Can foreigners purchase a carnet in Oz?
 

Hello. I'm in the planning stages of my ATW starting in less than 2 years and am considering purchasing a bike in Oz and beginning from there. My question is, can a foreigner purchase a carnet in Oz? I hold a Canadian passport and plan on buying,registering and prepping a bike there first, then traveling through Oz for 1 or 2 months before proceeding to the carnet requiring countries of Asia.
Thanx in advance :scooter:

I am in the process of renewing my UK issued carnet here in Melbourne.The RACV or AAA are the people to ask here as well as Australian Customs.They have a whole department ( or one person) dedicated to carnets and they are very friendly and helpful.The cost of the carnet depends on the value of your bike.If you go through India for instance they want 500% of the value of the bike guaranteed .For my Triumph Bonneville I put the value as 3000 pounds and had to stump up 2000 pounds, of which I will get approximatley half back when I send my carnet back.I went for the 10% deposit scheme which works out more in costs than if you have the value of the bike x 500% sitting in your bank account.Either way make sure you put a heap of money aside for your carnet.

Yeah, should be fine. I'm from UK and bought a bike in Melbourne but got the RAC UK to deal with the Carnet which was couriered out to my shipping agent in KL in Malaysia where I picked up the bike from the port.

ps Get yourself a DR650SE, loads about in OZ but do bring your spares with you as after Singapore, you even struggle in places like Bangkok to get hold of the parts you need. Plus when you're kitting your bike out, I found getting things like seats/tanks etc sent from the USA much cheaper than I could find in Australia.

Thanx for the info guy's. It sounds like purchasing a carnet isn't such an issue, apart from the cost. 500% for India!?! I would rather buy an Enfield when i'm there.

Just to confirm what others have said, I'm a UK passport and driving licence holder living in Aus, own an Aus registered vehicle and am currently applying for a carnet from the NRMA (NSW issuer) without any problems, even giving a UK address as my permanent address.

One thing to investigate before you decide whether to apply with the local motoring club or with the club in your home country is the security rates for the countries you plan on travelling to. I'm going to Africa and for a carnet issued by the RAC (UK) the rate for Egypt is a massive 800%, whereas the NRMA (Aus - NSW) rate is 200%. Don't ask me why there's a difference between countries. If you want to check the Aus rates I've copied and pasted from the application form. The figure on the right is for a car, on the left for a bike.

Australia 100% 30%
Egypt 200% 150%
Europe 100% 50%
India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka 400% 400%
Iran 470% 470%
Japan 100% 100%
Middle East 150% 100%
New Zealand 50% 25%

Singapore/Malaysia/Indonesia

Trans Africa 200% 150%

Regarding the valuation of your vehicle, the NRMA will want this in writing from an authorised person. This might cost some money to obtain, but a licenced valuer will be able to give a wholesale value which is likely to be less than you'll pay to buy.

Thank you MisterPaul, Excellent information! So my next question is, how does a guy afford to purchase a carnet if he needs to fork out 450% of the value of his bike? Say your bikes worth $10,000, you need to come up with an extra $45,000 to bond against your bike??? I don't get it, i know for a fact that most of us travellers don't have that kind of extra money floating around. I'm guessing you need to put up the greatest value required, say Iran or Syria? Do you guys put it on a credit card? I don't have one of those, am i screwed? Could you please give some details on how much your carnet will cost you in the end, this carnet stuff i'm reading about is seriously putting me off going through Africa and Asia. :( ?c?

Hey Ron,

I've posted a reply to your thread in trip paperwork. If you've any more questions about Aus (or specifically NSW) then feel free to ask.

Your best bet would probably be to go down the insurance route where you pay 10% of the bond value and then get 50% of that back at the end when you send the carnet back to the issuer. You'd want to be looking at a reasonably cheap bike to keep this cost down.

My DR650 was valued at £2,500 so at 500% the bond would be £12,500. Going the insurance route, you pay £1,250 up front and get roughly 50% back at the end.

I was put onto an outfit called R L Davidson in the UK who do the 10% thing.My Bonneville fully kitted was worth 10000 pounds, but I put the value down as 3000.It cost me 2000 pounds for my carnet to get to Oz, but you get half of that back plus some admin fees so its not too bad. My carnet ran out at the end of July and I had to pay another 450 pounds to renew it whilst in Oz, but again I get half that back when I surrender the carnet at the end of my journey.Speak to Paul Gowen at the RAC carnets dept in Bristol, he'll help you out.

That's interesting, we only paid NZ$350 plus a 10% deposit to get carnets from the NZ AA for our recent trip to Oz from NZ. A 50% deposit for NZ is rather extortionist as well, as the max duty you would pay importing a vehicle here is 12.5%, & if you get a temp import permit you don't need a carnet anyway.
Cheers
Clint