Banking advice

[Becks22]

Hi all,

 

we are starting to look in to setting up a bank account before we come over, hopefully in July. I currently bank with HSBC in the uk and they are charging us £50 if we decide to get them to set us up. However, I can only see one branch of HSBC in Adelaide, which as we don't plan to live in the CBD means we wouldn't have a local bank. Not sure I like that idea! Any one got any experiences with the Australian bank chains so we can try and narrow down a couple to explore further? I assume it is worth doing before you arrive rather than waiting until we are settled?

[NicF]

Definitely worth opening a bank account before you arrive and all the big banks allow you to do this. Try ANZ, Commonwealth, NAB or Westpak to get you started.

[jo_marnes]

We opened one at Commonwealth before we came over, then just had to show ID when we arrived (I think). I don't bank with them now though - gone with NAB as they don't charge regular account fees which many other banks do.

[snifter]

We went with Commonwealth and opened an account before we came over. Was really easy. We don't pay account fees on it either.

 

We also have an ANZ account now too.

 

TBH any of the main banks are decent starting points. You can always change once here.

[robeaves]

We went with NAB before we arrived, it was really easy. We have since changed to ING Direct and love it.

[Ashleigh]

We set up with NAB before we arrived nearly 2 years ago, it was really easy and we have never had any issues with them.

[Becks22]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I will have a look at the mentioned banks and see what looks best to do from the UK. Sounds like you all had a nice straight forward process which is reassuring!

[John Browning]

Becks...have you considered going with a Credit Union instead of a bank?

 

....just as many (if not more ) ATM's (most of them interlinked), almost all the usual services etc etc

 

 

and (- unlike all the big banks in Australia) , the Credit Unions here are not currently working out ways of paying back their customers millions of dollars for having provided bad financial advice a few years back (refer Choice Magazine for details)

 

JB