Banking in Australia

Oh god, banking in Australia.

Right, so in the UK we pretty much all have VISA debit thingies on our bank cards and when we go shopping these days all you do is give the card to the cashier and type in your PIN number, yes? Now, if you try to use your debit card in Australia you will have to treat it as a credit card and put your autograph on a slip of paper the old fashioned way.

There is a sort of chip and pin style of system available in Australia known as EFTPOS which is common to all Australian bank cards. This is OK although it doesn't have your account number and sort code details on it for security reasons which means you will have to hunt around for it should the need arise. But the biggest drawback is if you are trying to buy something or guarantee a booking over the phone or internet, say for a hotel room, plane ticket or something you bought on Ebay!! In this case your EFTPOS is useless -a bit like those Electron things you used to get on Barclays Bank cards. So you need a VISA or Mastercard to be able to buy/book these things.

When Diver Dave and I opened a joint account for household stuff, we discovered that you can get a VISA debit card if you ask nicely but they don't like combining it with your ordinary EFTPOS card like you would get in the UK. You pretty much have to go down on your knees for one of those but it is possible, so the nice Westpac lady said.

Another unwelcome surprise is the fact that not only do the banks profit from the interest on 'looking after' your money, but they do not give you any interest on a cheque (current) account AND they charge you a monthly amount for the privilege. Presumably, they spend all their profit on ATMs (cash machines) since on any given stretch of street in a highly populated area there can be a line of them representing all the high street banks. This is because none of the banks have reciprocal arrangements with their competitors and as such you will be charged a fee if you use the wrong ATM.

The best thing I did before I left Blighty was to open a bank account with a well known UK high street bank, ending in '..wide' (!) which does not charge commission on overseas transactions such as VISA and ATM withdrawals. This has served me very well in Australia when my EFTPOS is no good, although I have yet to find out what their rate of exchange is!