Bank account help!!

[DRCeramics]

Hi. The family and I are moving to the southern Gold Coast early next year....finally!  I have secured a great job and flights, quarantine, initial accommodation (AirB&B) and everything is a go but opening a bank account is a nightmare.  I am coming 1st in early Jan to start the job and family following in March.  I have planned to AirB&B till the family arrive but am struggling to be able to show an address for bank opening.  I am Australian but have been away in the UK for 25 years and the bank accounts i did have are now closed.  Anyone found a solution to this issue?

[RandL]

Hi There,

 

HSBC has an international branch in Sydney , i have used them to set up an Account in the UK  before leaving AUS , can't see why it would work the other way ? 

 

Mebank.com.au , is an online bank account only  ( they issue cards, but no branches ) , very helpful on the phone , would give them a try .

 

Hope this helps

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by RandL
fix link

[amibovered]

No good?

https://www.nab.com.au/personal/travel-and-overseas-banking/open-account-from-overseas

Edited October 25, 2021 by amibovered

[Marisawright]

7 hours ago, DRCeramics said:

Hi. The family and I are moving to the southern Gold Coast early next year....finally!  I have secured a great job and flights, quarantine, initial accommodation (AirB&B) and everything is a go but opening a bank account is a nightmare.  I am coming 1st in early Jan to start the job and family following in March.  I have planned to AirB&B till the family arrive but am struggling to be able to show an address for bank opening.  I am Australian but have been away in the UK for 25 years and the bank accounts i did have are now closed.  Anyone found a solution to this issue?

Why do you need one?   There is no rush to get a bank account sorted these days.   You can just continue to use your British bank account as normal for a couple of weeks, your credit cards will work exactly as they did in the UK and you can use the ATM's like anyone else.   Yes, you'll be at the mercy of the exchange rates but it's not a huge issue.

If you have substantial funds to transfer to Australia and you want to kick off the transfer before you leave, transfer it into a Moneycorp or Wise account.  It will sit there happily until you are ready to move it into an Australian bank.  

[rammygirl]

We opened both Westpac and NAB accounts from the UK. Check their websites for migrant banking. You will need to visit a branch in person when you arrive to activate the account but funds can be paid in easily. We also kept our Westpac account when in the Uk with a UK address, same as we still have our UK bank account now with an Australian address.

[welljock]

5 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Why do you need one?   There is no rush to get a bank account sorted these days.   You can just continue to use your British bank account as normal for a couple of weeks, your credit cards will work exactly as they did in the UK and you can use the ATM's like anyone else.   Yes, you'll be at the mercy of the exchange rates but it's not a huge issue.

If you have substantial funds to transfer to Australia and you want to kick off the transfer before you leave, transfer it into a Moneycorp or Wise account.  It will sit there happily until you are ready to move it into an Australian bank.  

I don't agree with that having opened an account for 3 of us in the UK prior to moving, then opening another for our daughter 6 months after getting here; it was much simpler to do it in UK - that was with ANZ.

[Ken]

You can open a multicurrency account with Wise online. Comes complete with a debit card and you can have an Australian sort code and account number (as well as a British one) so you can use it for all normal banking tranactions until you get a regular account set up.

[palaceboy1]

On 26/10/2021 at 04:20, Marisawright said:

Why do you need one?   There is no rush to get a bank account sorted these days.   You can just continue to use your British bank account as normal for a couple of weeks, your credit cards will work exactly as they did in the UK and you can use the ATM's like anyone else.   Yes, you'll be at the mercy of the exchange rates but it's not a huge issue.

If you have substantial funds to transfer to Australia and you want to kick off the transfer before you leave, transfer it into a Moneycorp or Wise account.  It will sit there happily until you are ready to move it into an Australian bank.  

I think Moneycorp are closing their Australian foreign exchange operation from December 2021

[Amber Snowball]

14 hours ago, palaceboy1 said:

I think Moneycorp are closing their Australian foreign exchange operation from December 2021

That’s right, they sent me an email.

[DRCeramics]

Thanks everyone for your advice.  Wise definitely looks the way forward in the short term till I can prove Oz address and open a “normal” bank account

[rammygirl]

But you can open a normal account with a normal bank from overseas. A link for NAB was provided earlier and here is one for westpac

https://www.westpac.com.au/faq/set-up-australian-bank-account/

easy enough to change down the line if you don’t like them.

[Marisawright]

37 minutes ago, rammygirl said:

But you can open a normal account with a normal bank from overseas. A link for NAB was provided earlier and here is one for westpac

https://www.westpac.com.au/faq/set-up-australian-bank-account/

easy enough to change down the line if you don’t like them.

......it's true that it's easy enough to change later, but will he?   It's oh, so easy to keep putting it off.  And we all know that the Big Four banks are the worst value (for most things) in Australia.  Whereas the OP is likely to use the Wise account for money transfers, holidays etc in the future, so it's a useful thing.

[rammygirl]

Depends what you mean for worst value. My Westpac current account has no charges (well I don’t pay any, maybe different if you go overdrawn), my credit card has no fee, I pay it off so no interest. On line banking is excellent and they have stopped fraudulent transactions promptly twice with no loss, although some inconvenience of changing cards. They even rang me last week unprompted to say my saving rate was low and would I like it increased? And didn’t try to sell me anything either!

The credit card provides excellent travel insurance and we even moved our house insurance to them for better cover at a cheaper price (still underwritten by the same company) 

So good value for us. Even if they just open a current account it is handy. We don’t do all our banking with Westpac, we have savings with other banks and a business account elsewhere. 
 

It depends what you want from a bank account really.

[DRCeramics]

Hi Rammygirl. Will definitely open normal account when I can but from what I understand I need to be able to prove Oz address before that account becomes live.  I can’t do this while living in AirB&B

[Marisawright]

13 hours ago, rammygirl said:

Depends what you mean for worst value.

Current accounts are all much of a muchness, though my oh gets cashback with his HSBC account.   It's more about other services like mortgages, loans and insurances.   As you say, you can go elsewhere for those but the laziness factor does kick in for many.

Personally, after seeing the Royal Commission and learning how disgracefully Westpac screwed over their customers, I wouldn't give them my money on principle.

[Parley]

NAB Classic Banking is also free even if not depositing salary.

You can't get much better value than free.

If you want even more and get them to pay you for nothing well good luck.

[Marisawright]

33 minutes ago, Parley said:

NAB Classic Banking is also free even if not depositing salary.

You can't get much better value than free.

If you want even more and get them to pay you for nothing well good luck.

Like I said, I'm not talking value in terms of just your current account.   They're all much the same for the most basic service.  Although ING did give cashback on small purchases for a long time, and HSBC still gives you 2% cashback on Tap and Pay.

I'm talking credit cards, mortgages, loans, insurances, foreign currency, travel, term deposits....working people don't always have time to research all the options every time they want to use a banking service, so they take the easy option and just use the bank they're with.  In fact the Big Four banks bank on that (pardon the pun).   So it's best to choose the right bank upfront and then you're better placed for the long run.

[welljock]

15 hours ago, DRCeramics said:

Hi Rammygirl. Will definitely open normal account when I can but from what I understand I need to be able to prove Oz address before that account becomes live.  I can’t do this while living in AirB&B

That's not how it worked with me, I opened the account while in the UK, then went into the branch on our first day in Aus for the cards, while staying in the temporary accommodation. Account became live immediately. 

The problem with opening the account after you get here is you need the 100points and that's not easy to do for recent immigrants

[calNgary]

We opened an account with the ANZ prior to moving and like welljock above just went into a branch once here to collect the cards and ''activate'' the account, simple, easy and a good bank IMO. Prior to moving we could then transfer funds when the rate was in our favor, you just can't take money out until the account is activated. When doing Relocations for a few years 99% of my customers also did it this way and had no issues at all. 

 Cal x