helent113 Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Hi all, I'm coming out to oz on a 457 in August. I have seen a credit card in England that is offering an 18month interest free period on purchases.Do you think its worth applying for and taking to oz for emergency use whilst we are setting up a new home? There is a 2.75 % charge on international fee's Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Longtime Lurker Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Might be worth looking if other credit cards offer lesser transaction fees before you commit but I agree it is useful to have a card as back up covering unexpected costs. When using my card overseas I also find they use a much lower exchange rate so the purchase proves more costly than I expected. I am not in Aus so I can advise how easy it is to get credit when you are newly arrived but I suspect it is not easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Hi all,I'm coming out to oz on a 457 in August. I have seen a credit card in England that is offering an 18month interest free period on purchases.Do you think its worth applying for and taking to oz for emergency use whilst we are setting up a new home? There is a 2.75 % charge on international fee's Thanks We retained UK bank accounts and credit cards anyway and they did come in handy once or twice during the early months when salary tends to go down to zero at the end of the month virtually due to set up costs. One month we were down to out last $35 in Australia so paid for a few small things with the UK cards until next salary came in. So I recommend you have something, but it could just be a visa debit card for your UK bank account. It is a good idea to retain a UK bank account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Island Girl Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 I am also going to Oz soon and need to use my cards but was under the impression that the banks will recall and cancel any UK issued credit card once you are no longer a permanent resident in UK or no longer have a UK address. Could anyone confirm this as I know it is very difficult to get an Aust. credit card until you have built up several years of a credit rating. As I understand it your UK credit rating has absolutely no relevance in Aust. Their banking codes are completely different. Would be interested Rupert to know how you kept your UK cards and for how long, were they not withdrawn by your bank? We will not have any UK address although will still retain our bank account. I currently get my statements online so no need for anything to be posted until any new cards are issued when the old ones expire. Would love to hear if anyone else has kept their cards? :unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lauradarlin Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 If you're able to pay off your CC bill in full at the end of each month the Halifax clarity card doesn't have any foreign transaction fees and the exchange rate is daily so it's spot on. Can be useful to buy you a few weeks credit for free but the APR is pretty steep if you're not gonna pay the bill in full each month Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 I am also going to Oz soon and need to use my cards but was under the impression that the banks will recall and cancel any UK issued credit card once you are no longer a permanent resident in UK or no longer have a UK address. Could anyone confirm this as I know it is very difficult to get an Aust. credit card until you have built up several years of a credit rating. As I understand it your UK credit rating has absolutely no relevance in Aust. Their banking codes are completely different. Would be interested Rupert to know how you kept your UK cards and for how long, were they not withdrawn by your bank? We will not have any UK address although will still retain our bank account. I currently get my statements online so no need for anything to be posted until any new cards are issued when the old ones expire. Would love to hear if anyone else has kept their cards? :unsure: Never heard this before. It would be very hard to open a UK bank account once non resident, but it is not difficult to retain one. It has not even come up, I thought the majority of people retained their bank account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paisleylass Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Absolutely no issues here retaining UK credit card and bank account, all that changed was the overdraft facility has been withdrawn and credit limits reduced a little, no issues with that as we never used overdraft or got near credit limits, otherwise it's business as usual! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwkl Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 We're just redirecting mail for the time being until we want to cancel the cards but our UK bank account will be retained and they're happy to set up an overseas address and contact number too. It doesn't take years before qualifying for an Aus credit card, there are more checks in place so I needed to prove my ID, visa status, had an Aus address and was working (payslips) so after my first pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helent113 Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 Great, thanks for all the replies! Im guna go ahead and apply for it. better to have something than nothing isn't it! X Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Great, thanks for all the replies! Im guna go ahead and apply for it. better to have something than nothing isn't it! X Just get online statements and give them a call to let them know when your are going to Oz so they dont put a stop on it when you use it in oz, as they may think it is a fraudulent transaction being in another country(used to work in Bank Fraud) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Island Girl Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 That is good news re being able to keep the UK card. Thanks Helen for the thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 I can see people running large amounts borrowing on these cards and not being able to pay them back, what will happen then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bensdad Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 We still have ours no problem at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keily Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 we opened an account with westpac before we left uk ....transferred $1000 into it ....when we arrived in oz went into local branch and confirmed all our details ....and applied there and then for a credit card ...albeit we were only allowed $1000 but it was enough to start getting us a credit rating ....might add although o/h hadnt started work he had a date to start ....and we were only staying with friends .....have kept our uk account open but no credit cards ....that would just be too much temptation lol mrs keily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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