Guest MarcWilliams Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Hi All, Very new to PIO. Just registered yesterday. Have introduced myself as a newbie on the Welcome threads. Business Sponsored 457 visa submitted last week and been told it takes 4-8 weeks. So looking at mid Sept move out there if all goes well. In the meantime I trying to get my head round all the things I need to do. One of the questions I have is around a couple Direct Debits I have that comes out of my current account. I know one way to deal with it is to pay off the loans before I leave. How did other people deal with it? Have you just kept a UK account going and trasfer money into that every month? Is taht quite costly in terms of trasfer and exchange rate costs? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks, Marc (31) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Hi there, Unless you can pay the loans off the only solution is to keep a UK account open - we left enough money in to make payments for a year and will transfer lump sums covering as many months as we can afford going forward. The best way to do that is use one of the currency traders like HiFX, once you have an account you can do it on-line. Jules Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Quwa Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Hi Marc! In the same boat as you, have DDs for Loans and moving over to Perth in Nov. We are desperatly trying to clear them before we go as earning in $ and paying back in £ will be painful but we shall see how it all goes. Anyway, our friends went with debt and they kept their UK account open and continued the DD as usual but transfered money from the Aus account to UK account, costs them $24 everytime they do a transfer from Aus to UK bank. May be worth getting intouch with Aus banks via email on their websites to see who does the best deals on transfer costs back to UK etc. Hope this helps a little and best of luck with getting your visa and the move Sarah ;o) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MarcWilliams Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Thanks guys! Think I'll leave my UK acc going and just do the transfers from my Aus account. And figure out how I can keep the transfer costs to a minimum - maybe do large lump sum transfers every quarter rather than pay a transfer monthly. A couple of the Oz banks have London offices so think I'll pop into them and speak to them directly to et clued up on the banking system over there. Thanks, Marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andy & Rach Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 Hi All, Very new to PIO. Just registered yesterday. Have introduced myself as a newbie on the Welcome threads. Business Sponsored 457 visa submitted last week and been told it takes 4-8 weeks. So looking at mid Sept move out there if all goes well. In the meantime I trying to get my head round all the things I need to do. One of the questions I have is around a couple Direct Debits I have that comes out of my current account. I know one way to deal with it is to pay off the loans before I leave. How did other people deal with it? Have you just kept a UK account going and trasfer money into that every month? Is taht quite costly in terms of trasfer and exchange rate costs? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks, Marc (31) Hi Marc We used HiFX to send regular payments to Oz from the UK before we left (can also be done the other way). They fixed our rate for 12 months and took the GBP out of our account by direct debit and sent the funds to our Westpac account each month without any fees... Saved us a lot of money compared to using the bank! The only downside is that you have to give them a month up front as a deposit which then pays for month 12 in advance but well worth it. No fees, great rates (especially at the moment for sending money back to the uk, it's well worth fixing it) and the best part is you don't have to remember to do it each month. We deal with Emma at HiFX and she's very helpful, her email is emma.forsdick@hifx.com.au if you want to ask her any questions directly Hope this helps. Andy & Rach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eera Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 I have direct debits linked to my visa card; I don't have to deal with transfer fees and account fees that way, only the exchange rate and the overseas fee which is about $1.50 per transaction. Check out whether you can do it that way as it saves a whole load of hassle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MarcWilliams Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 All good suggestins. Thanks.I'll explore all the possible options. I hadnt considered the credit card option. Eera - is your DD linked to an Aussie based credit card? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eera Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 Yes, I have a Westpac Ignite (used to be Virgin Money until they stopped it). I've had no problems whatsoever and have direct debits for various subscriptions, professional associations and student loan repayments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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