EOI Lodged!!!! Now we need to plan :S

[JMcW89]

Hi All,

 

My partner and I have now lodged our EOI and playing the waiting game. . We are hoiping for a move to Gold Coast in Novemeber 2015 (if all is well with our VISA [fingers crossed]).

I am after a bit of advice on our arrival ect and hoping someone can guide me in the right direction.

 

1. Are they any short term rentals for arriving migrants? (dont want to sign up to a 6 month lease as not completely sure where in Gold Coast we want to live)

 

2. Can we set up a bank account before we go? If so can anyone reccomend a good one for Gold Coast (cash machines ect)

 

3. Does anyone know the roughy cost of half a container? The companies I have approached want to survey before qoting and we dont have the stuff packed or or even know exactly what we want to take yet?

 

4. Any other advice you can offer?

 

Also, if any recent migrants live in the Gold Coast and want to meet up in November, hopefully we will be available .

 

Thanks in Advance!

 

Josh

[Nickandpaula]

Hi, we are in the same boat as you but have carried out a couple of your questions

 

westpac is one of the 4 big banks and is the only one in London, cracking service which is free if your wages go in to it. You also earn 2.5% on it too iirc

 

for the removals we found Santa Fe absolutly fantastic. Full 20" container was £3750 door to door. You cannot lift a finger, they spent 2 days indervidually wrapping every item. Very professional. You can also rent parts of a container

 

hope this helps

[tina0101]

Hi

 

1. Look at Stayz or AirBnB to see if you can get a short to mid term let. The Gold Coast is fairly big and you may want to factor in where you may be working, public transport links etc.

 

2. You can get a bank account from the UK. Before we left I used google maps to see what had branches where in the area we were looking at. I'd also check cashpoints as if you don't use the one for your bank, you get stung for charges (like it used to be in the UK!). There are plenty of big banks but they may not all have branches in every area.

 

3. We had about half a container and it was about £1750 (I think!). We saw three companies before choosing - Crown, Pickfords and PSS. All were similar in price. They came to the house and we walked through with them saying what we did and didn't want to take.

 

4. As I said before, Gold Coast is fairly large with lots of suburbs. Google and Google maps are great, also check out the local news online so you know what's going on. We started off in the Gold Coast for three weeks and found the drive to Brisbane to be a bit arduous, especially in rush hour.