charlie5

I am afraid I will have to come clean seeing as how you are imagining my demise, I HAVEN'T bought or eaten any VEGEMITE since arriving here!! I have been buying OUR MATE, which as you all know is Marmite in disguise. Well, I here you all say, what a fraud, but funny how the taste buds change. :biggrin:

 

Cheers

 

Matt

Hi

Time to change your picture!

Charlie

:biggrin:

Just a word of warning regarding insurance if you intend to put your stuff in storage when it arrives. With regard to removal companies, we used John Mason and were quite impressed with the guys who came to pack our stuff up. We took delivery of our shipment last week and it went into storage, not with John Mason's agents here but with another local company as we are sharing a large unit with my daughter. The guys who delivered our stuff pointed out that a a bedroom mirror was broken and several plant pots. We insured out shipment with someone else, as we thought John Mason were too expensive (even though they actually use the same company).

 

As the rest of our stuff is still all packed up we are not able to check if anything else was broken. We have taken out storage insurance with the storage company we are using. Our shipping insurers have informed us that we need to claim now for anything which is broken as they cannot be responsible for the goods now they are in storage of our own choice. So we now need to go and try to unpack everything just to check if anything else is damaged or broken as we only have 30 days to submit our claim.

hi

Yet another example of insurance rip offs. We took out the minimum insurance to cover losses at sea etc because I am an insurance sceptic. Insurers are very happy to take your money but very reluctant to pay out.

Hope all is god for you.

Charlie

:frown:

I thought it had gone very quiet on here as I haven't had any emails for several days. It seems as if I had been logged off or something???

Charlie

Thanks John

 

 

 

I keep hoping someone will offer to take over the programming!

 

Cheers

 

Steve

I think we would be hard pressed to find someone who could offer a more efficient, friendly and free service.

Keep up the brilliant work, you are a star.

Charlie

:biggrin:

We used UKForex to transfer the money for our visa a couple of weeks ago. They gave us a better rate than moneycorp.

 

If you phone them and tell them you will be transferring lots of money over a period of time. i.e.bond payment, visa payment, money from sale of house, pensions etc. they will give you a better rate.

Transfers over 3k do not incur charges. Hope that helps

I use HIFX online and have both UK & Aus accounts to give me a wide operating window. You can operate by telephone but I prefer to do online.

Charlie:jiggy:

Oh come on, there's no need for this is there. Of course we are aware as anyone of the difficulties others are having and have enormous sympathy for anyone struggling. Anyone who has or is making this journey has experienced hard times. We made it here only to find that we can't fund buying a house of our own which comes hard at our time of life so it's not all roses. That wasn't what we were talking about, we were discussing the merits of the various airlines flying the UK/Australia route and lets face it, if you have just coughed up several thousand pounds to fly business class you do have the right to expect good service. And no, that is absolutely not being a whinging POM. Please do not let us go down the route of that other forum where straying off the subject is severely punished.

Cath

Spot on

Charlie

There are folks on here whos hearts are breaking because they cant afford the second vac payment,there are folks who would travel in the hold to be able to see their relatives,folks who are desperate to sell there houses in a depressed market,to have to buy in a rising one just to get to OZ and you complain about having to wait 15 mins from your flat bed for a drink,ever wondered where the phrase wingeing POM comes from, you will really fit in well in Australia good luck.

Mike.

Now, now, now

No need for this. Someone was just trying to give some feedback on what service was like. We have all been grateful for feedback and advice from othet people. There is no need for petty criticism. Let's be positive and continue to help each other. Thats what it is like in Australia.

Charlie

We had only ever made the trip here with Singapore airlines prior to the one way. We made that with Emirates and were able to come business class (the first and last time I should imagine). We flew from Gatwick and the business class lounge there was amazing. There was an incident at the gate but we were told to relax until the kerfuffle was over and then made our leisurely way the the aircraft. That, unfortunately, was where the feel good feeling largely deserted us. The cabin crew were for the most part fairly surly and though it was worth it for having more space and being able to lay flat, the overall service left a lot to be desired. Methinks that should we go back to the UK again it will be via Singapore airlines and the lovely smiley ladies there.

Cath

Hi

Agree ith Cath. Business class service on the Emirates flight was mediocre.

Charlie

I am lucky in that I'm renting so that's one less worry but your mention of paperwork concerns me-what paperwork? Should I've done something that I haven't?

Best wishes

Fiz

We were quite surprised how much paperwork we had to supply to obtain a rental. Copies of passports, visas, driving licences, banking details, references etc.

Basically you have to be able to prove who you are and that you are a suitable/trustworhy person to rent. It was also surprising that we were actually competing with other people to acquire the rental.

Best of luck

Charlie

Ah my fellow long-suffering CPV applicants.

 

 

 

I look forward to the next set of pronouncements from the economists which will probably reverse all of the aforesaid.

 

:wacko:

I am looking forward to the reversal but .......

Charlie

:cry:

Hi Steve,

 

Thanks for the quick reply. What you say makes total sense. It all seemed a bit strange from the advice we'd been given (to check the visa queue calculator) and what we had read on here as it appeared to conflict. I'd tried to search the various threads and came up with nothing specific. So I guess it's time to just sit back and wait and wonder and save!

 

Kim

Check out steve's spreadsheet @

http://www.gainwave.co.uk/

This will give you some idea of timescales.

Charlie

:biggrin:

I have medication here that entitles me to free presciptions...i cannot live without it...does the same apply in oz ....would i get free meds...im 57 yrs old..

The short answer is no. A minimum charge of $34 per monthly presciption applies. There are some rebates bu no free options.

Charlie

Now I am confused...so if I wanted to pop back to the UK for 10 days holiday I have to get an RRV before going. I have a permanent CPV?

Depends if your parent visa is still valid. If youi want to leave Aus before the 5 years validity has run out then there is no problem, you can leave and enter to your hearts content.

However, if you move out to Australia near to the end of the 5 year period, you could have a problem as you wil finf it difficult to prove that you are an Australian resident after such a short time.

Hope this is clearer than mud?

Charlie

Hi folks

but if you leave the country before having spent two years in Oz you will be subject to a RRV (returning residents Visa) and all its associated costs.

Pete and Marg

Hi

Sorry but this is not correct. Everyone who has NOT got Australian citizenship needs to get a residents return visa (RRV) before leaving Australia. In fact you would find it quite difficult to get a RRV if you had spent less than 2 years in Australia. There are exceptions for urgent family reasons etc but these are exceptions.

Charlie

We live in NSW (we have got seniors cards) and having seen your post I have tried to find some information about discounts off Gas/Electricity or water....but I can't. Any discount would be very welcome. Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

Hi

I wish I could but I haven't found anything yet. It is probably like the discount at Brumbies Bakers - you have to ask.

Charlie

:unsure:

......and we are only talking about 2 vac payments, it's house buying money where the real pain will be. :cry:

Yes, our house buying money was transferred at 1.65. Not what we expected when we embarked on his project!

Charlie

:frown:

Yes it does seem unbelievable, did you book that rate in October 2008?

 

Looking back at my transfers for all of 2009 the best rate I ever got was $2.23 in January and February 2009 before the long slide below $2 (which it has never hit again) ending the year at $1.76.

 

You must of been very very lucky to have got $2.415. :yes:

Hi Les

Yes I booked that rate at some time earlier - cannot remember when but one of the better things I did.

Charlie:biggrin:

I checked back and see that we paid $63k for the 143s back in '09. As for the sterling cost, it's now scary.

 

 

Cheers

 

Steve

I also just looked back at our payment in 2009. Unbelievably, our $63k cost us £26k at a rate of 2.415. I wish I was drawing my pension at this rate now!

Charlie:arghh:

G'day

 

Don't want to put a dampener in it, but insurance cos do have a habit of asking for proofs etc if/when you make a claim!

 

Mike

Yes. Most insurance companies are happy to take your money but not happy to pay out. Your comment about car insurance also applies to medical insurance and pre-existing conditions. Buyer beware!!

Charlie

Hi,

 

Good Morning...(well in the uk anyway)

 

I have a question regarding sponsorship for parents.

 

We just obtained the paperwork and a family member who has citizenship already in Aus is required to give certain "assurances" to financially look after the people thay are sponsoring in the event of poor health. Im not sure if anyone on here has been through the process but a bond is required immediately to cover any short term health problems which i believe is refundable after 2 years (possibly i'm wrong about that one)

 

The main question really is would 2 retired parent be able to get healthcare at the age of 65 without too many hassles?

 

If anyone has any experience in this side of emigration i would love to hear you views, maybe by PM if thats easier

 

Thanks in advance

 

Andy

Hi

The Assurance Of Support (AOS) bond is refunded after 10 years if there have been no support claims.

A Parent visa gives immediate cover under the Australian Medicare health scheme.

Best wishes

Charlie

Again, I refer you to my above comment re the settled sponsor issue.

 

Best regards.

Take note of Alan's advice!! The Australian authorities are taking a tougher line. Some negative decisions have been overturned on appeal - but do you really want to go through that process.

Charlie

Because we have spent more than a year during the ladt ten years in OZ we have to have Australian police checks aswell as UK police checks...anyone else had ths ? Any idea how long they take ??? .

Hi

We had Australian Federal Police checks done. Only took about 2 weeks but there was a problem - my wife was (wrongly) declared to have a criminal record!! This took a while to sort out.

Charlie

Hi Mike,

 

P.S. keep saving all your pennies, it's b*$*$y expencive out here. :wubclub:

It certainly is!

Charlie

Hi Charlie

 

That would solve the problem of the online service not being operational during the Aussie day, but do you need to go through new ID checks, or do they just open the account for you in Oz?

Hi

I had to provide some ID stuff but it was very straighforward - especially when I explained that I already had a UK account.

Charlie

[quote=

(b) HIFX close outside UK business hours which is really annoying because it means you can't do an online transaction until the Australian evening.

QUOTE]

Hi

I have HIFX accounts in the UK and Aus which means that I have an extended trading period.

Charlie