Money, Money, Money...

Now that I have the Abba song firmly embedded in your head...

For those who can see my Facebook status updates, you might have noticed a theme emerging - that of finances...

Working on the basis that I won't get paid till the end of the month (and I still don't have a start date yet - the only communication that I've had from James since he verbally offered me the job has been to confirm that he received my reference info ok), and looking at our mandatory outgoings (i.e. rent, electricity, insurance, phone and food), I worked out that we were likely to run out of money a week before payday...

This isn't as serious as it sounds - we have savings back in the UK, we have just been waiting for the exchange rate to pick up a bit before transferring it over (unfortunately, the amount that we lose in the dropped rate doesn't get beaten by the much higher interest rates over here...).

So, I got onto the HiFX website and set up a transfer transaction.

Which started off so well, but hit trouble fairly quickly. The one thing that I had forgotten to do before I left the UK was to notify HiFX that I had changed my bank address to my parents'. Unfortunately, due to money laundering laws, they can't accept a transfer from a DD card if the card is registered to a different address to the one they hold on file.

Fortunately, there was a second option, that of an electronic bank transfer. However, when I logged in to NatWest to start the process, I encountered another problem. In order to help cut fraud, NatWest sent out card readers which you need to use when performing an electronic transaction. Unfortunately, as I have never done anything more than transfer between accounts before, I have never needed to use it, and have left the card readers behind in the UK on the basis that they were taking up weight that could be put to better use.

So I contacted HiFX and explained that I had a problem. The response back from them was that if I sent over a bank statement with the new address on it, they could update their records for future transactions, but this one would have to be done electronically, and before noon GMT on Wednesday (this was Monday evening NZ time, Monday morning UK time).

In addition, I would also need to speak to them to confirm my NZ address, and they would have to do some identity checks (because, even though the money was coming from and going to the same bank accounts as previously, because I was now in NZ, I might magically become a different person...)

So Tuesday evening, I made an international call to NatWest and got through their security system and was able to get the money transferred, with the promise that it would be in the HiFx account by 2am GMT on Wednesday.

Wednesday evening, I got an email from HiFX. It seemed that, although NatWest had had my married name for two years, had all my accounts in my married name, someone made the decision not to change the name on the electronic transfer; therefore when it arrived at HiFX, it came from Jo Foster, not Jo Toon, and under money laundering laws, this was also not allowed! So, they needed to have some proof that Jo Foster and Jo Toon were the same person...

Fortunately, the NZ Immigration Services had also wanted similar proof, and I had sent them a copy of my marriage certificate with our visa application, and when I had copied everything for them, I had also scanned and emailed myself all of the documents (in case they wanted to discuss anything). So a rushed ten minutes later whilst I tried to remember *where* I had saved the email, I was able to get that across to HiFX, and then made the second international call in two evenings to them in order to go through the address/identity issues. Half an hour later (in the "5 to 10 minute" check...), I got confirmation that I was who I said I was, and also got an email to say that the marriage certificate had got through fine, and they could now release the funds to me...

The lady on the end of the phone was only a little put out when I said that she would have to wait till January at the earliest to get a scanned copy of any bills from our NZ address (as proof of our address here); when we investigated scanning costs earlier this week, all the shops charged a $9 or $10 flat fee just for the privilege of using their services, and then a cost for each scan. For that price, we can wait till the scanner arrives from the UK!

So, fortunately (as long as nothing now goes wrong between the HiFX account and our Westpac one...), we can now afford to pay the rent and eat as well :-)

In other news, it has rained. A lot. I discovered that not only is there a missing pane in the skylight in the greenhouse, but the guttering of the garage directly above it is broken. This might explain the almost pond-like plants that are growing in the soil on that side of the greenhouse - every time it rains more than a drizzle, I get a puddle of water - in about twenty minutes, I had filled a bucket twice with the water that fell through the roof, and still had a deep puddle underneath it. But on the bright side, I now have (in the dry end of the greenhouse, the one which has all the interesting bulbs in it (clover-like leaves, white flowers, grown from bulbs - if anyone has any idea of what the plant might be, then do let me know :-) )) broccoli, spinach and garlic planted, and in pots, waiting for them to come up, capsicums (salad peppers), chillis and basil (I've planted out some more capsicum and basil seeds, and will do more chillis when I get round to cooking the ones in the fridge - I think that after a week, the ones I've planted aren't going to sprout). So, hopefully in a few months, we will be able to eat what I've been growing!