Transferring money from SA bank account once we've arrived in Aus

[OLVD]

Hi everyone,

 

Maybe this question has been asked and answered before, but I need some advice on how it would practically work to transfer money from my SA bank account once I've arrived in Aus.  So far, on every SWIFT and forex form that I've had to complete, the bank asked for my date of departure, seeing that I'm transferring the funds under my annual R1m travel allowance.

 

My question is, would it not be an issue if I want to transfer funds after arriving in Aus, if my date of departure is now prior to me wanting to utilise my travel allowance?  Has anyone had a similar experience and was there an issue?  My banker doesn't seem to know the answer to this, which doesn't inspire much trust from my side ...

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Hugo2]

Departure date is not relevant for the SDA R1m if it is your own funds. If your SA family send money to you they need to declare departure date. I suggest you use a forex broker and not a banker, because the on the floor bankers are clueless. There should be no problem and you can FICA on you foreign address.  You can transfer funds before or after departure / arrival on condition you do note exceed R1m per calendar year. Welcome to inbox me

[frosty]

There should be no issue, if you are a South African Citizen and Taxpayer departure date is irrelevant. Not sure which bank you are with, but I have an FNB Global Account in AUD. Transfer Rand to Dollar regularly from my FNB Cheque Account without any issues. Once in AUD I can transfet to any Bank Account in Australia without hassle as it has already passed through FOREX. Just need to declare it as part of your annual allowance (R1m) when it’s transferred into the FNB Global Account. Takes about a day to clear.

[stefans]

Why don't you draw cash from your SA credit card?

[ChrisH]

@OLVD who do you bank with in South Africa?

[MovingSoon]

Good day all. Apologies for posting here and not a new thread. Let me know if I should post this somewhere else.

I have been researching different money transfer companies, etc. and it's clear that a money transfer company needs to be used to transfer money instead of a bank.

Just something I need clarification on:

Swift fees - this needs to be paid when transferring money abroad. So if I use an SA based company, I transfer money to them and have them convert it to AUD, then I give them a bank account in Aus to send it to - so I incure SWIFT fees by my bank. Likewise if I were to use this company to send money to SA, I will be sending AUD to their SA bank account and hence incur Swift fees by my bank. Is there any way to avoid Swift fees and do I understand this correctly?

I see CitiBank says that they do not charge on their global account to receive money, anyone used this?

Basically I want to send my money to Aus in stages once my visa is approved and pensions etc are released, and when I am in Aus I want to transfer money back to SA twice a month.

[frosty]

You can transfer to foreign accounts from you bank, don’t necessarily need to use a separate transferring company. No real way around SWIFT fees as I am aware of.

Edited March 18, 2019 by frosty

[MovingSoon]

1 hour ago, frosty said:

You can transfer to foreign accounts from you bank, don’t necessarily need to use a separate transferring company. No real way around SWIFT fees as I am aware of.

Thank you for the response. I've seen comparisons that show that the banks exchange rate is generally much higher than that of a transferring company, so there's a good saving when transferring alot of money.

[ChrisH]

You might have already done this, but check the overall fees and not just the exchange rate.  Some banks might quote a higher margin on rate but they don't charge any other fees, where as some might quote a lower margin on rate but very high fees.

 

As in the example below, a fee of R500 quickly erases that 5c margin benefit they quoted.

Cash	Fee	Rate	AUD	Actual rate
R  100,000.00	R  500.00	R  10.15	$  9,802.96	R        10.201
R  100,000.00	R           -	R  10.20	$  9,803.92	R        10.200

 

[MovingSoon]

14 hours ago, ChrisH said:

You might have already done this, but check the overall fees and not just the exchange rate.  Some banks might quote a higher margin on rate but they don't charge any other fees, where as some might quote a lower margin on rate but very high fees.

 

As in the example below, a fee of R500 quickly erases that 5c margin benefit they quoted.

Cash	Fee	Rate	AUD	Actual rate
R  100,000.00	R  500.00	R  10.15	$  9,802.96	R        10.201
R  100,000.00	R           -	R  10.20	$  9,803.92	R        10.200

 

Hi ChrisH

 

Yes, agreed so then it will also depend on the amount I transfer. Thanks for this. I will get actual quotes before doing any transfers to do accurate comparisons

 

[OLVD]

Hi all,

 

Apologies for the late response, I must admit I didn’t check this site much since starting the process of getting to Australia.  In the end I panicked unnecessarily.  My banker shaped up and my money got here quickly and without any difficulties.  I think if you really want to get into rats and mice you can try other options, but my bank, which I’ve been with for many years came through in the end and their rates and costs were pretty much market related (you can check this on most of the big 4 banks’s websites).  Please note I brought over funds under the annual travel allowance only, so if you’re talking huge amounts, do your research, but in the end, with all the other added stresses of moving your family to a new country, I just didn’t feel like spending any more energy on this.

 

Just keep an eye on the exchange rate forecasts (how accurate they might be, in any case) and try and plan your transfers around this.

 

Honestly, my super A-type personality has really been stretched to its limits during this whole emigration process, but I’ve now seen that sometimes you just have to pick your battles very carefully ...

 

Good luck to those that will still be going through all of this - it’s not always easy,  ut it will all be ok in the end.