k8bug79

Hi,

I am hoping for some helpful advice. I have read the threads about paying off UK debts from overseas. Long story short we had to make the move over sooner than anticipated and it meant we couldn't clear a few bits in the UK as we had hoped. Add in the end of year tax credits recalculation which resulted in an over payment and we are left with a few K to clear. We have been managing by sending money home and we can continue to do so, but the reality is it is doing little more than covering the minimum payments- which we have calculated it would take about 10 years and about $70 K in interest to carry on that way.

We were hoping to get a loan over here whilst the rate is stable (the $ vs GBP has made the current situation worse at the moment and in my opinion is only going to continue to do so) but after applying to NAB we have been told we can't secure a loan for overseas liabilities.

Of course the idea of just walking away is appealing but having done our research we are not confident with that route and therefore we are doing the moral thing and continuing to pay. But it is very frustrating knowing it could end up costing us so much more in the long run.

Has anyone any experience on getting a loan here to cover overseas commitment and if so how? The guy on the end of the phone alluded to the fact we could say that we were buying washing machines etc but wouldn't change the application purpose on the current application. We had to reapply. But we are concerned to put another application in and risk of them seeing through it and throwing it out or worse investigating fraud.

This is doubly frustrating as we tried so hard to get this sorted in the UK and would have cleared it by now had they helped but all we hit was brick walls. We have credit cards over here but are unwilling to max them out to sort this as we use those for emergencies.

Any experience welcome.

Already got the Damp rid things and bought a dehumidifier, didn't make a difference. Most of my friends in and around Sydney haven't had a problem. Thanks anyway!! Definitely no plans to move to another state!!

We have it badly too- we are in the dark corner of the block so get no natural sunlight and it is all over the ceilings and blinds. We bought damp rid and put it in each room and it's helping. We like you do all sorts of things like open windows, blinds etc. We are moving in a couple of weeks partly due to this and we have made sure we have a unit that faces the right way. I posted on the pio facebook forum and got told it is common. One thing that did come up is the lack of ventilation blocks in our unit- well certainly visible ones. I have viewed loads of places and they did all seem to have damp patches. Hope you get it sorted and that for my sake our move to a sunnier aspect is going to help!!

Nab here too, all great. Easy to set up and easy to get sorted when here. I changed where my card was nominated to be collected and that did cause a little trouble as they hadn't sent it so had to go back a couple of days later to get it and then they didn't activate the account properly so we were trying to buy a TV and it kept getting declined which was not only embarrassing but annoying as we had to keep going back round to them 3 times before it was sorted. But that's just one of those banking things and not necessary an endemic problem.

We went in after a month and got a visa card so we could use online, this was easy and we didn't have jobs so it's just seems to be standard that you have to ask for that option as opposed to eftpos only.

In retrospect I may have considered Commonwealth as it seems a list of businesses use them and you pay arrives quicker if you are with commonwealth, but we still haven't made the move to them as it isn't causing that much of an issue.

Oop just realised my husbands mobile is in that at $60 too, so $110 (you get a discount if you bundle)

I would say your internet is a bit low. We pay $170pm for internet, phone and inc in that is a TV package but not to the standard of Foxtel. We get more than enough data and cheap UK calls- this is with Optus. But unless you only use the internet for basics I think you'll struggle to find it that cheap. May be wrong tho

Thanks guys! God my head is spinning!

Hi @Xerxes I joined Moneycorp back in the UK. You basically 'buy' currency when you want it or it's at a good rate. So in UK I just did this with my debit card. Then it's credited to your money corp online account then you buy x amount of $ with it and chose a recipient- in my case my NAB bank. Very easy. No fees if you join through Pio I think- although I suspect our rate is slightly less favorable than if we were fee paying customers.

In return it's slight;y different. I do an electronic transfer of $ to a bank account and they then credit them to my account to but GBP in the same way. I have had no hiccups with them and they are very easy to deal with. Whole process takes just a few days this end. I can't recall how long i took other end.

As said before loads of people use them and there are other similar companies as well.

I set up before we went and a Nab account, we used it to transfer our savings over whilst rates were ok- not as good as now sadly :-(

Hi

 

We are getting ready to apply for a partner visa. My husband is Australian but has lived here (UK) for the past 11 years. I had assumed he would be able to sponsor me and our 2 year old daughter but in reading the information I think now that the sponsor must be living in Australia. Is that the case? If so I can get another family member to do it but I don't want to ask them to get all the certified copies/proof needed if not necessary.

 

Thanks in advance for your help

I'm married to an Aussie by descent. He had never even been to Australia and he was my sponsor. I think there is a magical word like- 'normally they reside', but loads of people apply when both are still in UK

Thanks for picking up the thread again for me here! With regards to paying your credit card, how exactly did you do it? My credit card is with Lloyds, who I bank with. I've got a current account and 2 savings accounts with them, so do I close those and just leave the credit card open? Do I tell the bank I'm emigrating? What address do I give them? Sorry for all the questions but I really haven't got a clue!

Hi Xerxes,

I left both my current accounts open- They both had a small overdraft on that we had hoped to clear but just didn't. We downgraded to the basics. i.e no rewards as we couldn't access them. To start with we put them at my Mums address just to stop the post going to my old address and as soon as we had a permanent address we wrote and amended it. Halifax was easy, they accepted the letter. Natwest is a pain and to be honest I don't think it's been changed completely as they required us to go into branch or send a verified signature by a JP etc.! but anyway it is still able to be used. I tried to close the Halifax recently but the forms didn't reach us on 2 occasions so I have decided as it is at nil it can sit there.

So each month we transfer a lump sum from our Oz accounts to our UK accounts through Moneycorp and then just pay our bills through online banking from our UK account. It takes about a week to process and so you have to do it well in advance of due date but it's the cheapest way of doing it. You probably can pay direct to the card in $ but there would be a poor conversion rate.

We still have the debt, to be honest it will probably take a while to clear as we are chipping away at it. Of course it is appealing to just run away as suggested above but for now we feel morally obliged to do what we can and hopefully one day we'll be in a position to clear it.

Good luck with the move. It certainly isn't ideal to come over with money still owing in the UK. But life isn't ideal and we have done it and look forward to the day that we can keep that money currently being used for UK debt to stay in our account! But our life is so much better that I would never tell anyone to not move just because they have to send money home to clear a credit card!

Oh how I love how these threads end up :smile::smile:

To answer your question with experience. We have left a couple of cards back in the UK (We have been here nearly a year) we have changed all the addresses to here and we send a lump sum back through Moneycorp to pay off the monthly payments. The GBP is strengthening against the $ and therefore we are not clearing as much as we would like.

Cancel all insurances, ppi etc as none are valid over here. There is no problem keeping a UK bank account open just make sure they'll send replacement cards to you when you need them.

We added my Mum as a 3rd party signatory to our joint account which was suggested by Natwest as they said that way she can come in and change addresses and make inquiries on our behalf.

I will admit to being tempted to walk away, I question who wouldn't, but I am too scared that regs will change and we will have a can of worms to deal with. However they are least of my priority. If things get tough they'll be the first thing to be missed.

In response to the 'How can you afford to move' posts, we moved over on a budget and we didn't have any luxuries. We are now way better off than in the UK, have a really good quality of life and have just bought a brand new car. So it's achievable.

You can fill a form jn for HMRC which will speed ip a tax teturn. Also don't forget tv licence as you have paid up in advance. If you don't do the form for hmrc it shouldn't matter just means you won't get a tax refund til next year when tgeg do end of year reconciliation and you'd need to ket them know where to deposit money.

Hi all,

 

I know questions regarding ‘Budgets’ have potentially been answered a 1000 times over, but looking for some clarification / advice from people who have previously made the move from the UK to Sydney. I have searched high and low through previous posts and found snippets of information but not enough to satisfy my curiosity.

 

In brief, we’re (the wife and I are) moving over to Sydney at the start of September 2014, neither of us have jobs lined up as of yet, and would doubt if we would able to pick anything up before we get there. However, I have started to pro-actively make contact with a number of recruiters. ‘Hallelujah’ there is interest (always a bonus) but not until we are actually onshore.

 

About us - Wife is Australian (33) professional Make-up artist and me (36) an ICT / Digital Project Manager. I have a subclass 100 visa.

 

Ok back to budgeting, we've saved around $40K, which would give us in the region of $6k a month for a budgeted period of around 7 months for rent, living expenses and other bills without jobs. High on the risk register is the possibility of a couple of month’s unemployment. Though, I'm really hoping to pick up something within the first 2 to 3 months or hopefully sooner. Hoping to hit the ground running as we feel it would be easier for me from an integration perspective, wife has friends, family and social things she’ll be able to slip right back into.

 

Will be looking at renting Eastern Suburbs / Randwick / Inner West.

 

Flights and shipping are all paid up and all other known incidentals have also been covered off. It’s just budgeting for the bedding in period that has me a little stumped, mainly due to not having any experience of moving countries to measure and plan against.

 

If I'm honest with myself, I’m not quite sure what I should worried about really, perhaps it’s the apprehensive nervous energy as the clock ticks closer to the move date. As a PM by profession and nature, I love to plan and have to scrutinise my budget, assess risk and make sure we have a contingency plan in the case of things not going according to plan – of which life seldom does. Moving’s not like planning for/delivering a software build project :cute: that’s easy!!!

 

Also looking into joining a local cricket club and perhaps looking to take up some of the more indigenous sports like surfing and AFL to meet people.

 

Guessing the purpose of this post is to hear about other forum member’s experiences, trials and tribulations with a move of such epic proportions/budgets/bedding in period, and any advice they can give to someone just about to make the move.

 

Thanks in advance

We moved last September UK to Sydney. We had $22K inc flights and shipping. We are us 2 and 3 kids and we managed. My husband got a part time job quickly as a chef, he secured a rental and paid 3 months in advance and bought a cheap car and what we hadn't shipped and needed 2nd hand. We connected internet but didn't get any other outgoings straight off. Stayed as PAYG mobiles, no medical/ house/ car insurance. We only added things in once I was working and now 9 months in we are settled have a house of furniture are fully insured for the usual bits and about to go and test drive a new car.

It will depend on what your jobs as to how quick you'll find work. My husband has had 3 jobs since arriving here and got each within a day of looking for them. Mine didn't come up til December which I still consider pretty good going, I had ruled out anything til February.

It's very doable and I disagree with the poster above who says it's not fun- I really enjoyed the adventure and the only stressful bit fr us was our first landlord doing the dirty and we had to move sooner than we anticipated.

Good luck

As title says sorry to be down but this was one of the aspects of us moving to OZ. Not the largest by any stretch. But we were living in Cornwall with 2/3 of our kids at primary school. We had already moved into catchment area to ensure my 2nd child went to the school because the school was the best in the town and was over subscribed with in catchment applications and I knew of siblings being separated. We rented and moved just down the road and we were pretty much guaranteed a place then by being in catchment and having a sibling at the school. The school was an Ofsted outstanding school and the best in the county so we had high standards to live up to.

However, we were struggling financially- jobs were good but wage not brilliant and no career progression. So I applied for a couple of jobs in various locations around the country. But whilst waiting for the application process I looked at school options and there were no decent schools that would accept them- all ofsted 4s and the reports were awful. We also would ave struggled to get them in the same school. We were living an hour away from work adn we thought it may improve our circumstances if we moved closer and lost a car but again only schools that were out of the town could accept them and none could take both. So we were stuck where we were even if we did accept a poor school there was no way of getting them to 2 different ones.

I know that the applications for Primary are Dec/Jan with the results being announced Mar/Apr. If you move into the area or know you are moving into the area they will not accept an application until you have a rental lease or a contract of sale on a property. If you call them to say you are moving they will say that you apply in your current area and then the councils will arrange the transfer of paperwork- that way it is not treated as a late application unless the announcement date has passed. But obviously as you are not in the UK you can't apply in your current area.

They may have an option but in all honesty I don't suspect they will. After all they will look at is as we have left the system. The school system is so over crowded there that there isn't really an alternative.

Hope you prove me wrong.

That's exactly it Gbye Grey Sky, we need to be "on the ground". Yes I've noticed the increased rents around a good school when searching on Rightmove and I read that a property in a good catchment can add 20% to it's sale price.

 

This moving countries thing is not for the faint hearted. My head is spinning.

I guess you could call as soon as they open and see if they can deliver to you or even postpone for a bit. :-/

They've already been dispatched but could give it a shot

Oh no :-( thanks. Was hoping they'd take them back to depot.

Hi. Not a n Oz problem but I thought one of you may have had a similar problem and know the answer. It's my besties birthday today so ordered her fav flowers ftom M&S to be delivered. But found out this morning she'll be leaving on holiday in the early hours for a week. Does anyone know what they do with flowers if they can't be delivered. I'm hoping a neighbour doesn't take the parcel.:GEEK:

We managed to set ourselves up pretty easy second hand (Sydney though not Perth) we shipped our good stuff and sentimentals. But bought beds, sofas, washing machine, fridge. We got kitchenware, cookware, plates and cups etc from Target/Kmart for really cheap. It's not great stuff but it works. We did the move on the budget so I 'm just demonstarting it's possible. We were 8 weeks without our stuff and it would have been pointless to ship the beds and sofas as we would have had to managed for too long without. We did ship our double as we had not long bought a new memory foam matress and had heard bed sizes differ. So we bought a nice 2nd hand sofa and sofa bed and survived on that. Was so please to see my bed!!!!

Do you need to change over to an Aussie licence by law if you are a permanent resident?

Yes you have 3 months to do so.

I did it the other week, really easy. Simple form- both parts of license, tenancy agreement, passport and voila. I have heard contrasting reports that they are meant to keep our UK license and notify DVLA but they didn't want to know. I got to keep UK license too. Not sure how that works back home. n theory I could get fined 1000GBP as I haven' told them of a change of address>>

We found out after getting a Green slip that if one of us had a NSW driver licence we could have saved a couple of hundred Dollars

How does that work?:confused: seems a bit insane........oh sorry this is Aussie beaurocracy of course it is lol:biggrin:

I would double check that "fully comprehensive" actually does include the greenslip first. I've not seen one of these policies. Both our cars are comprehensively insured but with separate CTP insurance

 

I don't think it matters if the car rego is in a different name to the insurance (esp if you are married). Insurance should primarily be in the name of the person who uses the vehicle the most.

 

Also check that they will take account of your UK no claims

Yeah defo will be checking it- my understanding is that the companies who offer greenslip also offer fully comp including it- but until I get it from the horses mouth lol

I was going to get my hubby to call up re car insurance tomorrow so hopefully they should be able to help. Just time limited so don't want to waste it if someone happens to know the answer. But yes worst case we'll run down to RMS Thanks

Hi,

I know car rego insurance is a little different in NSW. We need to renew our rego later this month and have a few queries that I hope you can help us with. The car is owned (officially) by my husband. The rego and Greenslip are all in his name. I am about to go and do the pink slip- which I suspect just applies to the car so won't be in a specific name. But we are thinking of upping our insurance to fully comprehensive that includes the greenslip. I have the no claims discount as I have consistently owned a car- about 9 years now in total but all UK based. Hubby has 3 years I think UK based. Therefore if they'll accept either it would make more sense to have the insurance policy in my name. But I'm wondering how that works with the car in his name and whether the rego needs to be done in my name also? Do we need to transfer ownership or will it not matter as long as there are policies that cover us both?

TIA

We've been in Sydney 3 months and whilst there is no denying that that wage is low and will be tough to live on, from our experience it's not impossible to live in Oz on a budget- if you are realistic.

For the first 6 weeks we had our savings and my husband working 2 days a week on $20 ph. Now he works 38 hours and earns $52K but we can survive with just the basics.

Rent $510 pw

Petrol $40 pw

Train $40pw

Food $200-250pw

Broadband/Phone/ $110p/m

Elec $80p/m

Gas $30p/m and that's the lot for us at the moment apart from phone credit

We get $400 per fortnight for family assistance/ rent etc (based on both me and my husband earning at some point this year) and we pay for my youngest daughter to go to pre-school 2 days a week which is about $200 per fortnight.

Personally we have found Oz so much cheaper than where we were in the UK. We compare #of hours worked in each country to buy the product and Oz always wins. If you are confident of an increase in time then I would say you'll sirvive with savings to help for your extras and 6 months passes sooner than you'll realise- but make sure you have a back up fund if needed.

So if you(in general) can do without Credit Cards here but needed them in UK, does that not show you that Australia cannot be as expensive to live as people make out!

I'm only 3 months into our Oz adventure but we personally think Oz is way cheaper than the UK. We find that generally $ = cost in £s, and where it doesn't if you look at hours taken to earn the money to pay for it Oz v Uk Oz always wins. We are surviving....just ....on 1 wage and we will always be better off by working , as I said above we weren't in the UK. I find it easier to pay in Oz also. Because things like rent are paid flexibly (weekly/ monthly as long as we don't go into arrears) I find it easier to manage finances also.

 

• Some 3.9 million British families do not have enough savings to cover their rent or mortgage for more than a month

• Thousands of people are being made homeless every year because they are unable to meet their payments

• People are bearing the brunt of a 'perfect storm' of rising living costs, falling real wages, low savings and expensive credit

• Unsecured consumer debt has almost tripled in the last 20 years, reaching nearly £160 billion

• Essential bills have increased by 25 per cent since 2007, with one in six payday loans now used to pay for an outstanding household bill

 

 

The recovery of the financial slump may be around the corner, but rising personal debt and a soaring cost of living is pushing people's finances to the brink of collapse, a worrying report has warned.

Despite signs of a national economic recovery, the Centre for Social Justice found personal debt in the UK remains close to its all-time high of £1.4 trillion, while average household debt now stands at £54,000 - nearly twice the level of a decade ago.

Rising personal debt has become a 'significant problem' for people in Britain, with millions of families struggling to pay their rent or mortgage, according to a study by the CSJ.

 

 

 

 

 

Some 3.9 million British families do not have enough savings to cover their rent or mortgage for more than a month, while thousands of people are being made homeless every year because they are unable to meet their payments, the study found.

More than 26,000 UK households were accepted by councils as homeless in the last five years because of rent and mortgage arrears, including more than 5,000 last year, the think-tank said.

There are now fears the number of households being made homeless will increase in the coming years should interest rates rise, the CSJ warned.

 

The CSJ's report, Maxed Out, said poor people were bearing the brunt of a 'perfect storm' of rising living costs, falling real wages, low savings and expensive credit that has seen unsecured consumer debt almost triple in the last 20 years, reaching nearly £160 billion.

 

 

 

Households in the poorest 10 per cent of the country have average debts more than four times their annual income, the study found, with their average debt repayments amounting to nearly half their gross monthly income.

The Bank of England has said it will only consider raising rates when unemployment falls from its current 7.6 per cent rate to 7 per cent.

The report concludes: 'Rising personal debt levels represent a significant problem for people in Britain.

'While most personal debt is healthy and manageable, such as an affordable mortgage, student loan or low-interest credit card used to bridge income gaps, for many people their debt has become unhealthy and unmanageable.

'While people of all income levels can end up seeking debt advice or declaring bankruptcy, the problem of debt seems to be more of an issue for low-income and vulnerable households.

'A perfect storm of rising living costs, decreasing real wages, low savings and expensive credit seems to have pushed many to the edge and over a financial cliff edge.'

CSJ director Christian Guy said: 'Years of increased borrowing, rising living costs and struggling to save has forced many families into a debt trap that is proving very difficult to escape.

'Problem debt can have a corrosive impact on people and families. Our report shows how it can wreak havoc on mental health, relationships and wellbeing.

'Across the UK people are up until the early hours worrying about their finances and bills.'

'Some of the poorest people in Britain are cut off from mainstream banking and have no choice now but to turn to loan sharks and high-cost lenders.'

Essential bills have increased by 25 per cent since 2007, with one in six payday loans now used to pay for an outstanding household bill, the study found.

 

 

 

 

The market for short-term high-cost credit from companies such as payday lenders is now worth £4.8 billion a year, it said.

Payday lenders have increased business from £900 million in 2008/09 to just over £2 billion - around eight million loans - in 2011/12, according to the CSJ.

Around half of payday loan customers reported taking out the money because it was the only form of credit they could get, the study found.

The number of people going to loan sharks is also said to have increased, with the current estimate at 310,000 people.

Former work and pensions minister Chris Pond, who chaired the report, said: 'With falling real incomes and increasing costs of basic essentials, many - especially the most vulnerable - are sliding further into problem debt.

'The costs to those affected, in stress and mental disorders, relationship breakdown and hardship is immense. But so too is the cost to the nation, measured in lost employment and productivity and in an increased burden on public services.'

The report found around 1.4 million people have no transactional bank account, while the CSJ estimates that millions of other people do not use their bank account because of fears over penalties and overdraft charges.

The number of people seeking free professional debt advice from charities reached 1.7 million people in 2012, with some 5.3 million households said to be struggling to meet credit commitments.

 

 

 

 

 

We had very little debt in the UK in comparison to some. But we were never in a position to save. We wouldn't have been able to eat next week if we were put out of work let alone pay the rent. We didn't have any extras either. I think it's more of a reflection on the bracket of middle income earners who are penalised for working as no mater how hard they work they are never any better off.