Banking and Free Transfers

[andi]

I am at the point where i am going to open an Australian bank account whilst still in the UK.

Does anyone know of any accounts/banks that offer a free transfer service.

I have a UK Halifax account and a Spanish Halifax account and can tranfer for free.

I also have a UK Yorkshire Bank account which is owned by an Australian company but i cant seem to get any kind of response from them except "check out our website".

Worth asking as with internet banking its so easy to transfer money to Spain and for free its well worth while.

[gypsy]

I am at the point where i am going to open an Australian bank account whilst still in the UK.

Does anyone know of any accounts/banks that offer a free transfer service.

I have a UK Halifax account and a Spanish Halifax account and can tranfer for free.

I also have a UK Yorkshire Bank account which is owned by an Australian company but i cant seem to get any kind of response from them except "check out our website".

Worth asking as with internet banking its so easy to transfer money to Spain and for free its well worth while.

Hi Andi

Commonwealth Bank allows you to open the account from overseas and also you can transfer money but you are not allowed take out the money till you reach Australia and show your identity.

http://www.commbank.com.au/

[arthurdiane66]

Hi Andi,

I also have a uk and spanish halifax account and although it seems easy to do and they dont have transfer fees the exchange rate was dreadful. Also the way I do it now is via my online banking in the UK as I can do the faster payments system to my currency guy it gets to him the same day and my money is then sent the same day and the rate is fantastic. I would consider this as an option as I find it so easy, I use hsbc and barclays. I hope this helps

Art

[Aussie pat]

Aussie Pat's other half here. Just bear in mind with Commbank, they don't charge you a separate fee but their "fee" will be built into their rate. If you open an account in London and transfer money from that account, the rate you get will not be quite as good as one of the specialist FX companies. Having said that we still used them for a seamless service and we found that they provided brilliant service. Nothing was too much trouble, even when we were in panic mode about a year ago.