veinkamerer Posted February 23, 2018 Report Share Posted February 23, 2018 Hi. Need some help. When we immigrate to Australia, I will still get an income from South Africa each month. My income from working in Australia will be separate and we will be using one of Australia's banks for that. Would a credit card work the best for me when receiving a salary from South Africa? If anyone also gone thru this, what is the tariffs, pros and cons when using a card? ( would be a FNB credit card ) Or maybe other platforms we can use for transferring money each month that would be the most cost effective? Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisH Posted February 25, 2018 Report Share Posted February 25, 2018 It might be cheaper to transfer your money in batches to Australia than swiping for each transaction individually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veinkamerer Posted February 25, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2018 Thank you Chris. Could you perhaps give me some more info regarding this and/or your experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPanda Posted February 25, 2018 Report Share Posted February 25, 2018 We use FX Capital to transfer money in batches. But I'm not 100% sure if that will work for a monthly salary, so maybe find out what the others have to say too. If it's not going to be for long, then probably the most hassle free option will be best. I don't think you'll lose too much on a few months' salary if the fees are little bit higher. (Obviously if it's ridiculous that a different story) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisH Posted February 25, 2018 Report Share Posted February 25, 2018 12 hours ago, veinkamerer said: Thank you Chris. Could you perhaps give me some more info regarding this and/or your experience. So I've gone back to my June credit card statements, we used our South African credit card for the first week until we got our NAB cards mailed to us. It seems like the bank charged about a 3% - 3.5% markup on the spot rate (I compared using xe.com so they only list the closing price for a given day so not 100% accurate but it gives you an idea). This means that every transaction you do ends up costing you 3% more and Australia is already an expensive country to live in! My suggestion would be to get quotes from your own bank for transferring money to AUS, then check some of the online services that others have mentioned on the forum. If it comes in under the 3% margin then you have yourself a winner! Just remember that some might charge a transfer fee over and above the interbank margin they add and you will have to include that in your calculation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veinkamerer Posted February 26, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2018 Thanks a lot. This really helps. It's giving me a platform to work from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iambrettstar Posted February 26, 2018 Report Share Posted February 26, 2018 I know you mentioned you're with FNB, but standard bank have an app called "shyft" which allows you to buy foreign currency. The exchange rates seem competitive and there's a flat fee of A$18 for a transfer. There's a limit of A$90K per transaction, which should more than cover your salary... You can order a physical shyft card in your chosen currency, which is a mastercard, and costs R120. Swiping the card at POS is free, withdrawing is A$4.8. The info is here: https://www.standardbank.co.za/standardbank/Personal/Self-service-banking/Self-Service-Channels/Shyft-App I personally haven't used the app - but it seems like decent pricing for smaller transactions, and is easy to manage, so you might want to look into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veinkamerer Posted February 26, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2018 Thank you. Will look into this as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcmiller Posted March 20, 2018 Report Share Posted March 20, 2018 One other thing to bear in mind is that you need to inform your SA bank that you are "visiting" Australia otherwise they will deem overseas transactions as fraudulent and possibly decline them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F1veClaw Posted June 6, 2018 Report Share Posted June 6, 2018 My friend uses Shyft as he works in Sydney, but has a secondary income in SA. He swears by it, and he isn't the worlds biggest fan of Standard Bank. Can't comment on the pricing through, for him it was the fact that it works every time with zero snags Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FingersCrossed Posted June 10, 2018 Report Share Posted June 10, 2018 Awesome - Looks like Shyft will work for me to. 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iambrettstar Posted June 11, 2018 Report Share Posted June 11, 2018 Just an update: I've used Shyft a couple times now, both using the card, and to transfer money (under 100K), and it works very well. You do an EFT to a nominated account, and that credits your shyft account (usually within a few minutes, though once it took a few hours). Thereafter, you can buy one of the currencies available, and it gives you a live rate. You then can either put that money onto your card, if you have one, or you can send to a beneficiary (so I transferred to my local Aus account). There's a flat $18 fee for that, and it takes a few days to clear depending on the bank. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisH Posted June 11, 2018 Report Share Posted June 11, 2018 The Absa equivalent of Shyft is Novo FX: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=za.co.absa.novofx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monsta Posted June 11, 2018 Report Share Posted June 11, 2018 Another option is PayPal. Disclaimer: I haven't checked how expensive it is to load up pay pal from FNB But essentially you get paid into an FNB account... you transfer that money into pay pal and then use it for your regular bills. Many companies here, like electric & gas companies accept pay pal. Most eCommerce companies accept pay pal. Most of the big stores will accept "click and collect" via pay pal. So, you order online with pay pal and pick it up in the store. You can even pay for your netflix, spotify via pay pal. It really comes down to how much money you want to transfer. If its only +-20% of your Aussie income, then pay pal could work. But remember you can't pay many expenses via pay pal, e.g. your rent. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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