[Tony&Kat]

Hi,

Can anyone offer any advice of the best way to transfer money to a NZ bank account from the UK?

Thanks

Tony

[victoria24]

check out www.hifx.co.uk

dont know much personally but saw a write up in an emmigration newspaper.

[marcia]

We weren't happy using some of these exchange companies (tho others have quite happily!) We opebed an account with the London branch of ASB who opened accounts in NZ for us, all we had to do when we wanted to move the money was send it to london using a chaps payemnt (costs about £20) the ASB in London will keep the money there (IN AN ACCOUNT IN YOUR NAME! - earning interest for you) until you agree the rate with them, they will then transfer the money, part or all, over to NZ and once you get here you go into your local branch with identification and your account details and they will sort out your account for you. The money atkes 3 working days to get here and we have had no problems whatsoever with them, the rate they use is one cent below the rate you see on sites such as smart currency eyc, if you want more details try doing a search on ASB on the forum, or send me a pm and I'll dig them out for you!

HTH

[gpbenton]

I've used hifx and xe.com successfully. The exchange rates and fees tend to be better than banks will give you. Although they both take more setting up than using a bank.

If you do a search in forum others have recommended other methods as well.

[Tony&Kat]

We weren't happy using some of these exchange companies (tho others have quite happily!) We opebed an account with the London branch of ASB who opened accounts in NZ for us, all we had to do when we wanted to move the money was send it to london using a chaps payemnt (costs about £20) the ASB in London will keep the money there (IN AN ACCOUNT IN YOUR NAME! - earning interest for you) until you agree the rate with them, they will then transfer the money, part or all, over to NZ and once you get here you go into your local branch with identification and your account details and they will sort out your account for you. The money atkes 3 working days to get here and we have had no problems whatsoever with them, the rate they use is one cent below the rate you see on sites such as smart currency eyc, if you want more details try doing a search on ASB on the forum, or send me a pm and I'll dig them out for you!

HTH

Thanks, that seems like a really good idea - I didnt know you could do that. Would we need to go down to London to open the account or could we do it over the internet / phone?

Thanks

Tony

[Tony&Kat]

I've used hifx and xe.com successfully. The exchange rates and fees tend to be better than banks will give you. Although they both take more setting up than using a bank.

If you do a search in forum others have recommended other methods as well.

Thanks Graham, I will look into this option also.

Thanks

Tony

[IanW99]

Thanks, that seems like a really good idea - I didnt know you could do that. Would we need to go down to London to open the account or could we do it over the internet / phone?

Thanks

Tony

For ASB, start here:-http://www.migrantbanking.co.uk/

You certainly don't need to go to London to open the account. Some of the other banks also offer a similar service.

Ian

[marcia]

Thanks, that seems like a really good idea - I didnt know you could do that. Would we need to go down to London to open the account or could we do it over the internet / phone?

Thanks

Tony


You do it all over the phone - they set you up with passwords to use. The ASB rate is better than a normal bank because they they are not set up in London as a normal 'branch' they only deal with opening accounts for transferring money overseas, so can offer a better rate as they don't have the same overheads. As I said before, we felt happier always tranferring money from an account in OUR name to another account in OUR name, added to the factthat if its sitting htere for a while YOU are earning the interest!

Good luck - if you need phone numbers ans names to contact just shout!

[stephenandjulie]

We used the ASB bank in London and it was all very straightforward. Our contact was Kate Lancaster on 0207 7103592. Give her a call, she is very helpful.
Best of luck
Julie

[zardell]

We used the ASB bank in London and it was all very straightforward. Our contact was Kate Lancaster on 0207 7103592. Give her a call, she is very helpful.
Best of luck
Julie


Kate's not there anymore, you'll need Jason Lowes office - just as helpful as Kate was.

Same phone number.

Julie

xx

[napiers]

I've had ASB account/s in NZ for years and since we're moving to NZ early next year I decided to open a transfer account in London to help with the transferring funds side of things. Jason Lowes was really helpful, when I had queries he rang back and answered them quickly and rang me to let me know how the application was going, when he'd sent stuff out etc. Would definitely recommend this route. :)

[marybelle]

We used HIFX for transfering money to Europe and back. Very helpfull and you can negotiate youself a good rate.

We also bank with HSBC and they have offered to set up a bank account in NZ for us and transfer monet at an agreed rate.

Marybelle

[Carey]

I've had ASB account/s in NZ for years and since we're moving to NZ early next year I decided to open a transfer account in London to help with the transferring funds side of things. Jason Lowes was really helpful, when I had queries he rang back and answered them quickly and rang me to let me know how the application was going, when he'd sent stuff out etc. Would definitely recommend this route. :)

Can you open an account before you have visas in your passports?

[napiers]

Can't be certain about whether you can do it without visas but assume so. I already have PR and opened account in NZ while travelling years ago. However, when I saw ASB at the expo they only needed a copy of my photo bit of the passport so they wouldn't have known I have a visa. I did need to give them a date of when we would be going because the transfer account is only available for 2 years. I just plucked a date out of thin air (we'll be leaving a couple of months after but that's fine). Other people might have a better idea.

[Mels]

Follow this link Carey and you will find the form you need to fill in. I've looked and there are some questions like 'what is your address in NZ' that I will need to phone them about. No I don't think you need your visa to do it.

http://www.migrantbanking.co.uk/

Mels

[Georgebulldog]

We used HIFX for transfering money to Europe and back. Very helpfull and you can negotiate youself a good rate.

We also bank with HSBC and they have offered to set up a bank account in NZ for us and transfer monet at an agreed rate.

Marybelle

Just be aware they only have I think it's one branch here in Auckland, we banked with HSBC & they were the most unhelpful, phone calls at all times of night as there is also a limit to what you can transfer a day, almost cost us our house. I'm sure it's not always like this but just want to make you aware as we were going to stay with them but soooo glad we are now with Westpac, no call centres who can't make a decison for themselves :)

[marybelle]

Hi Lindsay

Thanks for the warning!

Can I ask you which account you had?
We have got a premier account which gives us our own account manager. It was he that told us what HSBC could do for us, but if you were promised the same and it caused all manner of problems for you then we will have to think again and maybe find another route.
PM me if you don't want to reply on open forum.

Thanks again!

Marybelle

[Tony&Kat]

Hi Guys,

Thanks to all of you for your input on that. Thats one more question I can tick of my list! Will give ASB a call as that definately seems like a really good option.

Thanks!

Tony

[jonSE]

Have to say that I have used XE (www.xetrade.com) to transfer money to and fro from UK/NZ/AUS/US in both large and small quantities. Never had any problems with them at all. The 2 or 3 days it takes to set up your account due to security checking etc is reasuring.

The only gripe I have had is not with XE but the fact that when transferring money to XE in the UK (UK bank to UK bank) my UK bank barclays would only let me transfer £1000 per day as an internet transfer. They have raised this limit now but at the time it meant I had to pay Barclays £20 to do a Chaps transfer UK bank to UK bank.

[stevied20]

Me aqnd my wife went down to London yesterday and met Jason Lowe, very very nice man, very helpful, the reason we went down was to set up internet banking from the UK.
Jason needed to ID us with visa'a and passports.
After this, he gave us a number to ring in NZ which would enable us to set up an online account with ASB with username & password etc.
We wanted to be able to view our account from the uk, before we left!
You cannot however, view funds in your UK holding account in London, only when the funds reach NZ, can you view the balance.

Steve

[Potato]

I used to use www.tranzfers.com quite frequently and they were always good. No need for them any more though....I have no UK money left.
I was concerned about sending money over the internet, so emailed them to ask (this was before I ever used them) about how safe it was.

We are extremely conscious of people concerns regarding safety of funds,
and is a question that is often asked.

In order to your concerns I have listed some points below that should
ease your mind.

1) Firstly we are extremely heavily regulated. In the UK we are
regulated by HMRC. More importantly transfers are primarily an
Australian company. Australia is the most heavily regulated market in
the world in terms of foreign exchange. We are governed there by ASIC,
and also hold a FSL (Financial services license). In order to gain this
license we are regulated in the same way banks are, and are therefore as
secure as them. I believe that only 6 non bank providers hold the same
license we do.


2) We only accept, and pay out through electronic transfers. This means
that no payments can go missing as all payments are traceable. Also as
we only deal in cleared funds then there is no chance funds can go
missing. Once you funds are received by us we transfer them on to an
account you nominate by an electronic transfer from our bank accounts in
that country.


3) We use banks to make all our payments and therefore, if funds went
missing, the trace would be conducted in exactly the same way. I must
stress this is extremely rare.



One "quick and easy" back-up method is to have a Nationwide account and get their cash card/credit card (no foreign fees of any kind). Of course, it limits you to £200 (or whatever) daily limit from cash points but if you're in a fix and having trouble with other methods then it can save your bacon.

[Mr Brillo]

Try Ozforex - very helpful and quick. We found they charge they lowest percentage for large quantities. But beware a fee of £7 is payable on transfers of less than £3000.00.

If you are transferring the value of a house 0.001% difference is worth haggling for in my opinion.

[NickB]

We used ASB / Jason Lowe to set up accounts in advance from the UK and I agree, he is great to deal with, prompt and polite. We also got very good service when we arrived here and walked into a ASB branch to get cards etc. Banking in NZ does generally seem much easier and friendlier than in the UK.

I now need to move some more pennies over and am going to compare others with ASB, see if we get the best deal. Anyone used CaxtonFX?

[NickB]

Just a quick follow up.

Mark Davey seems to have replaced Jason at ASB, he has moved on.

I asked CaxtonFX, HiFX and ASB for GBP > NZ$ rates for GBP65K. Caxton quoted a worse rate than ASB, and HiFX were not able to tell me unless I opened an account with them (what would be the point?).

So seems ASB is pretty competitive, I'll be sticking with them.

[IanW99]

Just a quick follow up.

Mark Davey seems to have replaced Jason at ASB, he has moved on.

I asked CaxtonFX, HiFX and ASB for GBP > NZ$ rates for GBP65K. Caxton quoted a worse rate than ASB, and HiFX were not able to tell me unless I opened an account with them (what would be the point?).

So seems ASB is pretty competitive, I'll be sticking with them.

Just out of interest, can you also try xetrade.com.

If you go to the website you can select live demonstration and then work through the transaction and it will tell you the exact rate that you would have if you were doing a real transaction at this time with them.

Ian

[Philip10]

For small amounts (under £10k) TNTForex are good