pomijean

I need information on the best way to transfer funds.
I thought about opening a Lloyds offshore account,and when I get there opening a high street account.
I also contacted HSBC in Brisbane,but they were not very helpful,I wanted to open an account in Sterling in brisbane and then transfer it to a high st branch once I get home,has anyone had dealings with either bank and what do they charge to transfer the money,also it is easy to open an account in UK if you already have one in australia.i do get 9d a week Uk pension and the bank of Scotland transfers it here once a year,are they the same as the HSBC.
Grateful for all advice as i don,t want to be sitting in England waiting for the money,and I certainly won,t be coming back here to get it.Thanks fellow pommies

Ceri

If you have a Westpac account etc, I think the commonwealth bank you can do this too now( you'll have to check it out with each bank) you can transfer money online yourself to overseas accounts. So when you are in the Uk, just open a bank account. Lloyds,Halifax etc,doesn't really matter . Log into your Aussie account and transfer how much money you need for the moment into your Uk account.

Charges depend, Westapc charges you, around $20 I seem to recall _ I sent my brother in law some money recently to pay for a present for father -in-law, a few hundred pounds, and I think that cost about $20, and the uk end took around 10 pounds out of my brother in law's Halifax account to recieve the money. You can convert the $$ into pounds online to send to the UK. You don't need to send $$$ and uk converts it into pounds when they recieve it if you don't wish to - you can convert it in Aus to pounds before it leaves Aus, all online . The bank in the UK will also charge you to receive the money too ( no getting away from bank charges ) . It takes about one /two working days. Pretty quick.

To transfer the whole lot, a huge sum of money, or close the Aus account etc when you are in the UK; go into your UK bank with all your ID and bank details, and they will sort it out. They will write a letter to the Aus bank confirming your ID and requesting a transfer into the Uk account. When I have transfered a huge amount from one of my Uk accounts in the past to buy a house here in Aus , I just went into the bank here in Aus with all my ID and saw the bank manager - they sorted it out, wrote a letter to the bank in the UK , confirming who I was, passports etc, and there was no problem. I think it took around two weeks to get it all cleared and into my aus bank here. I couldn't tell you what the charge for it was with a big sum , it was a few years ago I did this, but it wasn't too expensive, it of course also depends what you call expensive too though.

Just one way of doing this, there are probably lots of other ways too,and maybe a much better way of doing this. But online banking you can transfer smaller amount of monies yourself in-between your Aus and UK banks when you need it, if that is the type of thing what you want ? -"immediate" just to tie your over until you get things sorted( well sort of immediate- one to two working days) until you transfer the whole lot. . But like I mentioned, both banks do charge; the sending and the receiving bank - charges will differ from bank to bank, so you'll have to shop around for the best deals.

what ever bank you are with now,commonwealth, Westpac etc, go into the bank , or phone them and ask for an appointment with one of the managers if you can't get sense out of any of the clerks about transferring money into a Uk account, which you haven't opened yet.

Or the other option is to phone one of the banks in the UK, and say you will be opening an account with them when you get to the Uk,and ask them for their advice, after all they want your money in their banks, so will probably be only too happy to advise you.

I haven't got this prob myself as I have accounts back there, but when I first came to Aus I did not have an Aus account before landing in Aus, and most of our money was in the uk accounts as we used to TT our money into the Uk accounts from Asia , so it was the same problem but opposite countries, Aus instead of the UK. The Aus bank manager sorted it out with my Uk bank when I wanted to transfer a huge amount into Aus no probs at all. A Uk bank should be able to do the same for you

cheers

pomijean

Thanks Ceri
I rang HSBC today,spoke to someone in India and insisted they connect me to Brisbane office(daft it is),got a helpful girl who is sending me forms.
I am opening a Sterling account so the money will already be in pounds,will deposit money when the dollar is high,they charge 25 pound to transfer,costs 500 pound to open.,just about manage that,have sold one acre of land,we are renovating the farmhouse with that,prices have sky rocketed in Qld,still have 2 blocks to sell,but no hurry as house will take another 6 months or so,will get animals rabies done nearer departure time,as 2 cats are 15,one 4 and dog 10,
went home for 4 weeks last August,day we departed the cows got out,so we said stuff them and went of but they were here when we got back

Ceri

No probs, it really is who you talk to in these banks. My attitude is, it's my money, not theirs - demand customer service, if you get no sense out of one person ask to talk to the manager etc.

Good luck with your move to the Uk, wish it was me