Best UK bank to send and recieve to Australia - AUD

2319WeHaveA2319

Hello,

Looking at a move abroad, to Australia in the next 12 months or so, and looking at a current UK bank for a short interim that has the ability to send and recieve AUD. 

I understand there is services such as WISE and no doubt will use similar but I am looking for a bank that can do this just incase. 

I currently bank with CHASE and they are amazing, really happy however I am due a payment from an AUS company, and they need a Swift/Iban to be able to send the money to me. Chase have told me, no. 

I don't want to switch from Chase, but looking at an account that is free, and doesnt cost an arm and a leg to recieve payments from Aus / Send payments. 

I was going to sign up with Monzo, as they appear to be able to recieve payments and they appear to send payments via wise. 

I do have a Santander savings account.. potentially see if they will give me a Swift/Iban

PRAISETHESUN

I use Wise as the intermediary between my GBP and AUD current accounts. I wouldn't use them to store any significant sums for a long period (no FSCS protection), but they are good for maximising the return on the currency conversion. They provide a local BSB + account number you can provide to the Aussie company to receive AUD into, which you can then convert to GBP if you require and send to your Chase account.

Long term you'll want to open a local AUD account. I have an account with CBA and they do the job for me, but any of the big 4 will do really to get started.

2319WeHaveA2319

I was just worried, 1 for this payment to come into me, and then the short term before I get set up over there (Plus any bills in the UK I need to pay). 

However, checking the Santander website, I potentially can have them pay my savings account with them but no mention to how much money they may want to charge me for the privilege 

2319WeHaveA2319

On a side note, I have been able to generate my Swift BIC / IBAN code for CHASE, however on the edge if I should really use it as their site says ... "we don't offer that service" or chance it as it looks good..

PRAISETHESUN

I wouldn't use Chase, from their website they say "Sorry, Chase accounts can’t be used to send or receive money internationally yet." (https://www.chase.co.uk/gb/en/support/international-payments/ )

Wise is fairly quick to set up, just ideally you want to allow some time to complete the verification process before you send/receive any payments to minimise the chance of your money being frozen. Otherwise Santander will likely work, but as you rightly say they'll probably take a fee, and apply a margin on any exchange rate used so you won't receive the best deal. They aren't the most transparent on the rates they'll use from what I can see. All high street banks will likely be similar in this respect.