Best way to transfer Canadian earnings to Australian Bank Account

[cattlikewoah]

I am an Aussie living in Canada and have got a tiny but somewhat decent savings going on here in Canada. I am leaving Canada next year and am starting to research how I can safely and effectively transfer all my earnings from CAD to AUD without being stung too much in 1) fees and 2) currency conversion.

Right now, the Aussie dollar is strong, so I definitely would not start to transfer now. But it seems AUD and CAD have been fairly close to 1:1 for a while now, so I can't expect a huge drop in the AUD any time soon.

Should I start to transfer little by little? I know that I need to declare anything in excess of $10k if I enter Australia, and am hoping to "enter" Australia with less than that.

I have looked into Western Union and it looks like I could lose out on a couple thousand dollars doing it that way.

I don't have enough for the HSBC Premier account which allows you to move your money around between countries... I'm not sure what else they offer in terms of global transfers.

Any other ideas? I know there are TONS of Aussies who live in Canada.. how have they moved savings from Canada to Australia?

[travelpunk]

Do you have to "move" your money? I've lived in Spain for over 2 1/2 years and still get money deposited into my bank in the U.S. (B of A)I withdraw money every month in chunks $500 or $1000 at a time from an affiliate bank (Barclays) that doesn't charge fees. Basically, the Barclays ATM's recognize the Bank of America Debit cards as one of their own.

See my post here.

Barclays has banks in Canada and Australia too, so having a Barclays account in Canada and withdrawing the money from ATM's when you need/want to in Australia should eliminate any fees that would otherwise be associated with each transaction should you use non-affiliated ATM's.

Another thing you can do is open up a Paypal account. You then "add a bank account" to your account. Once you verify your account, you can deposit money into your paypal account through a bank transfer (follow the steps in paypal).

Once money has been transferred into Paypal (you can do it in chunks), then add another bank account in paypal (your Autralian bank info).

Then, you can transfer your money freely from Paypal to your Aussie bank. Again, do it in chunks.

Canadian bank > Paypal > Aussie bank

Should be free.

Also, consider keeping some money in the Canadian bank and some money in Paypal.


Hope it all makes sense!

[simply_angelic]

Mmmm I dont think Barclay's is really a regular person bank in Canada...they dont have any personal banking here, only corporate, so that's not really an option.

But Tony is on to something...unless you're like buying a house or something where you need CASH, you could just use your account in canada to pay off items you buy in Australia with credit cards, online, etc. Then take as much cash in the near future as you think you need for rent, etc with you...

[melliset]

Yes, You need to take cash for future.