CatLady1234

I am soon to be moving out to New Zealand from the UK to work as a nurse.

I am just wondering how it works with money that you have in a UK bank and accessing it over in NZ?

All my money is in Barclays here in the UK so I am not sure what I do? Do I transfer it to a NZ bank?

I hope someone can help!

Thank you!

Pulaski

Use an on-line FX broker-remitter such as Transferwise which is often recommended on BE to transfer your money to a local bank in NZ. Other similar services are provided by the likes of WorldFirst, Xe, Xoom, and a number of others, at for the moment Transferwise appear to be the cheapest.

The traditional way to move your money would be a bank wire - but the fees are usually greater than with an on-line FX broker, and the exchange rates are usually worse, often a lot worse!

MrsCakey

Thanks for the tip @Pulaski. Have signed up for one of their borderless accounts and alerts

MidAtlantic

Borderless accounts are a very new feature on Transferwise. It will be interesting to hear your experience.

References/recommendations on BE to Transferwise relate to their funds transfer service only.

Pulaski

By their own admission, from what I have read, because Transferwise is not a bank your money held with them is not protected by deposit insurance, as bank deposits are with a bank. I would be very sceptical about keeping more than a little "convenience money" with them.

Bahtatboy

My daughter was in a similar situation (Oz, not NZ): I'd recommend getting a FairFX card before you depart, top that up on-line as you need, and in the meantime open a standard NZ bank account and do as Pulaski suggests to move more money out. Unless you're going for good, now's not a good time to be changing Sterling to anything, so it might be best to minimise your initial spend and then just rely on your NZ salary.

BTW, my daughter was deeply impressed with NZ, and is considering returning to work there (in healthcare).

Good luck.

MrsCakey

That's exactly what I plan on doing @Pulaski. Just spending money for now as there is no protection on what they offer unlike a traditional institution.

Mightymurph

Hi,
Im moving to New Zealand in November, currently transferring money to an account I've set with FC Exchange.
Then in a few months I'll open an account with a new zealand bank, FC Exchange will transfer my money into that account.

I was told it was cheaper than bank transfers charges.

Pulaski

They aren't a company I am familiar with, but seem to have a good track record, however they are not a bank, so if they go bust while holding your money it is not cover by deposit insurance.

Mike J

I would have advised you opened a Foreign Currency Account at a UK Bank and had your money immediately transferred by FC Solutions into that. You could then transfer whatever you required to your NZ bank using an online system from your pc.
Some FC accounts provide a credit card, some dont.
None I know of pay interest on the balance.
Most only allow a single account holder.
Cash can be collected from a UK bank in the same currancy as the account, takes around 2days to complete.
Deposit to £85k protected by FSA.

Hope this helps.

Bo-Jangles

It all seems a bit ironic / academic to me, since you will ultimately be transferring all funds to an NZ bank where there is no such bank deposit guarantee scheme anyway. NZ is pretty much alone in that regard, in that it offers absolutely no protection for failure of the banks.

inkedneonurse

Looked this up with IRD as I currently have military pensions which I would like to keep in a uk account as they are non taxed in the Uk, however, and I don't know if this is idle threats, IRD are coming after people with offshore earnings (after the 4 years grace point) and offshore pensions count as such

jayandbill

We use NZForex. our uK pension goes into a UK bank every month and we transfer as and when we need it , usually when the exchange rate is favourable. we've had no problems with them.

jayandbill

Most of our income is UK pensions, both military and State pension. We have to declare all of it in our tax returns here in NZ. IRD issues a chart each year based on average monthly UK/nz exchange rates and we then convert it to NZ $ in our tax return. I think we pay more tax doing it this way because there's no tax free allowance in NZ. you pay tax on the lot. We don't draw NZ pensions because we've never paid into the scheme but some do.
Hope this helps.