Opening Australia Bank Account from U.K.

[FirstWorldProblems]

Thought I would share my experience in case it was helpful to anyone else. 
 

As a U.K. HSBC customer I was able to set up a HSBC Australia account from the U.K.  I did it online from my phone in 15 mins. 

Very easy to do.  You need a form of ID that you can take a photo of, your employer address and your UTR (UK unique tax reference - this will be on your tax return or tax code document).

Your bank card gets send via the post - I think it took about two weeks to arrive.  You download the HSBC AU app to manage the account but I later found it was possible to link your accounts so you can see them all in one place (it works both ways with the U.K. and the AU app). 

The rate to transfer money was rubbish so I used TransferWise (now called just wise.com) which was much better and instantaneous (surprisingly).  

Am currently in Australia visiting and have been using the bank account for everything.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that I am getting 2% cashback on every transaction. 

I am sure other options are out there and some might be better but as a HSBC customer this was very convenient for me and I would recommend.  

[InnerVoice]

3 hours ago, FirstWorldProblems said:

I was pleasantly surprised to see that I am getting 2% cashback on every transaction. 

I am sure other options are out there and some might be better but as a HSBC customer this was very convenient for me and I would recommend.  

That sounds like a nice little earner. I remember UK banks were always offering people incentives to open a new bank account or switch your old one to them. I had 5 bank accounts at one point, although I'm down to 3 now thanks to those changes in legislation causing a couple of them to boot out overseas customers.

Edited December 29, 2023 by InnerVoice

[Philip]

The HSBC AU 2% cashback is only on contactless ("tap & go") transactions, which need to be $99.99 or less.

You don't get it if you insert the card. Max $50 back on $2500 per month but it's quite difficult to spend that much (under $100 remember) unless you eat out all the time. You also don't get cashback on public transport or government transactions.

It certainly helps when so many merchants add a 1-1.5% card surcharge. I would be using cash for everything if I didn't have this card!

Although some card machines manage to detect it's a local debit card and send the transaction through EFTPOS instead of Visa/MC. This means they don't surcharge (or charge less) even though you've tapped.

Edited December 29, 2023 by Philip

[StevenP]

I have just been invited to apply for my 189 and wondered if it was possible and worth setting up an account. We are travelling in November to look at Schools, areas to live and will be in Perth for 3 weeks. Not sure if their is any benefit on having an account pre travel?

[FirstWorldProblems]

6 hours ago, StevenP said:

I have just been invited to apply for my 189 and wondered if it was possible and worth setting up an account. We are travelling in November to look at Schools, areas to live and will be in Perth for 3 weeks. Not sure if their is any benefit on having an account pre travel?

I think there are a couple of small benefits.  
 

Firstly you can monitor the exchange rate and send money over in advance of your trip when the FX is favourable. 

Using your U.K. bank card in Australia will likely attract a foreign currency fee each time along with a poor exchange rate. You can mitigate this with a Monzo card though

It’s one less thing to do when you arrive - you’re going to have lots and lots going on. Having a bank account already sorted is one less thing to do. 

[InnerVoice]

7 hours ago, StevenP said:

I have just been invited to apply for my 189 and wondered if it was possible and worth setting up an account. We are travelling in November to look at Schools, areas to live and will be in Perth for 3 weeks. Not sure if their is any benefit on having an account pre travel?

Apart from the account that @FirstWorldProblems has described (and there may be others), you aren't going to be able to open an account with most Australian banks without proof of address. If you have friends or family in Perth then maybe you could use their address to set this up when you come over for your visit?

Once you're able to open an account I can highly recommend UBank, who are an online subsidiary of NAB. I've been with them for over 10 years and have my mortgage with them too. The big drawcard is that they pay a very generous interest rate of on your savings (currently 5.1%), just as long as you deposit at least $200/month in your account.

https://www.ubank.com.au/

[Marisawright]

8 hours ago, StevenP said:

I have just been invited to apply for my 189 and wondered if it was possible and worth setting up an account. We are travelling in November to look at Schools, areas to live and will be in Perth for 3 weeks. Not sure if their is any benefit on having an account pre travel?

I'd say no unless you go for the HSBC account that FirstWorldProblems mentioned.  Some Australian banks will let you open an account before you arrive, but you can't actually withdraw money from it it until you've got an address in Australia, so it's not really achieving much.

[calNgary]

We set up an on line account months before we moved with the ANZ. Doing it allowed us to send money over when the exchange rate was good. As someone mentioned earlier, you couldnt withdraw any funds from it until you were here and went into a branch to proove ID etc.

    Cal x

[InnerVoice]

41 minutes ago, calNgary said:

We set up an on line account months before we moved with the ANZ. Doing it allowed us to send money over when the exchange rate was good. As someone mentioned earlier, you couldnt withdraw any funds from it until you were here and went into a branch to proove ID etc.

    Cal x

The exchange rate has been £1 to $1.90 for quite some time and it's just dipped under recently. As the UK has gets inflation under control it will strengthen their economy and we're likely to see a return to the $1.70-1.80 level that was the norm for quite some time. If I had any money over there I'd be sending some over now to take advantage of the strong pound.

[bonanza]

22 hours ago, StevenP said:

I have just been invited to apply for my 189 and wondered if it was possible and worth setting up an account. We are travelling in November to look at Schools, areas to live and will be in Perth for 3 weeks. Not sure if their is any benefit on having an account pre travel?

There is a small HSBC branch within Claremont Quarter shopping mall which you may find helpful. It seems to be set up to  service non residents. I am living in the UK for now and opened up a basic ANZ current account from here using my UK address and can operate it easily in both countries. The ANZ branch in Fremantle is very helpful for the stuff you can't do online. There are minor benefits to having an account in place before you travel in Nov. but the obvious one is that you can be up and running quickly for things like paying for rental deposits etc (and saves you getting hit twice on FX surcharges if you get your deposit returned etc).

[bonanza]

14 hours ago, Marisawright said:

I'd say no unless you go for the HSBC account that FirstWorldProblems mentioned.  Some Australian banks will let you open an account before you arrive, but you can't actually withdraw money from it it until you've got an address in Australia, so it's not really achieving much.

I did open up an account with ANZ from the UK before my first visit to validate my PR visa then validated my account credentials on my 'recce' trip to Perth from the UK. I just had to make an appointment to go into branch (fremantle is helpful and less busy than Perth CBD). I didn't need an address in Australia. The only bottleneck was that (as with an increasing amount  of ID security in Australia), the bank's systems would not accept a non-Australia mobile phone number as ID authentication and since the pandemic Australian banking systems seem to be heading rapidly towards 100% cashless and 100% mobile phone requirement  - with only an Aussie phone number rather than international numbers accepted by their systems. However... there are workarounds, but you need to see the branch personnel in order to get around this then set up your international ie +44 mobile number instead... Anyway, I can confirm this works,  I use my UK address and UK mobile phone for ID and my replacement bank cards arrive at my home in the UK. Everything else is online with no problem.

[InnerVoice]

8 hours ago, bonanza said:

The only bottleneck was that (as with an increasing amount  of ID security in Australia), the bank's systems would not accept a non-Australia mobile phone number as ID authentication and since the pandemic Australian banking systems seem to be heading rapidly towards 100% cashless and 100% mobile phone requirement  - with only an Aussie phone number rather than international numbers accepted by their systems.

You've raised a very good point. Most banks now require 2FA to login in and there's no longer the option to disable it like there was in the old days. I got caught out on one trip to the UK because my Australian mobile service with Amaysim didn't allow international roaming, so I couldn't receive the security PIN via SMS. Fortunately, I still had a UK credit card which I was able to use for most transactions, and enough cash to last for my trip. I've noticed that a number of banks now provide app based authentication, so as long as you have that enabled on your phone it shouldn't be an issue.

[Marisawright]

12 hours ago, bonanza said:

There is a small HSBC branch within Claremont Quarter shopping mall which you may find helpful.

The benefit of the HSBC account is that you don't need to visit the Australian branch to get it set up and fully operational.  You can do the whole thing from the UK and even get your card sent to you.  

[FirstWorldProblems]

5 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

You've raised a very good point. Most banks now require 2FA to login in and there's no longer the option to disable it like there was in the old days.

HSBC AU accepted my U.K. number.   For large transactions they send a one time passcode to it.  This is different from HSBC UK who authenticate large transactions via the app. 

[bonanza]

17 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

You've raised a very good point. Most banks now require 2FA to login in and there's no longer the option to disable it like there was in the old days. I got caught out on one trip to the UK because my Australian mobile service with Amaysim didn't allow international roaming, so I couldn't receive the security PIN via SMS. Fortunately, I still had a UK credit card which I was able to use for most transactions, and enough cash to last for my trip. I've noticed that a number of banks now provide app based authentication, so as long as you have that enabled on your phone it shouldn't be an issue.

2fa is fine with most uk banks offering a combo of desktop, email, sms, tokens and good ole fashioned passwords or memorable data as part of the options for 3fa logins as well as apps. Anz seems to have assumed that the entire customer base wants to use just an app and an Aussie sms. My partner, who used to live in Perth for many years had some problems with anz after moving to the UK because for transferring large sums their sms authentication kept failing but the Anz system wouldn't allow him to change his phone number to a non Aussie one. Hence we always seem to end up visiting the Anz Freo branch at least twice on every visit over from the UK!

[InnerVoice]

10 hours ago, bonanza said:

2fa is fine with most uk banks offering a combo of desktop, email, sms, tokens and good ole fashioned passwords or memorable data as part of the options for 3fa logins as well as apps. Anz seems to have assumed that the entire customer base wants to use just an app and an Aussie sms. My partner, who used to live in Perth for many years had some problems with anz after moving to the UK because for transferring large sums their sms authentication kept failing but the Anz system wouldn't allow him to change his phone number to a non Aussie one. Hence we always seem to end up visiting the Anz Freo branch at least twice on every visit over from the UK!

Despite being almost a boomer I'm quite happy to use an app for most things, especially as they are often quicker and more convenient that the desktop interface. However, it really gets my goat when businesses only give customers an app option. Some apps are well-designed, but others are hard to navigate and the functions that were easy find on the desktop version are often obfuscated. There's also a tendency for organisations to design the app UX in a way which benefits them more than the customer. I gather there's been a backlash against 'app only' and people are switching providers, just as they did a few years ago from companies that had overseas call centres with unintelligible staff.

Edited January 1 by InnerVoice

[Marisawright]

3 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

 There's ...a tendency for organisations to design the app UX in a way which benefits them more than the customer

Exactly. Often the app is more intrusive and has more access to your private information than the web version.  I've never found using apps difficult but I resist them for that reason.

[bonanza]

5 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

Despite being almost a boomer I'm quite happy to use an app for most things, especially as they are often quicker and more convenient that the desktop interface. However, it really gets my goat when businesses only give customers an app option. Some apps are well-designed, but others are hard to navigate and the functions that were easy find on the desktop version are often obfuscated. There's also a tendency for organisations to design the app UX in a way which benefits them more than the customer. I gather there's been a backlash against 'app only' and people are switching providers, just as they did a few years ago from companies that had overseas call centres with unintelligible staff.

Totally agree. We boomers get labelled as 'old people not able to use new tach' which is nonsense. Apps are for the providers' convenience. If you lose your phone, then what?!

[Philip]

On 30/12/2023 at 10:19, FirstWorldProblems said:

Using your U.K. bank card in Australia will likely attract a foreign currency fee each time along with a poor exchange rate. You can mitigate this with a Monzo card though

There are so many UK options to avoid foreign exchange fees I don't know why anyone still pays them. I have cards from Chase, first direct, Halifax, MBNA (not available to new applicants), Nationwide, Santander and Starling, as well as Revolut and Wise. Some of them even give cashback, which cancels out Visa/Mastercard's margin of 0.25-1% over the interbank rate.

 

On 01/01/2024 at 05:09, bonanza said:

2fa is fine with most uk banks offering a combo of desktop, email, sms, tokens and good ole fashioned passwords or memorable data as part of the options for 3fa logins as well as apps. Anz seems to have assumed that the entire customer base wants to use just an app and an Aussie sms. My partner, who used to live in Perth for many years had some problems with anz after moving to the UK because for transferring large sums their sms authentication kept failing but the Anz system wouldn't allow him to change his phone number to a non Aussie one. Hence we always seem to end up visiting the Anz Freo branch at least twice on every visit over from the UK!

On 31/12/2023 at 02:52, bonanza said:

The only bottleneck was that (as with an increasing amount  of ID security in Australia), the bank's systems would not accept a non-Australia mobile phone number as ID authentication and since the pandemic Australian banking systems seem to be heading rapidly towards 100% cashless and 100% mobile phone requirement  - with only an Aussie phone number rather than international numbers accepted by their systems.

I wonder if that's because you need to submit ID (although not always verified) to have an Australian number so they regard it as a bit more "secure"? Australia seems worse than the UK for wanting a phone number for everything.

I have an ANZ account and can log on to the website without 2FA - the website also lets me send up to $5000 (sometimes with 2FA, not always) while the app only lets me send $1000

What I dislike is banks that only let you have the app on one device - and especially those which require the app to log on to the website.

2FA by SMS is also really insecure - I hate that a tiny 100mm² card is necessary to function with so many organisations. I've also had the same email address for 25 years while I've had over 50 different phone numbers and 10 phones.

 

On 31/12/2023 at 11:37, InnerVoice said:

You've raised a very good point. Most banks now require 2FA to login in and there's no longer the option to disable it like there was in the old days. I got caught out on one trip to the UK because my Australian mobile service with Amaysim didn't allow international roaming, so I couldn't receive the security PIN via SMS. Fortunately, I still had a UK credit card which I was able to use for most transactions, and enough cash to last for my trip. I've noticed that a number of banks now provide app based authentication, so as long as you have that enabled on your phone it shouldn't be an issue.

You don't need to allow roaming to receive SMS though? In 2010 I got an amaysim number and it's been able to receive texts for free in the UK, even when it had no money on it (I had to remember to add $10 every year to keep it alive, but if I visited Australia I would use the $10 to buy 1GB of data and then it would be empty).

I also note that Amaysim has a 9GB roaming package for $70 - cheaper than my 1p/MB UK O2 SIM.

[bonanza]

1 hour ago, Philip said:

 

I wonder if that's because you need to submit ID (although not always verified) to have an Australian number so they regard it as a bit more "secure"? Australia seems worse than the UK for wanting a phone number for everything.

I have an ANZ account and can log on to the website without 2FA - the website also lets me send up to $5000 (sometimes with 2FA, not always) while the app only lets me send $1000

I know this is old fashioned but I dislike using apps for financial transactions, preferring the sanctuary of my own laptop and relative privacy of home to make bill payments in a more considered way. Plus as you point out, apps only work as long as you keep the one authenticated device on you. So ANZ were not very accommodating when I said I had no need of an app and moreover didn't use an Aussie sim. 

I was slightly gobsmacked to discover how few hurdles there are to getting into their desktop banking though. 

[LukeGw8921]

On 29/12/2023 at 02:24, FirstWorldProblems said:

Thought I would share my experience in case it was helpful to anyone else. 
 

As a U.K. HSBC customer I was able to set up a HSBC Australia account from the U.K.  I did it online from my phone in 15 mins. 

Very easy to do.  You need a form of ID that you can take a photo of, your employer address and your UTR (UK unique tax reference - this will be on your tax return or tax code document).

Your bank card gets send via the post - I think it took about two weeks to arrive.  You download the HSBC AU app to manage the account but I later found it was possible to link your accounts so you can see them all in one place (it works both ways with the U.K. and the AU app). 

The rate to transfer money was rubbish so I used TransferWise (now called just wise.com) which was much better and instantaneous (surprisingly).  

Am currently in Australia visiting and have been using the bank account for everything.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that I am getting 2% cashback on every transaction. 

I am sure other options are out there and some might be better but as a HSBC customer this was very convenient for me and I would recommend.  

Stupid question here. But I’m looking to transfer money as well. I have set up an account with Wise. Now is it best to transfer from my hsbc bank account to my wise AUD account or gbp wise account ? And then from there to a Australian bank account.

[Marisawright]

4 hours ago, LukeGw8921 said:

Stupid question here. But I’m looking to transfer money as well. I have set up an account with Wise. Now is it best to transfer from my hsbc bank account to my wise AUD account or gbp wise account ? And then from there to a Australian bank account.

You pay the money from the HSBC account into the Wise account in pounds sterling. That way you don't pay HSBC anything for currency exchange.  Then you get Wise to convert it to AUD.