The Brand New PIO Parents Visa thread

[Guest]

Just changed money for the visa, Yes, at long last committed to go, for those that have followed our woes. Of course changed when it hiccupped last night then went up another 2c today. Still a lot better than the 1.48 it has been at recently. Biggest problem encountered was trying to get money to Ozforex. Over internet limit, over telephone banking limit, transfer in branch only possible by chaps at a charge of £24. :arghh:. Will look carefully at other ways of paying ozforex.

Never mind nearly there.

:jiggy:

first time we paid with ukforex was for the bond...our bank rang the next day and queried the amount. When we paid the visa I rang Santander before we did it and it just went through no queries.

[Guest]

first time we paid with ukforex was for the bond...our bank rang the next day and queried the amount. When we paid the visa I rang Santander before we did it and it just went through no queries.

 

Hi

Yes, Did all that and expected a call from fraud department next day checking validity but no just blank refusal to process. :cry:I am going to look into account at Barclays.:eek:

[Les Avalook]

Just changed money for the visa, Yes, at long last committed to go, for those that have followed our woes. Of course changed when it hiccupped last night then went up another 2c today. Still a lot better than the 1.48 it has been at recently. Biggest problem encountered was trying to get money to Ozforex. Over internet limit, over telephone banking limit, transfer in branch only possible by chaps at a charge of £24. :arghh:. Will look carefully at other ways of paying ozforex.

Never mind nearly there.

:jiggy:

I know each bank is different but Nationwide has a online limit of £10,000 per transaction so if I need to transfer £25,000 to UKForex I have to do 2x £10,000 plus £5,000 all one after the other as long as there are cleared funds in the account.

 

It then takes 3 days to crawl to UKForex in the UK and about 24 hours to fly right around the world and end up as cleared $s in our son's Commonwealth bank account.

 

No charges for either of us.

 

The wonders of the UK banking system. :wacko:

[Guest]

I now each bank is different but Nationwide has a online limit of £10,000 per transaction so if I need to transfer £25,000 to UKForex I have to do 2x £10,000 plus £5,000 all one after the other as long as there are cleared funds in the account.

 

It then takes 3 days to crawl to UKForex in the UK and about 24 hours to fly right around the world and end up as cleared $s in our son's Commonwealth bank account.

 

No charges for either of us.

 

The wonders of the UK banking system. :wacko:

 

Hi Les

Yorkshire Bank have a limit of £5000 per day on internet, but you can do it via telephone banking and just keep ringing in until you have moved enough. Stupid really:v_SPIN:

[Guest]

Hi

Yes, Did all that and expected a call from fraud department next day checking validity but no just blank refusal to process. :cry:I am going to look into account at Barclays.:eek:

sorry you had such trouble....it's never easy is it !

[Guest]

sorry you had such trouble....it's never easy is it !

just a point....Santander had an on line esaver ( you have to have an acct with them ) and at one time they were giving 5% interest for the 1st year. It makes up a little bit for the drop in the dollar/pound. I DO NOT have any shares in Santander and they can be a pain sometimes but in this instance they came up trumps.

 

I also have an esaver in ANZ (Oz branch )which gives a lot of interest as well....if only I had any money left in it !!

[Guest]

just a point....Santander had an on line esaver ( you have to have an acct with them ) and at one time they were giving 5% interest for the 1st year. It makes up a little bit for the drop in the dollar/pound. I DO NOT have any shares in Santander and they can be a pain sometimes but in this instance they came up trumps.

 

I also have an esaver in ANZ (Oz branch )which gives a lot of interest as well....if only I had any money left in it !!

 

Got an ISA with Santander (I call them abbey and vowed 30 years ago never to bank with them again but that is another story) that started with Bradford and Bingley. The only allow payment out to my own account and then onto other accounts. They keep telling me all this technology makes things easier and faster.:skeptical: I think really it is just another way of the banks:Randy-git: us. I have seen the news tonight, think I am going to find out how to lend money to spain or italy. It is reported they are paying about 6.2% interest!!!!:mad:

[charlie5]

We used UKForex to transfer the money for our visa a couple of weeks ago. They gave us a better rate than moneycorp.

 

If you phone them and tell them you will be transferring lots of money over a period of time. i.e.bond payment, visa payment, money from sale of house, pensions etc. they will give you a better rate.

Transfers over 3k do not incur charges. Hope that helps

I use HIFX online and have both UK & Aus accounts to give me a wide operating window. You can operate by telephone but I prefer to do online.

 

Charlie:jiggy:

[sandch]

Would it be possible to send them a message automatically after x months of inactivity to ward them that they will be struck off unless they let youy know, Steve?

e.g. at present. x = 13 months after acknowledgement say?

A simpler solution might be to include another date field on the document, where users can enter the date they last looked at the tracker. You could then delete them altogether if > x months'

John

 

Thanks John

 

Yes, these are good suggestions - only problem is my sql / php programming is basic at best and it would take me ages to do get it right! Also I could only detect when they last looked at the tracker if they actually logged in.

 

I'll try the dumb approach, but make sure everyone has plenty of leeway. It's about a year to CO at the moment - I could set that at 18 months. And after CO another 4 months perhaps?

 

I keep hoping someone will offer to take over the programming!

 

Cheers

 

Steve

[sandch]

Is anyone else watching the exchange rate, I have not sold my house yet but have a small amount of savings to send over to Oz and don't know whether to send some now or wait to see if the rate keeps climbing. What is it going to do and why is it rising :confused:

David

 

Global Financial Crisis II.

 

:shocked:

[sandch]

Sorry i am boring you ...i wont bother in future....

 

Keep 'em coming chudleighval - all useful stuff!

 

You should be able to get around 1.54 at the moment, but it'll be interesting to see what happens when the European markets open tomorrow. When we got here last November / December we were moving money at around 1.6 which we thought was awful. The rate has some way to go before it reaches the heady heights of awful and improves to just very bad.

[charlie5]

Thanks John

 

 

 

I keep hoping someone will offer to take over the programming!

 

Cheers

 

Steve

I think we would be hard pressed to find someone who could offer a more efficient, friendly and free service.

 

Keep up the brilliant work, you are a star.

 

Charlie

:biggrin:

[sandch]

I think we would be hard pressed to find someone who could offer a more efficient, friendly and free service.

 

Keep up the brilliant work, you are a star.

 

Charlie

:biggrin:

 

Ah flattery. Works every time!

 

Thank you Charlie and I hope you are edging your way comfortably towards citizenship.

 

Cheers

 

Steve

[Linday]

Is anyone else watching the exchange rate, I have not sold my house yet but have a small amount of savings to send over to Oz and don't know whether to send some now or wait to see if the rate keeps climbing. What is it going to do and why is it rising :confused:

David

 

We came over to Oz in June after selling our house and leaving our money in the UK. Hubby is driving me mad checking the exchange rate 10 times a day. Just after we left it nosedived to the lowest it had been for years! Also wanting to get his pension over, but been advised not to at the moment with the dire rate.

[Les Avalook]

I think we would be hard pressed to find someone who could offer a more efficient, friendly and free service.

 

Keep up the brilliant work, you are a star.

 

Charlie

:biggrin:

 

Free???

 

I want my money back. :twitcy:

[sandch]

Free???

 

I want my money back. :twitcy:

 

Now see what you did Charlie? It was sensibly invested Les, in the Australian stock market. Oh hang on... Nah. All gone.

 

It's nice to see the dollar falling at last isn't it? And all it really needed was a truly global loss of confidence, the melt-down of the financial systems of leading economies, and the end of capitalism as we know it. Giving us a much more reasonable 1.55 to the pound.

 

:skeptical:

[jtct]

After the poor rate of recent weeks anything over 1.55 is a bonus as far as we're concerned as we worked out our budget on 1.50-1.51. Unfortunately our money is tied up in the house and until we can complete we can't send a cent over! Who knows what it will be in a few weeks time when we finally have it in our grubby little mitts!.

[fiz]

Hindsight is wonderful isn't it?! Bought some dollars on tuesday at 1.50 as i was so pleased to see something better than the 1.45 of a couple of weeks ago

 

Bought some more on Wednesday with the proceeds of my car, thinking that a rate of 1.52 couldn't last.....

 

Now if I waited until today......

 

Still, just happy that I didn't have to change at 1.45 which was one of my 3am worries ....

 

I use ukforex as their rates seem the best and i like the simplicity of just going online at any time. Dailyfx are predicting that the rate will continue to improve. However they were predicting the opposite yesterday so who knows!!

[Durhamlad]

I know each bank is different but Nationwide has a online limit of £10,000 per transaction so if I need to transfer £25,000 to UKForex I have to do 2x £10,000 plus £5,000 all one after the other as long as there are cleared funds in the account.

 

It then takes 3 days to crawl to UKForex in the UK and about 24 hours to fly right around the world and end up as cleared $s in our son's Commonwealth bank account.

 

No charges for either of us.

 

The wonders of the UK banking system. :wacko:

Hi Les

I am with Nationwide as well and I know about the limit but not sure how to transfer the money to UKforex. Do you send it by Chaps and have to go to a Nationwide branch or are you able to do it on line from home.

I am waiting to see when the rate stops rising and hope to catch it at its peak then transfer some money across.

What happens over the weekend does the rate stay fixed until the beginning of next week?

David

[fiz]

Hi Les

I am with Nationwide as well and I know about the limit but not sure how to transfer the money to UKforex. Do you send it by Chaps and have to go to a Nationwide branch or are you able to do it on line from home.

I am waiting to see when the rate stops rising and hope to catch it at its peak then transfer some money across.

What happens over the weekend does the rate stay fixed until the beginning of next week?

David

 

I think it does but ukforex trading hours are a helpful guide as they seem to reflect global currency market opening hours-they`re on their website

 

On an unrelated matter, why does my car insurer think its reasonable to ask me to pay them to cancel my policy? Think i might fight this one!

[Les Avalook]

Hi Les

I am with Nationwide as well and I know about the limit but not sure how to transfer the money to UKforex. Do you send it by Chaps and have to go to a Nationwide branch or are you able to do it on line from home.

I am waiting to see when the rate stops rising and hope to catch it at its peak then transfer some money across.

What happens over the weekend does the rate stay fixed until the beginning of next week?

David

 

Hi David,

 

I send it by BACs online from home at no charge.

 

Nationwide has an individual online transaction transfer of £10,000 so if you want to send £12,000 you send £10,000 and then £2,000 to UKForex's account held at Barclays Moorgate one after the other using your Nationwide key pad each time to confirm the payment.

 

You have to set up your Nationwide account to pay the UKForex Barclays account with their sort code, account number and your client reference.

 

You will find it very difficult to trade over the weekend, but you can trade up to about 10pm tonight and from 10pm Sunday night.

 

Other Forex companies may trade at the weekend but often set a poor rate as the trading rooms are shut.

 

Best of luck with your trade.

 

:wubclub:

[Les Avalook]

On an unrelated matter, why does my car insurer think its reasonable to ask me to pay them to cancel my policy? Think i might fight this one!

 

Best of luck with that.

 

They say if you do not insure for the year the monthly rate which would be used is higher than the annual rate, plus they love to add their admin charge.

 

I have always bought car insurance via Topcashback and have just been paid £60 cash-back for using Hastings Direct which had the cheapest policy anyway so if their charge is to high to bother with cancelling early I wont feel to Peed about it.

[Guest]

Hi

Uk (Oz) forex trade via offices in Sydney, London and New York??. They trade from first office open on Monday to last office to close on a Friday. You will get transferred to the office that is open when you call. I rang to change to my daughters account at 11.00 at night and spoke with a nice guy in Melbourne. Good service.

regards

[ariomart]

Hi out there

I have been following the posts about money with interest. Do some people get their money over to Oz via UKForex and then pay the visa from an Oz account. I am thinking that allows you get it over when the exchange rate is good! ha ha Although I remember that Aus Immi has a set rate for the year so it would go at that rate and my bank charged me 25gpb for putting some money in d-i-l's account. This is all new to me so I am thinking out loud here. If the money is in an Oz account do you just send a cheque for the big amount at the end? My money is in ISAs getting 2.something at the moment. I am going over to Oz for christmas and will open a bank account when over there. Would be glad of any suggestions about different banks

thanks for a great site.

I miss Sirmat

Moira

[Guest]

Hi out there

I have been following the posts about money with interest. Do some people get their money over to Oz via UKForex and then pay the visa from an Oz account. I am thinking that allows you get it over when the exchange rate is good! ha ha Although I remember that Aus Immi has a set rate for the year so it would go at that rate and my bank charged me 25gpb for putting some money in d-i-l's account. This is all new to me so I am thinking out loud here. If the money is in an Oz account do you just send a cheque for the big amount at the end? My money is in ISAs getting 2.something at the moment. I am going over to Oz for christmas and will open a bank account when over there. Would be glad of any suggestions about different banks

thanks for a great site.

I miss Sirmat

Moira

 

Hi Moira

You can open an Oz bank account at any time. Apply online or pick one and email contact centre, they will all help you do it. You can then transfer money into it at any time (more on that later), but you cannot remove money until you have been to Oz to verify the account. When you do, get the bank to set up an investment account which will pay interest so you will transfer money to your savings account and then to the investment account so you get interest till you move it back to savings to withdraw via your bank card etc. That how mine works at NAB, other banks may vary slightly.

When I transfer money, I do a deal with Ozforex, (thats who I use), transfer the money to their bank account in london, and they put the money into the account I specify in Australia. As the meerkat says "simple". I say nearly.

regards