Hang Seng Bank / HSBC Bank

[LW00]

Hi,

I have to know if my dad did something wrong at the bank but I'm not sure.

I am in Toronto and my dad was in Hong Kong and circumstances arose where I needed him to pay my rent using one of the bank cards I still had at my place. My savings account is in HSBC. I asked him to go to the HSBC bank across the street and transfer some funds from my account to another account. He called me after he had transferred money and tells me that he could not find the HSBC and that he instead found the Hang Seng bank machines instead. Someone had told him that he could use the Hang Seng Bank machines to transfer money. Now, I know that I can use the Hang Seng Bank machines to withdraw money but not deposit but I have never tried to transfer money using these machines.

Now my question is, can this be done? I'm not sure if the bank account numbers overlap and someone from Hang Seng and HSBC have the same account numbers and I just gave money to the wrong person and am still haven't paid rent to the right person.

[MovingIn07]

Did you give your dad the FULL account number (that is, the number on your cashpoint card?). I've had people transferring money into my account recently, from various types of ATM's, and it's arrived safely PROVIDED they put in the FULL number as the first 3 digits seem to relate to the bank/branch so it should find its way ok....

[LW00]

hmmmm. When you say cashpoint card, do you mean my debit card? The account number I transferred to was a 10 digit number. I'm not sure what a full or partial number is.

[PDLM]

Until not long ago I thought all HSBC account numbers were of the form xxx-yyyyyy-yyy where the xxx indicates the branch number. But I have recently come across 10 digit HSBC account numbers relating to older accounts which don't have this form at all. I don't know what Hang Seng a/c numbers look like, but as far as online banking's concerned there are two distinct types of transfer: to other HSBC accounts, and to non-HSBC accounts, and I believe Hang Seng counts as external.

Since you obviously have internet access, why didn't you use online banking to do the transfer (and now to try to work out what has happened - I believe it will have the name of the bank in the record if the transfer has gone somewhere other than HSBC)?

[LW00]

I was going to do internet banking but found out I needed that random number generator thing that I don't have with me and am not sure where it is in my home. I would have just asked my dad to look for it and bring that back with him but thought just doing the transfer would be easier. I guess I will have to go to a branch on Monday and check it out. Or maybe call HSBC in Hong Kong when I get the chance. Thanks everyone for the information.

I think being able to get money from a Hang Seng ATM with an HSBC card is convenient, but it can be confusing at the wrong times.

[PDLM]

OK - but if you've bothered to set up the "dual password" method of accessing your online banking then you don't need the security token to look at your account transaction records and try to work out what has happened.

Unless you are a Premier I don't think HSBC Canada is going to be able to help you much at a local branch. Probably better to call HSBC Hong Kong.