I thought this would be a good place to share the experience of opening a bank account in a foreign country before I moved there.
Fortunately for me, I was moving from Australia to New Zealand which have a very easy travel and immigration procedure so I can live permanently in NZ without a visa.
Before I left Australia I had a search of the banks operating in NZ and the bank I chose to go with has exposure in both countries.
The application to open an account was done online. I was then emailed by their immigrant department who were very customer service focused. I was able to move currency at almost the exact exchange rate (this saved a massive amount of money) instead of losing 5 cents on every dollar by going through a currency conversion company.
Once I landed, I simply had to go into a branch where they issued me a debit card on the spot. They also activated all my accounts and set up my internet banking.
All I had to do was show my passport and a bill from a previous address in Australia and they understood that I was going to be traveling for a while before I settled down and this was no problem either.
The only problems I have had is transferring money out of my old bank (they make it hard once your overseas).
But overall, my time investment was about 2 hours between emails and the in branch activation.
Anyone else had any similar experiences?
