juliejamesmcgrath

Looking for advise on what is best way of bringing money over. We only have 10 days left before we leave so I am going to have to order quite soon.

We have a bank account set up in NZ now but I am not transferring over our savings until the dollar is doing better, this is money towards a house so I in no rush to move it as we will be renting for quite some time.

The advise I am after is we will be bringing money over with us for a car, motel, rental, day to day living etc until sorted on the job front. I don't what is the best way to do this, would I be best bringing some cash and the rest in travellers cheques or one of those cashcards the travel agents all have now that are the same as travellers cheques, (I just like to see physically what money I have, I'm a little uncomfortable with a card). I have also been told is I do want travellers cheques to bring american ones as there are no NZ ones.

I know it's not a hard decision but all your comments have really helped us in the past, I think the panic is setting in again as our date is quickly approaching.

Kags1694

Hi,
We are going over on a recci in a couple of weeks, we looked at a travel card (but feel the same as you) Regarding travellers cheques have been recommend in getting them in Sterling.

Regards
Karen

newkiwi

id say send some money over to you new bank account in NZ, so you have some funds when you arrive. your bank can do that for you or use somebody like HiFX, but if your only a few days left do may be easiest just going to your high street bank and having them send it to NZ. Takes about 4-5 days for funds to show in NZ bank account.

for money on your person, you get a better rate changing cash, so you can either change in the UK to NZ dollars or take pounds and change when you arrive. you can change at the airport when you arrive.

no need to take lots of cash with you, and if you have more than $10k NZ equivalent on you you will need to declare that to customs, so i would not take more than a couple of thousand with you and send the rest you need to rental and setup costs electronically.

dash1965

When you arrive, you will be able to get your EFTPOS card (switch/debit card) issued straight away, possibly while you wait which is what we did. The bulk of our money came over via HiFX which was a very good service but can take a week or so for it to clear.

The EFTPOS card can be used for buying everything from a Latte to a car so once you get that you will be fine. Although you will need some funds obviously so try to send some over first by HiFX or even standard bank transfer. Shame the dollar is not in your favour at the moment.

Enjoy the trip (and the last minute rush to see eveyone!)

Maz

Open a GBP account at a bank in NZ, move the money over. Don't do the exchange until you're happier with the exchange rate. It is particularly crap right now.

Spacecake799

I bought with me around $5000 if i remember for exactly the same thing, motel, car bond on house etc. I found it much easier not to have to worry about how to sort cash out when hubby did'nt even have a job.
Good luck
Carole

SLH

Hi again you are best doing a bank transfer to your new NZ account and then bringing money in when the dollar drops. I would not want to carry to much cash around and as someone else pointed out the maximum is $10000 otherwise you have to fill out customs forms. The other thing to be aware of is that banks over here charge for transactions so try to do a deal with the bank you have signed up to. They tend to charge each time you use your eftpos card and I know the first month I was here I got charged $50 for transactions bear this in mind when you arrive and start spending, make sure you got to the bank as soon as possible to sort this cos they certainly know how to charge. Hope it all goes well and that you soon find jobs, you could always try somewhere else in NZ should it not work out on the job front in Nelson. Good Luck