If you have HSBC UK Advance, you can do it via international services. Put savings as reason for opening it. If you put immigrating but don’t already have the permanent residence visa, they won’t open it, but savings is OK. You need to use It every few months or it’ll go dormant (just putting money in or taking it out works).
I am not Advance. So am I going to have to go through the full thing on their website?
See if you can get to international services from your UK account.
It takes me to the website and says I’ve got to apply online. I shall say I want to use it for savings.
Thanks 
Do you have HSBC Advance or Premier? As I believe that applying from overseas requires this. As someone mentioned above, apparently the credit cards are now only considered for HSBC Premier customers when non-resident. Even then, they asked me for a lot of justification for opening it, in the end I submitted proof of entry to HK 14 times in the preceding 24 months (I was actually in HK when they requested all that info). Even then, it took over a year for them to approve a credit card haha.
HSBC, Bank of China, ICBC, Citi and StanChart (another British bank which doesn’t actually offer retail banking in the UK, but is fairly big in Asia) are the main ones, from memory - most things involving doing anything like this will require proof of address and a HKID, but passport can usually substitute for the latter. It may be easier in person, perhaps have a couple of IDs, couple of proofs of address, proof of income and existing bank statements, just to cover all bases. I haven’t bothered going any further than HSBC in HK personally, as they do the job for what I need, but I sort of regret not opening Citibank accounts in more places while they operated in Australia.
No help because, as an Australian, it’s very easy in my case 
- however, for info, there’s been a lot of talk of HSBC disposing of retail banking in Australia (as they did in NZ a couple of years ago, and Canada). Citibank recently did the same, NAB bought their operation and gradually folded it into their suite of products, but losing HSBC’s pretty unique Global/inter-country functionality would be a loss.
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I may or may not have applied for HSBC AU yesterday 
despite saying no more accounts. But it would be a waste to loose this opportunity so we shall see what they say. Should hear by Wednesday apparently.
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They’ll likely call you in a day or two, so get your story straight i.e. you’re going to use It to save in Australian dollars.
Will they call during UK working hours or AU working hours. Cuz their working hours I’ll be asleep 
UK hours.
Oh fair enough that’s decent then!
I’ve also downloaded Tesco International Calling so I can call them back easily (and cheaply).
You should book a holiday to New York. I’m told that you can open a Capital One checking account in person at their New York branch with just a passport. Zip Code to use is 00000 I think, though might be 99999. You use your normal UK address.
Don’t forget to open Charles Schwab too 
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I do not have that kind of money 
I’m aware I can do Santander ES, Lloyds International, and another one I’ve forgotten about.
I’m also not that interested in US banking. I prefer UK/EU/EEA.
You don’t need any money for Charles Schwab so that would be a start.
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And Charles Schwab do free ATM withdrawals worldwide. They refund ATM charges.
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I think you’ll find that Australia isn’t in any of those!
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Plus Australia ofc
Isn’t Lloyds International £5k minimum deposit unless you’re happy to pay £5 fee per month?
Where do they mail the card though?