Moving Money between USA and NZ, and Banks

[jamesthecarman]

In order to open a bank account you have to provide proof you will be hear longer than 3 months (that's HSBC[US based], Bank of NZ[NZ based], etc).

You can use your Visa/MC Debit card easily. Or a regular credit card through Visa/MC.

You can transfer funds. There's typically a fee of about $15 from what my bank was telling me.

They have something called EFTPOS here. It's similiar to being able to use your debit card at grocery stores in the states. Except that's about the only place in the states you can do a POS from your bank account. Here, 90-95% of shops have this service, while probably 75-80% take credit cards (Visa/MC) [mostly it's the proprietary owned restaurants that don't], and 10% take Amex.

Citibank has a building here, but they don't do bank accounts in NZ. They have a corporate presence is about all. The US Consulate is located in the building.

The banks have a lot of fees. Try and go for a smaller one that has to do more to earn business. I heard Kiwi Bank is pretty good, they are located in all the "Post" shops, which is their Post Office. This is also where one gets their DL, birth certificate, etc. With only 3.5 mil for the whole country, they don't need as many departments as we do for 250 mil.

Take a look at the finance page on the site http://www.movetonz.org/finance.php

Transfer your currency with HIFX who dont charge any fees and give you a far better rate that your bank ever will!

Their USA office is in San Francisco.

[drumminj]

Thanks for the info, James. That's good to know. Surprised CC's aren't as commonly accepted. I suppose it promotes fiscal responsibility, which definitely seems to be lacking in the US (what, the average CC balance is like $30k or something, I heard on Oprah or something one day).

J

Hi All,
Thought I'd post something about moving money.
The US Dollar is moving alright... downward in terms of spending power.

Example: December 2002, I was visiting New Zealand and the exchange rate was; 2.0084. $1000 US got me $2008 NZD. Today, 30 October, 2004; it's 1.4613. $1000 US will get you only $1461 NZD.

Is the NZ economy that much stronger? Do Kiwi's get better deals today on US goods than they used to? How does one afford having $547 less now?

The exchange service that I found this information on is called Oanda and you can find it at www.oanda.com. You can search daily rates and historical rates too so you can see how your money is fairing against many of the worlds financial units.

Cheers,
Tom

[quote:853e70fba5="bugeyeguy"]
Example: December 2002, I was visiting New Zealand and the exchange rate was; 2.0084. $1000 US got me $2008 NZD. Today, 30 October, 2004; it's 1.4613. $1000 US will get you only $1461 NZD.

Is the NZ economy that much stronger? Do Kiwi's get better deals today on US goods than they used to?[/quote:853e70fba5]

It's now 1.37382 (aka $.727NZ to $1.00US)

The US Dollar is still dropping. There's a combination of different issues. One is the NZ economy in the 80's was horrible. They have implemented some fairly radical measures over the years to help get it back on it's feet, and it's doing pretty well now.

Oh, then there is the other factor which is how the US is spending it's money. The way the current administration is doing it (high spending, low taxes) I'll be very impressed if there isn't a major recession over the next 5 years.

Imports are helped, but I haven't noticed much of a difference (I got here in July when it was $.63NZ>$1.00US. It's now $.73>$1.00US).

Exports are hurt, as their products become more expensive overseas (same for tourism into NZ). The Wine industry has $.73 as the breaking point, if it's there for 3 months a lof of them may go belly up.