[becca]

Hello all,

I am at the stage now where I am thinking about what is best to do with my money. I don't have loads of it, with no house to sell, so am wondering if I would be better geting a nationwide type account that doesn't charge me to use cash machines in NZ, until I get settled and sort out a NZ account, or transfer to off-shore current account. I want to make the most of the minimal savings I have, by transferring to NZ dollars at the best time. Am looking for advice if anyone has any.

Thanks

Becca

[diforsyth]

Hi Becca,

The majority of offshore accounts require about £3,000 to £5,000 to open & maintain them and won't allow you to withdraw cash in small amounts at ATM's without penalties. These types accounts are best used to minimise tax on interest whilst waiting to transfer to NZ$ in a single transaction.

David.

[ruthyroo]

You can set up your NZ bank account and put as much money in it as you want while you are still in the UK. We opened National Bank accounts from Scotland, stuck our 'getting set up' money in it then just had to visit the branch in Auckland to activate them and pick up cards etc. They are very used to dealing with immigrants here, especially from the UK.

Agree with the above - offshore accounts tend to be tax efficient places to park relatively large sums of money for a period of time that makes it worthwhile. The charges to withdraw money tend to be high. We ended up not bothering as we didn't have a big lump sum to bring - just setting up money.

[becca]

Thanks for the advice. I think I will investigate NZ banks for now but might think about Nationwide here aswell. The exchange rate doesn't seem to have changed much in the last week so I might just go ahead and set up a NZ account.

[mark & Heather]

hi..well we're in the process of moving our money now as the exchange rate is relatively high. I missed out on the $3.05 but its still a whole lot better than this time last year when it was around $2.55. Its amazing what a difference this extra few cents has made. I noticed the National bank in NZ has an online account of 7% which can be opened when you are in NZ ( as you have to show ID ). I think the best interest in Britain is just 5% online again with first direct.
If I were you I would transfer now. While the exchange rate seems to have stabilised a little at around $2.93, I can't see it going a whole lot higher - and if you look at the trends over the last few years, could well go down again once the British winter starts kicking in again around september time ( lol )

[StevieD]

What u mean kicking in around september? Summer hasn't even kicked in!!

Good info though, just wish our house was sold and we could get the good rate that is available now.