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Another HSBC Rant

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  1. #41

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    Original Post Deleted
    So.
    Global View just allows you to see what balances you have in your accounts at other HSBC entities.
    This is helpful if either
    A. You only bank with HSBC in two countries; eg. AUS & HK; as is the case that @bdw described
    B. You have HSBC relationships in many many entities (nightmare) and are very regularly moving money around.

    Frankly, third party services such as mint.com or even Gini here in HK give you a better view of money around all your bank accounts, investments etc. regardless of whom you bank with.

    Now, Global Transfer!
    If you are making an AUD (HK) to AUD (AUS) transfer and HSBC lets you do it without fees, that's great. Because you aren't losing money. But in most cases, if you do any form of currency transfer, you are likely to be better off doing that with third party services like Instarem or Transferwise. Just for the better rates!

    I stand to be corrected but I haven't found HSBC FX rates to be competitive nor their overseas transactions to be quick.

  2. #42

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    Quote Originally Posted by traineeinvestor:
    Could not ever (i.e. not once) actually log on. I kept getting the message "The system is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later." over and over and over again ... for weeks.
    That's incredibly frustrating. I don't work at DBS but I can't imagine you had this issue for weeks and it was an issue with the online services of the bank. More like issues on your end.... Flush cache, delete cookies etc.
    How annoying though.

    How did you find the customer service?

    I just went over to Hang Seng to buy some gold coins and was told I had to open an account at Hang Seng to do so. Makes no sense to me!

  3. #43

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    After some time dealing with Hong Kong banks, they do the things they do because of banking regulations. It's not that they want to be that way, it's just legally they are bound to do those things. Believe me, banks want to do more business, but when it's a total headache for them legally, they will just let it go. If they ever get into trouble it's always not worth it for them. Just how things are. I don't like Hong Kong banking system but what choice do we have living in Hong Kong?


  4. #44

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    Quote Originally Posted by rkenia852:
    So.
    Global View just allows you to see what balances you have in your accounts at other HSBC entities.
    This is helpful if either
    A. You only bank with HSBC in two countries; eg. AUS & HK; as is the case that @bdw described
    B. You have HSBC relationships in many many entities (nightmare) and are very regularly moving money around.

    Frankly, third party services such as mint.com or even Gini here in HK give you a better view of money around all your bank accounts, investments etc. regardless of whom you bank with.

    Now, Global Transfer!
    If you are making an AUD (HK) to AUD (AUS) transfer and HSBC lets you do it without fees, that's great. Because you aren't losing money. But in most cases, if you do any form of currency transfer, you are likely to be better off doing that with third party services like Instarem or Transferwise. Just for the better rates!

    I stand to be corrected but I haven't found HSBC FX rates to be competitive nor their overseas transactions to be quick.
    To be clear, it is the free global transfer that I want because I need to transfer small amounts of AUD from HK account to Aus account every month. I already use instarem a lot for transferring from HKD to AUD and MYR. But I also have some AUD investments in HK paying me AUD dividends that I want to transfer into AU bank without any fees. Instarem cannot do AUD to AUD. HSBC global transfer with a HSBC account in both HK and AU sounds like a good tool for this. Most of my banking in HK is with Standard Chartered, and in Australia is with Bankwest, but HSBC appears to be a good middle tool for transferring between countries because both SC and Bankwest dont have this global transfer function.

    You are right HSBC rates are shit, their service is shit, I left them as my main bank in HK 10 years ago when I bought my HK property and decided to go with Standard Chartered. But now I am looking to move some business back to HSBC because they do have the tools that I want and unfortunately SC doesnt have.

  5. #45

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    Quote Originally Posted by jack55:
    After some time dealing with Hong Kong banks, they do the things they do because of banking regulations. It's not that they want to be that way, it's just legally they are bound to do those things. Believe me, banks want to do more business, but when it's a total headache for them legally, they will just let it go. If they ever get into trouble it's always not worth it for them. Just how things are. I don't like Hong Kong banking system but what choice do we have living in Hong Kong?
    I asked Standard Chartered the other day if I can transfer the unit trusts I hold with them into my wifes name. They said sure come in and well sort it out.

    I asked HSBC if my wife can open a new Premier account, she doesnt work but I will write a cheque for $1m to deposit into her new account. They accused me of unethical behaviour trying to avoid paying Australian taxes and kicked me out of the branch. It was a premier center I was in by the way, some people say I have to go to central to open a premier account but then what the f*ck are all these premier centers for then?

  6. #46

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    HSBC Global View and Global Transfer has some quirks.

    HSBC Global View - allows you to see balances, but cannot do any specific transactions in other accounts. I.e, if you log into HSBC HK (app or website), you can see balances in your HSBC AU (for example), but if you need any account details, transaction inquiries etc, you will have to log into your HSBC AU account separately.

    HSBC Global Transfer (specially if you're a premier customer) - this is what I like the best. I do 1-2 transfers a month between HK and US. I have checked rates on few 3rd party transfer services and compared FX rates provided by them vs what HSBC quotes me, and there is not much of a difference. The beauty comes what @bdw is trying to do. Earlier this year, HSBC had a promo running where you could convert your HKD in HSBC HK to USD in HSBC HK using mobile app on inter-bank spot rates (i.e no markups). Did a few transfers that way and would send USD from HK account to my US account without the need for any conversion. In one of the transfers. I received USD 2.22 in interest income on the USD balance I held in HK, which I was able to transfer to US eventually at zero cost!.

    Just an observation on FX rates:

    There is a difference in rates offered for a) Transfer from HSBC HK HKD to HSBC HK USD account (fx conversion) vs. b) HSBC HK HKD to HSBC US USD through Global Transfer. the latter has always been cheaper, except for the time when they had this promo running.

    bdw, shri and z754103 like this.

  7. #47

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    Quote Originally Posted by rkenia852:

    I just went over to Hang Seng to buy some gold coins and was told I had to open an account at Hang Seng to do so. Makes no sense to me!
    part of AML... happening quite often in banks that deals with non wired stuffs...

  8. #48

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    [QUOTE=freeier;3670200]part of AML... happening quite often in banks that deals with non wired stuffs...[/QUOTE

    Sure; if the payment is in cash. But if I can make the payment through EPS or Credit Card, someone else has done the KYC and AML is not Hang Seng's problem.

    What stops me from going to Chow Tai Fook and purchasing gold coins there?


  9. #49

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    Quote Originally Posted by rkenia852:

    Sure; if the payment is in cash. But if I can make the payment through EPS or Credit Card, someone else has done the KYC and AML is not Hang Seng's problem.

    What stops me from going to Chow Tai Fook and purchasing gold coins there?
    don't think they will sell you gold coins by credit card or EPS, has to be cash or direct transfer from their account (because of cost at the back of such payment)...

    don't ask me why, and many guys always complain that why this bank do this and that bank can do that can why not consistent..etc..
    the way compliance and AML works, each bank will define what it is that is required within their processes and implement them accordingly.. if their process is safe over the years, good for all, but if some loophole occurs and something blows up, then the bank will have to take the hit and get penalized.. so conservative banks will adopt conservative processes and aggressive ones will be like cowboys...
    shri and traineeinvestor like this.

  10. #50

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    Alright guys, just to update, thanks to people on this forum I discovered Citibank have the same global view/global transfer function as HSBC, they have a presence in Australia (unlike Standard Chartered) so I thought I will give them a shot instead. If you do their new customer account opening using their mobile app you get up to $10k rebate, so on a Sunday (yesterday) I installed the Citi app on my phone, signed up for a new account, took a photo of my HKID and address proof, had to take a mug shot selfie, had to write my signature on a white piece of paper and take a picture of it, then wait 10 minutes and BOOM!! I have a brand new citibank priority account. F*cking awesome all online on a Sunday without leaving my home or having to go into central as some people were saying is a good idea when dealing with HSBC.

    After creating the basic Citi priority account, there is another section in the app to setup the FPS, transer in some money from my Standard Charted account and then if you transfer in more than $1m you get another $2500 rebate, or more than $500k and you get $1200 rebate

    After this, use the app again to create an investment securities account and they give you another $500 rebate. Buy $200k of stocks and another $1500 rebate, Then I can start buying stocks with no buy commission for the next few months.

    Next I have to figure out how to create a Citi Australia bank account and get the global view thingy working.

    Oh also they have 3% HKD fixed deposit as a welcome offer so might do some of this as well.

    Really happy I got my wife setup on Citibank on a Sunday and can now start buying shares, I can start selling what I have with Standard Chartered and need to complete before I become Austalian tax resident in a few months. Really f*ck HSBC for kicking me out of their Premier center last week and they are good for nothing as far as I am concerned (except for their HSBC Visa Signature credit card which gives me 5.6% cashback on overseas transactions, I'll keep that )

    shri, jrkob, Andy SNK and 2 others like this.

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