wrote:
On Tue, 17 Feb 2015 18:03:24 -0600, Califbill
wrote:

wrote:

I am looking at opening a New Zealand bank account right now.

Make sure you have a chip credit card. And get a no foreign transaction
fee card. Chase Sapphire is free for the first year at least and has no
extra foreign fees added. Lots add 3.5%. Our chip cards are chip and
signature and not chip and pin like the rest of the world.

I found out my BoA card will work in the Westpac banks with no fees
but I was thinking it might just be as easy to open an account at ANZ
online, park several grand in it and have the EFTPOS cards for free.
I was looking at it and they have all sorts of deals for a decent
deposit, just like here and if the balance drops below the minimum for
the good account, we will be leaving anyway. It will be another form I
have to fill out at tax time tho.
I am not sure what the arbitrage might be on the exchange rate over
time. I might want to leave some there. If nothing else we can use it
to buy my wife's gum ;-)

All the credit cards are chip cards there. Not really sure if a swipe only
card will work. My amex card is a chip card. Just have your bank, etc.
send you the chip version. As to the IRS I am not sure it is worth the
hassle.