charlie5 Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I checked back and see that we paid $63k for the 143s back in '09. As for the sterling cost, it's now scary. Cheers Steve I also just looked back at our payment in 2009. Unbelievably, our $63k cost us £26k at a rate of 2.415. I wish I was drawing my pension at this rate now! Charlie:arghh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Avalook Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 I also just looked back at our payment in 2009. Unbelievably, our $63k cost us £26k at a rate of 2.415. Charlie:arghh: Yes it does seem unbelievable, did you book that rate in October 2008? Looking back at my transfers for all of 2009 the best rate I ever got was $2.23 in January and February 2009 before the long slide below $2 (which it has never hit again) ending the year at $1.76. You must of been very very lucky to have got $2.415. :yes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie5 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Yes it does seem unbelievable, did you book that rate in October 2008? Looking back at my transfers for all of 2009 the best rate I ever got was $2.23 in January and February 2009 before the long slide below $2 (which it has never hit again) ending the year at $1.76. You must of been very very lucky to have got $2.415. :yes: Hi Les Yes I booked that rate at some time earlier - cannot remember when but one of the better things I did. Charlie:biggrin: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikenSueNW3 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 I also just looked back at our payment in 2009. Unbelievably, our $63k cost us £26k at a rate of 2.415. I wish I was drawing my pension at this rate now! Charlie:arghh: G'Day Many thanks to all for their good wishes. Yes, the exch rate is scary. When we bought our small pad in Sydney, we moved the money at an average of $2.42. Even better (do as I say, not as I do!...), our daughter and SIL, on our advice to "seize the moment", transferred the profit on the sale of their London flat at a rate of $2.47 a few years ago. What's more, they still haven't yet bought in Sydney, so that pot is earning just over 6%! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandch Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 I also just looked back at our payment in 2009. Unbelievably, our $63k cost us £26k at a rate of 2.415. I wish I was drawing my pension at this rate now! Charlie We were a bit later and despite hitting 2.53 for a couple of transfers in the heady 'meltdown' days, averaged 2.2 for the lot in the end. Hindsight. A wonderful if slightly useless thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Avalook Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 We were a bit later and despite hitting 2.53 for a couple of transfers in the heady 'meltdown' days, averaged 2.2 for the lot in the end. Hindsight. A wonderful if slightly useless thing. ......and we are only talking about 2 vac payments, it's house buying money where the real pain will be. :cry: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie5 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 ......and we are only talking about 2 vac payments, it's house buying money where the real pain will be. :cry: Yes, our house buying money was transferred at 1.65. Not what we expected when we embarked on his project! Charlie :frown: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMavis Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 ......and we are only talking about 2 vac payments, it's house buying money where the real pain will be. :cry: We are letting the kids buy the house and renting it back from them at a reduced rate which means we dont have to suffer the bad rate at the moment,however dont think it will ever get back to 2.4 which it was when we started planning this. cheers mike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vava Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 What's more, they still haven't yet bought in Sydney, so that pot is earning just over 6%! Hi MikenSue, Just had a thought about interest rates in Oz rather than the UK after reading your post. Do you happen to know what kind of account earns 6% and would we be better off putting our VAC funds in an account there? After all, thats where its ultimately bound for anyway. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw 6%. Our pot for the visa has only earned £82 in a year! Hope you can help! Cheers, Val Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikenSueNW3 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 What's more, they still haven't yet bought in Sydney, so that pot is earning just over 6%! Hi MikenSue, Just had a thought about interest rates in Oz rather than the UK after reading your post. Do you happen to know what kind of account earns 6% and would we be better off putting our VAC funds in an account there? After all, thats where its ultimately bound for anyway. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw 6%. Our pot for the visa has only earned £82 in a year! Hope you can help! Cheers, Val G'Day Val Our own online savings account is with St George (now part of Westpac), and although we get "only" 4.75%, they have a six-month introductory rate (for new money) of 6%. Our kids' account is with BankWest, and their intro savings rate is I think 6.1%, again for six months. There are two snags, however, to sending your money over there now: (1) You are in effect betting that the exchange rate against sterling won't improve (from the sterling point of view) in the meantime; only a few notches up can negate the interest-rate advantage. (2) You probably (not certain) need to put in a personal appearance over there to open an account; we did so several years ago, as somewhere to store the income from our Sydney pad, which we let out when we are not there. Good luck, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vava Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 G'Day Val Our own online savings account is with St George (now part of Westpac), and although we get "only" 4.75%, they have a six-month introductory rate (for new money) of 6%. Our kids' account is with BankWest, and their intro savings rate is I think 6.1%, again for six months. There are two snags, however, to sending your money over there now: (1) You are in effect betting that the exchange rate against sterling won't improve (from the sterling point of view) in the meantime; only a few notches up can negate the interest-rate advantage. (2) You probably (not certain) need to put in a personal appearance over there to open an account; we did so several years ago, as somewhere to store the income from our Sydney pad, which we let out when we are not there. Good luck, Mike Thanks for that Mike. We already have a current account with ANZ but dont get any interest. Its only for when we go for holidays. I will look into the other banks you suggested. Maybe my daughter can do the ground work for me (although she would probably want the funds in her offset mortgage account!). Seems the case officers are on a go slow again - its been a year for us already! Regards, Val Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMavis Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 :embarrassed: G'Day Val Our own online savings account is with St George (now part of Westpac), and although we get "only" 4.75%, they have a six-month introductory rate (for new money) of 6%. Our kids' account is with BankWest, and their intro savings rate is I think 6.1%, again for six months. There are two snags, however, to sending your money over there now: (1) You are in effect betting that the exchange rate against sterling won't improve (from the sterling point of view) in the meantime; only a few notches up can negate the interest-rate advantage. (2) You probably (not certain) need to put in a personal appearance over there to open an account; we did so several years ago, as somewhere to store the income from our Sydney pad, which we let out when we are not there. Good luck, Mike You can open a Oz bank acccount from the UK you have to be there to validate it and withdraw money you cant transfer cash straight to the DIAC. Just wondering how you could own a property in Sydney as British citizens ?? cheers Mike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Avalook Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 G'Day Val Our own online savings account is with St George (now part of Westpac), and although we get "only" 4.75%, they have a six-month introductory rate (for new money) of 6%. Our kids' account is with BankWest, and their intro savings rate is I think 6.1%, again for six months. There are two snags, however, to sending your money over there now: (1) You are in effect betting that the exchange rate against sterling won't improve (from the sterling point of view) in the meantime; only a few notches up can negate the interest-rate advantage. (2) You probably (not certain) need to put in a personal appearance over there to open an account; we did so several years ago, as somewhere to store the income from our Sydney pad, which we let out when we are not there. Good luck, Mike Another option: We started sending money (not large but regular amounts) over to our son's account when we started out, we decided that if we did not get the visa then we would still use up the money on holidays to Oz. (:idea: He put our money in an off-set mortgage account so that helped him when he was starting out.) When the time came to pay the 2nd Vac we had to add about $20000 at the then current rate of $1.55 which happen to be the worst rate we have exchanged at to date. When it bounced back into the $1.60s we sent some more out and that is in his off-set account waiting our finial move out to Oz, we haven't sent any more since the rate dropped to it's current level. With Commonwealth bank he had to pay $25 to get the money out of his off-set account but nothing to send the bank cheque to Perth. We have not opened a bank account in Oz in our name and have made all payments from his bank account without any problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vava Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 :embarrassed: You can open a Oz bank acccount from the UK you have to be there to validate it and withdraw money you cant transfer cash straight to the DIAC. Just wondering how you could own a property in Sydney as British citizens ?? cheers Mike. Hi again Mike, We dont own any property in Oz - our daughter and her husband do. She`s a bit cheeky and would certainly suggest "looking after" it for us in her offset mortgage account if she had the chance but that wont earn ME any interest would it!! Kids eh!! We`ll be there again for Christmas so can do the personal appearance at the bank then. We are also hoping that this will be our validation trip if DIAC would only get their fingers out!! Regards, Val Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cakey Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Well at last we have our visa! Go Matilda phoned yesterday to tell us the good news. We sent our passports off straight away to get them authorised. Doree Bonner are here at the moment packing everything into the container (be really glad to see the back of all the boxes). We complete on the house sale next Friday and fly to the Gold Coast next Sunday! I can't believe we're almost there. Can anyone advise me, would it be better to leave the bulk of my house money here till hopefully, the exchange rate picks up, or move it all stragiht across to the Commonwealth bank where I believe the interest rate is around 6 per cent. Thank you Cheers Cakey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clubby67 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Well at last we have our visa! Go Matilda phoned yesterday to tell us the good news. We sent our passports off straight away to get them authorised. Doree Bonner are here at the moment packing everything into the container (be really glad to see the back of all the boxes). We complete on the house sale next Friday and fly to the Gold Coast next Sunday! I can't believe we're almost there. Can anyone advise me, would it be better to leave the bulk of my house money here till hopefully, the exchange rate picks up, or move it all stragiht across to the Commonwealth bank where I believe the interest rate is around 6 per cent. Thank you Cheers Cakey Congratulations thats great news, we arrived in the Gold Coast last Wednesday, still trying to find a house to rent, seen a few places so fingers crossed it wont be long till we get out from under my Son's feet. Good luck to you, maybe we could meet up when you are settled. Wilma x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vava Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Well at last we have our visa! Go Matilda phoned yesterday to tell us the good news. We sent our passports off straight away to get them authorised. Doree Bonner are here at the moment packing everything into the container (be really glad to see the back of all the boxes). We complete on the house sale next Friday and fly to the Gold Coast next Sunday! I can't believe we're almost there. Can anyone advise me, would it be better to leave the bulk of my house money here till hopefully, the exchange rate picks up, or move it all stragiht across to the Commonwealth bank where I believe the interest rate is around 6 per cent. Thank you Cheers Cakey Well done for getting this far Cakey and good luck with the trip too. Our £50,000 visa money has been in a (supposedly) high interest bond for a year now and has only made £82! If you can get 6% in Oz I would go for it. I dont think UK interest rates will be going up anytime soon. My bank charge £25 whether you send £100 or £100,000 so I think I will be sending mine over there asap! Give my love to the Goldy when you get there! Cheers, Val Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMavis Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Hi again Mike,We dont own any property in Oz - our daughter and her husband do. She`s a bit cheeky and would certainly suggest "looking after" it for us in her offset mortgage account if she had the chance but that wont earn ME any interest would it!! Kids eh!! We`ll be there again for Christmas so can do the personal appearance at the bank then. We are also hoping that this will be our validation trip if DIAC would only get their fingers out!! Regards, Val Hi the question was for mikesuenw3 not yourselves. cheers mike.:embarrassed: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vava Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Hi the question was for mikesuenw3 not yourselves.cheers mike.:embarrassed: Ooops! Sorry................should read things more thoroughly before replying. Having trouble concentrating as our little Aussie granddaughter (and daughter) have just told me they are coming for a visit in a month and its sent me into a flap! Cheers! Val Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMavis Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Ooops! Sorry................should read things more thoroughly before replying. Having trouble concentrating as our little Aussie granddaughter (and daughter) have just told me they are coming for a visit in a month and its sent me into a flap!Cheers! Val be better if you were going the other way,cheers Mike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikenSueNW3 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Just wondering how you could own a property in Sydney as British citizens ?? cheers Mike. G'Day We had to be mindful of the FIRB (Foreign Investment Review Board) rules, and bought a brand-new flat off-plan. A bit of a risk, but in fact we know well someone high up in the development company, and as a result got a slight discount for bypassing the agents.:wink: It all happened after we downsized here in London – all part of The Plan! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Avalook Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Well done for getting this far Cakey and good luck with the trip too. Our £50,000 visa money has been in a (supposedly) high interest bond for a year now and has only made £82! If you can get 6% in Oz I would go for it. I dont think UK interest rates will be going up anytime soon. My bank charge £25 whether you send £100 or £100,000 so I think I will be sending mine over there asap!Give my love to the Goldy when you get there! Cheers, Val Hi Val, Something very wrong with your bond, £82 net is about 0.025% when it is easy to get 2.75% with instant access. (Northern Rock, Birmingham Mid-shires, Nationwide etc). Unless you feel safer using your bank for transfers most on here use a UKForex, HiFix or Moneycorp (to name a few) money broker to arrange transfers. It is not only the fee that you need to look at when you transfer but what rate you are given also. Banks do not give the best rate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikenSueNW3 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Well at last we have our visa! Go Matilda phoned yesterday to tell us the good news. We sent our passports off straight away to get them authorised. Doree Bonner are here at the moment packing everything into the container (be really glad to see the back of all the boxes). We complete on the house sale next Friday and fly to the Gold Coast next Sunday! I can't believe we're almost there. Can anyone advise me, would it be better to leave the bulk of my house money here till hopefully, the exchange rate picks up, or move it all stragiht across to the Commonwealth bank where I believe the interest rate is around 6 per cent. Thank you Cheers Cakey Cheers to you! We'll hopefully be hot on your heels! Mike & Sue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhoebeW Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Another option: We started sending money (not large but regular amounts) over to our son's account when we started out, we decided that if we did not get the visa then we would still use up the money on holidays to Oz. (:idea: He put our money in an off-set mortgage account so that helped him when he was starting out.) When the time came to pay the 2nd Vac we had to add about $20000 at the then current rate of $1.55 which happen to be the worst rate we have exchanged at to date. When it bounced back into the $1.60s we sent some more out and that is in his off-set account waiting our finial move out to Oz, we haven't sent any more since the rate dropped to it's current level. With Commonwealth bank he had to pay $25 to get the money out of his off-set account but nothing to send the bank cheque to Perth. We have not opened a bank account in Oz in our name and have made all payments from his bank account without any problems. My daughter opened a bank account for us is Oz with UBank interest is 6%/6.5%. We put some money into it while we were over there and intend to put some in when/if the interest rate ever goes up :swoon: Things are not right for us just now. The position we are in ATM we cannot have the 143 but hopefully in the future we will need AoS money etc if not it will always do for holidays. :biggrin: The only drawback for this account is you have to have an Oz address so it is soley in my daughters name. Thankfully I can trust my daughter 110% :yes: so know the money is safe Phoebe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Avalook Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Can anyone advise me, would it be better to leave the bulk of my house money here till hopefully, the exchange rate picks up, or move it all stragiht across to the Commonwealth bank where I believe the interest rate is around 6 per cent. Thank you Cheers Cakey 64,000 dollar question. Do you exchange now at record low rate of exchange and get 6% interest or do you leave it here and get <3%> interest and hope the exchange rate improves by 3 cents? Tough call. P.S. my 88 year aunt, who lives in Melbourne and is as bright as a pin, tells me to get everything over to Oz asap as the UK is still going down the pan. :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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