Holiday banking in Oz

[giggly]

Will be in Oz for 10 weeks this spring and was wondering is it posible to open up a bank account for this period, will be in Qld mainly, anyone know? thanks

better off getting a debit visa card with your UK bank account and using that. We did that for a while when we first moved to Aus. Are in QLD and there are lots of banks to choose from - not sure how you could go about getting a temporary one - usually need proof of address and ID so if you are moving about - might be an issue.

Those Aussies are dead weird about letting any old bod opening a bank account you know. DH had to supply his blimmin inside leg measurements and name of his first pet ...
Paranoid lot they are
Agree with eidsvold ... use your debit/credit card from the UK ... use it like a credit card in Aus... much easier.

Really ghosty - things have changed! In 2000 when we went over, DH walked in with another non-Aussie colleague and their passports and they got bank acocunts instantly - well once a phone call had been made to their place of work (using a phone number supplied by them!). I was gobsmacked having spent 10 years working in retail banking in the UK.

Mind you renting a property was even easier. Name, current address (serviced apartment), ?passport and a phone number of someone who will give you a reference. And a month's rent as bond.

Get an account with Nationwide before you go if you are going to use UK account as they don't load the transactions in the same way many banks do.

If you can't get an account with Nationwide before then, check with your bank where it is cheapest to withdraw cash e.g for Barclays the info is given here but it's still expensive - a 2.75% fee plus a fee from Visa . See charges breakdown

very picky now - dh had to show passport, permanent resident's visa, other id and thankfully as I already had accounts with the bank - that was just to open up a joint account.

we walked in with passports 2 weeks ago and have account with ANZ no problem. Passports gave us 100 points.
I don't think you need bother for 10 weeks just use your nationwide credit card for spending and withdraw cash on nationwide debit card, both of which have the best rates , niether of which charge for overseas use. We have done that for the last 2 months and tracked spending online.
Get a nationwide account quick!

We had to do what Eidsvold's dh had too.

We also had to take in marriage cert & dd's birth cert to open an account for her.

There must be some dodgy-looking mumsnetters out there

As I am not in Aus yet, DH couldn't get a joint account .... only when I move there can we put my name down on the account.

ghosty for the first time in my life I didn't have a bank account when we were in Oz. DH opened one and I arrived 3 months later.

I spent the first six weeks threatening to go home again since he had made no effort to find us anywhere to live so we were in a serviced apartment paying an arm and a leg, property seemed to be thin on the ground as it was Christmas/NY and I really wanted a swimming pool!

Anyway as a result we just didn't get roundto putting me on and I used to just get him to get me a wad of cash out on a regular basis. Perhaps that's why I was so relaxed out there- living a cash-only lifestyle instead of juggling finances like I have to over here!

When are you moving btw? It seems ages.

It has been an ongoing saga SueW ... but now we are looking at April, just after Easter. That will have made my time in NZ a nice round 5 years

Sorry had major problems with internet connections,was'nt ignoring everyones's advice. Nationwide seems the best for rates thanks, dh is looking into the travel visa acount card thingy to. Thanks folks.
Evds. you must be nearly due? good luck.

c-section 3 weeks from this Friday and in this heat - can't wait!!