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Thread ID: 82438	2007-08-27 11:23:00	Transferring funds to the UK	Mercury (1316)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
585130	2007-08-28 23:56:00	I think her plans are to travel with visa and some traveller's cheques and set up an account once in the UK and transfer money from NZ then. My involvement is because of our contributions and how to do them efficiently, safely and with least cost - the banks make enough out of us already. If I can figure out our answers it should also reduce her costs and need for funds from us. Originally she was going with her partner of 5 years and he was going to work there. Things have changed in the last couple of months though and she is now single, going to a student hall and relying more on parent help. Such is life.	Mercury (1316)
585131	2007-08-29 03:25:00	The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is a High Street UK Bank known as HSBC and is a long established and large reputable bank with its headquarters in the UK It has branches everywhere in England- if you decide along the ASB suggestions	bonzo29 (2348)
585132	2007-08-29 03:37:00	The other banking chain you could consider in Britain is Lloyds. I saw those everywhere over there last year. They have the prancing horse logo that you may be familiar with - Nat BNZ was a member of that group. When people over there saw my Nat BNZ Cashpoint card they assumed I was a local who banked with Lloyds. I think there is still some tie up so you might check the Lloyds Bank website, or go into a Nat BNZ branch here and see what you could sort out. I had a look at the Lloyds Bank site, and they have a thing called an International Account, which allows you to move your money around the world, to and from Britain. You may want to check it out - there is something there on the site about rates and charges.	John H (8)
585133	2007-08-29 04:08:00	Don't mention Lloyds! I'm a New Zealander but my mother was born in the UK . In 1995 we spent a month in Britain and Mum let me use her account (I took a bank cheque over to cover our spending) . Talk about the most mickey mouse set up! The week before we left NZ I strolled into the new ASB in Henderson to sort out a bank cheque and traveller's cheques and they said I should update my cashflow card to the new one incorporating +Plus . I said "OK" and 30 minutes later walked out with a new card and cheques . When we arrived in London, armed with passports and Mum's letters to and from Lloyds, we went off to her branch to deposit our cheque and finalize using the account . They tinkered round with an antiquated computing machine, searched their files, found they'd "lost" a telegraphic transfer Dad had sent over for the kids, and finally said OK, we could use it . "Er, OK, How?" says me, "Can I have a cashflow card or passbook?" "Cashflow card! Did you give us 10 days notice?" said the bank followed by "And a passbook would be bad for security" <????>"OK then, how do I use it?" "Oh, just go into a branch, show them your passports and mother's letter, they will fax it through to us and we will OK it" Each visit to a bank then took us a good hour until we discovered that smaller branches didn't have fax machines and they had to ring through for an answer (much faster) . And if you wanted a balance they looked appalled and said "Come back tomorrow, we update overnight" I said earlier that I hoped the UK banking system had improved in recent years from quill pens and candlelight . The choice of banks is my daughters . If she does it in the UK she'll then know which bank has branches on campus .	Mercury (1316)
585134	2007-08-29 04:16:00	Ooops. However it is my impression that all banks in Britain are as bad as each other, and your experience with Lloyds is probably par for the course. I did have a good experience with the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh!	John H (8)
585135	2007-09-04 23:19:00	Well I apologise for opening this thread again but I had another read of it this morning. I see John H agrees with me. Many of the other suggestions seem terribly overcomplicated. Seeing that your normal NZ EFTPOS card works in UK ATM machines and also many businesses, then this seems the way to go. It did for us. No messing about with other banks, no change from the way you use the card in NZ. No fiddling bank transfers etc. And no travellers cheques. We did have one little problem though. Nothing to do with the banks, but our private superanuation scheme assumed that as I had not replied to a letter they sent (we were away for 5 months), I must be dead. This despite the fact that my son opened the letter and rang them up with the news I had gone to the UK on holiday. They stopped our payments. I hit the roof as you can imagine! We ended up with a very handsome apology and a change in the funds rules. Tom	Thomas01 (317)
585136	2007-09-05 04:20:00	I still haven't resolved this one yet but using cashflow cards on a NZ account is likely to be the most expensive option at $5 per transaction. If one was to withdraw $10,000 over the course of the year in $200 amounts then you would be faced with bank fees of $250. Using Visa for $10,000 at 2.1% commission would cost $210. One International money transfer of $10,000 via internet banking would cost $20. Split this into 5 transactions of $2,000 over the course of the year and this comes to $100. Then there is a fluctuating exchange rate (going down? a current glitch and liable to come back up?) and monthly interest on the flexi loan (I'm still doing the maths on this last one) Foreign exchange companies have a better exchange rate and a fee of $15. But with finance companies falling over how safe are foreign exchange companies? Anyone know?	Mercury (1316)
585137	2007-09-05 20:14:00	Not sure about the rest of the UK Banking system but their Credit cards are more advanced than ours. They use Smart chip in their cards and according to my bank rep here it will be a while before we have that NZ wide here. Where ever i used my visa they had to drag out an old machine from under the counter and dust it off to read my visa card becuse it did not conform with the new Chip and Pin cards. Check out Elldridge Lynch, a New Zealand based specialist foreign exchange company. A google search on them sure brings up a heap of hits, looks like they have been around a bit and appear to have a good reputation on foreign exchange.	Bantu (52)
585138	2007-09-05 23:53:00	I still haven't resolved this one yet but using cashflow cards on a NZ account is likely to be the most expensive option at $5 per transaction. If one was to withdraw $10,000 over the course of the year in $200 amounts then you would be faced with bank fees of $250. Using Visa for $10,000 at 2.1% commission would cost $210. One International money transfer of $10,000 via internet banking would cost $20. Split this into 5 transactions of $2,000 over the course of the year and this comes to $100. Then there is a fluctuating exchange rate (going down? a current glitch and liable to come back up?) and monthly interest on the flexi loan (I'm still doing the maths on this last one) Foreign exchange companies have a better exchange rate and a fee of $15. But with finance companies falling over how safe are foreign exchange companies? Anyone know? Hmm! Bank Fees. I had forgotten them. Being a pensioner all my transactions using EFTPOS are free. But I do seem to recall a very small charge was made for us when using it in the UK. But we were only there for 5 months. I have my old records somewhere so I must check that out. But of course you are not looking for a pensioner situation. Well I tried my best! Tom	Thomas01 (317)
585139	2007-09-06 00:01:00	Last time i went to singapore, I went to the bank in person and they were more then helpful telling me my options.	rob_on_guitar (4196)
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