Money & Banks in Australia

Living in Australia is much easier on the pocket as compared to places in Europe or the US. Students will find that they have special discounts on entertainment and travel. Australian currency comprises of the Australian Dollar which is presented in 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5 dollar notes and the coins are in $2, $1, 50?, 20?, 10? and 5?. An Australian dollar can be identified as $A, A$, AU$, $AU or AUD. Exchange rates are subject to fluctuation but the accepted rate is 0.88 US dollar, that makes one Australian dollar.

If you are the adventurous type and are looking to go camping then you must budget about $40 per day for each day of your trip. If you trip includes hotels for the nights then keep about $150. One reason for this is that the sheer size of the country means you spend a lot of money traveling from on place to another despite the discounts offered. Traveler’s cheques can be an option but you may find that small businesses may not accept them because banks tend to charge a commission on them. But credit cards are accepted and Visa and MasterCard are quite popular.

The major cities have banks of course but there in the smaller towns there are small agencies that do banking business for the main branch in the city. Some of the banks you will find everywhere are ANZ, Westpac, National and Commonwealth. Commonwealth has agents in all the post offices in the country. Bank working hours for the public are 930 am to 5 pm, Monday though Friday. If you are considering relocating to Australia then a bank account is as mandatory as a passport and all ID documents.