Aussie webmasters - where do you bank?

we bank at national i get charged $10 for 3 checks cleared on the spot no hold of funds ...but i think coz they no me its just like that coz the other NAB charges me $10 a check ...same with the westpac account i have

I bank at ANZ. I get 4 or 5 done at a time for $15. But if you only bank one, it's still $15.

It's pretty standard.
I was with westpac, and they used to charge me $5 for as many cheuqes, and clear them instantly. You've just got to bank there frequently, have proof the cheques are good, be nice, and ask the right questions.

I'm with Suncorp now, and the same applies.

I bank with those dicks at cba, but i have a deal with them, I get 7$ per batch from the same company, so it can work out pretty cheap. THey still suck camel dick though, as do all au banks.

Any idea the max number of cheques for $15?

Are any of you guys running sites with merchant accounts for internet transactions on adult sites?

Seems Australian banks don't want to know about adult business online.

Isnt it still ilegal to view porn on australian pc's or some shit anyhow from that dick politician from tassie? remember a few years ago he made a law? Might have been in relation to isps.

same here, but they let me do just about any number for $15!

been told that the national is the main one to see if you are wanting to online adult ...not sure how true that is

Well, the little form thing that they fill out only has space for i think 4 or 5 cheque details. But after reading Kevin's post, i'll have to ask if they are prepared to do more. I get very few cheqes though. I rarely need to bank more than about 4 at a time. I get most of my payments wired.

No.. viewing it isn't illegal.. having it on hosted on Australian servers is.. we're up there with Saudi Arabia and China in terms of internet laws.. swells my gonads with pride.. meanwhile Canberra (the political capital of OZ) is the only place where the three P's (Pot, porn and prostitution) are legal.. go fuckin figure.

^^ bump ^^

CBA any number of checks at one time = $8
talk to your manager

If you've been doing it for a while then ask to speak to the manager. The Westpac policy seems to vary depending upon the branch and/or who happens to serve you. On top of that the procedure changes fairly frequently, I can recall about 4 changes since mid 2003. Back then it was $10 per cheque with each one considered an individual transaction.

Now I get an unlimited number of same currency cheques deposited for a flat $10. I did have someone new recently try to tell me that they needed to be sorted by bank rather than currency, but she backed off when I told her how they'd been doing it at that branch for 6 months.

quantum-x: interesting that you had the same thing for 5 bucks...

I'm considering opening an onshore foreign currency US dollar account, which means I can:

1. deposit up to 8 cheques for $15 (this fee is probably negotiable)
2. the balance is in US dollars so there's no conversion loss until you withdraw funds
3. when you do withdraw to your AUD account, you get the wire rate (eg $USD1000=$AUD1268.07) instead of the cheque rate ($USD1000=$AUD1259.46)

So you can sit on your funds until the dollar looks good, plus you get a slightly better conversion rate. On the minus side it will probably complicate tax affairs, and I'm not sure whether you get charged the $AUD8 wire receiving fee when you transfer funds from your USD to AUD account.

If I do end up getting a USD onshore account I'm going to record down what I would have received if I had deposited to my AUD account (which is converted on the spot), so in time I can see how much I've gained (or lost) through speculating currency fluctuations.

MY experience:

cba - $10/check
westpac - $10/check
anz - $15/check
credit unions - $5/check (50 checks or more)

all banks will charge 1 fee if the checks are going to the same US bank.
For example, my 9 LARS checks will cost me $10 for the lot because they are from the same bank.

I hate the hold times and the shitty conversion, its for this reason I only deal with sponsors paying via epassporte! - fuck the checks, takes too long.

I spoke to my business manager at Wespac and she sorted it out that I only pay $10 for 4 cheques. I get the same deal at NAB.

Hold times and shitty conversion? I get mine converted on the spot and at a better rate than an epass withdrawal. Of course, if you are not declaring the epass income to the ATO then that is a much "better" rate. :graucho