PW1 Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Hello Everyone, I'll be flying over to Sydney in the next couple of weeks and need to open an OZ bank account online. I was just wondering what bank most people went with when they open a new bank account from the UK? Any recommendations? Thank you. Regards, P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest 47403 Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 We opened accounts with NAB and ANZ before we left the UK, we also opened accounts wit Moneycorp and HIFX, only personel experience but when we activated our accounts NAB were fantastic much better customer service than ANZ, that said some friends were surprised when we told them of our experiences.....................but by far HIFX were much better than Moneycorp transfering our money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest26110 Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Hello Everyone, I'll be flying over to Sydney in the next couple of weeks and need to open an OZ bank account online. I was just wondering what bank most people went with when they open a new bank account from the UK? Any recommendations? Thank you. Regards, P. We opened bank accts with NAB, easy to do online you have to specify what branch you will pick your cards up from. When you get to Oz you get identified by providing your passport. Only downside is they only gave us eftpos cards (like a card cash card, not chip and pin), very frustrating if you needed to buy or pay for something online. No monthly charges for a NAB card, some banks charge you monthly fee. Also very common to have a $1k limit on your card. NAB did replace the eftpos card to a chip and pin type but this took a week to do, and involved picking up card from bank. Hope this helps. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatpack Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 We opened an account with NAB, for one reason and one reason only the irony of a bank called NAB! I'm sure the banks in Oz are similar to the banks here, self serving greedy shysters. So it really doesn't matter which one we picked! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy1 Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 NAB here also............. have found them and their customer service great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MovingtoTasmania Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 NAB are great for customer service and Peter who is a liaison in the UK is fantastic (even though he wouldn't let me bully him in to buying my house!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3FatCats Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Me too NAB, I have found their customer service excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 WestPac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k8bug79 Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Nab here too, all great. Easy to set up and easy to get sorted when here. I changed where my card was nominated to be collected and that did cause a little trouble as they hadn't sent it so had to go back a couple of days later to get it and then they didn't activate the account properly so we were trying to buy a TV and it kept getting declined which was not only embarrassing but annoying as we had to keep going back round to them 3 times before it was sorted. But that's just one of those banking things and not necessary an endemic problem. We went in after a month and got a visa card so we could use online, this was easy and we didn't have jobs so it's just seems to be standard that you have to ask for that option as opposed to eftpos only. In retrospect I may have considered Commonwealth as it seems a list of businesses use them and you pay arrives quicker if you are with commonwealth, but we still haven't made the move to them as it isn't causing that much of an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABL275 Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Commonwealth Bank, none of the UK banks have a yellow logo and I thought new life, new bank (colours)! never had cause to regret it; they have a branch in London and when I arrived at my branch in Canberra all my accounts were already set up and my credit cards were handed over there and then - great service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Commonwealth. And used Hifx for transfers. Both been great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maruska Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 NAB online, than showed up to the bank with a passport and got EFTPOS NAB card. I use USFOREX for transfers, the Australian branch is OZFOREX, they gave me quite good exchange rate with a flat rate of 5 USD transfer fee no matter what amount you`re transferring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicF Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 We set up an account with ANZ before moving and then switched to Commonwealth after a few months here because ANZ started charging fees and we have our mortgage with Commonwealth. No major issues with either bank and both had good customer service but I do like the Commonwealth online banking better than the ANZ one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newjez Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 I would pick the one with the best website/offers. Banks are much of a muchness as they are in the UK. People will have good and bad experiences with all of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PW1 Posted June 29, 2014 Author Share Posted June 29, 2014 Thank you all so much for the replies, very helpful. Looks like a coin toss between NAB and Commonwealth. I was told it is much easier to set up a bank account online before you go, so I guess I can do that with Commonwealth or NAB. I think CommonWealth might be the winner, as someone said above, they seem to have less charges. Thanks everyone! Regards, P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidza Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 Thank you all so much for the replies, very helpful. Looks like a coin toss between NAB and Commonwealth. I was told it is much easier to set up a bank account online before you go, so I guess I can do that with Commonwealth or NAB. I think CommonWealth might be the winner, as someone said above, they seem to have less charges. Thanks everyone! Regards, P. Opened mine with NAB a couple of weeks ago. No monthly charges. Easy to set up online. Great comms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.