem to offer about the best rates and service.

Using family to warehouse the money before we get there was turning into a drama re Tax implications & old people.

Dave

Dizzillusioned

We've just cancelled our Premier account and downgraded it to an ordinary one, we looked online at our statement and found we were being charged 20 quid a month for the priviledge of paying 2 standing orders to endownments:scared:

Rascal

We came to NZ with money-we leave with none.
Like thousands of others.

kevinl

We are not going back with nothing but we are considerably poorer, bought at the hight of this housing boom last year and are selling as it drops.

When you do a deal with Ozforex etc you only have a short time to transfer the money, anyone had problems doing this.
You can pay the money into your account with them but do you earn any interest from it?

Still got to sell the house yet but need to get these things in place.

Kevin

Fleaflyfloflum

I am in fear of making a fool of myself here asking a daft question, but i cannot understand why with the new electronic age, you cant just transfer money from any bank account in the world to any other bank account in the world via electronic transfer. I regularly do it from my Aus account to a New Zealand account so why not to a UK one?

Jerseygirl

I do transfer money electronically from the US to UK. The problem is people who are not resident in the UK cannot open a UK bank account for them to transfer money into. I kept my UK bank and building society accounts open when I moved to the US...many close them.

Fleaflyfloflum

OK.. so in theory, if we opened a Nationwide International account like Northernbird based on the Isle Of Man, we could regularly transfer money electronically from Aus into it?

I hope so! It would make life a lot easier.

Pamela 1

As said above, if you are not UK resident you cannot open a bank account in UK, but I have been checking out a couple of Building Societies and it seems they want for I.D. is current passport and driving licence which we still have our UK license in a UK address.

So does anyone have experience of opening a Building Society account in a UK address? We could open one when we visit later this year and use a relative's address if the I.D. mentioned above is all we need.

Jerseygirl

I think you'll find written in the Building Society's Terms and Conditions it will state...British residents only. Again you can probably get away with an existing account but not open a new one unless you're a UK resident.

Pamela 1

I have just checked the two Building Societies I am looking at and neither one has any terms and conditions section. They just state what they require for identification.

Fleaflyfloflum

According to Northernbird, she opened this Nationwide international account whilst living in Canada. Have the rules changed?

Jerseygirl

I'm with the Halifax...they sent me the Terms and Conditions a couple of years ago. I can't remember why...maybe there had been an amendment to them. Anyway I noticed that it said accounts are for UK residents only. I have no idea about the IOM or Channel Islands.

northernbird

Yes I did that. We are stilll running the account now we are in Australia. We are very happy with them.

seasprite

you may know this by now...no interest paid by Ozforex. I figured out we could leave the money ready in their account for 3 weeks before we needed to shift it. This was based on (the then) current rates v interest being earned in bank account. If that makes sense? Anyway, did ok going, no losses amd trasferred ok on return, made about £500. Was looking like a £5k loss at one point. Just glad to get it all back here! Ozforex very efficient, seem to work 24 hours and ready to do deal when you say by phone.(once account opened).Prefer to banks as higher rate offered generally.