PeterJa

To be honest, I wasn't trying to be polite. Just like the poster wasn't trying to answer my question. No problem.. the re-mortgage is progressing well.

Lol, I think you’re the most obedient person I’ve ever known! What I did was write a post asking why *expat banks* will give UK mortgages but not re-mortgages to people living in Australia (answer: it turns out there’s an ATO rule which makes it too difficult), and instead of thinking “oh I don’t know the answer” or “he’s written his reasons” you decided to be all twee and british and tell us how good you are. But seeing as I’m a pot calling a kettle black and I’m living in a glass house, what are the “all kinds of rubbish out about them” that I’m throwing? Did I get it wrong about the billion pound bailouts, holding back on interest rate changes, cruddy annuity rates? The difference is, my actions affect only me and I’m quite happy with both the actions and the consequences - I'm living by the beach and someone is paying 4 x my mortgage to stay in my old flat! Banks and shrill brits complaining is just a really amusing bonus.

You're hilarious, I wish I was so well behaved, I really do. Does the bank live up to its obligation to pass on interest rate reductions to you, give you good FX rates when you transfer money, and give you good pension, annuity and credit card protection advice? Errrr, no. But in real life, the bank has lent me a tiny sum of money, less than 0.00001% of what they received in bailouts, and the interest rate is almost 10 x the bank of england base rate. Also, it's not really the bank lending the money is it? That died a long time ago... mortgages are packaged and sold so many times no one knows who owns what. Hence the credit crunch. And if the bank wanted to shut the mortgage down, this isn't one of the 120% mortgages they were giving out, the loan to value ratio is tiny. All in all, they're having a hissy fit. It's about the only thing they're good at.

* Please don't think I'm passing a comment or being rude to you here, because I'm not, I'm grateful for the reply. The property is more than half paid off, and at the same time as I was renovating it at night after work and raising a family in it, the idiot "experts" at the bank were getting many billions in bailouts for being incompetent. Then when I rent it out while we're away, for 4 x the mortgage payment so there really is no risk, some wet behind the ears nob at the bank goes into anaphylactic shock as "it's buy to let!'. That was their response to everything, even when I said there is a very real chance I will be transferred back to the uk soon - "it's buy to let!". These are the same people who willingly gave out NINJA loans, self certified mortgages that we all knew were based on lies (why else would you self certify), and now they are using this as an excuse for a hissy fit. I would have told them, but had been warned their attitude sucks when people go abroad and they generally pull the loan.

Hi there, I moved to Aus a couple of years ago and rented out my UK flat, which was on a fixed term mortgage. The fixed term has expired and the bank is now having a hissy fit that I rented it out. I am looking to get an expat buy to let mortgage, but for some reason lots of places (HSBC etc) advertise them but won’t give me one when they find out it’s an existing property and I’m in Australia. Does anyone know the reason for this please? And most importantly, does anyone know a way to get a UK expat buy-to-let mortgage from Aus? Thanks for any help, PJ.

Assistance in Aus for kids with difficulties, especially delayed speech, depends wholly on the school and area. Some schools are amazing, other schools specialise in it, then lots of schools are absolutely awful and will throw the kid in a classroom with 30 other kids with no extra help. I've obviously got no knowledge of your son but be careful of the "ASD" branding - it's a lazy diagnosis, any fool can say it and can never be proved wrong. It's a spectrum, we're all on it. Like the weight or height spectrum. Aus has some great schools for kids with delayed speech but 1) you have to find these schools yourself and 2) you have to live near them! Oh and 3) Have you ever met an adult who can't talk? No. They get over it All the best, PJ.

Hey mate, there are lots of good reasons for moving to Aus but making money isn't one of them. The boom times are over but housing, food, services all still cost a fortune. You definitely don't make this move to get rich. Lots of people driving ubers at the mo But if you want to live in a good society with great weather and beaches, go for it!

First off, I love it here! So please don't think I'm being bitter. But finance over here is a lot different to the UK and you need to be careful. In the UK finance and insurance is very heavily regulated and loan organisations need to be up front about all charges. Over here the *******s will happily lie to your face (I've had this with health insurance, mortgages and car loans) and there can be lots of hidden extras that you don't find out about until you come to sign the contract - and that's only if you read through it very, very carefully. There can also be "discretionary charges" that aren't itemised so even if you go through the contract looking at all the numbers you won't realise these are there unless you read all the text. So the first moral is, READ THE SMALL PRINT! You can't have a UK attitude where the FSA / courts will look after you if the provider lies or hits you at a later date with an unitemised discretionary charge. The second sad moral is don't believe a word the salesperson says. It's amazing how they will sit and lie to you, I just wasn't used to that. Other than this the place is great

Hey all, is there an easy and cheap way to ship over a bicycle? Nothing else, just the bike and a kiddie seat. We don't have a box for either the bike or the seat. Cheers, PJ.

Ok, cheers all, I'll bring things over. Definitely only have one of everything and nothing is to be sold on. Cheers. PJ.

I'm hearing stories about people being caught for everything and even having to produce receipts to prove age and value. I'm particularly worried about the bike as if I buy it, it will be blatantly a 2014 model. Cheers, PJ

Hi, does anyone know what the tax on goods is when moving to Austalia? I'm getting a lot of misleading information. We have some things that are years old and are clearly exempt. We've also got new and nearly new (within 12 months) kitchen equipment, and possibly a new mountain bike too. Everything cost less than AUD1,000 which someone said was the threshold for tax. Thanks for any help, PJ

I hate to tell you this, but people like you who love the NHS so much are its worst problem, because it will never improve due to the screams of outrage from the people who treat it as a religion. Your mother may have got good treatment - and I'm pleased about that - but I know people who are now dead or suffering due to negligence, bad treatment and botched ops. I also know a lot of people - working class people - who have given up and dipped into their mortgages so they can go private. Now, you're going to love this... the Global Financial Crisis wasn't really global at all. It hit badly managed economies hard because they had muppets in charge. In our case Gordon the moron was fixated with making us a nation of debtors, allowed ridiculous self certified mortgages, 120% loans, and stood by as financial institutions warned him there needed to be more regulation. Even before the GFC hit people were wondering where the money to pay for Gordon's spending was going to come from. The moron didn't care, he just wanted votes. His gift to incompetent politicians the world over was to blame it firmly on "the bankers". Like it or not, the clichés are true. Labour ruin economies - they simply cannot do it - and the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.

You're either easily please or you haven't used the nhs for a while. Everyone I know who has needed them or works for them has their own horror story. They seem good with emergencies, but once you're on the wards requiring treatment you're ****ed. It'll never be improved though as there are too many left wing morons thinking it's perfect. About the debt growing, that's because labour left a deficit. That's means we don't just have their huge debt but it's actually growing. You know the wars they got us into, the massive welfare bill, and the huge goverment they created... that's all got to be paid for. Oh and Labour's absurd Private Finance Initialives (PFIs).. they have to be repaid to. Like they say, the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money. I know Labour aren't remotely socialist, but the principle applies.

Agreed, it's almost good... but it's not. Take off all the unnecessary wood for a start, then make the core design something special. All those things sticking out is just pretentious cr*p. It's nothing compared to the Sydney Opera House.

Lol, labour decimated the nhs and made it completely ****. And no one can improve it as the left whingers talk about it like it's a religious experience, not the overloaded sorry excuse for a healthcare system that it is. Remember all comments about labour having more consultants than doctors in hospitals? Or have you forgotten. By the time labour left over 50% of British households were net receivers of benefits, and in the time they were in charge we went from the top 10 in the worlds education rankings to less than 20th. Labour and brown just loved us all being in debt.

Congrats to the coalition, it's easy to forget what they've achieved. It doesn't seem long ago that the country was completely ****ed, in insane debt thanks to the labour party's spending, and Brown and Balls wanted us to spend even more money to sort out their mess. Crazy days.

You get 20 points for optimism

Sorry mate, that sucks. A lot. I've heard of people paying for re-marks and getting much higher scores - if you're confident it might be worth it. I dropped points on the reading and I've no idea why. I'm great at that kind of test - my job depends on it - and I finished the reading test in 20 minutes, so I had 40 to double, triple, then quadruple check my answers.

A Muslim mate of mine told me Ramadan isn't set in stone and can be broken if it's important or if the fasting will cause harm. ...exams that pretty much decide your future sound important enough to me.

Hi, sorry, I got called away earlier. I read Eats Shoots and Leaves and part of some grammar book just to give myself a tune up too. ES&L was particularly excellent and quick to read.

Hi, I got a very high mark and my writing skills are awful. Two bits of advice: 1) Practise, practise, practise. Seriously, write a letter and an essay every night for a few weeks and get someone to pass comment. Also make sure you're writing more than 150/250 words and learn to judge how much you have written so you save some time in the test. 2) Make it real to you. I can't stress this enough. If you need to write a letter complaining to a landlord, don't try and make something up - if you're like me you can't. Instead think of a problem you have had either as a renter or owner and write about that - the words will come flying in. And in your essay try and think of an angle you actually have opinions about - because personally, if I don't have an opinion about something I can't bring myself to write 10 words never mind 250.

There are lots of asylum seekers where I live in the UK. They don't appear to have ever been subjected to persecution and violence, and they certainly don't appear to be grateful to the UK for taking them in and providing them with free homes, education, healthcare and money. In fact, they act like we owe them a living.

Lol, I'm into that, but yeah it's serious shite. The 80s at its best. Cheers for the Buddy Guy tip, I'm listening to it now. Great stuff.

Sorry, I sold mine. But you don't get any extra insight, just more questions. If you google you can find all the example questions you need. Ps good luck, and practise, practise, practise. For me I had to keep doing the writing tests until I could get the right length in the correct time.