[thepiesleys]

I have searched for this but have found nothing that matches my needs.

I want to transfer a small amount of money, about £14,000,000 from a UK based interest acount into a NZ bank account.

Can I simply transfer the funds via internet banking or will I be restricted in anyway?

Many Thanks

Dan

[Trigirl]

I want to transfer a small amount of money, about £14,000,000 from a UK based interest acount into a NZ bank account.

Oh dear - I'd hate to think what would be a large amount of money!!!

[thepiesleys]

^^^^^^^^^ Yes - I apologise that may look like a gross show of wealth. I was thinking in relation to people who transfer 100's of 1000's of pounds after house sales. This two years worth of savings which i to pay 12 months rent and support us for 18 weeks. ;)

[marcia]

So Dan are you serious

???14 Million pounds???

Or have you made a mistake with your commas????

Don't mean to appear rude but if you are serious about the amount then why are you searching a forum like this for the answer wouldn't it be wiser to employ the services of a financial advisor?? :o

[kirkandliz]

Hi Dan

I think 14 million might be a stretch over internet banking :laugh

No expert at all on this as I am looking into options myself but for 14 thousand any difference in exchange rates will still make a fair difference so I'd be looking at one of the companies like HIFX or HALO instead of the poor rates that the banks generally give.


Cheers

[thepiesleys]

*hunts for edit facility*

:roll

14 thousand pounds

£14,000

There thats better...

Jesus if i had 14 mill I would employ someone big to carry it over there and a big bag...

[marcia]

ppppppppphew thought we were in the precence of a mega star there for a minute!!!!!!


Well i can only tell you what we have done and why!

We looked at companies like tranzfers and smart currency exchange. But the thing that put us off was that you transfer the money to a holding account - NOT an account in your own name!! Call me cautious but I'd rather keep it in my name thanks very much - there are people on the forum who have used these companies but we opted for a safer option.

We contacted ASB, who are really helpful, they have opened an account in London (IN OUR NAMES) and an account in NZ, you do a chaps payment (cost £20) from your bank account to the london account which can be done in the same day, the rate that ASB offer is one cent below the market rate.

The lady we have dealt with is called Kate Lancaster and her number is 020 7710 3592 if you wanted to give her a ring for a chat (just nice to hear the Kiwi accent!! :laugh )

Can't tell you what the service will be like in NZ - will let you know in about 6 weeks time! :nice1

[thepiesleys]

Marcia - food for thought. many thanks.

Are you happy to use ASB for all your banking requirements in NZ? I'm also in the process of opening a bank account.

So what goes on with the London based ASB account when you have transfered the cashola?

Cheers

Dan 'dollars' Piesley :raebanana

[jbharvey]

I've also been told by a soon-to-be coworker that you can use ATM's in NZ just like you do in the US (dunno if you're from US or not)....he says that the exchange rate is actually better (even factoring in the $2-$3 fee).

[thepiesleys]

Hi - were UK based and have heard that as well. In particular the Nationwide, we plan on opening one of those as well.

[marcia]

Dan

Not sure about the banking when we actually get to NZ - we have also opened accounts with the Kiwi bank over there, but need to look into all the charges and interest etc.

ASB - when you send the money to them, once they receive it they will agree the exchange rate with you, and send it over - not sure (and can't find the paper work at the moment doh!!) what the minimum amount before any further charges are made is - (not a problem for us as we have 14 million :laugh ) seriously - just give the lady a ring with your list of questions and she will help you - no commitment to have to open an account!

Good luck!

[katandbob]

*hunts for edit facility*

:roll

14 thousand pounds

£14,000

There thats better...

Jesus if i had 14 mill I would employ someone big to carry it over there and a big bag...

I have sent you a PM

[Howie]

Try xe.com for a better exchange rate.

[katandbob]

[QUOTE=marcia]Dan

Not sure about the banking when we actually get to NZ - we have also opened accounts with the Kiwi bank over there, but need to look into all the charges and interest etc.

ASB - when you send the money to them, once they receive it they will agree the exchange rate with you, and send it over - not sure (and can't find the paper work at the moment doh!!) what the minimum amount before any further charges are made is - (not a problem for us as we have 14 million :laugh ) seriously - just give the lady a ring with your list of questions and she will help you - no commitment to have to open an account!

Good luck![QUOTE]

Hi Marcia/Dan

We have a national bank account which does not charge for services if you have a bank balance of $5,000, BUT Jordon has just opened a ASB Streamline account, although he doesnt get a chequebook he waived the paper statements and its free, no matter what balance he has.

So if you shop arround you can usually find a bank account which doesnt rip you off on fees.

all the best

Kat

[jubjub]

ASB have been good for our transfers and our banking this side too. We have just opted out of paper statements too, and so get a free account, but 0% interest.

We also have the fastsaver option linked to it, and any cash we dont immediately need it put in there to earn interest at 7%.

Happy so far, only reason mortgage not with them was cos they did not have a low enough rate, although after reading other posts, we will push them a bit next time...

[Babette & Andy]

Hi Dan

There have been various other threads about this topic, which is how we decided on how to transfer our funds (both 'small' and 'housesale' amounts).

Whilst still in the UK we opened Westpac migrant banking accounts (http://www.westpac.co.nz/olcontent/olcontent.nsf/Content/Moving+to+New+Zealand) , which compared with the system ASB had at that time we thought was more straight forward. Our contact is Jo Sullivan who has been more than helpful, i.e. one quick phonecall and she's quick to action any requests we've made. Her e-mail address is : jo_sullivan@westpac.co.nz

To get our money from our Barclays' account to our new Westpac account we used a money exchange company called HIFX, which I believe quite a number of forum members have used. Again, good service at good highly competitive exchange rates. You can use them again and again to transfer 'any' amount.

Hope this helps

Babette

[Hannah]

We did same as Marcia, used ASB when we transferred £8K when we came over for our 6 month stay. We were happy with the account we have over there and have also changed ours to a streamline acct. removing the statements and hence no fees ....although Streamline acct used to pay interest and now doesn't (i was better off when streamline paid interest and my interest pay out each month covered the fees with money left over GRRRR!). Still, ASB have various accts and you can always show around for the one that suits you.
anyway, you could always transfer your money via ASB and then open an acct with another bank when you are there if you find there is a better deal out there. One of the benefits we found with ASB was that we didnt' need to have an NZ address to transfer our money. We could just take our passport into the bank and activate our account. Great if you are living in motel land when you arrive.
hannah

[Albertz]

Hi, We used transfers to move our cash, very easy to set up & £7 per transaction, I was a bit cautious like Marcia but I neednt have worried, :) done our last transfer recently phoned them up from here on a friday night and the money was in our account 1st thing weds morning, never a hassle and easy to set up, thing I liked about it was our cash was in a holding account for nearly 2 weeks and we moved most of it it when the exchange was in our favour, when we had tried to move another chunk earlier, the uk bank would only let us transfer £10.000 per day which cost us in exchange rates difference, we werent receiving interest in the uk account as we wanted access to our cash right away so it didnt matter to us what account it was in before we moved to NZ, now its in the ASB earning 7% until we are ready to buy property.
:)
Cheers Albert

[thepiesleys]

Thanks for all the great replies. I think we want to open an ASB account because of the saver account which i similar to our ING account over here, apart from the paltry 4.5% compared to the 7%.

One final question though...

Will the exchange rates be comparable with Transferz, HIFX and XE.com to that of ASB? IE who will be the cheapest.

Many Thanks

Dan

[seagulls]

If you want to compare the ASB rate to someone like HIFX just call them both and ask.

You can open a bank account with any of the NZ banks from the UK - see the links on their websites. We faxed the Westpac form to them in Auckland one day and the following day we received an email with our account numbers etc. You are then free to shop around for the best rate. If you like the look of ASB then open the account with them but don't given them any money straight away. Once again you can then shop around.

I would guess that the ASB rate would be slightly worse than HIFX, Moneycorp, Currencies Direct etc. ASB also charge a transfer fee I think.

When you get to New Zealand go into a migrant branch as soon as you get there. They will need to see ID and then they will activate your account and give you your EFTPOS/ATM cards on the spot - no waiting for the post.

[seagulls]

Sorry forgot to mention.
Don't be swayed by interest rates in this country compared to that of another. For example, 4.5% vs 7%.
Foreign Exchange works on a country's interest rate in comparison to the other country. Therefore, this is all priced into a deal that you will do. The markets understand that 7% is more attractive than 4.5% so they will have priced this into the market.