Taking money with you when moving abroad

watna

Hi all,

Wasn't 100% sure if this would be better here, or student travel etc so feel free to move if necessary!

I'm moving to NZ in three weeks on a WHV and only last night started thinking about money. I have a good bit saved up but I'm just wondering, from people's experience, what the best and cheapest way to transfer money from my Irish bank account to the NZ bank account I'll open when I get there. I want to transfer a certain amount of my savings to get set up in a flat etc.

Would an intra bank transfer be cheapest/easiest? My OH has a bank account there already so I could transfer before I go. I just heard that could take a good while and have high charges.

Other options are withdrawing the money by ATM but again, that will have fees and I'll have to do it over a few days due to daily withdrawal limits. or maybe cashing traveller's cheques into my new account?

Any suggestions? I hope i don't sound too scabby trying to give the banks as little of my money as possible!

Carlow52

t cheques in NZ ccy may be best bet: not all banks do them now so check it out first

unclebill98

Most banks do transfers. Its cheap enough and the max cost is around 45euro, but you'd be very hard pressed to have it cost that much.

T/chq's are a dying format for traveling with cash. Most banks do not charge for taking money out of a ATM when abroad. Only thing is the foreign banks might take something and then again the exchange rate will differ from Bank to bank and you might not always get a fair exchange rate etc..

Best to transfer to the OH account and then open an account up when you get there. Use you own bank here to transfer the cash. It will be the easiest and cheapest way of doing it. Just get all the info on the OH account and go into you local branch.

Carlow52

unclebill98 wrote: »

Most banks do not charge for taking money out of a ATM when abroad.

if u care to read the OP's post carefully u will see that he is considering using his IRISH ATM CARD IN OZ to withdraw cash from his IRISH bank.
The minimum commission rate is 4.5% for most banks for this x border/x ccy transaction.

watna

unclebill98 wrote: »

Most banks do transfers. Its cheap enough and the max cost is around 45euro, but you'd be very hard pressed to have it cost that much.

T/chq's are a dying format for traveling with cash. Most banks do not charge for taking money out of a ATM when abroad. Only thing is the foreign banks might take something and then again the exchange rate will differ from Bank to bank and you might not always get a fair exchange rate etc..

Best to transfer to the OH account and then open an account up when you get there. Use you own bank here to transfer the cash. It will be the easiest and cheapest way of doing it. Just get all the info on the OH account and go into you local branch.

Thanks, was talking to people last night too and this does seem to be the best option. I'm going to call the bank today anyway and ask about charges etc.

Carlow52 wrote: »

if u care to read the OP's post carefully u will see that he is considering using his IRISH ATM CARD IN OZ to withdraw cash from his IRISH bank.
The minimum commission rate is 4.5% for most banks for this x border/x ccy transaction.

I'm a she (people on boards keep thinking I'm a he recently, I must come across all manly!) and yes I'll be using an Irish bank card to withdraw money from NZ bank machines. I'll need to put at least €2,000 in my new kiwi account so I reckon the comission would be too much, seeming as I'd have to do a few transactions. Transferring seems to be the best way.

Thanks for all the advice.

unclebill98

Carlow52 wrote: »

if u care to read the OP's post carefully u will see that he is considering using his IRISH ATM CARD IN OZ to withdraw cash from his IRISH bank.
The minimum commission rate is 4.5% for most banks for this x border/x ccy transaction.

:eek: I said most banks.....


I know for a fact that there is no commission charge for using your ATM card with UB and BOI. There MAYBE a charge the other end, but thats not always the case. I am talking from 1st hand experience here, I don't post bull.... Well I try not too

watna

Ok, Rang AIB. Here's the dealio for anyone else in this situation.

You can do an intra bank transfer online. It costs 20c to do it to a European bank account and €15 to do it to a bank account worldwide. They are set fees and there's a €5000 limit. It seems reasonable enough, I suppose.

There is a €600 ATM limit a day so i'd have to take money out over 4 days incurring those fees. Seems like transferring online is the best option.

jank

Sorry to bump this again but wouldnt you get screwed by the exchange rate?

watna

jank wrote: »

Sorry to bump this again but wouldnt you get screwed by the exchange rate?

Wow.....old school! I've been in NZ for two months now!!

You're going to get screwed by exchange rate no matter what you do. My money basically doubled because the euro/NZ dollar rate is very good. I had no complaints and my money safely and quickly reached NZ.

It's all gone now though!