One of my Australian bank accounts was recently changed from "student" to "normal", which means I am now charged monthly fees. Considering I haven't used the account in 2 years, I felt it was time to close it. However:
- You can only close the account from overseas if you have faxing authority.
- You cannot setup faxing authority unless you are in the branch.
- Someone can close the account for you if they have power of attorney.
- You cannot setup power of attorney unless you are both in the branch.
- You cannot transfer all money out of the account, because then you would just incur account keeping fees and additional penalties.
Note that none of this is to protect my money, as they were perfectly willing to enable internet and phone banking to let me transfer cash out. Their rules only prevent me from leaving the bank.
I will close my account, with prejudice, next time I am in Australia.
UPDATE: I just closed a Canadian bank account over the phone. The only questions they asked, after verifying I was who I claimed to be, were "who are you now banking with?" and "what account would you like your money sent to?". Very pleasant.
2 comments:
I'll call into the bank tomorrow to see what can be done. It is silly to think you will be paying monthly fees on an account you don't use until you come back to Australia.
Assuming you don't have another account at that bank then just empty the account and then let the bank figure it out.
Worst they can do is extradite you back to Oz for non payment!!!!!
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