u/Chris__Mate

Hello,
My wife and I are planning to move from Germany to Australia (open-ended), and I am looking for a cheap, reliable option to transfer a larger sum (under 100k €) to AUD.
I don't have any accounts yet besides my German banks, but a friend checked, and it would cost around 700-1000€ to use Wise. I have checked some FX sites, but I have never heard about this before and I do not feel comfortable using it, moving a big chunk of what we have in finances haha
Therefore, I wanted to ask the Hivemind if there are any other options we should consider. Thank you!

Hello,

My wife and I are moving from Germany to Australia in December (for an indefinite period).

We hold various accounts, including share and crypto accounts with Trade Republic, as well as ETF savings plans with ING-DiBa. We also have various accounts for (genuine) credit cards, current accounts and a joint household account. I have two questions regarding this:

1. Investment accounts

According to my research, Trade Republic, DKB and ING-DiBa do not allow investment accounts without registration in the EU, meaning we cannot hold or trade securities. It is important for us to be able to actively use these accounts.

Does anyone here have any experience regarding whether it would be best to sell everything before we leave, after we arrive, or transfer the accounts?

2. Accounts/credit cards

Can we continue to use our cards, even if we no longer officially have a residence or address in the EU, or will they become invalid once we’ve deregistered? As far as I can tell, it should be possible to use the DKB and Hanseatic cards in Australia – even without an EU address – until everything is set up there.

This is an issue that we’ve unfortunately completely overlooked in all our emigration plans – the fact that we can’t simply continue using our accounts worldwide – so I’d be grateful for any insights!