mt9754

I spoke to a broker a bit earlier today and it seems the best approach is to do it over the phone so you can explain your personal circumstances and then the person at the other end can decide what is relevant and how to fill in the boxes :-).

On the news they mentioned no Medicare required.  I believe this is because they acknowledge there are so many displaced people in Australia at the moment and want to put health concerns first.

We currently still have a house in the UK with tenants.  When companies in Australia ask for income and debt information (for example when applying for a CC) should we declare these?

I’m thinking maybe not because it’s in a different currency and it won’t show on my Australian credit report so might bamboozle them.

What do others do on here?

Everyone here has been very welcoming.  Of course Australia have a very different attitude to COVID and if it raises its head then they go very fast and hard - so be prepared for that.

RE Qatar - they will be the last airline to stop flying, their motto at the moment is “getting people home” and have stopped people entering the country so they can use the airport almost exclusively for transit - they are your best bet.  They are very proud of their track record during Covid.

Oh dear, if you are looking for other flights then I would definitely suggest Qatar is your best bet.  Throughout the pandemic they have been the only reliable airline.

They got me over earlier in the pandemic when all other flights were cancelled.

It is frustrating but the world has changed.  No-one really knows when things will return to normal.  Australia are aiming to have everyone vaccinated by the end of 2021.  So i’d guess it will be Q3/Q4 2021 when borders start opening in a big way.

3 hours ago, Marisawright said:

I hope the rumour is not true. 

Both are vaccines, but they're probably not immunisations.  What that means:  We know that a person who gets vaccinated won't get Covid, or will get only a mild case.  However, it's likely that person can still carry Covid and transmit it to other people.   So even vaccinated people will have to quarantine.

It’s not my area of expertise but as I understand it even if it does not prevent infection, the infectious period is greatly reduced so they’re thinking 4 days home quarantine + covid test might be enough.

1 hour ago, MacGyver said:

The other states increased international passenger arrivals in response to Melbourne's inability to receive its share of passengers. PErhaps they could have doen more, but its not true to say that they ran away from the problem.

They all imposed caps and reduced their intake substantially between July and October.

Yes, it’s 100% a failure of the national cabinet that so many Australians are stuck abroad.  When Victoria went into lockdown the other states ran away from the problem instead of doubling down on quarantine capacity.

Anyway, anyone still abroad - make sure you get a Phizer or AstraZenica vaccine over the next few months.  Rumours are that you will be able to skip hotel quarantine if you’ve had it.  From what i’ve read, Qantas expect flights to return in earnest starting June (they previously said October)

Back in the UK there was only 2 trusted doctors on the Australian official list, i'd hope there'd be a few more than that out here.

4 hours ago, Wanderer Returns said:

That's assuming you only ever intend to keep you savings in a savings account which currently have shockingly low interest rates. There are other investment options which over time are likely to generate a much higher rate of return than your mortgage interest rate. I would've have thought that an emergency fund should be for emergencies, and not other purposes.

I meant after you have set aside money for an emergency then any additional money is probably best spent paying down debts.

Even in a locked-in risky 4% investment, you’re unlikely to beat paying down debts after you’ve deducted tax (assuming 33% to 37% income tax).

Xinja, Up, 86400 and Revolut are the main ones.  Unfortunately you need to be onshore with a permanent address in order to sign up to any of them.  Some require TFN if you want to open savings pots.

We have tried Xinja and Up, with Up being better.  Revolut offering didn’t look great and 86400 we had trouble registering but we thought that one looked best.

Worth mentioning all savings interest accrues income tax out here  .  Means once you have a little emergency fund it’s best to pay off debts like Mortgage rather than save.

For example, HSBC were able to setup instant transfer with very high limits for me, which is great but they have hidden fees of 3% (on the total balance) so i leave it for emergencies only

Difficult situation,  I would ask yourselves whether you really need all the money immediately, just because there are services like transferwise that are 3% to 5% cheaper for transferring money so if Barclays offer an alternative way to authenticate you will be paying a hefty price for the speed.

That's true, always pay 

2 minutes ago, Wanderer Returns said:

I still have a UK Amex card, which is free and has some minor benefits, but Australian Amex are always trying to suck you in with some fancy deal - followed by a huge annual fee.

That's true, always pay it off each month.  I've never had an Amex rejected (except where they don't accept it) so I like to have it in my wallet as a backup, and it helps me top up the Qantas points for upgrading those trips back and forth too 

That’s good to know but i think it’s still important in the early days.  

For example, my partner wasn’t able to get a phone contract until they had a credit history.  We did the Amex Global Transfer CC and a couple of weeks after it arrived it unlocked getting a phone contract.

I wondered what tricks were out there for building a decent credit score fairly quickly once in Oz.

Before leaving the UK i have 2 recommendations:

- Get an Amex more than 6 months before you leave.  Amex Global Transfer basically means they will give you an Australian CC based on your UK credit score.  I used this and it’s been amazing to have a great cc with a high credit limit from day 1.

- If you have HSBC in the UK, they can setup an Australian bank account for you before you leave, they will also give you an Australian HSBC CC based on your UK credit score

Any other hints and tips for shortcutting the long journey of building up a good credit rating?

I politely declined to enable the voice recognition on the ATO, i’m a bit funny about systems like that (probably because i’m in IT haha).

First tax returns coming up next yesr, think i will need some help with the first one, if Australia and UK tax years started on the same date it would be a lot easier!

They’re using all the space for lucrative cargo at the mo and don’t seem very interested with offering a fair price for excess baggage.  I was shocked how bad Cathay and Qatar are with extra baggage costs too.  

British Airways were going to allow me to bring 6 heavy bags until my flight got cancelled so had to rebook with a competitor and ended up having to send half my bags with a bag company.

If you're ever near a TK Maxx, it's worth popping in and looking at the shelves by the tills.  They have some Australia adapters ridiculously cheap 2 for £2 a couple of months ago.

Additionally, bring a 4-gang UK extension and then you can plug in 4 UK devices in with just 1 adapter ;-).

They did a very short survey with us when we arrived at the hotel and tried to accommodate any serious medical conditions but they had very limited choice of rooms.  Our hotel, none of the rooms had openable windows for example.

My suggestion would be get a routine going, we oriented ours around the meals, embrace things like laundry day, try to hold back on buying treats for “special occasions” say like friday or the nth day.

It’s tough, we brought an Apple TV with us, plugged it into the hotel tv and watched a few good series in the evenings.  I had to google how to make it work with the hotel wifi but got there in the end with a little help from my laptop.

As I understand it, if you want a "family doctor" that has time for you and listens to your previous history etc then you might want to pay for your appointments and go private.  Whereas if you don't really go to the doctors ever and you'll only go for a very specific problem, then go bulk billing and get a full refund back from medicare.

Make sure you login to the My Gov site and hookup:
- Medicare
- Add your bank account number

This will allow you to get automatic refunds for anything you spend at the doctors, otherwise you have to do all the paperwork manually!

Tbh, i’m not looking forward to my first tax return.

Premium Bonds are no different to any other savings account / investment in Australia though?

I’ve not found any tax-free savings accounts out here yet.

I used SendMyBag.com.  Not cheap but far cheaper than Qatar Airways were quoting me.  Bags arrived in about 10 days - only trouble is if you don’t have an address in Oz yet.  I got my family to send them on later after quarantine.

You can still do premium bonds from Australia if you want, Australians regularly feature in the winners.  Even with the drop in prizes in December, it's still equivalent to 1% which is a good deal better than most savings accounts.