# Personal Banking



## Funkhouser (Aug 13, 2010)

Hi

I'm looking to relocate to Aus from the UK, but will still have some liabilities in the UK, (mortgage, loan etc.)

I assume the best thing for me to do would be to open an Aus bank account and transfer money to my UK account every month to cover the payments?

Seems quite straightforward on the face of it, but I wondered if there were any pitfalls I should be aware of e.g. will I get shafted with charges etc. every month? will I get a decent exchange rate doing this?

Thanks


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## Wanderer (Jun 16, 2007)

Funkhouser said:


> Hi
> 
> I'm looking to relocate to Aus from the UK, but will still have some liabilities in the UK, (mortgage, loan etc.)
> 
> ...


Aussie banks have fees and they can vary depending on what type of account you opt for and depending on balances you have and business you provide for the bank and so it'll pay to shop around with the different banks, ANZ, Commonwealth, National and Westpac being known as the big four but there are others like Bendigo or HSFC.
Whichever bank you go for there'll be a separate fee for an international transaction and they can be quite hefty at about $30 when I last did one a few years ago and I also had to allow $10/15 for the receiving bank fee and that is regardless of ammount involved.
I would have a talk to your existing mortgage bank and see if they have an affiliated bank out here or if they can otherwise set up something for you, like perhaps paying with a credit card as they work internationally with a fee of about 2-3%, but that could be about the same or higher than doing a trade depending on ammounts each time.
I do that for some payments in New Zealand but not to a bank.
If not you'll just have to wear the international transfer cost and if you can afford to have the money in larger sums sitting in an account the mortgage will be drawn from, I'd reckon that'd be the way to go and perhaps that account can be a higher interest earning account.
You'll need to get for your UK account what is called a Swift Code or IBN, their international ID in addition to having the account details to do a transfer and some banks in Australia will have provision for you to do it online and maybe save yourself a few $$$.
Dragolith on http://www.australiaforum.com/travel-questions/5189-customs.html mentions http://www.moneycorp.com/australia/Moving-overseas/ as recommended by the National Bank but nobody, banks included does too much for free and so you would want to check out what their exchange rate was on any given day compared to a banks to see if there is an extra margin involved.
I couldn't see on their site what fees might be involved.
But with exchange rates, you'd usually find that banks are pretty much uniform and the rate will be whatever the market determines from day to day.


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## Funkhouser (Aug 13, 2010)

Thanks for your replies Wanderer, much appreciated


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## ashleywatson (Aug 20, 2010)

Yes, you can open an Aussie bank account and transfer money to my UK account every month to cover the payments.But with exchange rates, you'd usually find that banks are pretty much uniform and the rate will be whatever the market determines from day to day.


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