HSBC Expat springs to mind. There are limitations on these accounts though. Buying shares is generally fine, but managed products like ETFs are a good deal more limited so you can’t, for example, buy American domiciled ETFs through Schwab.
HSBC Expat has a large opening balance requirement that I can’t meet at this stage of my career (£50,000) which is unfortunate.
Considering DeGiro currently. American options aren’t at the top of my list (bad apps, bad consumer protections + other more personal issues) , so I’m trying to avoid them where possible.
I have a HSBC HK Credit Card as a non-resident, opened it a month or so ago. HSBC Premier card and I already had the bank account, but they mailed it to Australia.
They only allow it for non-residents if you have premier status in another country. I assume that in your case you had premier status in Australia.
Ah yes, correct - didn’t realise there was a policy or similar, but I did notice that the total relationship balance was much lower for the Premier CC for non-residents. In fairness, there’s forex fees, so it’s not a card I’d recommend holding just for the sake of it (though the fee is waived, so also no reason not to), but if in HK semi-frequently it’s handy.
If you opened your account before January 1st then the total relationship balance and monthly fee won’t apply to you. They charge a foreign transaction fee for all their credit cards which is quite inconvenient. There are very few 0fx fee cards in HK in general.
There are very few 0fx cards in HSBC wherever you are I think
True, interestingly though none of the HSBC US cards (both credit and debit) have fx fees.
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Didn’t realise that re TRB applicability. I’ve had all my HSBC accounts for a fair while, Premier is based off my AU relationship though. I believe 0% fx is fairly common in the US but not so much elsewhere, more a special feature (although there’s exceptions everywhere, of course). The only US card I have which has FX fees is the Amex Blue Business Plus.
Agree, just had a quick look and my US Debit & Credit don’t; AU Debit and HK Debit Mastercard (but not UnionPay) have no fees (HK MC debit also has 0.4% cashback); SG debit, HK credit, Expat and AU credit all have fx fees, as far as I can tell.
ATM fees in Thailand have increased to 350thb (£8) per withdrawal at a lot of machines. There’s still some charging ‘only’ 250thb (£5.70).
Anyone seen higher atm fees on their travels?
I know in the Czech Republic some are about £7 (though there are cheaper and even free options too) Schwab is your friend in these cases.
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That’s crazy, I remember 150 THB being the norm other than Aeon (?) ATMs; ANZ in Fiji was charging FJ$15 a couple of years ago (rarely need cash in Fiji so haven’t used an ATM recently) and I thought that was bad.
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HSBC HK rejected me applying from UK and then rejected my credit card application I made while in China… annoying as hell. I wanted the dual currency one for the cashback (RMB/HKD, with the credit limit split 80/20).
Actually going to HK early next month during some annual leave. Any ideas on where I’d get a bank account there without an insane amount of hassle (and what documents I need)
Euronet ATM tend to be a massive rip off regardless of where you are, the ones in Spain charged about £7 for a minimum 10 euro withdrawal iirc
Anyone got any tips for applying for HSBC AU? Thinking of giving it a go seeing that I can’t get HSBC HK without a 100 HDK monthly fee, or committing ~£950 to the account.
Anyone found any other Overseas accounts recently?
That you can open online?
There are some others too I’m sure. Not sure if Kingdom Bank is where I’d put my money though.
Xapo is a private bank. Much cheaper than Coutts.