Tips to make your 1st month living in NZ a piece of cake...

[Jenny & Mark]

f) NZ Credit history: Like me, you will have none here but's important to build it up the sooner the better! Even if you had perfect longstanding credit where you came from it does not matter anymore nor does it transfer to NZ. If you are a PR holder & are employed with a decent salary it should be e-z get one, otherwise on a 30 mth WTR permit/visa (like me), you'll need to show your passport, work permit stamp, a NZ pay stub and your full time perm job offer letter to get an ANZ Qantas Visa card. Be forewarned, pay off your balance on this card each month or you'll be hit with a 19% APR on it.

Although I agree that you start with a clean NZ Credit history, credit in NZ does not work the same as in the US or Canada. You can not build up positive credit in NZ, only negative, so having a credit card for the purpose of being seen as a good borrower is not as important here. NZ banks like to see a stable income and money flow before lending. I am in the process of getting a card just for convenience.

Cheers, Mark.

edit: spelling error.

[Oregonkiwi]

They have partner airlines that fly within NZ.. trust me...

True, but still only between Auckland, Wellington, Rotorua, ChCh and Queenstown
http://www.qantas.com.au/content/dyn/routemaps/nz/index

[RussandViv]

Thanks to everyone on this thread for the really useful information. We want to ship our car and (ALL) personal effects, but I was interested in the insurance process.

Does anyone know if, for car or home insurance, the no-claim history can be used in NZ to reduce the initial cost? Also, any good and reasonable insurance companies?

Kind regards, Russ and Viv

[IanW99]

Certainly the proof on no claims discount from the UK is honoured in NZ, so would expect they would also accept other countries that have similar systems.

I seem to recall that they also offered discount for home insurance, but took our word for it?

As with all insurance companies, need to shop around to get the best deals. Most seem to give a discount if you take more than one policy with them e.g. house and car.

You can also get protected no claims if you shop around, for some companies you have to wait for a year first though.

Can recommend AMI, sure there are plenty of other good companies also.

Ian

[Silverwing86]

Great thread, lots of useful information !

We became members of www.consumer.org.nz before we arrived, which proved very useful in making comparisons and finding out about quality for all kinds of different products.

Also, as an alternative to Skype; www.voipbuster.com. Like Skype they also offer free calls over the internet between registered users and in addition, if you buy some credit, 120 days of free calls over the internet to landlines of listed countries.

The other option is almost free (only setup cost of EUR 0.05 per phonecall which equates to about 9.6 NZD cents at the moment) Phone2Phone landline calls (so not over the internet but from your regular landline phone to another landline phone, for a maximum of 60 minutes per call/300 minutes per week) to certain countries, amongst which NZ (which means you can also use them to make these cheap calls within NZ, very good for keeping your landline costs very low !).

Silver

[srivett]

Not sure if this is the place to ask, but since it was brought up, is it possible to apply for an IRD number without a firm NZ address? Can I use a friend's info, just until I get a proper address of my own?

Thanks for any help

[holland]

yes, it is possible, a lot of people have applied for IRD number before they have gone to live in nZ

J x

[mgf]

Thanks for the info John. Definitely very helpful. I have a question. I have applied for my Work Visa (I have a job offer). I was planning on applying for PR upon arrival in NZ. Will I have to have all the medical information redone? or will that be kept in a data base?

Mike

[IanW99]

Thanks for the info John. Definitely very helpful. I have a question. I have applied for my Work Visa (I have a job offer). I was planning on applying for PR upon arrival in NZ. Will I have to have all the medical information redone? or will that be kept in a data base?

Mike

Medicals are valid for 3 months and Police certificates are valid for 6 months. So if you apply within this time then you don't need to redo the medicals, they will just use the information already on record.

Ian

[Bergita]

Thanks for the lists John and gil, and for all the other useful tips everyone else! I feel so much more secure having a list to fall back on...