Copyright 2012 by John T. Reed

Reader Bill Orland has displayed excellent entrepreneurial persistence and found a New Zealand bank that will allow Americans to open accounts there without having to visit the bank in person. That bank has given him permission to share the contact information:

Christine Bakewell
International Banking Specialist
ANZ International Banking Services
Ph: +64 9 252 2735
Christine.Bakewell@anz.com
Fax:+64 9 375 9350

There are four big banks in both New Zealand and Australia—same four. ANZ is one of them.

Again, I note that you have to dial 011 in the U.S. to get an “outside line” to dial the above numbers. In my experience, calling Australia and New Zealand feels just like calling down the block and the cost was not noteworthy. The cost probably depends on your phone provider.

Don’t forget the time and date difference. New Zealand is five hours behind California daylight savings time or more accurately 19 hours ahead. For example, at the moment, it is 8:50 AM here in CA on Friday, June 15, 2012 and 3:50 AM on Saturday, June 16, 2012.

Also, when you write a date in numbers and slashes, they put the day first, not the month as in 6/12/12 would be December 6th not June 12th. Be careful about that.

John T. Reed