Cars and Banks

After spending quite a bit of time looking online for used cars, J and I headed to Integrity Dealership, which had listed most of the best deals. We looked at a variety of cars, and found that the ones we liked were out of our price range. Then we found a cute red Toyota Ist that we both liked, and was on a huge sale. J managed to haggle the price down even a bit more, making it a fantastic deal. The downside was that to get it at that price, we agreed to pay in cash.

That wouldn’t be a problem, because we have the money, except that most of the money is currently in the US and Canada. Which also wouldn’t be a problem, except that when we got back to the hotel and tried to do the Internet transfer of the money, we found out that we need a NZ credit card for the transfer to go through. Which wouldn’t be a big deal (are you noticing a trend?), except that J had to wait for his first paycheque to go through before he could apply for a NZ credit card, which means he doesn’t have one yet. Moreover, none of this would have been a problem in the first place, except that we misunderstood how J’s first few paycheques would work. We have paid for all of our moving expenses (plane tickets, shipping, food, etc.), but J’s job is going to reimburse us. That is very generous of them, and we are so appreciative, but J has to work there for five weeks before we get that money. I think that that’s a very reasonable policy, but it is a long time to wait when we are needing to spend money on furniture and other large things (like a car).

The other reason we have found ourselves in this situation is that no matter how smart we are about finding good ways to transfer money (and J is very good at it), we lose money when we convert it between currencies. This is particularly relevant because we will be earning NZ dollars, but we need to pay back J’s student loans in US dollars. So our goal is to leave as much money is our American and Canadian accounts as possible. As soon as we’re settled, not buying cars, and we’ve been reimbursed, that will not be a problem. But for now, it means that we are cutting it closer than we would like.

Before you get too worried, we did sort it out. We are getting a small loan from our bank here (ANZ), which we will then be able to pay back as soon as J gets his big reimbursement cheque in a few weeks, so we won’t have to pay interest or anything. We decided that that was the best option, so we can leave our money where it is, but also get the cash to the car dealership.

Having learned a lot from our international banking experiences in Canada, we have done a better job of managing it all this time, but it is still quite a hassle to figure out the best ways to handle money in three different countries, especially when each country has their own rules about how banking and transfers work.

The exciting part of all of this is… we bought a car! Yay! And that means that once we get it, (after we pay and they do a tune-up and put on new tires), I get to start driving on the left side of the road! I am so very excited!