Hi Guys,
I am in the process of purchasing my OZ investment bond. i.e buying the
last 5 points for the 136 visa.
I chose to purchase the bond from Western Australia as they seemed to
have the best rate. I chose to use World first to transfer the funds
(100,000 AUD) from UK to OZ as their rate was slightly better than
HIFX. We agreed a rate and they stated how much GPB I should transfer
to their UK account. This done they confirmed 100 000 AUD had been
transferred through to the WA treasury account.
HOWEVER, treasury corporation stateed only 999,995 was transferred
through. They stated their bank (Commonwealth) charged no fees. World
first stated their bank (Barclays) charged no fees. On examination of
the SWIFT stmt, money passed through an intermediary (ANZ) who deducted
the 5AUD. (Apparently Barclays and Commonwealth can't transfer
directly?). World First stated this was not their problem (referring to
an obscure clause in their contract.). Consequently I had to instruct a
second payment of 20GBP through to World first to transfer 5AUD through
to the treasury - inclusive of World First and ANZ transaction costs.
Has anybody else hit this problem before when purchasing the bond. Who
did you use to transfer the funds, who did you buy the bond from. Did
they let you know in advance that fees would be deducted from the
amount transferred?
Essentially I would like to know if World First where at fault here,
but would also like to draw ppls attention to this issue such that they
can ensure it does not happen to them as well. (As you know timelines
for getting the bond can be quite tight!)
Cheers - Mathew
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