Very relevant questions raise. I am looking same information, so expert to guide please.

Regards,

 

Hello All,

I am looking forward to move to Melbourne in sometime. Can someone help me with the following queries:

1. Which bank can I apply online before moving into Melbourne? Also having a bank branch in Suburb will be a plus or not?
   Any one of the big four, depends on what features you're after. Some have better offers than the other. Doesn't really matter if there's a branch in the suburb, there are many branches in the city which will most likely be your workplace.
2. Initially, I am planning for a first time visit. Can someone guide me in purchasing an economical travel card for a week?
   Check with a bank in your home country
3. Which are best economical suburbs for rental accommodation that have a good connectivity with Melbourne city and are safe for family stay?:juggle:
   Western and far off suburbs are not considered safe. Southern are expensive. Leaves you with just East & North. Check the train & tram line. As longs as there is train line, commute to city won't be a problem.
4. If I have to search a rental accommodation in any suburb, which travel card should I buy to travel between city zones and out?
   But a Myki, if you plan to use it for more than 15 days, get a monthly pass, else keep topping up as you go
5. Which SIM card should I buy offering an economical plan for a week or so? And then I can reuse the same for a good roaming rate outside Australia before I come permanently?:noidea:
   Lebara, Lyka, Amysim are all cheaper options. Not sure of roaming options.

Ramy

My response inline

 

1. The big four banks - NAB, ANZ, Commonwealth, Westpac - all have pretty good coverage in terms of ATMs. You probably won't be going into a branch every day so having access to a branch is less of an issue in my opinion. Most people just pick the bank closest to them. They usually don't charge fees as long as you have a regular deposit into the account (like a paycheque), NAB being the notable exception as they don't charge account holding fees.

2. I don't know what you mean by a travel card. You will need to get a Myki card to use public transport in Melbourne. You can buy one at any 7-Eleven or a variety of other retailers around the city. You can top it up at the same retailers or some train stations have machines allowing you to top it up with money. You then touch on when you get on a train/bus/tram.

3. Anywhere close to public transport and within a 5 to 10 km radius of the CBD is probably a good place to stay. Use Google Maps to find out where public transport links are and search for appropriate accommodation using that information.

4. See #2

5. SIM cards are available at the airport or at supermarkets. Telstra is the most expensive, Vodafone/Optus are cheaper. There are other companies like Amaysim and Lebara that resell the big mobile phone companies, you could look into those as well. Check their websites for rates.

And remember - Google is your friend.

 

Hi Ramy

OZbound12 above, pretty much nailed it. The public transport system in Melbourne is fairly extensive, especially the train network. Some suburbs are not well serviced by trains, so best to avoid those unless you plan on driving. Beware the distances across Melbourne are quite vast. The city extends over nearly 80km in some directions, so plan where you need to stay in relation to where you need to go (schools, workplace, etc). There is a big difference in housing affordability as you venture further from the centre, with the inner urban areas being more expensive and smaller houses or apartments and the mid to outer areas being larger and cheaper.

Good luck with your plans to move to Melbourne. Its a great city and has lots to offer everyone.

Alfred

 

for sim, go to optus. it has the best roaming service and its cheap.

 

Not answering every question, because the answers are going to be repetitive.

When you say an economical suburb, what is the weekly rent you are after? Rule is largely simple, the further you move away from the city and inner suburbs towards the east, the cheaper it gets, but the profile of the suburbs also changes accordingly. I'll give you a sense of areas with rents starting from $300/350(+)PW.

Within inner suburbs, Parkville is considerably economical, big chunk of uni crowd, you will get a relatively new apartment, and if your work place is within the confines of CBD, commute would be 10-15 minutes in a tram one way, something advisable for at least the initial 6 months, which is when you start to settle down and get to know the place.

If you want to move further up to the outer suburbs, travel time considerably increases to 1 hour or more one way, depending on how far off your home will be from the train station.

If you have family and kids, and you are after good schools, move towards east starting from South Yarra -Brighton/Hampton-Balwyn, pretty much all the suburbs within these three have good schools, and safe, but the rider here is, rents are comparable to what you will have to shell out in the inner suburbs.

Areas to avoid would be Sunshine, Footscray, Dandenong, Nobel Park, and similar suburbs where crime, violence, drugs are rampant.

 

Areas to avoid would be Sunshine, Footscray, Dandenong, Nobel Park, and similar suburbs where crime, violence, drugs are rampant.

I'd say that those areas being "rampant" with crime, violence and drugs is a bit of an over exaggeration. I've spent quite a bit of time in all of those suburbs and, while they won't win any awards for beauty or having nice scenery, and they aren't the most desirable bits of the city in which to live, the notion that they are "rampant" with crime and drugs is a bit overstated. Many of these areas are where migrants like you and me start out in because they are a bit more affordable than other parts of the city. As a result, they are very diverse places that are in many ways a microcosm of multicultural Australia.

Unfortunately, as with a lot of areas with a concentration of poverty, there are some issues that you might find in Dandenong that you wouldn't find in, say, Brighton or Toorak, And, from a property investment perspective, if I had a few extra cents lying around I would consider purchasing property in those areas, particularly Sunshine. Sunshine is definitely gentrifying and it's only a matter of time before it becomes a desirable place to live given its proximity to the CBD. Twenty or so years ago, people used to say that Fitzroy was a slum and who would want to live there. Now it's one of the city's most desirable suburbs where a terrace house there will set you back $1 million or even more.