1) Registered post is called Pos Daftar by Pos Malaysia:
http://www.pos.com.my/pos/personal/special...pos_daftar.aspx

To reiterate what member Limeuu has said, it is NOT pos express or pos laju. All it does it send it via international air mail, but with a tracking number that allows the letter to be tracked. The delivery time is no different that ordinary international air mail.



That is not completely correct. In Australia, your registered post envelope will be deposited with the nearest post office closest to you place of residence. Just trot over and pick it up. Note that you will have to provide ID tp pick it up, and the ID must correspond to the person addressed to on the envelope. Unfortunately this means you can't get someone else to pick it up for you.

2) No bank in Australia allows the opening of a bank account in Australia over the internet. Blame Al-Qaeda for giving the federal government the excuse to enact the Financial Transactions Reports Act.

As mentioned in the front page, more international banks such as HSBC and Citibank allow you to open a "linked" account in Australia with their Australian branches if you are a existing customer with a financial relationship with them. However, there are some tough opening requirements: HSBC requires you to have a opening deposit of $10,000, and to deposit at least $2000/month to avoid bank fees.

My account with CBA was opened via the internet.

I think you might be talking about HSBC for the UK side, but it could be Standard Chartered or Citi, IDK...

You can apply for a bank account via online.
And you can transfer funds from Malaysia into that account after the bank approved your application.
The only restriction is you can't withdraw money from the account before you reach Australia.

Can you? No kidding.

I'm aware that CBA does allow the opening of accounts online. It makes sense that you can only withdraw after you've shown some ID and satisfied the 100 point test, but I was under the impression that it was inactive until you rocked up to a branch showed ID before you could transfer money in.

I suppose that's how CBA captures the international (student) market.

Time to update the front page then!

Btw the bank I applied is NAB. Not sure about how CBA system works but I think it's similar.

There we go. 2 big banks from 2 people's experiences here which allow accounts to be opened online from overseas. So why does everyone keep saying you can't do it?

Haya, that's for the additional information, it was really helpful. Now I'm more prepared on money matters! Oh by the way, what ID is it that you're talking about?

Thanks to Yeapwei and Lightningfist I might wanna open my account online. That depends thou, I'll need to go thru all the information at the bank that has their branches near my uni.

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Added on September 8, 2011, 8:16 pmAnd there's another question. Did you all use your Malaysian Handphone No. when you first touch down in Australia? Or did you all go apply for a new cap plan immedaitely? It's a littl hard to live without a handphone no. to contact your family and connect to your friends when you first touch down isn't it? Hopefully this question doesn't sound too dumb!


This post has been edited by zhenzelibaby: Sep 8 2011, 08:16 PM

Getting a new plan is very easy, just pop to a store and get a new number on the spot. You don't have to get a long term plan or post-paid, a cheap pre-paid will do as it lasts considerably long and you can switch carriers/upgrade later on. If your old one works and you aren't in a hurry, it doesn't matter.

Really? Don't I need my student ID before I can get a plan?

Are you officially 18yrs of age? If I am not mistaken you will need to be 18 to sign up for plans, especially for BBs and iphone plans. For prepaid, it's no biggie.

I suggest that you first activate roaming on the current handphone before going to Australia.

Usually the telco will do a credit check on you before you are allowed to sign a plan with them.
The credit check is really annoying where you have give all your passport info, offer letter, residential address in Australia, credit card, etc in order to achieve a certain cut off point. So be prepared to spend a 1/2 hours to complete this.

If you are using prepaid, then you don't need to go through all that stuffs.

Yes, by the time I touch down Australia I'll be above 18. I see, thanks Podrunner. I didn't know they have an age requirement! So I can just walk in and get a cap plan in any branch without my Student ID?

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Added on September 8, 2011, 8:45 pmI see what you mean now. I'm on prepaid so I guess I'll be alright. Oo, which means I can only get that done after my Orientation. Then I'll need to top up enough of credit for a few days at the roaming rate. It'll be rather expensive. Hopefully they don't come up with too many information for me to provide!

This post has been edited by zhenzelibaby: Sep 8 2011, 08:45 PM

You can get it done even before orientation.

I done mine with only passport, credit card, oz bank account, driver license, residential address and student ID.

The most important thing will be the credit card/ bank account cause you will be paying your plan with either credit card/ auto debit.

I would say bring everything that you have that are able to proof your identity.

This post has been edited by yeapwei: Sep 8 2011, 08:52 PM

Oh yeah plans take ages to process... it's really agonising...

i am not aware they have now decided to allow internet application for foreigners.......

however, going through the details, there are a few caveats....

you have to apply well in advance, commonwealth bank recommends 6 weeks.....

you have to transfer money into the account within 3 weeks of notification of opening, or the account will be closed....this will need to be done by tt or some sort of international transfers.....and will cost you money.....

you have no access to the account or money until you physically present yourself at the selected branch to verify your identity and activate the account.....

so i guess unless you have plenty of time, are familiar with the place you are going to to nominate a nearby branch, and don't mind paying some money ($11 to credit into your account, plus tt fees here), you may be better off bring a bank draft and some cash....you will have a better idea which bank, which branch, which account will be better for you.....

like i said, oz is pretty slack on this......you will NOT be able to do this in uk.....

Not relevant because this is the Aussie thread.

Further, those aren't really caveats:

- 6 weeks in advance isn't necessary, establishing the account does not take more than a few minutes... doing it a few days in advance will suffice, even that is plenty of precaution

- 3 weeks is plenty of time to transfer some funds... what is the point of opening an account in advance from overseas, if not to do exactly that?

- nearly all international money transfers charge some fee anyway, unless the recipient bears the cost, whether you're paying someone else or putting money into your account

- one would transfer funds electronically knowing that they would not need said funds immediately upon arrival, so this is a secure and convenient method of transferring money

- the bank will advise the location of the branch nearest to your destination, so one need not be familiar with the place

- normally it isn't the foreign bank you're dealing with that charges the transaction fees, rather it's the intermediaries involved

- it would be silly to not have some cash regardless of all this

Well it doesn't really take that long to for your bank account to be approved.
Before I came to aussie, I applied for a bank account with CBA online and they called me with information and confirmation "very early" the next morning~~
Well you would want to transfer some money after opening your account right, why else would one want to open an account in advance. You don't really need to be familiar with the place as usually they'll establish your account that's most convenient to where your going to study so there's not much problem to look for it.
Well what the UK does has nothing to do with aussie right.

many people have no accommodation confirmed till very late, sometimes only after they have arrived........

the foreign (receiving) bank charges a fee for depositing a tt.....it is taken from the transferred amount.....in this case, since it's your own account, you pay the charges yourself.....

in any case, i guess this is an option for some new students, if all the caveats are not issues.....

otherwise, just bring the cheque and some cash........

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Added on September 8, 2011, 11:06 pmi just have recent trouble with trying to open an account in uk, so it is very fresh in my mind, the tight rules they have.........

looks like cba is going to corner the international student market.....

This post has been edited by limeuu: Sep 8 2011, 11:06 PM

the location that the bank(or rather CBA in my case) used to consider where to open my bank account is the University and the campus I'll be studying in rather than an address where I'll be living. So it'll be convenient to get to from the university or in CBA's case is present on campus on a lot of different universities. Their trying hard to get international students before they get a chance to get to Aussie and kinda "shop around" for the best option. You can do the same for ANZ as well if memory serves. I'm guessing all the big 4 aussie banks are doing it nowadays.

This post has been edited by Hikari0307: Sep 8 2011, 11:12 PM

Alright. I'll see what I can do when I get there! Thanks for the information!