gary123

HI

I am sure that you all have seen on UK tv the advert for HSBC banking abroad, that you can set up in the uk before you move to canada.

Has any one used this service, waiting for medical so probaly won;t be out there until summer, but i would like to find out any info good or bad from any body that has used this service..

i went in to talk to them and they where very "wooly" but things i like to know are

1. does your credit rating stay the same?
2.if you bank with them in the uk , will they give head start in the canada ( morgauge etc)
3. is it the HSBC in canada of is it another bank that they own...

like i said any one that has used this service i would be really intrested on how you got on ...

Thanks

gary

simon_japan

Hi Gary,

My name's Simon and I work for HSBC Securities Canada I'm an ex-pat too, currently living in Montreal. I think this link should answer a few of your questions...

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/personal/t...heDS:11j7a92s0

Feel free to ask me any banking related questions you may have as I have over four years experience in the Canadian financial industry and have worked for the Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal before moving to HSBC.

HSBC Canada is a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC (UK) which means HSBC Canada is part of the same group of companies so it's not another bank with a relationship with HSBC it's all the same financial family.

Credit in Canada works in a similar way to the UK you need to be approved for credit cards, loans and mortgages and this approval depends on you revenue and/or assets that you may have (investments etc).

I hope this is info was useful and feel free to ask if have any other questions.

SAW 04

Gary,

This subject has been covered in much detail and using the search function should answer a lot of your questions but in short, we used HSBC to transfer our Premier accounts to Canada. The whole process was efficient and painless. We had a mortgage, un secured Mastercard and large line of credit in place on our arrival. In addition we dont pay any banking fees.

SAW 04

live to ski

OH had a very bad experience with HSBC. UK promised teh world for when he came to Canada, but once arrived they denied all knowledge.

Definately search for other threads about HSBC - there are lots. And also on how to build a credit rating here (search for me and AMEX).

One thing I would say from reading these threads, is that when they are good they are excellent, but then they are bad they are an extra headache that you could do without when moving.

iaink

So no minimum balance required then?


I find HSBC A: Expensive and B: Few and far between.



As canadian banks are all generally expensive or require large minimum balances in low/no interest accounts to waive the fees point A is not that much of a negative, but compared to the usual canadian suspects the lack of branches and cash machines is reason enough to think twice.

Once you are here there are better options, HSBC dont seem interested anyway unless you have (by my standards) a lot of money, and setting up accounts in canada is perfectly possible with other providers anyway.

bazzz

Depends where you are. There are about half a dozen branches within a 15 minute walk of our flat. Although one would hope in these days of electronic banking that going to a branch would be a rare occurrence - although not in Canada. In fact, I'm sure I read somewhere that TD were opening up their branches for longer hours - quite the reverse of what seems to be happening in the UK.

iaink

Yes, not surprisingly given the HK influx to the west coast, they have more of a presence out there than in the Center/East. I dont reall consider them a canadian bank as they dont have the same sort of presence across the whole of Canada that say RBC or BoM or CIBC have.

simon_japan

HSBC has deals with National Bank and Bank of Montreal and HSBC Clients can use their own ABM machines and those of BMO and National Bank without charge. When you add up all those machines it is the second largest network in Canada.

Some people confuse the Premium programme and normal banking services. As with all high-street banks in Canada there are fees associated with simple accounts. The Premium service has minimum entry requirements as it is a private banking service.

Internet banking is just as developed here as it is the UK and usually the only reasons to go to the branch is to provide ID to open your account etc. In fact once you have one account you can open other accounts and check out other services online or over the telephone.

HSBC is a smaller brand in Canada than in the UK but market share is increasing and HSBC is the third largest corporation in the world; while RBC, the largest Canadian bank barely makes the top 35 of world banks.

Pretty Flowers

However, I found that the customer service at HSBC in Canada was absolutely dire and incredibly frustrating.

I'd been a HSBC customer in the UK for over 15 years, but found the HSBC people in Canada to be remarkably unhelpful for most things. E.g despite the fact that I had $200k deposited in my account, they wouldn't give me a credit card. It once took me over half an hour to deposit a cheque. I was paid cash for my first two weeks salary at my new job, and I deposited it in the ATM. The bank put a hold on it and told me that they would need 5 business days to count it....

In the end I became royally p'd off, and closed my account. I'm with TD now, and I never have any problems, apart from an over eagerness to supply me with more credit.

dogboy

Totally agree - HSBC UK = Excellent. HSBC Canada = Bunch of idiots.

My mortgage arrangement with them was taking sooo long (we need this, we need that, ooops, we forgot to do this, etc.), that I walked into RBC and had one within an hour.

bazzz

I think they're both idiots, but nicer idiots in Canada. As for being able to do everything by internet banking - have you tried moving funds from an account at one bank to an account with a different bank? Apparently I need to print off a form and mail it with a void cheque before I can do such a thing!

gt94sss2

HSBC have just started an ad campaign in the UK for their HSBC Premier service which my family has previously used to open accounts overseas.

HSBC would transfer your 'HSBC credit rating' (this is not the same as your UK credit rating) to the HSBC bank overseas and you then automatically qualify for whatever HSBC Canada offer their Premier customers if you are a Premier customer in the UK.

In our case it took my parents about 30 minutes to go into a HSBC Premier branch and open accounts with HSBC India - HSBC printed out and completed all the application forms there and then - all for free. I imagine it woud be similar if you wanted the to open an account for you in Canada.

If you are not a Premier customer HSBC UK will still help you open an account overseas via their International Banking Centre but looking at simon_japan's link I think they may charge you for this now - it was free when they opened accounts for me with HSBC USA some years ago.

Of course, you could always approach HSBC in Canada directly.. thats not always possible in other places - normally opening an account with an Indian bank is a challenge in itself..

Regards
Sunil