11.1 Travel in Australia: Money
Description
This article is from the soc.culture.australian FAQ, by Stephen Wales with numerous contributions by others.
11.1 Travel in Australia: Money
* transferring Money Australia <-> UK
Banks will accept sterling cheques, they just take longer to clear (2
weeks). [Cost? AN]
[JC] To open any bank account you must prove your identity to a total
of 100 points, over a number of items e.g. passport 40?, driver's
licence (I do not know whether a UK licence is sufficient*), rent
notice, etc.
*You should be able to get an Australian licence with a valid UK
licence plus a road rules test + money.
All of the 'big four' banks i.e. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA),
National Australia (NAB), ANZ and Westpac have a nationwide branch
network, with very wide ATM access. You can use Commonwealth and
Westpac cards at the other's ATMs. Similarly for NAB and ANZ. There
are a number of smaller regional banks e.g. Advance, St George, which
have linkages to nationwide ATM networks.
Transferring money UK <-> OZ should not be a serious problem. However,
ensure that you give very clear instructions as to where you want the
money placed. I have tried transferring money to UK via telegraphic
transfer (where the UK bank charged to deposit it.), and by taking a
banker's draft in the currency of the destination country. The latter
path works if you have taken sufficient cash (always more than your
estimate!) to survive until you can open an account and have the draft
credited to it. If you want to make smaller, regular transfers
telegraphic transfer may be more relevant.
The Commonwealth Bank announced recently that they will support CIRRUS
both ways i.e for overseas travellers and for Australians overseas.
We got into a money hole in UK, and get close to making withdrawals
from our Australian account, even though we thought we had
sufficient cash for the initial cost 'hump'. CIRRUS offers a useful
backup.
There are low bank charges for business accounts. Most of the 'big
four' will charge heavily for operating a cheque i.e. current account
but will give interest on savings accounts which can be linked to the
cheque account at the ATMs. All of the 'big four' have branches in
London.
[JS] The easiest way to transfer money between Australia and any other
country is to deposit it into a credit card, and withdraw it on the
other end. There's no fee, and the exchange rate is as good as you'll
get most places. Check with your credit card agency to make sure this
will be OK, just in case.
[SW] My brother did just this for a holiday to the US. Dumped money
on the credit card to give him a 'positive' balance and spent it in
the US by charging.
Regarding banks, in my experience Australia's banks are far more
user-friendly than UK banks. The last time I used UK banks was eight
years ago; they may have changed. Due to the mergers and interbank
links there's not much to choose from between them, and all have ATM
access and branches across Australia. I recommend choosing one that
has a convenient branch in the UK; that's the biggest factor that is
likely to affect you.
[MJ] I also received generally rotten service from Westpac over the
years. The quality of this was about on a par with the (also lousy)
service my parents received from the Commonwealth. At least, this was
what I thought until I came to Britain. The level of incompetence and
rudeness, the patronising attitude of the employees, and a failure to
come to grips with technology that I have seen banking with Barclay's
over here have astonished me.
One general comment about banking in Australia. As a consequence of
deregulation in the 1980s, Australia now has many smaller and younger
banks in addition to the big four and the state banks. Many of these
are former building societies that have turned into banks. Generally,
these provide service of higher quality than do the larger and older
banks. (For instance, friends of mine who bank with the Advance Bank
and St George Bank (both in NSW) have told me very good things about
them). Their disadvantage is that being smaller, their branch networks
are not nearly as large (usually being concentrated in one
state/geographical area). On the other hand, most financial
institutions (smaller banks, building societies, credit unions) in
Australia other than the large banks have pooled their ATMs together
to form a single network comparable in size to those of the larger
banks. Thus, at least from the point of view of basic access to your
money, the lack of branches is not that big a disadvantage.
[TT] Deposting to your credit card before arriving in Australia and
then using your card for purchases and cash advances is really the
best way to go. Someone said that the exchange rate is as good as
you get in a bank, but my understanding is that is it better, as they
give you the wholesale exchange rate rather than the retail you get in
banks.
However, someone said this avoids bank fees - this is not quite true. If
I use my Canadian credit card in an Australian ATM, I am charged C$2 (mind
youm this is still cheap, especially when compared with the $1 I'm
charged if I use another Canadian bank within Canada; but it is still a
charge.
Metway Bank in Queensland can't do cash advances unless they issued the
Visa Card (don't ask me why) - and then they charge $5.
Metway is tied to the Plus Network (although their teller don't seem to
know this so don't ask them).
Using the PLus (or Cirrus) Network, one can actually access one's regular
savings or checking accounts back in Canada or the US or wherever,
just as if the ATM were back at home. All you have to do is find a bank
that uses the same network as your own bank does. Once again you get the
wholesale rate and you are charged.
Canadians who have some types of Gold credit cards (certainly Visa)
can get commission-free travellers cheques. This makes it worthwhile to
have at least some travellers cheques on you (I've been caught in Sydney
at 11 pm on a Friday night when an ATM ate my bank card), preferably in
the currency of the country you are travelling to - Oz in this case -
meaning they are as negotiable as possible.
* transferring money from Aus to the US [BJ]
- Write a cheque and post it. Takes time to clear, and there may be
bank service fee and the exchange rate may be bad.
- Bank draft: cost A$8-A$12.
- Wire transfer: cost A$30.
- Use my bank card (ATM card) issued by bank in the other country and
withdrawn straight from my chequing account. This doesn't work on all
teller machines though...
- Draw money on credit card and pay off straight away.
* Credit cards in Australia
Almost everyone in Australia takes Bankcard, MasterCard and Visa.
Someone mentioned a few places that only take Bankcard, and also
suggested that a few don't take Visa.
[AT] I'd forget travellers cheques and use credit cards wherever
possible. VISA and MasterCard almost universal, Amex and Diners
widely accepted. You can get cash advances on VISA, Mastercard and
Amex at many ATM's and for VISA and Mastercard across the counter at
all banks. You can also use Cirrus and Plus system ATM cards at many
ATMs. ANZ Bank ATMs accept Cirrus and Plus, Commonwealth Bank accepts
Cirrus and State Bank takes Plus. Using cards will in general get you
a better exchange rate and you avoid the additional fees which the
banks charge to cash travellers cheques.
* Travellers cheques
These are not commonly used as currency in Australia. Thomas Cook and
American Express have offices in major cities, or you can change them
at banks.
[SW] I took in a Japanese exchange student in 1991 and she brought over
several hundred dollars in travellers cheques. Everywhere she went to
buy stuff accepted them, as long as she had her passport.,
* Visa
All visitors to Australia need visa, except for Australian and New
Zealand nationals.
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