I'll be in Australia for five weeks. What is involved in setting up my BlackBerry to use as a phone (mainly for a few local calls) and e-mail while there? Is there anything I can do to keep the charges to a minimum? (My provider is AT&T.)

Are the (foreign exchange) service charges higher for getting money from an ATM or using a credit card? Are the charges the same for all credit cards, or does it differ among them? (I have several different Visa cards, American Express, and Mastercard.)

Can an American open a bank account in Australia and have it even while not present in the country? What are the current interest rates for savings and for CDs?

Thanks!

Credit card charges depend on the bank issuing the card. More and more from the US have been adding non-US fees. My Capital One card has no foreign fees. It's the same with ATM fees. It depends on the bank. M&T Bank charged a $5 U.S. fee for use of the foreign ATM and there were smaller charges charged by the Australian ATM owner. However, those fees when combined were still a savings because of the excellent exchange rate I received.

With your BB, I'm not familiar with the unit but any bobile phone needs to be the GSM SIM card type and with frequency ranges to suit Australia, the BB being a global product I'd expect to be OK but earlier US/Canadian units had only two frequencies rather than three or four.

You'll also need to check whether it is locked to the AT&T network and whether you can get an unlock done if that is the case so as to be able to buy an Oz network SIM card.

Alternative would be to look at whether ATT offer global roaming but costs will be significant.
Second alternative could be to but a prepaid phone/SIM package on arrival for about $60, sometimes far cheaper.

Re money, as carl indicates, it'll be up to your own bank as to what they'll charge on overseas transactions and I recall recent threads on Europe section that there is 3% on CC purchases and could be about the same re cash withdrawals with a debit card - CERTAINLYDO NOT USE CC for cash withdrawals.

But again it is your own bank that makes the charges and no ATM 'owner' fees here that I know of.

You can open accounts with some banks prior to arrival but only if you are emigrating or coming here for a lengthy time of probabl;y 12 months or more such as with a working holiday visa and probably also for shorter terms if a student, but not just for five weeks as far as I know.
Interest for standard savings accounts is always about bugger all and at moment term deposits are up to about 4% for more substantial funds.

Thanks, Carl and Bushranger.

For the bank account, my husband was interested in having an account in Australia, not necessarily in conjunction with our visit (i.e., it *would* be for a year or more), but just as a different place to have our money. (I guess he's not feeling confident about the U.S. banking system.)

Do you know if the Google Maps on my BB will work in Australia?

I'll call my bank and CC companies to check on charges for use overseas and will call AT&T about the BB.

I've just called St.George bank for you.
www.stgeorge.com.au

Foreign nationals can open a bank account here, using Passport as Primary Identification, provided it's opened within 6 weeks of your arrival. You can also do it on-line before your arrival BUT you need to go to the bank and show your Passport within 7 days of opening it, otherwise it will automatically close. Obviously, it will be an AUD account.(Establishment of a USD account here is a much more complex matter and usually run only for businesses. You would need to discuss that with the FX section of one of the banks.)

Account management fees vary from bank to bank, some according to the $ held in the account, as do interest rates.
ATM withdrawals from banks other than your own will generally attract a fee these days. Most commonly $2.

There's no reason you could not have an investment account here, if you wished.

Here are links to a few of our major banks:

www.nab.com.au
www.westpac.com.au
www.anz.com.au
www.stgeorge.com.au

Hope this is useful.

I'm an American with a bank account in Australia. We had to provide all but our first born to set up an account here, and we were required to show our passports with our work visas.

You must pass a 100 point system to prove your identity and based on the information required, I suspect it would be difficult for a non resident to set up an account:

http://www.australianaustralia.com/p..._Australia/190

We routinely use our US issued ATM and credit cards here in Australia, both issued through our US credit union. We pay a 1% conversion fee on all foreign transactions, but that's it - no other fees.

We also have an Australian ATM card which we use only when the AUD dollar is strong against the USD. When it's reversed, we use our US ATM, as we get a better rate. It's a jugging act.

Hi Mel,
I thought it'd be almost impossible for a traveller too, but after 30 odd minutes & 4 call transfers within the St.George system this morning, it appears that it's quite possible.

The 100 points are covered by the traveller's Passport, provided they open the a/c within 6 weeks of arriving in Australia. After that time, it does get more tricky and they have to provide all sorts of other ID to do it.

As it happens, the person I spoke with was a Canadian who has been here 11 years, so she'd been down that track herself; albeit as an intending resident. Whilst the first two operators couldn't get beyond the idea that the account would be opened only for the duration of the trip and then closed when the traveller went home, this woman thoroughly understood that I was asking about a fully operational account, possibly for investment purposes, over an indefinite period. We discussed roll-overs, t/t deposits, etc., with the account being operated from the traveller's home address.

If Judilie's husband is serious about it, he'd obviously need to get confirmation from one of the local banks. Whilst I received all these assurances on the 'phone this morning, there's nothing to guarantee there isn't something missing or that the situation would be the same if he just rocked up with his Passport and a fist full of dollars some time in the future.

Interesting question though. I contemplated the reverse last time I went to the US, because I'd bought some USD when the AUD was in the 90s a couple of years ago, and didn't particularly want to carry that amount of cash around with me.

Bokhara -

Good of you to do all that research! Where there's a will there's a way I guess.

" Whilst I received all these assurances on the 'phone this morning, there's nothing to guarantee there isn't something missing "

That's about it and there's the interpretation the other end of what you may have been asking and your own interpretation of what may have been said.

Even the Canadian's experience was as an intending resident!

Thanks very much, Bokhara, for taking the time to call the bank to get information for me!

You're most welcome, Judilie.
It's an easy thing to do when you're a local and at least know where to start. Those bank links will have contact details, so you can finesse it a bit more for yourself.

Hope it works out for you - and that you have a wonderful trip.

Judilie,

I'd not be at all suprised if you run into some dead ends re a five week visitor opening an account and perhaps Bok did not read you initial post properly.

http://www.australiamigrate.com/bank_account.php is not to be confused with an official immigration site but it does give you some relevant information of two of the major banks, both links having a reference to "moving to" or "working in" Australia and thus in addition to ID you need to have an address though for pre-opening from overseas they would possibly have some provision for that.

The next issue you would face in opening some form of an investment account [and that may be possible as people in Australia do make overseas investments and there is a Foreign Investment Review Board here in Australia, more to do with property and businesses investment, thus investments of some type are allowed from overseas] is that ugly word for most beginning with T! taxation!

You'll note from that link [and it is standard practice even for residents here] that if you do not have an Australian Taxation Number [only usually available to residents or those with a working permit type visa] there'll be taxation witheld from any interest payments and it'll normally be at the top rate.

It is one thing to maske calls but a bit pointless if not appreciating the full picture and then giving misleading information.

There is another thread about this somewhere, but here is some useful information about getting cash from ATMs in Australia. In the US open a checking account with a Bank of America bank and get a debit card. They have a cooperative agreement with Westpac in Australia, (as well as some other banks in Europe). When you withdraw from the Westpac ATM it is with no fee, just as it would be if you withdrew from your local BOA ATM in the US. There is a limit to the amount of cash you can take out per day, something like US$500. We did this for most all of our financial needs when we were in Australia in 2006. We also sometimes used a Capital One credit card which had no international fee. I called BOA recently to see if they still had the partnership and they did as of about a month ago. You should call your local branch and ask for up-to-date info since so much is changing in the banking world.

This was very convenient as there are Westpac terminals simply everywhere in Australia...even in Jabiru.