An idea to move enough money out before its too late

[MichaelvdBerg]

Hi,

I am following an interesting path to get enough money out before the Rand is 10 for a $. This is my biggest concern since the Rand is falling at 1.5c a day on average. Today it is R7.45 to the Aussie dollar and I am personally not convinced that it'll be getting better anytime soon (even though some hopefuls still disagree with me, I don't care).

I followed this link , opened and account with the Commonwealth Bank. About 5 days later, I am notified that I have to be verified within 3 months of opening an account according to Ozzie law and that I can do this in SA. Apparently Standard Bank (my bank) and Absa can do it. I'm not sure about the others since I didn't ask. The process is explained in the shipped documentation, which will arive soon hopefully, and I will have to get it verified at a local std Bank branch and then send it back to the Commonwealth Bank. IMPORTANT!!! if you don't get your Ozzie bank accounts verified before prior to 3 months after opening it, you will have your accounts frozen and you will lose your money in it with the only way of getting it back is to have a court order...not my cup of tea thanks. Another note is that with the commonwealth bank, one has to place about $500 in it before the bank will close the account as nullified. The moral of the story is to get the verification done ASAP, at least within 1 month.

The problem comes in on the SA side. Standard Bank charges R550 + forex costs + the Commonwealth Bank's costs. This is just too expensive more someone who is not taking a lot over (I am under 30 and will not be taking too many riches over). I have been thinking. What stops me from opening a paypal or paymate account using my new Commonwealth bank account and then paying via a credit card into the other account via my Standard Bank Credit card?

I will be doing that soon and hopehully I might have found a decent way to move our hard earned cash to Oz..

Watch this space...

Michael

[luckybob]

And??? whats the outcome?

I'm planning on depositing an amount in my Oz account on a monthly basis until I go, but it seems that the costs are gonna be a pain.

[No Worries Mate]

We are waiting for the outcome.

Interesting....

Andre

[Smitte]

Michael,

Do you have an idea what the forex costs and the commonwealths bank costs will be, because I think it will still be better to lose a R1000 now, than losing a lot more later, due to the exchange rate.

What does the validation of the account entails?

Thanks for all the info.

[mbs2oz]

watching this space!

[Firstworld_girl]

I've got a Virgin Money card in South Africa.

Have just sent a mail to the customer services dept in Aus. to see if one can open an account from here and transfer money in.

Will let you know

Antoinette

[Carrie]

I've opened my Aus bank account and will be validating it in May. I also have a Paypal account. As soon as I am back I'm going to try and send cash via Paypal. If anyone manages it before then please keep us posted!

Thanks!

[wislon]

I've opened my Aus bank account and will be validating it in May. I also have a Paypal account. As soon as I am back I'm going to try and send cash via Paypal. If anyone manages it before then please keep us posted!

Thanks!

Actually Paypal is not a bad idea, surprised it doesn't come up more often here now that I think about it.

I've just been reluctant to transfer my money out until I actually get the visa. With my luck I'll clean myself out, the application will be denied and I'll be completely %^ed!

[Guest natalie3]

Actually Paypal is not a bad idea, surprised it doesn't come up more often here now that I think about it.

I've just been reluctant to transfer my money out until I actually get the visa. With my luck I'll clean myself out, the application will be denied and I'll be completely %^ed!

Wislon...surely u not the type who will put ALL the cash u have in oz before your visa is approved?

Put most of it and keep some for a "holiday" if the something happens to your visa application..

[Swerwer]

Before we got here I opened an ANZ account and transferred the bulk of my money to Oz directly from Centurion after showing our one way flight tickets. That was May 2007. We got an exchange rate of R5.90/$. But I still had some other money which I wanted to bring over, which only got available after we were already here. But before we came I increased the daily withdrawal limit to R6000, which is the maximum.

Later the year, between 18 Sept and 29 October 2007, I simply went to the ATM near my work and withdrew amounts of about $970 at a time (about R5907.30 a time) during a period of 6 weeks (14 transactions). I then immediately just deposited the money into my ANZ account. The average exchange rate I got for these credit card withdrawals was R6/$ as well as a service fee of about R80 on each transaction. That means a total of R1120 in service fees added on top of the exchange rate cost.

It was a total of R80636 that I withdrew from South Africa. What I could deposit here was $13240. Which means I got an effective exchange rate of about 6.09.

The service fees/commisions therefore was 1.39%.

If I would have waited until now... Well, I see the exchange rate has improved a bit to 7.152.

R80636 - 1120 = R79516 after service fees deducted

On an exchange rate of 7.152: $11118

That is $2122 less that I would have been able to deposit over here.

I would therefore have LOST $424.40 per month on that money = R3035.30 per month

(R15176.54 in total over 5 months, which is MUCH more that the service fees of R1120 on credit card withdrawals)

Edited April 2, 2008 by Swerwer

[Ruggers]

Hi Swerwer,

This is a fantastic idea :-)

Been a while since I have been on the forums, as I have been very tied up with our move to Perth and my new job. It is still great to see that the forum is the best information tool available for "South Africans coming to Australia".

I am in the same boat, as all of you with the movements of Rands. Sold my SA house recently and need to try get the cash over to Aus now. In summary it would appear there are three good options:

Swerwer's - withdrawel plan --> Successfully done.

Michael's - Paypal plan --> Has anyone managed to succeed on doing this?

Lastly - Personally swapping Rands for Dollars with someone returning to SA --> Risky with the dodgy characters out there.

Thanks for all your inputs :-)

Regards,

Sean.

[CHARM'S]

Hi Swerwer

You seem to know just how to do this money thing. Can you please give me advise. I went to the bank Absa today and was advised the cheapest way to get our money out is to transfer it to the Bank in Oz. The problem my hubby's pension will only be in Absa account after we have all left. They told me I can not transfer the monies over to his account in Oz. If we use the Dr card to draw it the bank will see we are using the card in Oz regularly and freeze the account. Can you shed light or

did I totally miss the boat on this. I do not have an account in Oz yet as I am unemployed also seems they will only open

one if I am employed this is Commonwealth Bank or we missed this one as well. So even if I get power of Attorney to get

the money to my account or someone in S.A. this could not be transferred to his account by someone other than the account

holder in Oz.

Hope this makes sense to you to me its foreign

Thanks

Charm's

[Tauswas]

If you have a passport, a visa and an airticket - has anyone thought of traveller's checks as a way of transfering money out of SA?

[Lynn]

Hi All that have contributed to this topic -

I am assuming that you have made the necessary arrangements with your commerical bank and cleared the transfers made from your credit cards, bank accounts and debit cards. If you have not and are utilsing this mechanisms do transfer money (which in themselves are all great, depending on the costs in each case), then please do yourself and ourselves a favour, and do the right thing by clearing all amounts with your bank whether by a travel allowance or foreign investment allowance, or other. If you don't the mechanisms that you are utilising and which in themselves are great and can be great, (but are being misused) will be closed down in time.

So, please think about this and other people in considering ways of getting money out of the country?

K.rgds

Lynn

[Swerwer]

If we use the Dr card to draw it the bank will see we are using the card in Oz regularly and freeze the account. Can you shed light or

did I totally miss the boat on this. I do not have an account in Oz yet as I am unemployed also seems they will only open

one if I am employed this is Commonwealth Bank or we missed this one as well. So even if I get power of Attorney to get

the money to my account or someone in S.A. this could not be transferred to his account by someone other than the account

holder in Oz.

Hope this makes sense to you to me its foreign

Thanks

Charm's

Hi

Before I went, I went to my bank, telling them that I will be going over to Oz. I did not mention any VISA. I simply told them that I will be going there and that I will be using my credit card and that I want them to increase my daily withdrawal limit. I linked a PIN to my credit card, since you cannot use a debit card of SA over here - only credit card (as far as I know)

I thought it was none of their business if I left open the options for myself of "only coming in Oz for a holiday", "to work for a while and then return", or coming on a "permanent holiday".

The only problem comes when my credit card expires later this year...since I won't be able to prove that I live in SA any more- and they need proof to be able to pick up the credit card from the bank (they closed that door!)

So...make sure you have long enough time left before expiry.

I also called their fraud department to inform them that I will be using my credit card from here - I think they open a "time window" of 6 months after which you have to notify them again.

[Biltongboer]

Isnt this the easiest way? to load your credit card and use it on the other side? Can you withdraw money form your credit card without purchasing something?

[Sheila2oz]

Hi Biltongboer.

I use my Absa credit card here. I transfer money from my account to my credit card and use it. You can draw money out of your credit card account, just make sure you have the pin.

[Biltongboer]

Hi Biltongboer.

I use my Absa credit card here. I transfer money from my account to my credit card and use it. You can draw money out of your credit card account, just make sure you have the pin.

Do you draw this like you do from an ATM in SA, or how does it work?

Edited May 20, 2008 by Biltongboer

[Chris&Natasha]

Do you draw this from an ATM in SA, or how does it work?

Your PIN must conform to certain rules, I think it must have more than 5 digits (Just make sure) and you SA bank must know you will be in Aus, for fraud reasons.

Then you use it like in SA at any ATM draw $

Edited May 20, 2008 by Chris&Natasha

[MichaelvdBerg]

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the delay but I finally have some feedback.

Using paypal is a decent way of moving your money over in short bursts. I have already moved about R10 000 over. There is a considerable charge tho but I can say that it is more to do with the fact that I used my credit card to 'Pay' myself over on that side. Here is the fees: obviously taking exchange rates into account:

$0.00 USD - $3,000.00 USD 3.9% + $0.40 AUD

$3,000.01 USD - $10,000.00 USD 3.4% + $0.40 AUD

$10,000.01 USD - $100,000.00 USD 3.2% + $0.40 AUD

> $100,000.00 USD 2.9% + $0.40 AUD

I opened a Commonwealth bank account and used a different email address to link that account as a receiver account to paypal and the email address. NOTE that this is not doable with any SA accounts.

I have another one under another email address and this one has a Standard Bank credit card linked as a payment method. Thus I request money from the Oz account and pay it via credit card from the SA credit card account. Yeah so with the above formula, credit card fees and exchange rates, one might typically find urself requesting $100 and thus the formula works: lets say the exchange rate is R7.5:$1:

3.9% of $100 = $3.9 + .4 = $4.4 + credit card fees

it might work out to like R40 depending on the credit card fees.

I found it ok to move a few bucks but it can get expensive with large payments. So it might be worth while to know. I personally would rather send it in small increments but that's just paranoid me oO

[Biltongboer]

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the delay but I finally have some feedback.

Using paypal is a decent way of moving your money over in short bursts. I have already moved about R10 000 over. There is a considerable charge tho but I can say that it is more to do with the fact that I used my credit card to 'Pay' myself over on that side. Here is the fees: obviously taking exchange rates into account:

$0.00 USD - $3,000.00 USD 3.9% + $0.40 AUD

$3,000.01 USD - $10,000.00 USD 3.4% + $0.40 AUD

$10,000.01 USD - $100,000.00 USD 3.2% + $0.40 AUD

> $100,000.00 USD 2.9% + $0.40 AUD

I opened a Commonwealth bank account and used a different email address to link that account as a receiver account to paypal and the email address. NOTE that this is not doable with any SA accounts.

I have another one under another email address and this one has a Standard Bank credit card linked as a payment method. Thus I request money from the Oz account and pay it via credit card from the SA credit card account. Yeah so with the above formula, credit card fees and exchange rates, one might typically find urself requesting $100 and thus the formula works: lets say the exchange rate is R7.5:$1:

3.9% of $100 = $3.9 + .4 = $4.4 + credit card fees

it might work out to like R40 depending on the credit card fees.

I found it ok to move a few bucks but it can get expensive with large payments. So it might be worth while to know. I personally would rather send it in small increments but that's just paranoid me oO

Huh?? what was that?

[MichaelvdBerg]

Lol Biltongboer, ok lemme explain what paypal is.

For E-commerce convenience, paypal acts like a middleman that oversees the transactions between parties for goods and services. You can link a credit card up to pay for goods and services and also, if you outside of SA, link a bank account for payments received and payments made. Unfortunately, being South African, our banks does not allow us to link up bank accounts to paypal as this would enable big corporates such as Shoprite etc to rather pay their suppliers etc through paypal instead of using the banks here with their high fees...corruption hey?

Thus if you have an overseas bank account. Link it as a receiver. Pay yourself with a credit card for 'goods received etc' and withdraw the money from paypal to ur receiving account...simple.

\m/

[Carrie]

My Paypal account is working well!

I've created two different accounts... I pay account number 2 (Australian Bank) from account number 1 (SA Credit Card) and neither of the accounts had to pay any form of fee. The only time I would have to pay a fee (according to their fee structure) is if the transaction is below $150. I would then be charged $1 for that transaction.

Michael, are you working from just the one Paypal account?

[MichaelvdBerg]

Hi Carrie,

I am using 2 accounts. One with my SA credit card and one with my Commonwealth Bank account. There is a fee tho, but it is not related much related to paypal, you can feel the punch with the credit card fees which differ from bank to bank

Cheers

[Hawk]

Are there no foreign exchange implications???

What if SARS queries these transactions??