Are the banks a little strange in Hong Kong?

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  1. #1

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    Are the banks a little strange in Hong Kong?

    On last December I open a bank account on the very known HSBC bank. The reason for opening was the stock market, but because the bad time for shock investing the bank account wasn't useful anymore, I didn't close the account but I keep the minimum money of 10.000 HKD. On February the bank account by mistake was out of money (I took them for a wile but forgot to put money back) so on March they start to charge me about 60 HKD and so every month as penalty for an under 10.000 average for the last 3 months! According to the conditions for bank account keeping I'm obligate to have 10.000 average on my bank account for the three last months, in this condition the bank could charge me for the two next months after March, that mean April and May if I don't put on the account 20.000 HKD in April or 30.000 HKD in May!
    I went by my self to the bank and I ask to talk with somebody about this problem because I had so many charges from the bank that I couldn't explain. I insist that to charge me 60 HKD, as the condition is, should past 3 months each time, that means that they could charge me once on March if my average for the time from December to March is not 10.000 and one more time on June if my average for the time from March to June is not 10.000.
    I don't know If my interpretation was right or not, but the bank gave me back a piece of the money they charged me!!
    I find very strange how easy the banks in Hong Kong give back money to the people when they ask for! My girlfriend (she is from Hong Kong) start a ridiculous court against a bank and she win in an unbelievable way (in fact the court never round off until the end, the bank pay the money and the court was canceled), without any legal preparation or even a study about the case or something. I was sure she could never win that court, in Europe I'm sure she couldn't win in that way!


  2. #2

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    Banks here are pure businesses - there's no "essential service" aspect that you find in some (particularly European) countries. So for HK$60 it isn't worth a lot of someone's time to argue, and fighting court cases is very expensive so again they take the course which gives the best result for their bottom line.


  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by PDLM:
    Banks here are pure businesses
    I think they just try to look like that, in the case of HSBC, that is solved in oral way and also in my girlfriends case the bank look like the try to take this money, and in here case there wasn't only about 60 HKD but much more, also I think those kind of charges becomes automatically from the bank computer system I don't understand how a computer program could make that mistake just in some cases and not in all.


    - there's no "essential service" aspect that you find in some (particularly European) countries.
    The banks in Europe they don't offer "essential services", they are autocratic, and charge much more and really very difficult to take back anything!

  4. #4

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    I believe they take a "rolling average" over three months. So it's only counted on a three-month basis. Meaning that the charge cannot be less than (3 x $60). Sneaky.

    Click on "Total relationship balance" and it'll tell you the number you need to be aware of.

    Last edited by Sigga; 17-07-2009 at 12:37 PM.

  5. #5

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    its good how they are actually pretty fair about it... rather than feel like i am hitting my head against a brick wall when i complain.

    its all about business in HK and the cost and benefit. im sure they expect more than HK$60 worth of business from u over the next 40 yrs...


  6. #6

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    I hear a lot of banking complaints from expats and it turns out they're all about HSBC. I don't know why anyone uses them. Their customer service is almost non-existent and they've closed most of their branches.

    There are dozens of banks in HK so maybe expats should try some of the others.


  7. #7

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    Their customer service has always been fine for me. Latest example: waiving the charges on paying in a US$ cheque (for only US$15, so the normal charge of HK$100 would have taken most of it); no problem at all.


  8. #8

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    That sounds good PDLM. I guess you have a Powervantage account or something similar though. For grunts or business accounts, they are very unhelpful. I have found Standard Chartered and Nanyang Bank much better.


  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by PDLM:
    Banks here are pure businesses - there's no "essential service" aspect that you find in some (particularly European) countries. So for HK$60 it isn't worth a lot of someone's time to argue, and fighting court cases is very expensive so again they take the course which gives the best result for their bottom line.
    I agree with this.