MTut

If applying from the uk then you’re pretty limited to the big four. I used commonwealth just so I had something set up.

If you’re already over then I think AMPs B3tter account is the winner if you can live without having a branch to go to.

3% savings interest, no ongoing charges and it manages your bills efficiently.

B3tter is an awful name though.

ING everyday Orange & Ubank offer next best interest.

Just an FYI for those of you making the move over soon or recently, we had Bupa cover in the UK and Bupa worked out most competitive here.

It was 55 days from our old policy finishing until we started making enquiries over here and glad we did. Bupa stated that as long as we had no break of 60 or more days from the end of our previous cover, we didn't get hit with waiting periods as new enrollments to the Australian plan. I believe that would have applied even if we were with a different provider in the UK but worth checking when you apply. The instant messaging chats are actually quite good for quick questions. So, if you are thinking of getting it, don't put it on a backburner when you land as long as its financially viable.

We're borderline as to whether its worth it from a financial point of view with offsetting the medicare levy but personally, PMI  and life / illness cover are the two things I'm happy to pay each month. If I'm lucky and never use it, so be it.

So, I'm aware that the Aus taxation department would only be interested in gains made on my uk property,  based on profit made between arrival in Australia and sell date.

I have 3 properties in the Uk. Of these, I'm intending to keep my main residence as a long term rental (in case I come back) but will sell the two rental properties, one in the next tax year and one at mortgage renewal in 2 years time.

To get a date of departure valuation for these, is an estate agent valuation sufficient proof for when I come to sell? Or does it have to be a specifically registered person? After all, house value is always a bit arbituary  anyway.

Has anyone ever had to prove this with the Australian taxation office?

Ratesetter might give you a bit more bang for your buck in returns but not sure if you'd be able to open that from Aus.

Presuming those are both Final Salary arrangements (pretty certain they both would be), you just need to leave them where they are and then they'll pay you an income when you reach the specified retirement age.

6 hours ago, Andrew from Vista Financial said:

 

Hi MTut

I'm pretty sure that we have had clients accepted for class 2 under similar circumstances as your Wife.

Andy

Cheers Andy, I guess it doesn't hurt to put in the application, even if we can't claim it for another 30 years and who knows what it'll be worth then!

I did a little bit more research on this yesterday.

I should be able to pay Class 2 contributions as I'm leaving having been in a Class 1 paying job here. As Andrew says, £145 outlay is worth it - assuming you live to whatever pension age it'll be when I retire. More so when you factor in the triple lock for as long as it lasts.

Looking at the options, it states:

@Andrew from Vista Financial - maybe you know, but as I read that, would my Wife (Australian National but resident and working in the UK for over 3 years) be able to continue to make NI contributions to build up a UK pension? I can't find anything on HMRC website that suggests she couldn't.

We may or may not come back to the UK in the future but this appears to be a very cheap way to build up a good fixed income stream for retirement (albeit non-escalating in payment under current rules.)

We'll also both be maxing our £3,600 allowance to UK pensions for the first five years while away. Seems a good use of the rental income from our UK home.

My research on it suggests it would be Class Two Voluntary NI which is only £2.85 per week.

https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/about-pensions/the-state-pension/voluntary-ni-contributions

I'm definitely planning on doing it, as it's good value especially at the lower rate, if we come back.

True, they'll obviously be making some money somewhere.

However, I guess this won't be for me to make payments at that high a level but more a little and often. Say £500 a month-ish just to supplement here and there, especially in the short term.

I've heard some Aus banks will charge you a fee for recieving foreign payments of $10-$12, when recieving money from a broker? 

If so, that would negate any real currency rate savings, when with HSBC I could go from my UK to AUS account without a transaction fee.

HSBC are currently running a nice little incentive for switching UK banking accoutnns to them - £150 now, £50 in a year.

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/current-accounts/hsbc-advance

Now, this has no fee and includes the ability to withdraw cash from overseas ATMs. It also has the global banking option where you can transfer from UK to an Aus HSBC without transfer fees.

Has anyone had experience on this in terms of the rate you get compared to a broker?

I was planning on retaining my Nationwide Flexplus account in the UK for the odd ATM withdrawal (these are free overseas.) but the monthly fee has gone up to £13 p/m.

I'll still have around £10k per year in rental income in the uk, of which I'd imagine half I'll bring over as an when needed, so not huge amounts.

Wondering whether this is a simpler solution or to stick with Nationwide, an Australian acocunt and broker transfers each month?

Hi,

See what you think to this - hadn't considered shipping it but with the £/$ rate so poor, if I sold it here, I'd probably not be able to buy something as nice, and I probably won't add too many miles to it while in Sydney for a couple of years.

Thanks

- year of manufacture 2011

- make, model & variant Mercedes C250 CDi Bluefficiency AMG Auto 2Dr

- body type (coupe, convertible, etc) Coupe

- engine size & fuel type 2143 cc Diesel

- transmission Automatic

- drive type (4WD, front wheel drive, etc) Rear

- mileage 65,000 miles

- any special features, options or modification Sat Nav

- does it have aircon Yes

- realistic current UK market value £11-12k

- Australian RedBook value (www.redbook.com.au - click through to the page with 'Private Price Guide', 'Trade In Price Guide' and 'Price When New' listed, then tell us the 'Private Price Guide' range)           $25,000-$28,000

- Australian market value (http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/search.aspx - search for the closest matching vehicle) $29,000

- which Australian state/city Sydney

Halfway through my Australian Financial advisor licence and now have to almost entirely re-learn 25% of the course. Quite annoying!

I'll watch this video on a loop for the next few weeks until it sinks in.

1 minute ago, Lever40 said:

Awesome news, Congrats! Just over 4 months! 

Wheres the move to? 

90% chance it'll be Sydney. Wife is from Canberra so it's close enough to them without having them under our feet.

Canberra get's a bad image projected of it but it's pretty nice, however I don't think we're quite ready to move there yet. Without an AFL, Football team or Test Ground, I'd get bored. Outside chance of Melbourne if my Wife gets offered a dream role within her company, Bupa, who's biggest office is there.

Hopefully November time for the move, can now look for some flight options.

Just got through my grant of a 309.

Timeline roughly as follows:

Jan 3rd 2017: Sent application forms with everything but Health checks + Police Records

February 2017: did Health assessments and submitted.

April 4th 2017:  Recieved first communication from Case officer asking for Police checks and my Wife hadn't uploaded her sponser form. Given 28 days to do so.

May 8th 2017: Granted.

All pretty straightforward I think although the lack of interaction is frustrating, best course is just to relax and let go through the motions. Very pleased.

6 hours ago, Lynne Musgrove said:

Hello there, About to turn 60, so I can collect my UK work based pension.

Q: do I have to?

Q: Will I have to pay tax on it in Australia?

Q: If I I do, can I use some to buy Viluntary NI Contributions? Will this save Australian tax?

If its a final salary scheme from a previous job, then you don't have to claim it at nominated retirement date. It will escalate in line with scheme rules until you decide to take it.

You'd have to pay Aus tax on it as outlined above.

You can buy voluntary NI contributions whenenver you want and back date up to six years. Not sure that'd have any implication on the Aus tax. The UK state pension would not escalate from when you do qualify for it which may be a consideration and you should see how this affects your entitlement to an Aus State Pension.

If you don't need the income you may wish to see if they'll offer you a transfer lumpsum value instead, which you could then just draw as you wished but you should get proper advice on that option.

Isn't it only state pensions in payment that are frozen?

So if you've got 20 years till state retirement age you'll still be able to take out the state pension at 2037 values rather than 2017. It just won't escalate from there on.

I'm planning on making voluntary NI contributions after I make the move to continue to build up my years of entitlement.
Hedging my bets a little really but it's pretty cheap (about £15 per month) and then if I were to return to the UK in the future I'm in a better position to be close to full pension from 35 years of working.

Not fully looked into it just yet though.

4 minutes ago, snifter said:

Include the council tax and bank statements you mentioned. Both are good things. Can insurance for the recent year and previous years is good if it names you both at the same address. 

Also if salary slips to either of you have your address on, those are worth including some of. Then reflect that in the bank statements if possible where it gets paid in. 

Do you have any recent wedding invites or anything for the social side? Obviously as a couple they would be to you both. And the tennis club membership naming you both is worthwhile   

Yes, I need to chase up my cousin for a proper wedding invite for his one in September. He just handed out a load of identical 'Save the date' cards to everyone - useless for this!

19 minutes ago, snifter said:

That doesn't sound much to me. At least not in terms of covering the 12 months in full prior to lodging and then other evidence from the beginning of your de facto thrown in. 

Fwiw I submitted a bill or joint bank statement from each of the 12 months prior to lodging. Bill was either in both our names or one of the other of us but to the same address. But we had something from each month to show us at the same address that was 'official'. Water bill, council tax, electric, phone etc. 

I then also submitted life insurance policy naming the other, car insurance in my name showing my husband as named driver and a selection of bills and bank statements from each year we had stated we were de facto for (at the time it was 7 years or so so an extra 7 sheets of paper to show we could prove our relationship from when it began). We also submitted payslips to show funds going into bank accounts and moving between accounts, 

I think you are possibly a bit light on covering the official paper trail in more detail. I'd look at what you actually submitted and see if you can fill in any blanks for the 12 months prior to lodging, if it's patchy and also provide a few more offIcial things from the rest of the time you are claiming de facto. If you don't provide enough when it's requested they will probably base their decision on what they have in front of them and if it's not enough evidence you may find your application declined. Requests for more info should be taken seriously as they are asking for more evidence and you can take it they don't generally ask if they don't need it for some reason. 

If you've already submitted plenty of photos and social stuff I'd not go overboard on submitting much more of that side of things. I'd focus more in the official stuff and ensuring that is in detail and add a few social bits to compliment it. 

 

Car insurance is a good one actually, i'll dig that out. We've nothing for the months prior to moving in together really as that was just dating, so no joint responsibilities.

We've also got life insurance which I've already added.

The house was mine initially as she had no credit score, deposit and anyway, even at that point it was probably too early to put half my home in her name. So she's only recently on the mortgage although she's been paying towards the costs since moving in (I think I'll include as far back on one of the joint accounts as I can that we both pay £1k a month into and the bills come out.) Therefore all the utility bills intially were in my name. We've got Council Tax bills that show she was there though.

33 minutes ago, snifter said:

What visa are you applying for and what have you already submitted as supporting evidence? You need to ensure what you submit now will suffice and a heap of wedding pics and a couple of mortgage statements might not be what they are after. 

Partner Visa.

We've been together just under 3 years, lived together 2,, so i've uploaded:

Marriage Certs

3 different joint bank statements

joint mortgage statement

2x statements from Aus nationals

A few 'Thank you for attending our wedding' letters from other weddings we've been to.

Travel tickets

Plus the usual ID and stuff.

So, I'm going to add in some jointly utility bills, a copy of my tennis clubs membership list showing us both as members for social, a collection of wedding photos (to show it wasn't in a Wed-U-Qwik wedding chapel) and anything else I can find.

If anyone's got any other ideas, let me know but obviously when you've been together a relatively short time and are reaosnably independent people, other than getting married, buying a house and sharing the bills, there's not a lot you can do!

I'm not that worried but don't want to inundate them with frivalous stuff unless that's the way to go.

Applied 3rd Jan, just got our first contact from a case officer asking for Police Checks but also more info on our ongoing relationship.
Not particularly helpful as they've just listed all the criteria again, so just going to bung up a load more wedding photos and a couple of new mortgage statements and go from there.

Don't be stupid

Ignore anyone telling you to try other areas. It's all more or less the same. I know helensvale well,had Aussie friends there, but it's no different to any other suburb. If you don't like helensvale then you pretty much won't like the rest.
Good news is England's out of the European union and thriving.. come home!!!

I rang a couple of brokers from the main offshore arms of UK providers, so your Prudential International, Old Mutual Isle of Man types to see if they'd be a bit more flexible about it but it seems Aus is on their restricted list. Pity, as that could have been a decent solution tax wise.

Any relatives still in the UK OP? That you trust obviously. :smile:

Pru Prohibited Countries List.pdf

Pru Prohibited Countries List.pdf

Pru Prohibited Countries List.pdf

Most know there are options giving better interest (like bonds and fixed term deposits), the problem is getting them whilst being a non resident, so if you know an actual way around the red tape then please let us all know.

OP states that he maintains several U.K. Banks accounts so first port of call would be to see if those offered a parallel trading account which could be opened and run online. Barclays do, I know so I assume there's others.

You wouldn't be able to get access to the isa wrapper obviously but an unwrapped general account.

Premium bonds are the worst investment you can buy and with falling 'interest' you can expect them to get worse.

If you just want to keep it in cash then you can get 1 year bonds at over 1%. If it's more than £85k then Octopus have a cash management services that splits it across institutions.

If you can get past the financial red tape of being abroad then funds that aim to preserve capital are the next step up - Ruffer Total Return for example.

If you're going to put it away for many years then you can increase your equity exposure but as an advisor, I don't recommend buying individual securities unless you have good knowledge of the firms in question. It's much more prudent to spread the risk via a fund of many shares.

Offshore bond might be an option depending on the amounts involved and your timeframes.