Opening an Overseas bank account and transfaring money

Markos321

Good evening all first post on here!

Basically I'm after someone a little savvy in the industry to tell me the best route to take when opening a bank account abroad (In my case New Zealand)
I am working in NZ for a year with a view to stay longer and was looking to transfer a large sum of money from one account to the other (Within the same bank).
I am aware after having a brief chat with a member of my bank that there are charges for setting up an account and charges for swapping money over to NZ$ and I'm also aware that this carries some risk of losing money in terms of the exchange rate but this is where my bank became vague and didn't really answer my questions.
I guess basically I'm asking of the most cost effective and least risky way of doing this.
Sorry if this post is a little long winded I just wanted to get all the info i could in.

Regards
Markos

grumbler

How large is the "large sum"?
The most effective way is likely to be using some third party, and it doesn't have to be "the same bank":
http://www.mycurrencytransfer.com/money-transfer-to-New-Zealand/5000-GBP
http://www.fxcompared.com/Content/money-transfer-from-UK-New%20Zealand-above-3000-amount-5000
(for the current interbank rate see http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/).

However, depending on the amount, withdrawing money from a right UK card can be even more effective: Your Card's Overseas Charges

Markos321

Thanks for the reply and links Grumbler I shall have a good read.

Well in real life terms it's not large its mid thousands £25k+ but large enough for me to be concerned about

zerog

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/foreign-currency-exchange

HSBC Premier will not charge anything if both sending and receiving accounts are in your name, but you may get (slightly) stung on the exchange rate. The proper way to do it would be with a multi-currency account in HSBC HK which lets you exchange at your leisure, but that's probably too much trouble.

Markos321

Thanks for the reply Zerog it's all food for thought! And it all helps me to understand and make the right decision

agrinnall

What do you mean by "within the same bank"? Are you suggesting that you will only open an account with a bank that has a presence both in the UK and NZ? If so then zerog's suggestion of HSBC might work, but it looks like they only have branches in Auckland, so if that's not where you are going and you need branch access it may not be the best option.

russellsnr

Hi, When we moved to Greece we used currencies direct recommended on here by ML.
We moved over £140,000 and by using made over £4000 compared to the banks exchange rate and charges at that time.
C D I believe still do not charge for transfers over £5000.
Russ