PAYING AUSTRALIAN SPPs FROM NZ

[whiteheron]

I am sure that I am not the only one to have this problem

I have a AUD denominated account with ASB Securities

Australian Share Purchase Plan payments usually seem to be payable by one of ---
Australian cheque
Bank Draft in AUD
BPay

ASB Securities tell me that they are unable to make payments by BPay, which would seem to me to be by far the quickest and easiest method to use
ASB Secs say that although my account is an AUD account it is situated in NZ and therefor can not use BPay which is limited to accounts held directly with an Australian Bank

I do not wish to open an account with an Australian Bank and leave Aussie dollars sitting in it just for the eventuality of paying for Aussie SPPs as I can use these dollars to trade Aussie shares via ASB Secs (this doesnt cause any problems)

The time factor is the dominant problem at present
By the time I get the SPP documents, order an AUD Draft from ASB Secs, they post it to me (fastpost is beyond their capabilities) I immediately post it to Aussie by air mail (which for some inexplicable reason can take up to seven or eight days to get there) it can be very difficult to meet the closing date

To be sure that the payment has been received on time I always phone the company or share registrar handling the issue and on one occasion missed the cut off point, only having my application accepted after spending a couple of hours phoning the company secretary and explaining the timeline causing the delay in great detail

If anyone else has had this problem and been able to solve it satisfactorily I will be most appreciative to hear from you

Thanks a lot

[mamos]

I'm in the same situation as you WH with a FCA with ASBSec.

What I do is ring the Registry who is dealing with the IPO or SPP and tell them I'm overseas and sending a cheque will take to long. I ask for their bank a/c no and do a bank transfer.

Then I fax or email my SPP form over along with the bank transfer confirmation.

As far as I know you can only get a confirmation if you go into the bank and do the transfer rather than doing it online.

All the times I have done it to various bank accounts in Australia never has there been a charge at their end so you can transfer the exact amount over in AUD. Costs $25 at our end to send I think.

[Gofish.]

I had a couple of companies accept direct credits - done via westpac - but most want their share registars to receive paper.
In this day and age, particuarly when our main banks are Aussie anyway, you'd think there was a better way, but no one ever called them intelligent.
In most cases, when I have gone into an SPP the price has come back to or below the SPP price, so buying on market may be more effective.
The last ARU SPP at 36c was a pleasant exception :D

[bear]

Hi Whiteheron

I use Direct Broking and for me participation in Aust SPP has been straight forward, painless, and on time.

When i decide to participate in the SPP i either ring or send a fax to Direct detailing the particulars of the offer ie amount, payee etc - i then get a cheque sent in $AUD to me (Direct fast post it to me) and this does arrive the next day providing its arranged early enough in the day.

I then use NZ post (can't remember the name of the service but its a guaranteed two day service to Australia i think its courier type arrangement) costs about $17 for Perth but must be to a physical address not a box number.

I've used this method 3 or 4 times in the past 12 months and saves me having to have a $AUD account. I too don't like having dollars doing nothing. I've left some of the decisions to participate with less than a week to go and have had no timing issues

trust this may be of use to u

bear

[JoeKing]

Have done many ssp/issue transactions... from NZ >> Aust. no probs.
Just buy a AUD draft, ask the bank to photocopy draft and application form, send originals fastpost mail, fax photocopies to registry. Make sure you put your HIN on back of draft.... no problems so far, and you can keep the photocopies for your records.
Cheers
JK

[OutToLunch]

quote:Originally posted by bear

Hi Whiteheron

I use Direct Broking and for me participation in Aust SPP has been straight forward, painless, and on time.

When i decide to participate in the SPP i either ring or send a fax to Direct detailing the particulars of the offer ie amount, payee etc - i then get a cheque sent in $AUD to me (Direct fast post it to me) and this does arrive the next day providing its arranged early enough in the day.

I then use NZ post (can't remember the name of the service but its a guaranteed two day service to Australia i think its courier type arrangement) costs about $17 for Perth but must be to a physical address not a box number.

I've used this method 3 or 4 times in the past 12 months and saves me having to have a $AUD account. I too don't like having dollars doing nothing. I've left some of the decisions to participate with less than a week to go and have had no timing issues

trust this may be of use to u

bear




Hi bear, your way sounds very convenient. Just a quicky -- I am also a Direct client and have most of my holdings in Australia, but don't have an AUD account with Direct. Could I do things your way without having an AUD account with Direct? Ta for any advice. :)

[TerryA]

OTL,

You can have an AUD account with Macquarie through Direct. I have one and use it all the time, if nothing else it saves you loosing on the exchange rates every time you bring AUD back to NZ or need them, All my AUD dividends are also paid into this account.

I have had no problems and any request I have made of the Administrators has been very promptly actioned. One "defect" is that the Macquarie balance shown in your DB files may be 2 - 3 days behind, additionally it is sometimes difficult to reconcile the account and it pays to keep all the remittance advice notes.

Best wishes,

Terry

[bear]

Hi OTL

Terry is correct and i have both although for some reason don't use the Maquarie account that often. Either way as long as the Direct crew can access the required funds from either account you will have no problems.

well i haven't and i cannot fault their service to date.

bear

[kura]

I haven't had problems getting AUD draft from my ASB Secirities AUD account, I scan a signed authorisation letter, convert it to PDF format and email the PDF to them, (draft costs NZD $25) most of the time the draft is in my letterbox the next day.

[patsy]

Whiteheron

ASB's AUD account is one of the most useless and moronic structured banking services I've ever come across. You can't even have AUD dividens directly credited to it (this is terrible, especially if you receive dividend cheques over AUD$900 because they take 21 days to clear), and if you want to have a TT credited, you have to follow the most inefficient process with a utterly stupid form full of codes. This account has been the single most important reason why I moved my account to Direct (apart from ASB's website being one of the most terribly designed financial website you'll ever interact with).

As previous posters said, Direct links with Macquarie (a true Australian dollar account), which you can operate with cheques and that accept electronic transfers so you can have minimum delays between transactions, like you want.

[mamos]

Yeah I agree Patsy. I have to fill in a special form each time I am depositing cheques into this account and they take about 10 days to clear.

There is no bank account # associated with this account so you cant depsoited directly into this account.

I am seriously considering opening up a Comsec account with $20 brokerage rather than $30 at ASB, and a much better trading platform.

I still think the way to go with SPP's is to do an international transfer and fax/email the forms. Much faster than post and getting drafts.


quote:Originally posted by patsy

Whiteheron

ASB's AUD account is one of the most useless and moronic structured banking services I've ever come across. You can't even have AUD dividens directly credited to it (this is terrible, especially if you receive dividend cheques over AUD$900 because they take 21 days to clear), and if you want to have a TT credited, you have to follow the most inefficient process with a utterly stupid form full of codes. This account has been the single most important reason why I moved my account to Direct (apart from ASB's website being one of the most terribly designed financial website you'll ever interact with).

As previous posters said, Direct links with Macquarie (a true Australian dollar account), which you can operate with cheques and that accept electronic transfers so you can have minimum delays between transactions, like you want.

[whiteheron]

Thanks for the replies folks
They give me much to think about

As a matter of interest the AUD Bank Draft I ordered has still not yet arrived
If it is not here today some major damage control will be required

[I.T.Ancient]

If anyone from ASB Securities is reading this, I have to say that Patsy's advice is most appealing. I too have an AUD account, so I sit on piles of AUD dividend cheques, and when I get round to visiting the Bank (taking care to choose as quiet a time as possible), the tellers almost always have to wait for 'expert' assistence to understand what to do with them. My patience is running very thin...

[kura]

quote:Originally posted by I.T.Ancient

If anyone from ASB Securities is reading this, I have to say that Patsy's advice is most appealing. I too have an AUD account, so I sit on piles of AUD dividend cheques, and when I get round to visiting the Bank (taking care to choose as quiet a time as possible), the tellers almost always have to wait for 'expert' assistence to understand what to do with them. My patience is running very thin...


I have no problem at all, I just mail my divy cheques to ASB Securities, (with instructions to bank it) and let the guys handle it from there, nice and simple !

Disc: Once I tried to bank an AUD divy cheque to my ASB Securities AUD account through a normal ASB branch, it took about half a hours waiting and watching feeble attempts by ill informed staff, before the branch manager suggested it would be quicker to just mail the cheque to ASB securities, nope never had any problems after that !

[shasta]

IT Ancient/Kura

I use ASB Securities & used to trade using a Margin Lending A/c, & what i've found is that by selecting that a/c, its up to ASB Securities to pass on info/paperwork etc.

I only use the DIY internet service but still get rung up re IPO's, SPP's, T/O documents...

I could easily pass my shares through to my own a/c & have to deal with all the above issues, but by leaving it in the Margin Lending A/c, it's there problem, & seems to work better IMO.

BTW - I've always used ASB Securities & bank with ASB & have never had any issues with them, except one day when i sold some SKC shares a few years back & they paid me a $1 per share over the market price!

I did ring them & question it!!!

[I.T.Ancient]

Thanks Kura. I have some cheques to bank so I will try posting them with a covering note.

Useful info shasta. I don't like to incur fees if I don't have to. Having said that, you are clearly getting quite a bit of value for your $250 p.a. minimum charge, so I am tempted (I seem to have lost my Paladin t/o docs so maye I need help..)

[Sehnsucht888]

Good advice Bear. I just called Direct, gave them the details, and was told the cheque would be in the post today. Very easy indeed.