Hi
Its probably already posted somewhere, but..
While the Australian dollar is gaining momentum against the usd, i was looking for best options to have another account or a usd account so i could transfer my Australian dollar savings, into USD . And then have the option to do transfer/s back.. is there any account with minimal fees in doing so, and decent fx rates?
thxbest to contact your current bank in Australia as some have the option to open an account attached to your primary and have it in US dollars. Fees and charges apply depending which bank your with. good luck!
you are best to do it through a trading account with a company like http://www.oanda.com. They will give you a much better rate than the local banks will. There are added benefits that you can get leverage allowing you to trade at up to 50:1 ratio. (i.e. with $1k in your account you could trade up to $50k)
One option is to open a travelex card through your bank. It costs $10 to start the card, which is essentially like a credit card, and 1% when you transfer cash and when you open the 'account' the bank nominates which currency you want to convert your money to. You can start off with any amount and then top up the acount via BPay or going into the bank and the maximum amount allowed on mine is $30,000. The card is valid for three years.
travelex will charge you 300+ basis points + 1%. Oanda will charge you 2 or 3 basis points. No comparison.
With Oanda, i would presume you would have to also seperately open a seperate ie US bank account if you want to trade and keep the money there for some time before moving it back to AUD?
No you can set up an AUD account https://fxtrade.oanda.com/your_account/fxtrade/multicurrency_accounts
thanks ,
have you used the Oanda accounts ? offshore accounts .Has anyone used the HSBC usd and multi currency accounts?
Hi coasta,
I’ve opened an account with HSBC in Australia, denominated in USD. When I transfer money electronically on the internet (International Telegraphic Transfer) from my Commonwealth Bank Account to myaustralian USD account with HSBC, I incur a $22.00 net bank fee from Commonwealth and a $10.90 fee from HSBC. These fees do not depend on the amount of money transferred. The exchange rate is pretty good, less than 1% different to the current mid-market rate. You have to specify with your bank that you want to transfer AUD and you want HSBC to do the currency conversion. You could avoid paying fees altogether by opening another account with HSBC denominated in AUD, you can then deposit or transfer money in it and the transfer them from the AUD account to the USD account at no cost.
I do not know when I will be ready to buy a property in the USA, because I can’t go there myself at the moment, therefore I am going to need the help of one of the so called turn-key operator, or something similar, but I haven’t yet decided which one to trust. I do believe that the opportunity in term of house prices is not going to disappear any time soon, but the parity with the USD could disappear much quicker. That is way I have started buying USD.
One other option is to use something like Oz Forex. The advantage is that you can do a forward contract and lock in the current exchange rate to buy USD up to one year down the track, so that you do not park your money at zero interest rate in USD if you are not going to use them soon. For a forward contract with Oz Forex I think you need to pay a 10% deposit and the contract has to be for minimum $30,000.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Giacomo
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