Are Hifx and Ozforex bank accounts?

[HelenF]

This may sound stupid but reading about everyone transferring money do you have to open a bank account first and then these companies transfer the money into it?

Helen

[alfixie]

Yes Thats Right.
I've Joined Both And When I Want To Exchange My Money I'm Going With Whoever Gives Me The Best Rate.

[Liz and Paul]

Hi,

These are just the Companies that arrange to transfer your money. We signed up with HiFX last week and they have sent us the application form to open a bank account with Westpac in Australia - don't think they use any other Australian banks, but may be wrong on that one. All we have to do is fill in the forms, Westpac open an account for us, we can nominate a local branch in Oz and when we arrive there our cards will be ready for us to collect. HiFX arrange for your money to be transferred into your account whenever you want them to, their exchange rate is supposed to be better than the high street bank exchange rate and there's no charge - have a look at their webstie for more info.

Liz

[The Broughtons]

Originally Posted by Liz and Paul

Hi,

These are just the Companies that arrange to transfer your money. We signed up with HiFX last week and they have sent us the application form to open a bank account with Westpac in Australia - don't think they use any other Australian banks, but may be wrong on that one. All we have to do is fill in the forms, Westpac open an account for us, we can nominate a local branch in Oz and when we arrive there our cards will be ready for us to collect. HiFX arrange for your money to be transferred into your account whenever you want them to, their exchange rate is supposed to be better than the high street bank exchange rate and there's no charge - have a look at their webstie for more info.

Liz

Sorry Liz but your cards may not be ready for you to collect. This is what we were led to believe when we opened our account. Yes you can nominate an area, you will then be told which branch to go to activate your account. We had to go to the main branch in Melbourne with our passports. The guy then did a few checks and requested our bank cards. The files get opened with the instructions saying do not issue cards (I caught a sneaky peek at the paperwork!). We activated our accounts on Friday, got our cheque book on Wednesday and got our bank cards today. We set up telephone and internet banking the day we activated our accounts and pin codes for the cards are on the way. Until our cards arrived we jsut had to take our passports into a branch to withdraw money.

Felicity

[Liz and Paul]

Hi Felicity,

Thanks for that - I will question that with HiFX in a couple of weeks when they will be contacting us. We know exactly where we are going on the Gold Coast, so don't want any hassle trapsing about anywhere particularly!!

Liz

[HelenF]

Thanks for all the advice. Just another job to add to the list. I don't know what I'd do without this site!

[broadsman]

I opened a Westpac account from the UK but although my account is held in Melbourne, I activated it from a Westpac branch in Ballarat and have never actually visited the Melbourne branch.

I've used both HiFX and Ozforex and find them both very good indeed.

What isn't so good is getting my UK bank (Lloyds TSB) to get my funds to them. Living here of course means I can't walk into my UK bank and order an instant transfer so I am forced to use internet banking, and it takes around a week before HiFX or Osforex have cleared funds to pass on to my Westpac account.