Bank account in New Zealand

springonion

Hi,

First off - apologies if I put this in the wrong thread and please shout at me if I have but this is the nearest I could find which would cover it.

This may also seems a strange request but I want to open a bank account in New Zealand dollars but here in the UK. I live in the UK but want to start up a home business which involves dealing with customers and suppliers in New Zealand. It makes sense for me to have a bank account in New Zealand dollars so I don't transfer in and out of £'s but keep it in NS$'s. Trouble is the banks here charge an absolute fortune for something called a foreign currency account.

Does anyone have any idea on what the cheapest way to do this would be or can point me to somehwere which might be a better place to find out please?

Thanks to everyone on here

:beer:

heloid

Opening an account from the UK might be a challenge unless you go through a UK bank, and you will be lucky to operate it unless you are in NZ at some point to provide ID etc. I just helped a friend so is trying to do the same thing ahead of moving there in 6 months.

To open a HSBC UK bank account before I arrived in the UK I opened an non-business HSBC NZ account just so I didn't have to send ID to the UK, you may be able to do the reverse. As far as I'm aware I don't pay any monthly charges for the account, but I haven't checked it in about a year HSBC in NZ is pretty limited, internet banking is barebones but sufficient.

Similarly CITI has a NZ presence.

My preferred NZ Bank is Westpac, their internet banking about 5 years ahead of anything in the UK, have 24/hr support, all internal transfers are instant and all others are overnight (NZ time). They are opening a branch in central London soon. I'm not sure how easy it will be to open an account without being in NZ though. They don't have a presence in London (until 2011) nor link up to any UK bank. HiFX have this service, may help:
http://www.hifx.co.uk/personal/emigration/setting_up_a_bank_account_in_oz_or_nz.aspx

Loyds TSB have connections to National Bank which are also very good (by UK standards). You may be able to arrange something through them.
ASB have a London office: https://www.asb.co.nz/personal/banking-with-asb/moving-to-new-zealand/from-uk

Good luck

taless

Since you're going to do home business in NZ, I guess you will be at least visiting NZ soon?

I went to NZ 4 years ago, and although they know I'm there on a visitor's visa, they still opened a current account for me (Westpac New Zealand) (in other words, no requirement to be a resident). I have still been keeping the account open, and use it regularly when I visit annually.

Agreed that Westpac's online banking facility is fabulous.

I guess you do need to be physically present in NZ for the initial account opening, but once it is set up everything is fine.