Bank Accounts New Zealand

Opening up a bank account is one of the first tasks you need to do when arriving in Australia and New Zealand on Working Holiday Visa's. Like opening up a bank account anywhere, it's a tedious task and can get confusing thinking about charges and which bank has the most ATM's (cash points for the British).

There are a few points to consider regarding bank accounts and money handling in Australia and New Zealand.

• Banks will charge for transactions (ATM withdrawls) if you withdraw from a different bank.
• EFTPOS (electronic funds transfer point of sale) - is essentially the same as a debit card so you can pay by chip and pin but you can also get cashback at most places free of charge.

In order to open a bank account you will need:

• Your Passport
• Proof of Address (Your hostel should be able to help you with this)

New Zealand Banks & Bank Account Details

Westpac

• Pretty much same deal as the Australia Westpac except if you open it in New Zealand it's called an Access Bank Account. Westpac also doesn't require you to put money in the account in order to open one.

BNZ Bank

• There are two good bank account options at BNZ bank:

1. Smartmoney account. If you are aged between 19 - 29 you can open one of these accounts. There is no monthly fee. You get 30 free transactions per month for BNZ ATM's and EFTPOS. Any more you get charged for.
2. MyMoney account. There is a monthly charge of $5 but you get unlimited transactions. You may be asked to deposit cash in order to open these accounts.

ASB Bank

• Again there are two options at this bank:

1. Streamline Account. $3.50 per month to get unlimited electronic transactions (ATM's, direct debits, EFTPOS) but any manual transactions (in the branch at a teller) will cost you $3 each time.
2. Omni Account. This account has no monthly rate but each electronic transaction will cost you $0.40 and manual transactions $0.80.

All three of these New Zealand Banks can be found around the country.