Choosing the best Australia bank for your individual needs is much the same as choosing one in the UK. There did used to be an added complication that you could only use cash machines from your own bank without incurring a charge. I.e. if you had a Nab account you could only use Nab machines or com bank account you could only use com bank machines etc etc. This meant you actually had to factor in where you were going to be and the cash machine coverage.
Therefor previous recommendations would be along the lines of if you were going to be in a city any would be fine but if travelling around and venturing further out the commonwealth was a often a better option. But since 2017 this is not the case and banks have deiced to waive these charges. You probably still want to make sure you have a branch near where you are going to live but other than that the main banks are much of a muchness. These are NAB, ANZ, The Commonwealth and WestPac. I went with NAB as it had no charges even if you did not transfer any money in. As I had no job when I got here i did not have a regular income to go into the bank so this was a no brainier for me...you can always open a second bank once your there.
- If transferring lots of savings base your decision on the interest rates being offered at the time
- If you don't have a job set up ready for when you arrive it might be better to go with one that doesn't have a monthly charge (NAB or Westpac). Most don't charge if you pay in monthly (i.e. your wage) but NAB does not charge at all and Westpac don't charge for 12 months.
- Do you want to open it before you leave the UK but to be fair the 4 main banks all allow you to do this though, see below for links. This might save a bit of time but i personally did do this as I did not feel comfortable transferring money into a bank account I did not have full access too. But could possibly open it and only transfer a small amount, at least you know its ready to go when you get there.
NAB bank Australia
As mentioned this is who i went with mainly because they do not have a monthly charge for there account. Also interest rates did not seem any worse than the other banks. We simply went into a branch with all out Visa, drivers license, passports and open an account there and then. As we were staying in an Airbnb we also arranged for the cards to be sent to the NAB branch which we picked up a few days later.
We have not had any issues. The one think I would say is that make sure you ask for a visa debit card as well as the eftpos card you get as you can't use eftpos online.
No Apple pay
Westpac
The benefit of Westpac is that they waive the monthly charge for the first 12 months
ANZ
Monthly charge unless you transfer in $1000. I have opened an ANZ account since being here as i wanted to be able to use Apple pay and NAB do not have apple pay active yet.
App is a little basic
The Commonwealth Bank
This seems like the biggest bank here and seems to have the most comprehensive app and coverage. Just my impression though. They also have a monthly charge unless you pay so much in a month.
Com bank often go to the UK emigration exhibitions so go to some of these and open a bank account there.
ING
ING probably offers the best rates and services but they do not have any branches. They also offer free cash withdrawals but there are restrictions that you might be harder to meet in your first few months. I would recommend looking into ING but would not recommend it as you first and only account when you land in a new country. You will have other things to worry about rather than making sure you makes the required number of transaction and transfers into your account.
