oscarcat

Transferwise every time, cheapest, quickest, trouble free.

Hello everyone, My previous Australian tax agent has retired, and I need to find an alternative person/company who is familiar with the ins and outs of how UK income is taxed. Has anybody had particularly good or bad experiences with tax consultants in Australia, specifically in the Brisbane south area? I need someone familiar with an income source derived from the UK State Retirement Pension (paid directly into an Australian bank account) and UK employment pension which is transferred over from time to time when the exchange rate is judged to be favourable. Any suggestions would be welcome. Many thanks.

It's interesting if individual banks have the power to set their own limits (and thus have use and control of your money for a period of time during which interest earned is kept by them). This is just so wrong on so many levels. It's even worse (and the cost to you even greater) if a permanent international move is contemplated and all your assets are converted to a lump sum which has to be changed at some point to the currency of the destination country. That's when delays, charges, poor exchange rates can cost you thousands. Has anyone actually done this recently and recorded what alternatives they considered and the reasons for coming to the choice they did?

miw54 and LKC - I beg to differ. LKC - the daily limit cannot be increased by a mere phone call. It's set in stone. Anyway we are talking here of those infrequent, pbrobaly once in a lifetime instances where a family's entire assets have beeen liquidated with a view to being converted into a foreign currency at the least possible expense, miw54 I think you will find that the Commonwealth Bnak, like any bank, in Oz or in the UK, extracts a massive fee/charge, call it what you will. Don't be beguiled by the smiling, friendly front. It's a bank for goodness sake. All you have to do is crry out a real time comparison as to the actual costs to you in moving xGBP to Oz at any given time using TransferWiswe, HiFx, Moneycoprp (which seems to have wangled its way into pomsinoz as the preferred currency exchanger - it's not the best) and your UK and Oz banks - ignoring the retrictions of the daily limits. You'll find the banks cost you teh most. The issue therefore remains. Apart from setting up multiple accounts in both countries , has anyone found a way to overcome the daily limits (which increasingly seem to be an artificial device created by the banking industry for its own profit). Sensible and researched answers would be good.

Would that be Nationwide based in the I.O.M.? I thought they needed a minimum balance, but could be wrong.

I have a UK bank account, primarily for periodically transferring my superan pension to my Oz bank by internet banking. I've had enough of HSBC UK. Its internet banking procedures are the worst I've ever encountered (crude, ambiguous if not misleading, prone to crashing, unclear in many areas - the list is endless), its phone banking is abysmal (Indian call centres with a set list of answers - choose the closest - never correct, cannot actually put instructions into effect). Can anyone recommend a better bank? I need a free current account, efficient internet banking procedure (anything similar to ANZor CBA would be fine) 24/7 phone banking help with UK based operative capable of actually solving any problem and carying out instructions. Does anyone have such a bank?

HSBC UK is not my favourite bank for a number of reasons - badly designed and poorly functioning web site, inadequate and sometimes unintelligible customer phone help and restricted hours. Re exchange companies, I've used HiFX but have found TransferWise to offer better deals. Give them a call - you'll speak to a courteous, knowledgable and above all helpful person on the other end. Should stress that TransferWise claim to beat the high Street banks exchange rates and extra hidden costs. Read the recent news item where they staged a march through the City of London ridiculing the banks - whose silence in their own defence was deafening! But shop around in advance and get as many 'dummy run' comparisons as possible. At the end of the day it's the actual amount you end up receiving for any given sum exchanged that matters. Promises of discounted fees, better rates are meaningless. The crucial issue is the sum you actually end up with and when. I should have that daily limits isn't just a UK thing. There's a limit - 40,000 AUD on how much Transferwise in Oz will accept. Best to talk to all the exchange companies to clarify these matters. An interesting point would be to find out from returnees to the UK how they managed to send all their assets back to the UK? Does anyone kow the cheapest way?