House Biatch

When we arrive in October, we plan to hire a car for a couple of weeks giving us a chance to get sorted with everything. We then planned to buy 1 car to start with part cash/ part loan, but I've just seen how much interest is being charged for car loans, even getting a secured loan with ANZ is from 8% and std personal loans are from 15%!! My eye's are bleeding... :arghh: I just had an offer today for a personal loan from the Nationwide at 3.2% apr and am thinking about loaning the money here and sending it out to Oz - does that sound doable or is there something big and obvious that I'm missing??

lol - i'd rather that, than it show as sitting still in the middle of the ocean for 8 weeks :-) Reminds me to get those insurance quotes sorted...

We were quoted 8-13 weeks - so I guess it will be with us when it is. Apparently you can track your container ship online and see where in the world it is.

Normal - one minute I'm excited then the next I'm chewing my finger nails! But the closer it gets and the more things I get ticked off the list, the easier it gets.

I set up an account with ANZ a few weeks ago ready for our move in October. The lady I spoke to at ANZ in London said that I should avoid transferring regular small amounts into the Oz account because there was a deposit charge of $15 for each deposit regardless of amount. I deposited £100 to test it out via MoneyCorp 2 weeks ago, so far have not been charged the $15 fee??

I think State Schools will take you tomorrow if you are in catchment, however private schools may have a very long waiting list, so the sooner you apply the better. That said, you may not want to sort a school out until you've actually secured a rental where you want to live. We are arriving in October and going into temporary holiday accommodation until we find a rental. Only once we know for sure where we will be living will we apply to a school.

We will be staying at Ashmore Palms Holiday Park for a month when we arrive in October. I would say thats about 15 mins from Robina. They have accommodation to suit a longer stay. Fairly basic, but gets very good reviews. https://www.ashmorepalmsgoldcoast.com.au

What is the area you are looking at?

I too would be interested to hear more about this.

Why not do a stopover and stay in Singapore for a few days to break up the trip? We are doing that in October encounter to Brisbane. SA have some very good deals on hotels.

What is wrong with Aussie sausages? I hear a lot of people say they are rank, disgusting and don't taste like British ones, so what is the difference?

I think it depends on how much you want the pet carrier to do. Golden Arrow are charging us £3039 to ship our lab & terrier. We opted to take care of our own vets stuff because we found a brilliant vet who's charges are very, very reasonable and Golden Arrow sent us a schedule of what needed doing and when. We also opted to take our dogs to Golden Arrow before flying rather than them collect them from us. They were even helpful by offering to meet us at a convenient location to save us driving all the way there. So far, we are more than happy with our choice :-)

We are stopping in Singapore for a few days in October before flying on to Oz. It looks like a great place to visit!

Thanks all - ANZ it is then :-)

I've tried to find threads on here before asking, I guess ANZ being only 3 characters longs is too short to search or there really is no info :confused: Anyway my questions: Is ANZ an ok bank? Is there anything better? The nice lady from ANZ called me today to open an account and it all seemed very straight forward and helpful. You get a current account and a savings account paying 2% + 0.8% on balances over $10k. I said yes on impulse, but thought I should ask those with personal experience first. Sorry if this has been asked a gazillion times before... TIA IAN

Oz driving licence it is then! Thanks all for the advice - much appreciated! :-)

When we arrive in Queensland later in the year, will we need to change our UK driving licences to Oz ones at some point? We will be on a 457 visa and I read about folks who have PR needing to do it within 3 months but don't know if that will apply to us on a 457. Thanks in advance :-)

We are in the process of sending our 2 dogs out in October and have booked Golden Arrow Shippers. They have been doing this for many years and so far everything is going very smoothly and the help and advise has been excellent.

We are also using Golden Arrow and are very happy with the personal service and price. I'd really be surprised if you could do it much cheaper yourself - using a agent who knows what they are doing has got to be worth a small fee.

Thanks for the replies - it confirms what we thought :-)

Rabies needs to be started 6 months before they are due to leave the UK. The cost of the vaccinations and blood tests are not that expensive so you may as well do them in anticipation. Most of the other stuff that needs to be sorted could probably wait until you get your visa. Make contact with one of the specialists that do this day in, day out. We are using Golden Arrow but I think Pet Air are also pretty good.

We are moving out to Gold Coast in October this year on a 457 sponsored visa. The wife has been offered a job as a GP and she thinks that we will likely want to buy a house as soon as possible. I understand that we won't be able to do this while on a 457 visa, so we are considering the path to PR. One option is that we start applying for a PR visa as soon as we know we want to stay or we wait 2 years for her employer to nominate her for PR. My question is this; is there a benefit in waiting for the employer to nominate for PR is the process pretty much the same as us doing it ourselves earlier? I presume because all of her medical registrations will have been sorted, it is only the visa process that will take the time? TIA

It will be worth the additional cost. Having flown just 4 hours and taking it in turns with the wife, I would never want to do that again.

Thanks Tina & Emma :-) Emma, I see you are from Devon - we were also there until 2 years ago!

Been browsing these forums for a while now through my wife account but decided now that this move is actually happening, I will need my own account as it will be down to me to sort everything out. We will be moving to the Gold Coast area early in October this year (can't wait). My wife has been offered a GP job so we will be upping sticks from here to there with our 2 boys (ages 4 and 8) and 2 dogs to start our new life down under. My wife has all of her medical stuff to sort out so I have to sort out everything else to do with moving us out there. Right now, my head hurts with all of the things to consider, not to mention the costs! Anyway, pleased to be here and look forward to asking some really stupid questions in due course. Thanks Ian P.S: My wife says that when we move to Oz, I'm going to be her house biatch :arghh: hence my forum name.