Opening an Australian Bank account from the UK

How can you open an Australian bank account from outside Australia?’ is one of the more common questions asked on our forums

It makes sense that you have some Australian cash waiting for you once you arrive down under but how exactly do you go about opening an Australian Bank account when you’re not physically there.

Within this article we’ll try and provide you with some helpful hints, tips and links to enable you to do just this

As well as opening an Australian Bank account from the UK, a large portion of this article should also prove useful for those of you looking to move to Australia from other countries.

If you have first hand experience of opening an Australian Bank account from outside of Australia, please help us build on the usefulness of this article by posting a comment at the end of the article, detailing your own experiences.

From our own research, it appears that the folks over at Westpac appear to do a half decent job when it comes to providing easy banking facilities for new or wannabe migrants. Read more

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IELTS Preparation Video - Useful Stuff

Not so long ago I wrote a post which gave an overview of the IELTS Exam.

IELTS or the International English Language Testing System measures a persons ability to communicate in English across all four language skills – listening, reading, writing and speaking – a key requirement for folks who intend to study, work and generally live in Australia.

Although a written post is always going to prove useful, I thought I’d also include a Video which I found on Youtube which some of you folks may also enjoy watching.

There’s actually a ton of stuff on Youtube which I think might be of interest or of use to visitors to our site so as I find them I’ll add them for you to review

I hope you find the Video of use, please let me know if you’d like to see similar resources added to the site

Popularity: 5% [?]

Migration Agents - How to find a registered Australian Migration Agent

Australian Migration Agents and whether or not to utilise one as part of your migration process is a question that will be at the forefront of many people’s minds when they decide that they want to make a better life for themselves down under.

Where the hell do you start is often the very first question though and having a migration agent guide you through the complexities of moving to Australia might be seen as a must have for some.

Although when we made our own move down under we organised everything ourselves, for some the Australian Migration agent path may be a preferred option.

What is important though is that if you go down this path then you are strongly advised to use a Migration Agent that is registered.

Outside of Australia not all agents are registered. If they are not registered they are not accountable. Some call themselves Migration consultants or similar!

Back in October I wrote about a paper I’d read which detailed some of the antics of some of the more dodgy migration agents out there. It’s fair to say that you need to be careful when choosing your agent as choosing a bad one will waste both your time and your money!

So, if you’re looking for a Migration Agent how do you find an agent who’s officially recognised and registered? Read more

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Australian slang words - a definitive guide to Aussie slang

So you’ve decided to move to Australia. The sun shines, the sky is blue and Aussies speak a Language that we can all understand!

Ok, the first two points in that last statement are accurate but the latter may be stretching the truth just a little. Welcome to the amazing world of Australian slang words.

You see, Aussies love slang words. If they can have a slang word for anything they will and unfortunately for us folks new to this wonderful country your time will often be spent with a baffled look on your face whilst you stand there wondering if you should smile or give the person your talking to a swift slap!

Unfortunately, there’s often little clue to what the slang word means either. Read more

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IELTS - An Overview of the International English Language Testing System

IELTS or the International English Language Testing System measures a persons ability to communicate in English across all four language skills – listening, reading, writing and speaking – a key requirement for folks who intend to study, work and generally live in Australia.

Since the announcement to the changes in the General Skilled Migration Program which comes into effect next week, a migrants ability to speak a good level of English will become even more key as a knock on effect of the English Language threshold being increased.

IELTS Test

The IELTS tests are available in two formats – Academic and General Training with the latter being the more appropriate for people who simply need to prove they can speak and understand a good level of English before moving to Australia.

The Academic Reading and Writing Modules assess whether a candidate is ready to study or train in the medium of English at an undergraduate or postgraduate level. Read more

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Taking your furniture to Australia

When we shipped our stuff to Australia we made the conscious decision to leave a lot of the furniture back in the UK.

Anything that we didn’t want to take with us was either sold or donated to family, friends or charity.

There were still a number of things that we decided to bring with us though.

First thing to join us was our bed. It was only about 6 months old and because it cost a bit (damn NASA space foam) we decided to bring it with us.

The irony is, because we needed a bed when we got here we bought a new one anyway. Still, we now have a nice bed in the spare bedroom for when people come to visit.

Second thing we bought was an old dining room table that used to be my gran’s. Probably the only thing I brought due to sentimental reasons and I’m so glad that we did. Read more

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Applying for your Australian Tax File Number - how to apply for your TFN

Since arriving in Australia there are a number of forms and services we’ve had to apply for. To help you easily get on your feet when you finally arrive in Australia we’ll provide details of some of the basics. The first of which is applying for your Tax File Number.

OK, to start with what the heck is a Tax File Number (TFN) ?

A tax file number (TFN) is a unique number issued by the Tax Office in Australia. For those looking at moving to Australia from the UK, the TFN is pretty much the same as your National Insurance number.

When you move out to Australia, its pretty important to get your Tax File Number sorted sooner rather then later because without it, you’ll be charged tax at the highest rate (currently about 46%) on any earnings you’ll make whilst residing in Australia..

Only one TFN is issued to you for your lifetime. Once you have been issued with a TFN, there is no need to apply for another if your circumstances change – for example, if you move to another Australian State (e.g. from Western Australia to New South Wales), change jobs, change your name in any way , acquire investments, or claim government benefits.

Thankfully applying for your Tax File number is a pretty painless exercise. The Aussie Governments Taxation office have been kind enough to create a web site that enables you to do pretty much everything you would ever want to do online.

If you are a working holiday maker, a New Zealander (who are automatically granted a visa upon arrival), an oversees student, someone (like us) who has a permanent visa allowing you to stay in Australia indefinitely or someone with a business visa. All you need to do is pop over to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Web site and fill in the appropriate forms.

You’ll need your passport number as this is used to verify your existence (and check your residency illegibility and an address to which the ATO can mail your taxation number out to.

The ATO asks you to allow 28 days for your Tax File number to be processed but when we applied it only took 10 days. It really is easy as that.

At time of typing the Tax file number information can be found on the ATO website by clicking here If that link doesn’t work then pop on over to the front page of the ATO web site (http://www.ato.gov.au) and select the Tax File Number option from the Forms and Services option in the main menu on the left.

Popularity: 8% [?]

How to cut your SKY TV costs in half

I love my Sky TV but a couple of weeks ago I made the (very hard) decision to cancel our subscription.

For those non UK viewers, Sky Television is the name of the main satellite network owned by Rupert Murdoch here in the UK, there are some half decent channels on Sky but alas we probably only watch about 2% of the 200+ made available to us.

We cancelled the subscription (after about 10 years) as firstly, we needed to give 30 days notice and don’t want to be paying once we sell the house, and secondly we need to save as much money as we physically can prior to making the move down under.

We have two boxes in our house and use the Sky + service (the one where you can record or pause live television). We have the full package and for the privilege we pay about £60 per month (more if we opt for a few pay per view ‘box office’ movies.

£60 a month isn’t a massive amount when your earning a half decent salary, however we are now starting to make ourselves get into the mindset that £60 is actually quite a bit of cash when neither of us are earning (as will be the case when we initially emigrate to Western Australia).

For example, £60 could but a decent sized food shop, Four months Sky could pay for a decent chunk of rent.

As I’ve mentioned before, we hope to move out to Australia with a decent amount of cash following the sale of our house. However we don’t want to just whittle all of this money away, any cash we can save for a deposit on some land or a new house will be very well received.

Anyway, back to our friends at Sky.

The buggers wouldn’t leave me alone. We have had a number of calls from Sky since we made the decision to cancel the subscription but they wouldn’t speak to the missus as I was the names account holder apparently (stupid since we both have the same surname, live in the same house and watch the same TV).

They eventually got through to me and asked if they could talk to me about some of the special offers which they have available which might convince me to stay.

I actually stopped the guy mid way through his ‘pitch’ and politely told him to save his breath as we are moving to the other side of the world.

He wished me all the best and then went on his way. After putting the phone down I realised that I should have at least listened to guy to see what offers Sky are willing to make to their ‘loyal’ customers to convince them to stay.

I discussed this with a couple of my colleagues at work and I was surprised by the number of people who I know have been given special offers by Sky due to a recent house move or to stop them from cancelling the package for good. One of my work colleagues was even given FREE SKY for four months followed 25% off for the remaining 8 months.

This kind of makes sense. It used to really frustrate me that as a loyal customer of over 10 years that I was paying through the nose for this service whereas someone can come off the street and pay half the price I do simply because they are a new customer.

I’m not so naive that I don’t understand the principals of marketing but come on. At time of writing Sky are offering the FULL Package to new customers at only £10 a month (plus an extra £10 credit against their first bill if they apply online)…Grrrrr

Anyway. All of these offers made by Sky to existing customers led me to do some additional research on the web and some of these offers are just crazy.

Before I go on, remember that they will take your cancellation and will confirm the cancellation over the phone. They will probably start to ‘fish’ at this point to see if there are any offers, which may convionce you to stay. If they do don’t accept them. Just give the notice to cancel your subscription and wait.

Approx 7 – 10 days later Sky will, in most cases phone back in an attempt at getting you to stay, because they know you’ve already shown little interest in the earlier attempts to get you to stay they will propose some slightly more ‘interesting’ offers:

Here’s a selection of some of the offers Sky have made to other people once they have requested that they cancel the account.

I rang to cancel and was offered 2 months 66p a month!

Just managed to get sky world for £21.25 for three months. At least it softens the blow, as the premiership is not on

Friend of mine rang to cancel Sky+. They begged him to stay - Gave him Half price for three months. After three months they rang him and offered him the next three months 40% off.

I rang to cancel and was offered 3 months at half price.

Got offered two mixes at 75p for six months. Informed them that I was still on my current deal. Don’t worry I was told I can arrange that to start afterwards. I enquired if they needed to keep up subscriber numbers or something.

The guy had no idea. I took the offer as I only watch certain channels on Sky anyway; I’m not going to miss 75p. Especially as they paid me £50 in Argos vouchers to come back with the half price offer.

And the list goes on…

I’m terrible at getting around to stuff. In fact I’m pretty impressed that I finally got around to cancelling Sky! I guess the moral of this story is if you want to save a couple of quid then phone up Sky and cancel your subscription.

At the moment it’s almost a dead certainty that you’ll be given an offer to Stay with Sky.

Remember that you need to give 30 days notice to cancel your Sky so it won’t just get cut off.

If you’ve not been given any special offers within 20 – 25 days and you want to keep your Sky then give the good folks at Sky a call back and they’ll cancel your cancellation…

One other point is if you live in an area where cable TV is readily available (NTL, Telewest , Kingston) then you may well be in for a real treat. I’ve read that Sky is particularly conscious of all areas within the UK where cable companies exist.

These cable companies are a big threat for Sky because if you can get cable, you also have an opportunity to move away from Sky completely whilst still having full access to many of their channels.

This seriously effects the amount of potential revenue Sky can make out of you as a customer and to acknowledge this risk, Sky it seems are willing to really push the boat out to these customers.

Anyway, I wish I knew about this before I decided to bugger off to Aus so go on. Give it a go and if it works for you. Please post a comment.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Certifying your Docs - The Cheap & Easy Way!

Top tip posted by Clippies on our forums which I think is worthy of a spot within our main pages:

Hello, just thought I’d post this as I’ve just been and had my copied documents certified. It was super easy, I phoned the local Magistrates Court in Sutton and they booked me an appointment with the Justice of the Peace at 9.30am today - I arrived on the dot, handed over my documents and they returned them to me all certified in less than half an hour.

And how much did it cost? £8!!! Yes that’s it £8, for all 60 copies certified!

I had phoned a solicitor and they quoted me £200 so I’m really pleased I didn’t go that route - so a huge thank you to whoever it was on here that suggested the Magistrates Court

Anyone else looking to do this go to this website and look up your local Magistrates, then ring them and ask for an appointment with the Justice of the Peace.

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/

It costs £8 as an administration fee, JP are not allowed to charge for their time

Personally, I wish I knew this before we got our docs certified but thankfully we didn’t have that many to send over. if you do then Clippies tip may be a top one.

Way to go Clippies - Click here for the original thread on our forums.

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