One of our goals while in Australia was to open a joint account we could send money to. It also served the dual purpose of proof we are a real couple for Oui's eventual permanent residency application.

When we opened our joint account in Thailand the clerk acted as if the 1.3% interest was a simply stunning offer by the bank, but having lived in Australia I knew it was actually shit. Had we opened the account in only Oui's name we could have gotten a higher interest rate, but as I am not Thai 1.3% was 'good'.

One of the few days we were in Sydney I decided it would be a good time to open an account and as my ex works for Westpac we tried there first. Everything looked good until I formed the clerk asked if I have any other identification (I'd given him my passport). I said that no, I didn't, and asked what kind of identification he needed as he already had my passport.

To cut that long story short, they would happily accept Oui's passport as sufficient identification but for me (an Australian) my passport was not enough.

A highly ridiculous part of our exchange:

Clerk: I need the stamp from when you entered Australia.
Me: It's all done electronically now.
Clerk: Yes, so I'll need a stamp.
Me: It's an electronic passport - there is no stamp.

I was incredulous at this but instead of getting angry I just said "ok, thanks", took our passports, and left. I was on holiday after all.

Next door was ANZ and I thought "why not give them a try too?", I'm happy to report the staff there were incredibly helpful. Any future accounts I open will be with them, my confidence in their service is so high.

Unfortunately they had the same problem, but this time I was presented with a list of possible forms of identification I could use. I needed a certain number of 'points' and looking through the list I was amazed to find that there was no way I could possibly have enough to open an account in Australia (I had already presented my passport and she informed me that it wasn't possible to also use a full birth certificate because of this).

We gave up at that point but luckily my ex later came to the rescue, pulling a few strings that resulting in our joint account at Westpac.