The 8th of October 2008 had been a wonderful day. The kids were happy, the sun was shining and the comming summers warmth just made us feel good. It was a Thursday, so I decided that once the money had been transfered on Friday I'd transfer it in thirds to our two other accounts here that I'd setup to spread the load.
There had been ups and downs in the move to Australia, but that was all behind us and the future looked rosey indeed. I had 2 job interviews the following week to look forward to and other Agencies were started to ring with possible offers. It really was a fine day to be alive.
I will look back on the 8th as the last day we were a happy family with a good future, great kids and hard working sensible (but very slightly eccentric) parents. When life begins to go and I look back at a lifetime the 8th of October will be the peak of my life, with a sheer cliff plumet into oblivion.
At 9.14am on October the 9th 2008 I received an email from Ozforex saying that they still had not received the payment and that they would not release the Australian dollars until they had the Sterling. A little concerned, i went to the KSF website (as it would be late in the evening in the UK and therefore no point phoning); nothing to worry about there. I didnt try to login as i had not setup internet banking as the money would be in the account so short a time. A little puzzled, i did some Googling... And then, at 9.34am I stared for the first time at the depths of hell - there in black and white on the IOM Today website was the headline that KSF had been taken into administration.
I was trembling. Physically shaking. Mouth was dry and a slightly prickly feeling on my skin. Penny had taken the kids out to the park so I was on my own and very slightly panicking.
I made a cup of tea and and sat back at the computer. Dont be silly, there was nothing wrong with the bank so the headline must have been about something else. I read the full article. Oh my God!! It seems that on the 7th the UK Government had forced Kaupthing UK into liquidation using some emergency law they conjured up and that KSF had had £550Million in Kaupthing UK which because it was now under administration was not available and therefore KSF could no longer operate as a bank. This just couldnt be right surely!
As i read more articles and discovered the full story, which was much as IOM Today had written it, I started to worry. What about the £150K i owed Ozforex? This was terrible. I phoned Ozforex imediately and told them what had happened. The woman at Ozforex was very sympathetic and said that they would hold on until Tuesday the 14th of Octoer; if the funds had not arrrived by then then they would 'close out' whereby they bought back Sterling at the current exchange rate using the Dollars I had bought. I would be liable for any shortfall. This was a living nightmare.
At 10:47am Penny arrived back with the kids who just, still full of beans, went straight into the back garden. I was sat at the dining room table and she just said, "Whats wrong? Who's died?".
I couldnt lie - she see's straight through any fibs i try anyway - so i just said it straight, "Kaupthing has gone bust and we have lost everything.". I wasnt expecting the response i got as Penny just doubled up laughing.
"Now thats funny!" she said, "you actually had me going for a millionth of a second, how DO you keep such a straight face". Oh God, the cry wolf thing. I was always good at having laugh, parking the car run the corner and walking in saying that i couldnt remember where i'd left it etc..
"I'm sorry. It is actually true." I slid the laptop round so she could see the headline. I have never seen Penny go that white before! Years ago she had some of a Joint at a party and went white (before running to the loo and throwning up) but this was a different white, I could almost see the blood run from her face.
"What are we going to do?" she said. "Surely we cant just lose the money it must be somewhere". Then Ozforex hit her. "Christ, what about Ozforex?! What do we do about that? We havent got another £50 let alone £150,000!". I explained about the closing out and how we would be liable for any shortfall. "Fucking hell Jack...", I had only ever heard Penny swear once before when she caught her finger in a draw, "... what are we going to do? Please say you are joking and i'll only hurt you a little."
"I dont know" I replied. I know as much as you now.
At that point the kids came running for a drink of squash. "Mummy, whats happened?"
.
.
.
I cant write what the next two hours brought as it is still too painful. We had always been honest and open with the kids but this was probably one of the hardest things we had even done. Kids being kids ask the worst, but spot on questions. Things like 'will we have to sell the car?', 'how will you pay the rent?', even 'will i have to stop going to school and go to work?'. I kept to the 'things will be all right' theme and just said that we would wait until next week to see what happened.
That afternoon i searched for more information and stumbled on a moneysupermarket post where someone was asking for help to setup a website for KSF depositors. At least it would take my mind off things and give me something to do. For the rest of the afternoon and evening I worked on the site. The original guy had started with forum site i didnt recognise so it was a quick learning curve but by midnight the site was functional and some folk had already posted comments!
I went to bed and just lay there. Penny couldn't sleep either and neither of us felt like the traditional way of getting to sleep. Thousands of questions just whirled round our heads; What would happen with Ozforex? Had we really just lost 150 thousand pounds? How would we pay the rent which was due in two weeks? Would we get thrown out of Australia as the visa depended on my assets!!!?
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Transfer is made
On the 7th of October 2008, with all the money in the KSF current account, I phoned the bank to ensure I could perform a Bank Transfer by fax. They confirmed it was ok, gave me my pass phrase and assured me it would be fine.
Early in the evening, I checked the exchange rate had not done anything daft (in fact it had improved. I'd get A$2.71 to the £ whereas a week earlier it had been only A$2.25!! Fantastic, lady luck was really smiling on me!) and phoned Ozforex, buying just over A$400K. They gave me the refernce code and i sent a fax to KSF.
We had done it! The kids (who were watching every step) were very excited and a 'Christmas Eve' type atmosphere led to a quite sleepless night. It would be a couple of days before the money showed in our Aussie account but Ozforex were a reputable company and the 8th was a relaxing and enjoyable day.
Early in the evening, I checked the exchange rate had not done anything daft (in fact it had improved. I'd get A$2.71 to the £ whereas a week earlier it had been only A$2.25!! Fantastic, lady luck was really smiling on me!) and phoned Ozforex, buying just over A$400K. They gave me the refernce code and i sent a fax to KSF.
We had done it! The kids (who were watching every step) were very excited and a 'Christmas Eve' type atmosphere led to a quite sleepless night. It would be a couple of days before the money showed in our Aussie account but Ozforex were a reputable company and the 8th was a relaxing and enjoyable day.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Kaupthing Singer and Freidlander
Unable to open even one UK mainland bank account we finally took the decision to transfer our money to Australia. Having paper cheques in the house was nerve wracking as well as daft. So I opened an account with Ozforex, a Money exchange company, and started looking for the best/safest way to transfer our savings. It quickly became clear that I had to have a Sterling account to be able to transfer the money from. So the search started again.
After much searching and making enquiries it turned out that I’d have to open an ‘Offshore’ bank account. A couple of the UK banks had suggested this but I’d always considered offshore banking as a little shady and used by the wealthy to perhaps hide some of their moneys. But after a load more research (and money starting to run very low in Australia – all this had meant I’d not been able to go and find a decent work position here yet) I finally plumped on a bank called Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander on the Isle of Man.
Kaupthing Singer and Freidlander (or KSF as i'll now call it) had good credit ratings, didn’t appear to be caught up in the flow of lending to people who would never be able to repay and had a Parenteral Guarantee to cover all monies if the worst should happen. The Isle of Man had a 'Depositor Compensation Scheme' but the BCCI collapse (where folk who lost money in that were still receiving the odd £10 cheque years later!) showed that to be more sound-bite than a real safety net. No, the money would be there a very short time and the credit ratings and guarantee were good enough for me.
In mid September 2008, I opened a current account with KSF and, using the securest - and costliest! – postal method I could find, sent the cheques to KSF) . As soon as they cleared and the money was available I would exchange the money and bring it to my Australian account before spreading it around a bit here. I was a little nervous at having ALL our money in one place, but it would be for a very short time and we would be very unlucky indeed if the bank went bust as there were no signs whatsoever! Not quite so for its UK sister bank, but that was an entirely different business.
After much searching and making enquiries it turned out that I’d have to open an ‘Offshore’ bank account. A couple of the UK banks had suggested this but I’d always considered offshore banking as a little shady and used by the wealthy to perhaps hide some of their moneys. But after a load more research (and money starting to run very low in Australia – all this had meant I’d not been able to go and find a decent work position here yet) I finally plumped on a bank called Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander on the Isle of Man.
Kaupthing Singer and Freidlander (or KSF as i'll now call it) had good credit ratings, didn’t appear to be caught up in the flow of lending to people who would never be able to repay and had a Parenteral Guarantee to cover all monies if the worst should happen. The Isle of Man had a 'Depositor Compensation Scheme' but the BCCI collapse (where folk who lost money in that were still receiving the odd £10 cheque years later!) showed that to be more sound-bite than a real safety net. No, the money would be there a very short time and the credit ratings and guarantee were good enough for me.
In mid September 2008, I opened a current account with KSF and, using the securest - and costliest! – postal method I could find, sent the cheques to KSF) . As soon as they cleared and the money was available I would exchange the money and bring it to my Australian account before spreading it around a bit here. I was a little nervous at having ALL our money in one place, but it would be for a very short time and we would be very unlucky indeed if the bank went bust as there were no signs whatsoever! Not quite so for its UK sister bank, but that was an entirely different business.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Arrival and Money
In Early 2008, after nearly three years after the decision, we arrived. UK House sold and possessions in transit somewhere on the high seas. We had decided on Adelaide as the place to live as we both liked the area, climate and people. We'd got a rented house organised and quickly settled in. We had transferred just enough money to get us going. The intention was to leave our savings (about £150,000. £100k saved and £50K equity from our house sale) in the UK and build a new life from scratch. The savings would be the basis for our retirement as well as the primary asset for the Visa and my earnings would allow us to steadily build a life here.
As soon as we had our permanent address (if just rented!) I contacted the UK banks our money was with to change our address. To our astonishment they all replied stating that we had to close our accounts immediately as they did not allow account holders to not have UK mainland addresses! I then spent over seven weeks trying to find a UK Mainland bank who would accept our business (I baulked at the thought of putting all our money in one bank, but couldn’t even find one!). Eventually the banks we were with lost patience with us and forcibly closed our accounts, sending our balances in sterling cheques through the post (this angered me a little as I couldn’t think of anything riskier, bar sending cash!). I had considered being a little dishonest and using my Parents address, but being a law abiding citizen to a fault, decided against it.
As soon as we had our permanent address (if just rented!) I contacted the UK banks our money was with to change our address. To our astonishment they all replied stating that we had to close our accounts immediately as they did not allow account holders to not have UK mainland addresses! I then spent over seven weeks trying to find a UK Mainland bank who would accept our business (I baulked at the thought of putting all our money in one bank, but couldn’t even find one!). Eventually the banks we were with lost patience with us and forcibly closed our accounts, sending our balances in sterling cheques through the post (this angered me a little as I couldn’t think of anything riskier, bar sending cash!). I had considered being a little dishonest and using my Parents address, but being a law abiding citizen to a fault, decided against it.
Friday, October 1, 2004
Making our minds up to Emigrate
So we started to think about moving Australia or New Zealand. We both knew Australia (and Aussies) quite well but didn’t know New Zealand well at all. So in 2004 we decided to take a 8 week break to travel around New Zealand with a quick one week stop in Australia. Costly, but we looked at it as a bit of an investment.
Nearing the end of 2004 we had made our minds up and had decided to emigrate to Australia. The overcrowded feeling in the UK had finally done it for us. We went to an Agency and started the ball rolling. We knew it would be a hard slog with many ups and downs but we felt well equipped with the knowledge of where we were going and problems that might be involved.
Nearing the end of 2004 we had made our minds up and had decided to emigrate to Australia. The overcrowded feeling in the UK had finally done it for us. We went to an Agency and started the ball rolling. We knew it would be a hard slog with many ups and downs but we felt well equipped with the knowledge of where we were going and problems that might be involved.
Tuesday, January 1, 2002
Background
I'm Jack (not my real name, but so that some folks identity is protected.), a software developer/architect with nearly 30 years of hard graft behind me. Aged in my late 40's and with a quite young (wife in her late 30's and two great kids turning double-digit) family.
We lived had lived the last 20 years in the South of England, with me working away from home (returning weekends) a lot of the time. About five years after the kids were born, in 2002, my wife (Penny) and me started to talk about life in the UK and a possible change. Before we had met, both of us had independently backpacked round Asia and Australia and I had been brought up in Botswana where my parents had been teachers. In 2002, we really started to notice that both of us were working our socks off (Penny teaches Pilates) just to pay the mortgage - not that we had a very large mortgage - and bills with no real life. Added to that, our confidence in the UK economy was on the slide as more and more 'pre-approved' offers for loans (we're not 'borrowers'...) and other hard-sell-credit came through the letterbox; if everyone in the UK was getting these then the bubble would eventually burst.
We lived had lived the last 20 years in the South of England, with me working away from home (returning weekends) a lot of the time. About five years after the kids were born, in 2002, my wife (Penny) and me started to talk about life in the UK and a possible change. Before we had met, both of us had independently backpacked round Asia and Australia and I had been brought up in Botswana where my parents had been teachers. In 2002, we really started to notice that both of us were working our socks off (Penny teaches Pilates) just to pay the mortgage - not that we had a very large mortgage - and bills with no real life. Added to that, our confidence in the UK economy was on the slide as more and more 'pre-approved' offers for loans (we're not 'borrowers'...) and other hard-sell-credit came through the letterbox; if everyone in the UK was getting these then the bubble would eventually burst.
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