Opening a kiwibank account

[AndyR]

The forms downloaded from this page

http://www.kiwibank.co.nz/products/m...g_open_acc.stm

are not very clear. Do i need a NZ home address? do i squeeze in a uk phone number? The forms also mention NZ identification.

Can anyone clear this up?

Cheers

Andy

[Belmont Babes]

Haven't looked at the forms but we opened an account from the Uk with our UK address and tel no. Just changed it when we got here. Hope that helps. I just emailed the bank and they faxed a form to us, we filled it in and faxed it back. Job done

[joinnz]

Hey, if you're allready in NZ, just go to their office and
bring two kinds of identification with you(passport, drivers license,etc). I got an account by presenting just a visa card,IRD number and an international passport. It's that easy, took only 20 minutes.

cheers,

[AndyR]

I'm not there yet but wanted to get it sorted and have money ready for when I arrive. I'll fill out the forms and enclose a letter.

thanks

[Potato]

I'm not there yet but wanted to get it sorted and have money ready for when I arrive. I'll fill out the forms and enclose a letter.

thanks

Do you have a work permit/PR at the moment?

Would probably be worth giving them a ring beforehand to check exactly what they need in your case.

[Pebbles]

We were just gonna wait until we get to NZ to open a bank account.
Am I missing something? What are your reasons for opening an account beforehand?

[andrewp]

Am I missing something? What are your reasons for opening an account beforehand?

Hey Pebbles, I can't speak for the others, but I want somewhere to move some money to so that I can access it when I get there. I'm sure that without a local credit rating it takes a while to be able to get a credit card for example.

[Jaq1978]

Hi Andy

My daughter opened a kiwibank account by contacting them by email. They told her how to download the forms. She returned these by attachment to email with a copy of her passport and a UK bank statement also attached to the email. They sent her account details by return. She needs to just go to a branch on arrival and arrange to collect cashcard etc
Good luck
Jaq

[thekiwibarkers]

We set our account up before we got here with Bank Of New Zealand. It was very simple and they used our uk address and info and then on the day we arrived into NZ we just went into the branch and our cards were there waiting for us. It just made it so much easier to have it all ready on the day as was one less thing to worry about having to deal with! ...

... One thing for people to realise tho .... If you didn't have credit cards in the UK then prepare for needing one in NZ! ... We didn't really want on but found that Eftpos can't be used online or over the phone and we've found quite a few occasions (staying in a motel etc...) when they've needed a credit card as a deposit. So, after being here a couple of weeks we then went back to the branch and within a week we had a credit card (with the smallest limit we could ask for may I add!...).

With regards to credit ratings, New Zealand's system is based on a Negative credit rating system which means that only bad debts or missed payments will show up so even tho you've only just moved to the country it won't make a massive difference anyway.....

Hope this helps!

[jdbob]

What Jaq1978 said, same thing here. I opened it up ahead of time so I could wire transfer money into it before I left. Just showed up at the closest branch (Masterton in my case) when I got to NZ to activate it.