Hello,

My parents need to deposit some money into my account from Australia every month, can anyone give me an idea of the most cost effective way (so I don't have to pay HUGE fees)

Any ideas welcome...

Kind regards,

Charde

I don't think the fees are that large. I typically pay around A$12 to transfer money from here to the UK via electronic banking (and it's my UK bank taking most of that, £6 to be exact). If it's a few thousand dollars then it's not much to pay.

If it's less than a few thousand dollars then consider using your key card. Check with your bank for the cost of international withdrawals. For example the Commonwealth Bank charges $5 + 2% of transaction value on one of its accounts.

I have transfered money both ways to and from australia, just through my existing australian and swiss bank accounts, the charge was 26 chf at this end and something similar at the aussie end.

i suggest taking the transaction cost into consideration as the cost is the same for any amount (there is a limit but i cant recall) so put it all into a aussie account and transfer it in bigger amounts, unless you need it monthly and can put up with the fees.

We do it by putting it onto an Aussie visa debit card - but that is because our credit union offers very low rates (Qantas)...anyone in your family work for Qantas ?

We make cash withdrawals from our Aussie account using the local ATM here, and again, our credit union gives us a very basic fee.

What I did was send the money as AUD, and not let the Australian bank do the conversion, but a Swiss institution. www.wechselstube.ch or .com
(do a search on the forum, or check their faq if you are interested).

Reason was simple, their rates are much better, as the spread is very low (0.75% one way). From memory, there is no fee for receiving the money, so you need to pay the fee from the Australian bank.

My credit union charged more for this, as they do not like sending AUD overseas, as they don't gain anything. It was 35$. But perhaps Westpac or Commonwelath allow you to do an online transaction overseas in AUD? Westpac used to charge 10 AUD but that was ages ago.
Anyway, using the above method, you would only pay charges at the Australian end (the sending part).

I am not affiliated with those guys, I just like their setup.