[lockstock]

This sounds good to me but are there better ways.

I don't want to commit our capital to NZ until we have a firm decision but the way the exchange rate is at the moment it seems ludicrous to have the proceeds of our house sale in the UK festering in a UK savings account. HSBC have been running ads about money all over the world so I phoned them. You can open a foreign exchange account here and either have it as an easy access account or a savings account (fixed term). For a mimimum of $36000(NZ) and a 6 months term, the interest rate is 7.02% - a lot more than our savings account. Does this sound good or does anyone have a better idea without opening a NZ account.

From what NZIS says about the ITA process it could be about 6 months before we get an answer from them anyway.

Please keep advice simple and preferably with minimum technical vocabulary, my brain is hurting from watching the exchange rate all day whilst pretending to be working,;)

[victoria]

We're in the same situ so waiting with baited breath.

[Belmont Babes]

Looking forward to an answer too!!! Please

[holland]

me too xxxx

[Nick88]

I know that a foreign denominated savings account with the ASB is no problem, but I don't know what the interest rate will be. All you can do is shop around and post the best rate you can find.

[lockstock]

Trying to delete duplicated post here...:o

[lockstock]

What I fel happy about is that I don't feel it's as permanent at this stage (without PR) yet it's tapping in to the exchange rate - with interest. No-one has screamed 'NO' at me yet so I'm hoping I may have done something right for a change! I haven't actually opened the account yet - not without your permission!;)

[kellyfamily]

At the moment the exchange rate is very good so it would do no harm to ship your money across and bank it here as the interest rate is much better than the uk (try rabo bank for online banking) to me at present its a win win situation , and you can always transfer your money back at any time so if dollar strengthens again move it back!!

[Milliemoo]

Don't forget to factor in that you'll pay tax on your savings here.

Personally I'm holding out for over $3 :D

Cath x

[Sarah & Alex]

Like Milliemoo, I'm holding out for $3 too!
I have opened up a UK currency account in NZ which pays 5% on a 30 day term account, although I guess that is an easier thing to do when you're in NZ.
Good point from earlier though, you'll probably have to pay tax on the interest, whether in NZD or GBP.
Someone mentioned Rabobank. They seem to be the best interest rate at the moment at 8% for NZD accounts. This is on call with no minimum amounts.:yes

[isv]

Much depends on whether you will need all/most of the money when you get to NZ. If you don't need it right away why take it to NZ and lose the tax free entitlement for new migrants?

If you keep the money out of NZ you will earn interest tax free - and hence the differential between savings rates changes massively. So... as a new migrant keep in mind the following:

Once you are in NZ having your capital in an NZ bank account paying 7.75% (typical savings rate) will bring you in less income than an offshore account paying 4.73%
(assuming you are earning > $60k in NZ).

So any offshore account paying above 4.73% will leave you signifcantly better off.

If I were you I would consider:

1. Keep the money in a UK GBP account until your PR comes through
2. Just before you leave move the money offshore to an account that pays gross interest (choose your currency carefully).
3. When you move to NZ keep the money offshore and get the interest tax free (NZ tax exemption for new migrants).
4. If you need capital in NZ then exchange funds as/when the interest rate suits you.

Don't forget that whilst you are in the UK waiting to leave you remain a UK tax resident and regardless of where you stick your money it will be subject to UK taxation/regulations.

Finally, I would never commit funds to NZD until I was absolutely sure I had PR and was commited to leaving the UK - otherwise you run the risk of being caught out by exchange rates and having to bring your money back 'home' at a loss (unless you like to gamble).

Alan.

[lockstock]

ISV - I am not worthy...thank you for the info - I suspect many others will appreciate the input too, especially the bit about losing tax free whatnots. I do believe I understand what you say. We're on a very steep learning curve here. Thanks

[Belmont Babes]

ISV thank you very much. Certainly food for thought! I am a non tax payer as I didn't earn enough last year or this year and I have been told I can earn tax free. Just need to fill in form R105 and take to bank of choice.

[txbarb]

I'm going to post in the text from a newsletter I get (received yesterday) as it happened to mention the Kiwi in particular:

"There was some bad news down under in New Zealand, as the ninth finance company in New Zealand has gone into receivership in the past 16 months... I've been beaten about the Head and Shoulders the past 6 months by people that kept pointing to kiwi and saying... "you don't know what you're talking about! Look how strong the currency is! It's outperforming Aussie!"

This was all in reaction to the things I kept saying about how Aussie had better fundamentals than New Zealand which was taking the currency form of HGH, the carry trade. I pointed to New Zealand's Debt, which hasn't gotten better, but no one wanted to hear about it... But look at the story above... You can't tell me there isn't rot on the vine there! So... As long as the carry trade lives... Kiwi will continue to perform, but let the carry trade unwind, and we'll see an exaggerated reaction much like 3 weeks ago, when the risk in the market rose, and carry trades began to get unwound. "

Now I'm afraid that has some of the technical talk the OP didn't want, but I read this that the Kiwi may be headed for a decline - it was the first I'd heard about the financial companies going under.

- txduane
(using spouse's account, and fully acknowledging that she would NEVER have posted this :laugh )

[lockstock]

When I was there last month (how I do love saying that to people here in the UK!) there were huge headlines about private finance companies going bust. Several in quick succession but I don't think the major banks were involved.

[Farfields]

Converting your cash now may well be a good thing to do. However, you may be better of using an NZD denominated account in the UK rather than actually transferring the cash to an NZ bank in NZ. I'm in NZ having got here a couple of months ago. I opened a bank account beforehand, but did not put any money in it until I was on the ground. The reason is that if everything falls through and you want to move the money back -you can't! You have to physically turn up at the branch with ID (e.g. passport) and prove who you are in order to confirm your identity. I guess this is for money laundering rules.

I also guess that if you use a UK based NZD account, that you will want to check access conditions for withdrawals in NZ. Don't forget to ask about costs.

The finance failures you are hearing about are for companies that are not even on a rank with a building society. High street banks are perfectly safe. Just remember that the fear and confusion is making the foreigners take their money home, which is pushing the exchange rate in your favour!

cheers.

[Nick88]

Farfields is right, they are nothing like banks. One of the first to go under borrowed from retail depositors (like us) and lent the money to people to buy used import cars. Many of these people defaulted on the loans and gave the cars back, which were pretty worthless once off the car lots. Some of the others have lent money to very high risk property developers with bad credit histories, but he depositors didn't bother to find out what the money was to be used for, they just looked at the interest rate.

After a few of these scenarios had played out it has started a bit of a domino effect with frightened depositors withdrawing their money at the end of the term. This has caused very bad cash flow problems for some of the smaller finance companies, so bad that they collapse being unable to call in loans to repay the depositors.

[Girlno9]

Why don't you open an Isle of man account in sterling. At the moment i would leave it on a call account. watch currency changes daily. Depending on how much is on deposit, it could make a large difference to your capital. If it is on a call account, you can literally call them and ask them to switch it to NZ dollars at the optimum time. Leave it on dposit there until you need it.