Australian bank accounts?

[BoyBach]

Hello!

In just over three hours I'll be boarding my flight from Singapore to Sydney where I plan to start my one year of working and travelling around Australia.

I'll need to open a bank account in Australia and to be honest I don't know where to start looking! So I'm reaching out to my fellow MR users who can hopefully help me.

Fellow travellers or natives of Oz - all help will be gratefully received. Names of banks, interest rates, banks charges, special offers. Basically anything and everything.

Thank you!

 

[furious]

I am with the Commonwealth Bank.

 

[AlBDamned]

All the big four – Westpac, CBA (Commonwealth Bank), NAB, and ANZ –*are much of a muchness really. Take your pick. All of them charge fees if you use ATMs that are not your same bank, all of them offer similar rates.

Out of those four, ANZ and Westpac probably have less ATMs, but that's a very unscientific observation.

Enjoy your year here.

 

[mad jew]

I agree that they're all quite similar. There are a few merged banks here, which means they effectively have more ATMs capable of free transactions than it would appear. St George (also BankSA) and Bendigo Bank (also Adelaide Bank) generally treat students very well, if that's applicable.