I’m heading to Australia soon for an extended vacation.
I would like to exchange money in the US before leaving, but I don’t want to carry it around “in cash” and I refuse to use traveler’s cheques.
So I was wondering how easy would be to get a bank account on day 1, put in the cash, and then get an ATM card to use for the remainder of the trip?
Does this sound doable? I know some times the bank can issue atm cards right away, other times you get them mailed. I also know there can be rules about residency and needing a mailing address.
I’ll be traveling the East Coast from Sydney to Cairns, are there specific banks that would work best for this? I’d like to avoid signing up for a bank that is huge in NSW but non-existent in Queensland. What banks would offer the best ATM coverage?
Why not use a debit card to withdraw cash from a US account at ATMs in Australia? I think you’ll find it easier and better value than opening an account in Australia. I actually do this although I have a bank account in Australia, because it’s easier to use my credit union account from the US.
(Whatever you do, you won’t be restricted to a particular bank. In addition, you’ll find ATMs at other places, such as building societies, shopping centres and airports.)
Travellers can open bank accounts in Australia using just their passport. I have always had ATM cards mailed to me, so I don’t know how that works. Maybe they will mail it Poste Restante. You can also open the account before you go.
The ‘big 4’ banks are Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank (NAB), Westpac and ANZ. They are all nation-wide.
Watch out for account-keeping fees, transaction fees, not-your-bank ATM fees, and any other random fees they try to tack on. Check the contract carefully and look at different permutations of fees and accounts to get the one that will work best for you.
There are networks like Cirrus and Visa that mean you can use your normal card to access your US account, but the transaction fees might be high.
Generally I’ve found the fees charged by Australian ATMs less than those at similar ATMs in the US. Visa or Mastercard will charge something for the currency exchange, but you have to pay something for that whatever you do, so that’s not a real issue.
I pay a fortune to use someone else’s atm, and I pay a fortune for foreign transactions. Basically, I have a decent domestic account, but it blows if I travel.
Ideally I’d make several trips to the atm to avoid ever having to carry large amounts of money. But if I used my US account I’d be dinged a couple of bucks each time. I’d rather use that for diving…
A passport is only worth 70. If you add a photo driver’s license you are over 100 points.
Actually the relevant wiki page says it has to be an Australian driver’s license, so I’m not sure what a visitor could do. Perhaps an exception to the 100 point system is made to foreign nationals, but I would certainly be doing some research before relying on that.
Yeah, these days just take your debit card with you. I’m in the UK, and when I travel abroad I simply take my card; I don’t worry about currency. I’ve not yet met a country where this was a problem.
It’s not that it’s a problem, it’s that my bank will charge me a fee every time I do it. Then charge me a currency conversion fee, and then give me a crappy exchange rate.
It would probably be easier to set up a better bank account at home first, but I was curious if this other option would work too.
It’s been a long time since I was in retail in the Commonwealth Bank, but you should be able to open an account.
I seem to recall a rule about recent arrivals to Australia being able to open an account with just their passport, rather than the full 100 points normally required.
In terms of getting access to the account, cards are posted out, usually taking ~a week. There never used to be an issue with having a Post Restante address on your account, so that could be an option for you.
Also, if the cost of banking is a problem for you, be careful about which bank and account you go with. Aussie bank’s are notorious for charging you every cent they can. You shuold be able to find accounts which have a monthly fee of ~$5 with a lot of free transactions thrown in.
Also you’re better off going with one of the big four banks (as noted above), as they have the biggest ATM networks, and using an off-network ATM will cost you ~$2 a pop.
The Westpac branch across the road from my office caters to the “backpacker” market, and there always seem to be hordes of German tourists in there opening accounts. So I popped in at lunchtime and asked. The response:
a tourist can open an account just by providing his passport;
the card has to be posted to a residential address (not poste restante)
The UK bank HSBC has a retail presence via an Australian subsidiary. Bank Of America operates here as a branch only, and is not allowed to accept retail deposits.
The advantage of opening a better account back home is not only that you can get it done before you travel - no worrying if the card will turn up or the advice you’ve had is right - but it is available for other counties if you do more travelling.
[nitpick] HSBC Group is a multinational but its corporate headquarters is in London so I’m going to claim it as British [/nitpick]
I think this is the same deal as the car. You’re only here a month. You’re going to spend half your time on admin like opening accounts and buying and selling cars. You are planning on carrying a huge amount of cash on the trip over which is going to be at risk till you get the account open. Currencies cost less to buy in their own country, usually, so maybe you’ve done your homework but I think you’d buy A$ here cheaper than in the US. Plus you won’t know exactly how much you’ll need so you’ll either run short (and be back to getting some from an ATM on your bank back home) or bring too much and have to re-convert, on which you will lose even more.
Just draw it out of an ATM here, on your bank back home. It’s what all experienced modern travellers do (backpacker’s spending 6mths at a time here excepted). There will be some charges but how much is your holiday time worth, fer cryin out loud?
Personally I’d value a day’s holiday time much (much) more highly, but even at, say, $100 a day I reckon you’ll spend a half day on this scheme. Are you actually going to save more than $50?
This is something that doesn’t happen in (much?) of Europe. I can use my dutch debet card all over the world without paying any fees - same with using banks -, i think tehy used to charge you sopmething for giong to an ATM abroad, but i haven’t seen it the last couple of years. I was amazed when the ATM’s in the US had all these warnings about extra charges and your bank also charging; luckily when I got back I found out I didn’t pay anything. The conversion rate on the other hand, yeah, they’ll screw you on that But no more than when you go exchange it in cash.
The reason why the backpackers do it is that they are on WHVs (working holiday visas), so when they get a job fruit-picking or waiting in a cafe, they need a bank account to put their wages into. I still don’t think it’s worth it for a tourist.
Headquartered in London, HSBC Holdings is a public limited company incorporated in England and Wales (cite).
HSBC was founded by a Scot, Thomas Sutherland, in colonial Hong Kong. The bank was incorporated in Hong Kong by special dispensation from the British Treasury in 1866.
I did exactly this when I took an extended holiday in Australia in 1999–2000. I had no problems opening an account and getting a debit card; all I needed was some ID. Then again, the rules may have changed since then. Why not simply contact an Australian bank and ask? Wikipedia has a list of the top Australian banks, whence you can find their web pages and contact info.
[/nitpick]