My British passport has finally arrived! Yay!!! I can now actually legally DO what I'm planning. I mean technically I could have just turned up on a visitors visa, but then I couldn't interview for any decent jobs because I wouldn't have the paperwork. And I would have had to do some dubious travelling when it finally did turn up, in order to be in the right country on the right passport........... so all in all I am very pleased it is here!
Also pleased that I appear to have suceeded in convincing a big international bank to open an account for me which I can use once I get to the UK, which will be nifty. Now I just need to figure out the logistics of getting money there when I can't actually activate the account until I'm in the UK. Hmmmm. Possibly I just put it all on one of these cash card things through Visa and my bank, and then I can take it out again when I get there.... ahh I'll figure something out.
Monkeys!!!
Wellington is fun. I have too much stuff here, I'm contemplating burning it. I don't *really* want my university notes from the last five years. It's not like they're useful or anything.
Thats all for now. Two weeks to go!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I found the easiest way to shift a large amount of money from one country to the other was to get a bank cheque made out...this works especially well if the bank you are taking your money from and the one you are taking it to are owned by the same company.
ReplyDeleteWhen moving to Oz this year, I took at cheque from my NZ bank made out in **Aussie** dollars to my Aussie bank - it took them a day to clear it (typical for cheques). If I'd brought a cheque in NZ dollars, it would have taken up to 6 weeks.
If you have an account already set up, you can do an international funds transfer, though these can be expensive if you are doing it frequently, and they may not let you actually put money into your account until you arrive and activate it.
I would recommend, as someone who has done the whole "move to a new country and set up an account with a new bank" thing twice in 2 years, to go in and talk to someone at your bank here well before you go. They should have some good advice for you, based on how much money you are transferring and where you are taking it to. And also sort out your credit card and put any money you are leaving here into a high interest account or something.
Kirsti.
I tried talking to my bank, but they were monumentally unhelpful, they just offered credit cards or the pre-paid cash card thing. And as they're part of ANZ-National they didn't have ties to any UK banks.
ReplyDeleteBank cheques do sounds like the way to do things, if I only had internet access yesterday! But I would have still needed to buy a fair bit of cash, as my UK account can't be activated till I visit a branch in NZ (only one is in Auckland) until the day before I leave, so waiting for cards etc. Ahhh I'll know for next time!