Thanks for everyone's comments. I agree with you KnowItAll. Since we will be living in Hong Kong, we want our main account there. And it seems that right now (it could change though) the requirements to be a Premier customer is lower in HK than Canada. But we thought it would easier to open here first in Canada because before we move, we will move all our RSP's to HSBC and then when we sell the house, deposit the cheque there. We will need to keep this account open to have our gov't pension cheques deposited there. Plus the Relationship Manager here will do all the work for us in HK.
We will then move money to HK as required. We will only want cheques, bank/credit cards for the HK account. I wonder which account they base the monthly fee on. The Canadian one or combined?
But I think without the RSPs or the house money, we will not qualify. Unless we depoist in our current bank (RBC) and then transfer it to the HK HSBC. And then (??) open a HSBC in Canada and move all the money from RBC to HSBC. Too complicated. May be easier the other way. What's $150K versus $135K anyway for the convenience. My hubby believes there is RBC branches in Hong Kong. Anyone know if this is true?