Sharing our preparations done for our Big Move on February 9, 2020:
Purchase airfare via CebuPacific. Naghanap po kame ng cheapest airfare online and found cebupac. Direct flight to Melbourne Tullamarine Airport. Note: You can purchase discounted airfares from IOM (International Organization for Migration) by visiting their office in Makati. I believe they offer free baggage allowance along with the purchased airfare through them.
Attended our Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar at CFO. This requires online appointment and they only schedule emigrants bound for Australia and New Zealand every tuesday of the week only with limited slots of 60 pax per session. They will provide the CFO sticker required before exiting Philippine migration.
Opened National Australia Bank online through migrant banking option. We opened a joint account as well as a NAB iSaver account. Upon registration, they emailed us the welcome letter which indicated our bank account number, BSB (equivalent to SWIFT code po ata eto), and branch of account. Two days after receiving our welcome letter, we received an email for online banking registration. We registered our account for the online banking as well as the NAB app. Note: Only a single account can be registered kahit joint account ang type ng account namin. So my wife and I are using the same account. (We will confirm this upon activation sa bank in AU). We were able to track and monitor all incoming transfers through the NAB app.
Remitted our savings (PHP to AUD) through the following options:
a. Peer-to-Peer exchange (SGD to AUD): May relatives si wife na currently working sa Singapore, and we did an exchange from their POSB account to NAB account free of any transfer fees. The SGD to AUD transfer is immediate kapag weekdays and before 12pm po ata while it will be credited sa account on Monday kapag nagfall ng weekend ung transfer. Then BDO savings to BDO savings account naman for the PHP transfer.
b. Peer-to-Peer exchange (AUD to AUD): May mga members in 'Pinoy in Melbourne' fb group page na nagpopost ng need ng PHP. So we did an exchange for the transfer of money from their AUD bank to our NAB bank account. We negotiated the rates and performed the transaction. We deposited the PHP to their BDO savings account. The duration of the transfer naman for AUD bank to AUD bank is 24 hours and zero transfer fees (CommWealth Bank to NAB). Pero if the transfer was done beyond 6pm of Friday, sa Monday na maccredit. IMPORTANT NOTE: Be careful lang sa ganitong transactions kasi baka may mga hindi mapagkakatiwalaan na mga tao na baka tumakbo once you have completed your side of the transfer. One thing we did through this is we exchanged government identifications (Passport) and verified some information. We also did multiple transaction para maassure namin ang isa't isa that we will commit to the agreed transaction.
c. Remittance: We registered sa I-remit through visiting their office at Discovery Center building, ADB Avenue, Ortigas sa likod ng SM Megamall. They only charge 10aud per transaction and they have competitive rates. I checked the current google rate at the time we registered and it was 35.04php to 1.00aud. When we they gave us the exchange rates, it was 35.29php to 1.00aud. So maliit lang yung difference nya and for us was within our target rates. For first time remittance, they require: Physical presence during the registration and valid identification card. For succeeding remittance, they provided an email address we can contact and viber number to perform virtually the remittance. We provided them the bank, branch, account number and BSB as well as the PHP cash (although you can deposit the php to their various bank accounts in the Philippines). The fund was credited the next day before 12nn.
So far yan po ang naging preparations namin.