Carnet Bank Guarantee
 

Hi
Im in the UK and trying to get a Carnet sorted for Australia. Ive just been down my local building society to get a guarantee and spent about an hour in there trying to explain what one was to them as they had never heard of it before. I have also spent ages trying to get hold of the RAC to finalize it, but just found out the whole department is shut for 11 days!!

Is it easier to go to a 'bank' rather than a building society to get it sorted and do you need an account with said bank??

By the look of the RAC 'bank Guarantee' form i thought this was going to be easy:confused1:

Thanks

Is a Building Society the same as a Credit Union? FWIW, we were planning on using funds in our Credit Union account to be held for the carnet, however the CAA won't recognize a Credit Union and it had to be a Canadian Bank.
Daryll

I had the same problem last year with my bank who denied all knowledge of carnet bonds despite Paul Gowen's help so I ended up putting my money from the same bank as a bond wih the RAC. Shortly before my departure, (1 day) the bank apologized and said that they would put up the bond (with my money), public service or what. They are a bunch of dipsticks, i.e. they do not understand what they are there for, only what they do, make money, and only at the cost of their customers. Ride safe.

Ha - interesting to hear that. Natwest screwed me around: denying all knowledge, trying to help me and just wasting my time and almost making me late for setting off on the trip. In the end I just put the money up with the RAC figuring I'd get it back when I leave Iran and post the carnet back to them.

Barclays Bank PLC (UK) know all about it once you ask someone in branch to check their computer.

I ended up paying £160 TOTAL for them Bank Guarantee to guarantee an £8000 carnet value.

To get a bank guarantee though, I think it really helps to be a long standing customer without history of bad debts and a decent amount of collateral/savings etc.

I put all my travel budget in my current account so it looked like I had plenty of cash and then applied.

The fallacy of believing that high street banks care about how long you've been a customer. Evidence on HUBB is that people are not being refused guarantees, it's just that the banks either don't know (on the retail side - i.e. You), don't expect you to want one and therefore class them as commercial products or worse still, they just can't be bothered because I suspect the fees are too small for them to feel it's worth training their staff to do them.
£160 seems alot of money to pay for them to guarantee YOUR money to someone else. They often lower your credit facilities to make sure you can't spend the money they're guaranteeing.

The truth with carnets is to have a bank that understands what a carnet is. It's as simple as that.

Oh I know they don't care about loyalty. But being a long standing customer means they can assess you as a risk a lot easier.... So they said anyway !!

£160 was by far the cheapest way to guarantee £8000. The insurance route would of cost £500 for the policy and I certainly didn't have a spare £8000 for the RAC to look after.

Even if I took a 12 month £8000 loan, the interest and set up fees would of been significantly higher too.

I've not found a cheaper way... Please tell me if you have !! :)


P.S. I know of plenty of people being knocked back for Bank guarantees even when their partners, friends at the same bank/branch were issued them.. They DO credit rate you on it, I'm almost certain of it...

I have had to give up with 'Nationwide'. They wont do it! I dealt with Paul Gowan at RAC too 'maja'. He was helpful and said they rarely deal with Building societys, Mainly HSBC and Lloyds. I will have to do a full cash deposit, a pain as i wont have the money there in my account in case of emergency but at least it wont actually cost me anything in the end. Its all a pain in the arse and overpriced!
Oh well, you cant temper the blade without putting it in the forge.

Ted, presumably you must have been drawing on the deposit account from time-to-time to pay for the trip's running costs.

When (or if) the balance dropped below the required deposit guarantee amount - of £8K in your case - did this cause a problem?

I ask because I spoke to Paul Gowen this afternoon, and I've got to make decision whether to go down the insured route or go for the bank guarantee method within the next few days.

I can put up the money with my bank - NatWest, with whom I have an inpeccable banking record (I think!) - by transferring some Building Society money, but I will definitely need to draw on this within a few weeks after I'm on back on the road (starting in four weeks' time).

Thanks

KEITH

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Nope, no problem at all...

Once the bank issues you that guarantee and AFTER you have your Carnet, you can take the whole lot out if you like. However, I guess it won't look great on your account.

My advice would be to have as much cash as you can in your account before applying. My adviser told me it makes a big difference when a computer decides on your request a few months later.

I had £7000 in my account before applying for my £8000 carnet... Two weeks after I was issued with the guarantee and AFTER my carnet had been issued, I withdrew £5000 straight away and into an other account.

My bank, nor the RAC ever even mentioned it.

You have it easy
 

Last year the two banks with whom I have (between them) business account, savings account, credit card, investment loans would not give me a bank guarantee for my carnet. Had to pay cash to motoring organisation, 1 1/2 times bike value (BMW) for the duration of the trip.

The esteemed institutions are Commonwealth Bank of Australia and National Australia Bank, for future reference. 20 years business with CBA and about 7 with NAB.

That's brilliant Ted... and good to know: a great little work-around!

I had a look around how to do it in Australia and it's pretty simple. You dont even have to be a costumer of that bank. They ask you to open a Term deposit account with them for the full amount of money you want them to guarantee. They will then issue the bank guarantee and you will not be able to touch that money for the time the guarantuee is going for. But at least you earn some good interest on it which actually exceeds the bank fees. Maybe it's just a matter of asking your bank in the UK if something similar would be possible there too?

Anyone using Natwest should avoid mentioning Iran if they are looking for a bank guarantee (Leeds handle carnet guarantees, your local branch won't have a clue). I made the mistake of doing that last year and having originally agreed they turned me down on the grounds that they would be breaking sanctions against Iran!!!

It's a good plan to earn some interest if you have the cash to leave with the bank for the duration of the trip, but I for one don't have that much spare cash. For Aus I wouldn't bother going the bank guarantee route anyway when they offer the insurance indemnity option.