What is the most economically sensible way to get Australian money?

roro1990

I'm clueless when it comes to this stuff. I'll be arriving in oz soon for a working holiday but I have no australian dollars. Ideally I'll want around $1000 initially for the first week or two. Am I better off withdrawing this as money from an ATM over there, or transferring it into my australian bank account from my Irish account? What is more costly? I am with AIB if that helps.

mel.b

If you already have an Australian account set up, use currency fair to send it over from your irish account. It will only cost $4 and you'll get the best rate. Much cheaper doing it this way than withdrawing from an atm.

roro1990

thanks, is the transfer instantaneous or does it take a few days? Ideally it will arrive in my australian account within an hour or so.

mel.b

Considering that an irish bank to irish bank transfer is overnight, AFAIK there is no way to do an international transfer that will be there in an hour (happy to be corrected though) - especially without paying big €. Danske used to do an express transfer that was €15 and was overnight i think but they obviously are no longer around.

Currency fair will take a few days - i transfer money on a Thurs and it is in my OZ account on Monday morning irish time.

d.pop

Assuming you set up an Aussie bank account from overseas?
You'll need to activate it when you get here and collect ATM card etc. Need to go into branch to do that usually.

You'll need access to cash until that happens to get around, bus, train, accommodation, food etc for first night.

You could buy a few hundred dollars cash before leaving Ireland, transfer the rest into your Aussie account and then collect your ATM card on arrival, if you arrive late night or early morning or on weekend you may not be able to get into bank straight away but I'm assuming a lot there...

But you will def need cash on arrival or very soon afterwards.

No6

your irish Debit card should work over here, depending on where you are going a $1000 will not last long, its an expensive country.

Peregrinus

No6 wrote: »

your irish Debit card should work over here . . .

. . . but is likely to be one of the more expensive ways of accessing Australian currency.

Head The Wall

If you have an address you can set up an account with ING direct. You will need to provide an Australian phone number so they can SMS a verification code to it. This doesn't have to be yours though, just someone that can accept it and relay it to you. I have recently done this with my gf's number.

It can all be done online and the debit card will be at the address 4-5 days later

ATM's are free with ING as long as you put in $1000 a month

mighty magpie

currency fair (why pay banking fees of 15EUR with less favourable rates?) if you have a Australian bank account already, couple of hours to get everything set up (add both bank account details, upload ID docs, set up currency fair as a payee on your online banking then transfer EUR, exchange on quick trade to AUD the withdraw to AUD account). 2-3 days processing. 3EUR fee to transfer (might even get first withdrawal for free if referred by a friend), very good rates.

No6

Peregrinus wrote: »

. . . but is likely to be one of the more expensive ways of accessing Australian currency.

But is you rely on having an Australian bank account set up and your cards issued with pins numbers and no address you might find it takes a few days to get everything sorted so in the short term is not to bad and probably better (safer) than bringing cash over from Ireland.

One thing to watch out for here is the banks generally charge for using ATM's so so banks will give you an account which covers these charges!!

skippy2

+1 .................Currency Fair is the way to go

Always do the transfer early in the week so you dont lose out on time over the weekend
Do the transfer in CF on Irish time first thing in the morning. So if you do it Monday morning Irish Time
You should have it in your AUS account Wednesday Aus Time
Do it at the weekend and the bank gets to play with your money for a few days to their benefit