Banking and Money

After discovering how much the banks here and back home in Australia were charging us in fees it was alarming. The bank was charging us $7 + 5% for every cash withdrawal and 5% for every card transaction.  We decided to open a local ANZ account and hopefully pay less fees.

That was a big process.  We had to make an appointment and then spent over 2.5hrs in the bank to set-up the account.  We had to provide passports with working visa stamp, local drivers licence,  proof of workplace and accommodation address confirmation.

The local staff were brilliant and we now have working cards with online banking. I do think we got extra special treatment compared to local people. I appreciate their kindness and support. 

From now on it will be around 3% to transfer from Australia and .25cents to withdraw cash at atm,  any local card use should be free. Due to power issues cash is the preferred method of payment at most smaller stores.

Everything is expensive here because almost everything is imported. If we are paying lots extra on top of that it makes things very difficult to afford to live.

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