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It seems to be quite expensive to transfer money from the UK to Aus. Can anyone offer any advice on carrying cash over and depositing it in an Australian bank account once in Australia? I'm not talking about large amounts, I'm aware that you can take in up to AUD10,000 without declaring it. I'm planning on heading over for a year and will have some cash behind me but not a huge amount as I'm not going to sell my UK property so I'd ideally like not to have to pay a chunk out in transfer fees. Are questions asked if you open an Aus bank account and deposit AUD10,000 in cash or is that an ok thing to do? Cheers

Hi we have booked our short term accomodation and are happy with it- someone contacted us from this forum and we checked out the property and their website etc. A third party (from this site)has asked were we are staying as they will need accomodation in the future. They are wary of booking with anyone and handing over cash without checking the property and owner out more.... can anyone tell us how they would do this??

Afternoon all, I am going to be changing my English pounds for aussie dollars and the best i seem to be able to get here is $1.48 for my £1, will i get a better exchange rate in oz or am i better changing here? :unsure: Thanks

Hi,, we are going to visit Tasmania for 2 month & are considering using a preloaded cash card. It will probably be with Travelex . Will we get a good rate of exchange & will we have to pay when we use the ATM machines? If so how much? :confused: Kind regards margo

Morning all, we are off to oz in a few weeks and i was wondering what the situation is with taking cash in and whether you have to declare it and how much you can take in for spending money. Thanks for any thoughts on this :yes:

Hi There, me and my family (2 adults 2 children - 3 and 5 years) are hopefully moving to Brisbane end of December this year. I have a job $85k and there is a chance my wife will also have a part-time one at the same company. We're not really taking much cash with us at all. We will have paid for flights, removals and shipping and we will have the cash for 4 weeks short-term rental and to cover the bond and rental advance for our long-term rental. We will also have $2500-$3000 for a car to runaround in for the first few months. Apart from about $1000 to get us through the first 2 weeks until I get my first pay cheque, that's about it. Is there anything else I'm not thinking about as I can't see this amount of cash being a prob. I read about people taking £15k with them to get started! All opinions welcome. Cheers

Hi All, We are in the following position and after reading many of the threads have decided to do the following, but would appreciate any feed back from the Poms community before going ahead and making any unforeseen mistakes/loses - We are moving to Perth end of 2011 and due to the unfavourable exchange rate offered at present we will go armed with credit cards (12k) and have been offered a short term loan (20k) to tide us over by family. We have funds in our accounts in the UK but would prefer not to transfer largish sums of money over when we can do it the forementioned way and cut out the weak sterling and pay them in Ozzie dollars earned. But, there is a real possibility that we will start a business up shortly after arriving and may need more funds. In your experience what methods are best to get - 1/ Best exchange rate 2/ Does it need to be organised in advanced from the UK end? i.e set up an exchange account? Or can it be organised from Oz. 3/ Our current bank is well known for not do you any favors when spending on debit/credit cards aboard. So we don't want to be left in a position where we have no other choice than to transfer from this account? I would appreciate any feedback or thoughts on this? Kind Regards Megan:wacko:

We are looking at buying a house in the UK, (our first step to returning home). The exchange rate on 'Yahoo Finance' today gave a rate of 0.6646 and our bank gave 0.6480, which is a difference of 1.02562...... the amount of money "lost" thru these differences is (in our case) approx stg6000 , or about $9000. quite a considerable amount (our first shock) and is no doubt the difference between buying and selling currencies. For those of you who have already moved back could you please advise if there are more ecomical ways of sending money to the uk as there are probably more charges to be met what we don't know about yet. Do banks in the uk charge for receival charges?? is it easy to open a bank account in the uk?? is it possible to transfer into a relations account?? etc etc Sorry for all these questions, but we are still only in the prelimineries of money transfers etc. Cheers, Dave.

I am interested in what other folks think of the $37B (minimum) plan for the NBN. I rekon there are much better things the spend that sort of cash on. If you had $37B to spend, and were (un)fortunate enough to be Julia Gillard, what would you spend it on?

hi does anyone know how much cash u r allowed to take on a plane pls?x

Just been to sainsbos(AGAIN!),got some messages,and goes the till,theres a woman there in front of me,a tiny bottle of asprin or something,thats all she'd bought,fair enuf,£1.50 it was. So cpl of minutes goes by and she's rooting round in her bag(not her purse),eventually she finds her card,yes a ........g card,for thirty bobs worth of gear for jesus sake! Then she has a few goes at the "guess the pin number" game:rolleyes:,i feel like whistling by this time tbh because sainsbos have just started doing skinny chips,so i got some and a meat and tater pie and soss roll,all getting cold because of this loon! Anyway,eventually she guesses the pin right,three .........g cherries eh,hallelulah! Thought "sound",now i can get out and have me scran,but no! she gets her .........g nectar card out and asks for a balance/points:mad:,but the machine wasnt reading it right or something,so there was another hold up! felt like looking around to see if Trigger Happy TV were hiding somewhere!UNBE .........g LIEVABLE i tell yer!:arghh: 5/6 minutes of me life i'l never get back,its a lot at my age,it all adds up! "Why cant they have a cash only/no card whatsoever till in these yards?"i ask the arl twerly on the till,"we did,but no-one used it" she said!:no: I allways get the cash meself,dont know why,guess im just arl style. Going the shops is turning into warfare these days i tell yer,why do all these people walk around holding their mobile phone in front of them at arms length staring intently into it as tho its a ..........g direction finder taking them home?and not looking where there going! "oh sorry mate" they say as they butt yer in the chest,and yer have to just force a smile thats a grimace really,and yer really feel like saying "yeah yer will be sorry yer dozey bas7ard,get that stitched,then pick yerself a window"!:mad:as yer throw the imaginary head on them! And to top off the day the twerly says to me "oh you dont use your nectar card do yer",so in a massive sainsbos with loads of staff the woman knew me! Because im in there everyday like an arl mary ellen getting the messages:no:,time was it was all the barmaids in town that knew what i drank as soon as i walked in the alehouse,NOW its a twerly on the till in sainsbo's,thats when yer know yer gallivanting days are well and truly over!:frown: On the brightside the pie,soss roll and chips were nice,so thats made up for everything hasnt it:nah:

Got a mate coming over for Christmas with his girlfriend. Probably bringing £4-5K with them. Where are they best to change the pounds into Dollars :- In the UK - post office etc At UK airport At Melbourne airport Here in Melbourne Can anyone advise? Cheers, Mike

Hi, Due to arrive in Melbourne with family in January 2011 on a 457 visa. My quandry (or one of them:wacko:) is my prospective employer have given me an annual car cash allowance of $21500 or fully expensed company car. What are the views out there? Thanx Tom with Debbie & Luis (6)

Since I havent yet followed the online application method, please could somebody tell me if the last step asks for the way I want to pay (through a credit card or in cash) ? So in case of cash what I am asked to do by the online application? (to determine this method of payment, finish the application and pay the cash at the counter of the Embassy an other day?) Thank you in advance!!

Hi Guys Just a quick question does anyone know how much cash($) per person you can legally take into Oz Cheers Neil

Hi all i am just wondering how much liquid cash did WA say you had to have in the bank ? to show on one statement , i know maybe it has changed or maybe changed , just wanted heads up ? :wideeyed:And if i have to sell the children and pets so i have the money :biglaugh:( of course i am joking about the the children n pets :wubclub:the hubby might have to go lol ) Thanks Brideycollette

Hi guys, it's a first post for me and Andrea, wondering if anyone can help us. We from Calgary Canada. We applied for a Permanent Resident VISA back end of last year and were approved very quickly, we're due to arrive Dec 08 2010 and we're super excited! But we cannot seem to find an answer to this question anywhere. When you arrive in Australia, are you taxed on any cash you either bring with you when you land. And, second question if not, are you taxed on money you bring with you later, bearing in mind that this money was earned previously and tax has already been paid on it in (our case) Canada. Most of the money is the proceeds from sale of our house - and some is from cards, cash in our account etc. With the Canadian Dollar being so very strong right now, I'd rather leave the money in Canadian currency for while and since we are renting for the first 6-12 months we don't need all the cash right away but I don't want to pay penalities or taxes on the money, since it's already been taxed out here. Can anyone please help us by sharing what you did with your money when you sold your house, if you had one? We're very confused on this issue and there is no help to be found anywhere. (PS Sorry for the duplicate post - we posted this in the money/finance section a few days ago but no-one replied, I don't there is much activity over there.) Thanks in advance for any help! Darren & Andrea.

Hello, I'm moving to Australia within 10 days and I'm taking my savings in form of cash with me, I read on the Australian customs website that I must declare if I have money above 10,000 AUD in the airport in form of USD. did any one face the same situation ? what will the customs do after i declare the money ? thx all

our joint account was emptied last night and today we live north of newcastle upon tyne hubby took a £10 last night at 6pm (thank god) £210 was then taken out in basildon london at 9.30pm last night then they went to a post office in central london and took more we normally only take small amounts out so can you imagine it hubby at cash point this eve on way to get mc donalds as a treat for our boys as ive been ill and theyve been good to find .82p in our account 2 upset boys and us too we should get it back withing 3 working days so thats tuesday without cash well got about a £5 sorry just needed a rant as im so sick :cry:

Hi, Are there any builders or landscapers interested in giving us a quote for a limestone retaining wall for our front garden, we currently have a sloping front lawn that we would like to get rid of! We live in Clarkson (NOR) Would be a cash job, if the price is right!!!:yes: Thanks Andy & Stacey

Sorry if this has been asked before I pay only a little each month into a private pension. Can it be cashed it early? Can it be done even if you loose a little of the money you have in it? Or do you have to waite till you retire? Has any one done this? :confused:

I know most people are focused on the shocking temporary closure yesterday of applications for the 175, 176 and 475 GSM visas ,but I just read this article about the problems in the international student sector and the denial in many ways of treating international students as people. I thought some of you might find it of interest. It makes some very good points I think. Humanity denied in a dash for cash | The Australian

Hi Guys, 2nd post - how much cash do my wife and i have to have in the bank to get a 457 business visa? Thanks, G

Folks, planning to be there in June. IT professional and starting new. Well, family joining later. How much would it be ( the least ) to get along with the usual expenses. I would be relieved from rent as someone has already taken it up to gimme some shelter. Just tight on budget. cheers

Jane my wife had a telephone job interview with Shaun Gillespie the Director of Nursing at the Calvary North Hospital, this morning at 06.30 a.m. Jane has got the job. Working on the 26 Bed Oncology Ward there. The best thing about it is that they are willing to train Jane up to be an Enrolled Nurse, then an optional opportunity to train for RGN. We are overwhelmed with this opportunity and I am ever so proud of my wife. She has worked as a healthcare assistant for 16 years now and always dreamt to be a Nurse, but because of having children and the expense for the Nurse training, she has never managed it. I have gained the actual visa and have the vast amounts of experience and qualifications, so we took it for granted that I will gain suitable employment and Jane will find a part-time job eventually. Then this happens. I have also got my interview with Alex Edwards-Brown the Director of Nursing for the Glenside Campus Hospital, sometime next week, I am very confident in gaining a job through him. In addition, I had a viewing for my house on Tuesday and the guy telephoned me yesterday and said to me that he will come and see me today at 1pm today and that he wants me to tell him a price for my house and with everything to go with it, the furniture - the all lot. Also we have agreed not to go through the estate agent, thus saving me £3k in fees. The best part is, he is going to give me cash in the hand, obviously through solicitors. I am currently waiting for an operation for Hiatus Hernia, because I am in major pain. I am now considering paying for a private consultation and this consultant referring me for the operation, too see if this can speed things up, but it will have to be on the NHS. However I have now decided to still come to Adelaide if I dont suceed with my operation before Xmas and see if I can have it in Adelaide. All this has happened in the last few days, bloody hell we have hit the ground running and Wow! We are going to enjoy the ride. Jane's job starts in January, our house sold today and move out by end of October. Spend Xmas with my family in Burnley, Lancashire and also Jane's family in Leicester and then fly out late December/early January, bye bye freezing Newcastle upon Tyne. Hello Summer in Adelaide. After I have spoken to the guy who is buying my house today I will then search for flights and once I have booked them I will then apply for AOA via South Australia Government. Need to sort out removals, just to take our clothes and odds and sods. Right you readers: Need your help/assistance (join our ride). lol. QUESTIONS 1. What are the best area's to reside/live, which will be near Calvary North Hospital and Glenside Campus Hospital as well as near the CBD, transport links, the beach and just as important we have kids at 21 (lad), 17 (girl) and 11(girl) so we need somewhere lively (entertainment wise), for them to enjoy. More urgently is to provide us with some places where there are community houses are, so we can at least request certain areas for our AOA. Nothing wrong with just requesting on the application form for AOA. 1.5 Also friends please, especially for my kids, Love BBq's if anyone is having any (hint hint)., thats for the oldies, lol. 2. The best places to look for cheap flights to Adelaide. 3. Removal companies, must admit thinking of John Mason. However through Moneycorp they have a removal company, which we get a discount and its only three miles away from my current home. 4. Because AOA is not certain, what is the best option for a back-up plan regarding suitable accommodation. Is there any problems if I arrange alternative accommodation and then cancel it at th every last minute due to gaing AOA. I would fancy a caravan park for a back-up. WE ARE SO HAPPY !!!!! __________________