Gogibraltar Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Hello, I am in the process of moving from Perth (WA) to London with the wife. Because we have some shares and are also not too sure we won't be back in a couple of years time, we would like to keep an open bank account in Australia. The problem arises with the logistics of ordering international fund transfers. I bank with NAB and they issue an SMS code which you receive on your phone and then plug into the web page; great if you are in Australia, not so great if you don't want to keep an Australian phone contract for ever and pay roaming charges. Has anyone found the silver bullet for this? Are there cards or keychain type fobs that serve the same purpose? Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Use HiFX or some such instead? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Phone banking? But then the text would probably be cheaper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Westpac are happy to SMS to my UK phone, are you sure NAB aren't? I have kept my account open for tax rebates and it may be handy if I go back to visit too. It is a classic account that costs nothing to maintain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Westpac are happy to SMS to my UK phone, are you sure NAB aren't? I have kept my account open for tax rebates and it may be handy if I go back to visit too. It is a classic account that costs nothing to maintain. Interesting! St. George won't SMS internationally either - I use oz forex and depending how much I want to transfer they don't need the SMS code but I do fork out for an Aus sim just the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucharmily Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 When I was in the UK and wished to transfer money from Australia to my UK account, I just rang the international bank phone number and they issued a secure code lift for 24 hours which gave me a window to do the transfer without having to use the code. Found it really easy. (Bank SA) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 I use HiFx for the actual transfer, as they charge less than Westpac and have a more competitive exchange rate but still need the SMS code to transfer the money from my Australian account to HiFX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 (edited) I am in the process of moving from Perth (WA) to London with the wife. The problem arises with the logistics of ordering international fund transfers. I bank with NAB and they issue an SMS code which you receive on your phone and then plug into the web page; great if you are in Australia, not so great if you don't want to keep an Australian phone contract for ever and pay roaming charges. We're the same, don't want to move all that money until we know if we're staying. However, if you're leaving shares in Australia, have you looked into the tax implications? You'll get NO tax free threshold as a non-resident. We are keeping our bank accounts in Oz too, but we are liquidating our other investments as the tax penalty would've been too horrible! If your only earnings in Australia are bank interest, you don't have to complete a tax return and the bank withholds 10% tax on the interest. If you hold any other investments, you do have to submit a tax return and will be taxed at 32c in the dollar. We have just switched to Citibank because international money transfers and withdrawals are free, so we were just planning to withdraw money at ATM's as normal. However we'll still want to pay the odd bill, and I hadn't thought about the SMS thing. It's not just transfers with Citibank, you need an SMS just to log in! So we may have to rethink, unless they will SMS a UK phone? HSBC has a keychain type fob, but we'd have to check if it works worldwide. The only other thing I can think of is that my husband has an old Telstra phone which is on prepaid - he's got no money left but it can still receive calls. Perhaps you could do something like that, and load it only when you need to make a transfer? Edited October 6, 2014 by Marisawright Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gogibraltar Posted October 7, 2014 Author Share Posted October 7, 2014 Hi everyone, First of all, thank you for your responses. Today I phoned NAB and apparently they will send the SMS code to any phone in the world. I will just have to use the telephone banking system to set it up. This being the case, I think I will stick to this rather than a fob type solution which I will certainly lose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aunt Agatha Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 I hadn't even thought of the SMS situation so thanks for this post! Now to ring CBA and find out if they will text internationally... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 I hadn't even thought of the SMS situation so thanks for this post! Now to ring CBA and find out if they will text internationally... Why not consider changing banks? We were with the Commonwealth but their charges for ATM usage in the UK are high and their exchange rate is terrible. It was child's play to move our money to Citibank. We opened Citibank Plus accounts which means all international transfers are free (I was excited when I sent a sterling bank cheque to the UK recently and it didn't cost me a cent!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aunt Agatha Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 We probably should but I'm put off by having to inform work and the credit card and Foxtel and Origin and Optus etc. etc. about the change of account details. I suppose I could leave it until the last minute when those accounts are closed/almost closed. I think I'm suffering from admin fatigue! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABritatheart Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 I have a similar problem to Gogibralta. After having moved back to the UK earlier this year, I decided to keep my bank accounts in Aus for the time being (better the devil you know etc). I receive a monthly private pension in Aus which goes into my NAB account, which I then transfer part of, to a Lloyds acc by internet banking. It's quick and easy to do and works well for me. Except for the SMS side of things. I have kept my Aus mobile, plus still have a telstra accnt on a very cheap plan, so that I can get the security code txted each time I transfer funds to the UK. But a big prob happened recently...I had left my mobile turned on as I was expecting a txt from my son in oz and for some strange reason the phone decided to download something. I don't know whether I had inadvertently hit a button...or what happened. However it has left me with a $400 Telstra bill for a phone that is only used for transferring Bank funds and the occasional text from my son.. It's a smart phone and has internet access (which I keep turned off in the UK)....so goodness knows what happened. I am now going to see whether its possible to buy a cheap (non smartphone) here in the UK and just transfer the Aus sim card across to it.Anyone know whether that's possible? I'm afraid phone technology has got away from me in recent years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 We probably should but I'm put off by having to inform work and the credit card and Foxtel and Origin and Optus etc. etc. about the change of account details. I suppose I could leave it until the last minute when those accounts are closed/almost closed. I think I'm suffering from admin fatigue! We are so much alike, AA! We both opened our new accounts with Citibank but while my husband has transferred everything over, I'm still using my Commonwealth account: it's all too much work! But it doesn't matter - the Citibank account charges no fees, so I've just put $100 in there and left it at that. There's no law saying how many bank accounts you can have! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 I have kept my Aus mobile, plus still have a telstra accnt on a very cheap plan, so that I can get the security code txted each time I transfer funds to the UK.But a big prob happened recently...I had left my mobile turned on as I was expecting a txt from my son in oz and for some strange reason the phone decided to download something. I don't know whether I had inadvertently hit a button...or what happened. However it has left me with a $400 Telstra bill You could try switching from your existing plan to Prepaid. My husband was with Telstra and they allowed him to do that. You can leave a small amount of credit on it to cover the SMS's but if it accidentally connects to the internet, it won't download more than the amount of credit on the phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aunt Agatha Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 (edited) LOL Marisa! I'll compromise like you did and open the Citibank account and then not do anything ;-) ETA I just checked out the Citibank Plus account - it's fantastic for someone heading abroad! Thanks for the heads up @Marisawright, am opening my account today :-) Edited October 8, 2014 by Aunt Agatha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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