You can do it on line, we just opened an ANZ bank account, printed off the forms, posted it off and got bank details back around 10 days later. If I can do it anybody can.....Lol x
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We are venturing into un-chartered territory...
Bring it on........
Hi M & M,
We opened up Commonwealth Bank accounts in England before leaving for Oz and they open up corresonding ones here for you. This means you can transfer funds from England to Oz whenever you like and the English one stays open for 2 years after you open it in case you need it. When you get to Oz you go to the CB and just sign a few forms and everything is ready for you.....quite simple!
Hi M & M,
We opened up Commonwealth Bank accounts in England before leaving for Oz and they open up corresonding ones here for you. This means you can transfer funds from England to Oz whenever you like and the English one stays open for 2 years after you open it in case you need it. When you get to Oz you go to the CB and just sign a few forms and everything is ready for you.....quite simple!
Karen
Yes, I did this too with Commonwealth a couple of weeks ago, and they also give you a special Qantas phone number to ring for special migrant air fares, which I tried today. With that you get the 40Kg baggage allowance when you buy the one-way ticket, even if you've already validated, so as it was only £37 more than the cheapest I'd found elsewhere(Singapore) I went with that for the extra 20Kg. And no hanging around on the phone and no hassle. They confirmed the baggage allowance by email immediately as well.
Yes, I did this too with Commonwealth a couple of weeks ago, and they also give you a special Qantas phone number to ring for special migrant air fares, which I tried today. With that you get the 40Kg baggage allowance when you buy the one-way ticket, even if you've already validated, so as it was only £37 more than the cheapest I'd found elsewhere(Singapore) I went with that for the extra 20Kg. And no hanging around on the phone and no hassle. They confirmed the baggage allowance by email immediately as well.
Scuse me for being dense 'n' all but i've never heard of a commonwealth bank(I do live in the NE of England!!) HELP?!?
Hi M & M,
You can look the Commonwealth Bank of Australia up online and download the forms if you want to us them as they are based in London. We thought it was good that we could open accounts in London and in Australia (wherever you are going to be heading) and then transfer money between the two accounts as it just seemed easier and then when we arrived here we just went into the bank and signed some paperwork and our key cards were all ready for us and we just had to wait for credit cards.
Karen
Hi, we used the Commonwealth Bank in London too and we lived near Manchester, go on to commbankuk.co.uk . Go to "Moving to Australia - open bank account. You can download the application forms, fill them in and send them off, then as koala12 said that bank account is open for you for 2 years. We transfered our savings direct from our UK bank to them, then the solicitor put the money from our house sale into it. It was all so easy, they then transfer your money to your local Commonwealth branch where you are moving to. The only thing I would advise you to do tho is to make sure that you have enough money to last you until you activate your account. We arrived on the Fri called the bank straight away and couldnt get an appointment until the following Thurs! Once you activate your account you get your bank cards immediately ( not sure about credit cards ). Dont know about the Quantas bit either, we didnt get that but look into it cos its sounds good. Hope this helps, good luck, Sian xxxx
We opened up an HSBC account in the UK before we left. We had a First Direct account in the UK so that made it a bit easier to open one up.
I had a HSBC/First Direct account in the UK, and when I got to Aus I was told that it was irrelevant as they were completely different banks operating under the same name.
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"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson
