Finance

[Trace w]

Hi, This is my first entry on the expat forum so hope it goes ok.

We are in the process of emigrating to Adelaide and have been approached by a finance company who said they can give a better exchange rate when transferring your money to an Australian bank.

Has anyone ever used a finance company for this, my first thought was to go through HSBC as you know it will be safe but now I'm confused!! and not sure what to do for the best. When you investing all your savings in a company you want to know your money will be in a bank account when you get to Oz.

Tracey

[weelee]

Originally Posted by Trace w

Hi, This is my first entry on the expat forum so hope it goes ok.

We are in the process of emigrating to Adelaide and have been approached by a finance company who said they can give a better exchange rate when transferring your money to an Australian bank.

Has anyone ever used a finance company for this, my first thought was to go through HSBC as you know it will be safe but now I'm confused!! and not sure what to do for the best. When you investing all your savings in a company you want to know your money will be in a bank account when you get to Oz.

Tracey

what finance company got in touch with you? and how did they get your details? We used HIFX money corp and had no problems with them, using a bank will get a worse exchange rate than a finance company. I only found out how it works when we were dealing with getting our money over here and it sucks from greedy bankers had to check spelling there. The reason we used HIFX is they were referred by our agent when dealing with the visa so had no probs trusting them with our hard earned savings

weelee

[Trace w]

Originally Posted by weelee

what finance company got in touch with you? and how did they get your details? We used HIFX money corp and had no problems with them, using a bank will get a worse exchange rate than a finance company. I only found out how it works when we were dealing with getting our money over here and it sucks from greedy bankers had to check spelling there. The reason we used HIFX is they were referred by our agent when dealing with the visa so had no probs trusting them with our hard earned savings

weelee

Hi thanks for replying, it's with Halo financial, not sure where they got my detaills from, they have sent me through some info and had testimonials on but you can never be too sure these days. I told them that when I rang and they said I could maybe transfer a small amount and then a bigger amount later. Will look up HIFX and see what they can offer.

[kaz101]

Hi Trace w,

There is a link to HIFX on this forum (it's one of the sponsors).

We've used HIFX and Baydonhill (who used to be currencies for less).
See which one gives you the better rate and the other one know that you are shopping around since you may get a better deal then.

There may still be a bank charge when you transfer your money from your bank account to the currency exchange bank account if you do a same day transfer.

Regards,
Karen

[matjones]

Originally Posted by kaz101

Hi Trace w,

There is a link to HIFX on this forum (it's one of the sponsors).

We've used HIFX and Baydonhill (who used to be currencies for less).
See which one gives you the better rate and the other one know that you are shopping around since you may get a better deal then.

There may still be a bank charge when you transfer your money from your bank account to the currency exchange bank account if you do a same day transfer.

Regards,
Karen

On a related note, are there any caveats involved with transferring large amounts of money to AU? For example, if I am transferring $50-100,000 in cash from US bank to AU? are there any tax issues? I know my in-laws have always had issues transferring cash from HK to US, not sure if same applies to AU.

[kaz101]

Mat,

I think you may have to check that with an accountant. I think we were told (and this was a couple of years ago) that as long as moved the amount within a certain time frame then it wouldn't be taxed since it was moving money with our migration. Sorry I can't remember the details - we've only moved that kind of amount once but a good accountant should be able to tell you.

Regards,
Karen