Another HSBC thread!
 

Despite doing some searching on here re opening an HSBC on-line account, I can't find what I'm looking for.

Can anyone tell me what 'KYC' stands for? It is one of the questions on the 100 point ID form. At the bottom where it says 'Result of Check' it asks 'Has the appropriate KYC been achieved?'. The HSBC haven't filled in this portion of the form, so before we tick it, thought I better find out what it means! Can anyone remember if they or their bank ticked this box when they took their forms to be verified. Despite a scintillating 40 mins in our local HSBC branch, they had absolutely no idea what to do with the forms and had never been asked to do this before, so hoping someone can remember what this bit meant.

Thanks in advance.

Sam

:)

I have heard of KFC but this one has me :confused: we are going to use HSBC when we arrive so would like to hear how this turns out for you.

Good luck. :)

Hi there i have just searched on google for you. it stands for Know Your Customer. I think its something to do with money laundering and checking out exactly who you are. i will try to find out more.

debbie and jason

Yeah agree with DBass but I thought it was for bank to fill that part out, not you. I'm sure the checking officer ticks it.

Re: Another HSBC thread!
 

My local branch eventually figured out that KYC was Know Your Customer but weren't very clear what to do with this bit as I'm not a HSBC customer.

Somewhere along the line it's gone wrong as I've just had an email from Customer Services in Sydney asking me to do the 100 point check again!

I'm not sure what went wrong so I've emailed back for clarification first.

Elaine M :(

Just wanted to say that we tried today to open a HSBC account abroad. We've banked with First Direct for ten years and cannot believe that the two banks are linked in some way...appalling and the start of a really bad day today!!! Some people need serious job training and people training!!!
Susan

know you customer is correct.. but I would do like we did, and take your form to the HSBC and let them fill it in.

Bit of advice make sure you have your Australian bank account set up in advance of you arriving. so that all your cards etc are waiting when you arrive. also get money transferred before youn leave England. We arrived and had to wait for our cards because we left it until the week before we left to open the account so nothing was ready when we arrived. we also asked for money to be transferred from England HSBC to Brisbane, while in the Brisbane branch. we have waited 3 weeks and nothing, only a lot of shoulder shrugging from england and Brisbane, meanwhile we are trying to start a new life. in the end we have rung up England for the umteenth time and told them to do it from their end. so we may end up with it done twice but hopefully something will come. We have a car waiting for us to pay for, so it's very frustrating.

so don't be taken in by the thought, that being with the same bank will be quicker... I think they are treated as different. you would think in this day and age it would take hours rather than weeks.

yeah i agree with stefian...
we arranged our oz account a while before we left the uk..had to open account with $2000 i think. so at least we had that when we got here....and as stefian says..all our cards etc were ready too.
we couldnt do our main money transfer until our house went through and it was a nightmare cos it didnt go through until a week after we left the uk..was supposed to go through as we left the uk.
we did all the paper work and organsied potential main money transfer via halewood international (hifx) before we left the uk.soooo when the money was sitting in the uk account we could just phone halewood..agree a rate and then (cos i had previously managed to get the local internal telephone number of uk hsbc branch thankyou kind lady!) i rang her and say..right send the money to halewood...phew...if that makes sense!
so organisation is the key.....try to arrange as much as possible while still in the uk...makes life much easier!...esp when you have 3 kids!
one thing i found weird at first was that you cant pay over the phone for things with your bank card(ie 'switch'/ eftpos as its called here). and it took us a while to sort out a visa card cos we're fortunate not to have a mortgage..so no credit history here.
eventually when we had both been working a while we re applied for one and got one
...but im glad we kept our visa from the uk so that we could use that. we just arranged for the bills to be sent to my mum and then i pay them by internet banking....
just a thought for you who are soon to make the move!
every little helps i hope....
:D :D

Hi Steph,

Can you please let me know a little more about how to open HSBC account in Australia (Brisbane) befre we arrive. We've got an account with HSBC in NZ, but we are not in NZ now. We'd like to do the same as you did: open the account online before we arrive, transfer some money etc. Any tips on that? Thanks so much
Tasha

I seem to be the only one who has had a hassle free time with HSBC and First Direct.

We rang the International division of HSBC in London (there was a thread about a year ago with the phone number).

They sent us out a pack with all the forms that needed filling in.

We then had to take our 100 point ID check to our HSBC bank, who then rang the International one in London to confirm what they were supposed to do. They stamped everything that they were supposed to stamp. We had also arranged a bankers cheque for $A2000, which we picked up at the same time.

We then sent everything back to HSBC in London, who forwarded it to HSBC in Oz.

About 2 weeks later we received a letter informing us that our account had been opened and we were just to call into the bank when we got to Oz to pick up our cards.

About a week before I left, I used Halewood to transfer some more money over to HSBC in Oz, which went very smoothly.

Then last month, once our house had sold in the UK, I rang First Direct (who we banked with in the UK) and asked them for an exchange rate. Compared it to Halewoods rate, and as it was better than Halewoods, we asked First Direct to transfer our money to our HSBC account over here. They charged us 10 pounds to transfer it, and the money was in our Oz account within 24 hours.

I think we have been very lucky, both with First Direct and HSBC.

Has anyone else had a GOOD experience with HSBC?

Regards

Hi Barrakuda

It happened just as Jay Kay said. but to Transfer money, it seems better to speak to the uk to send money , than to ask Brisbane to ask Uk to send it, it seems to get lost in the process.

Steph

Thanks a lot Steph and JayKay for your replies, all info is helpful. My problem is though that my HSBC account is in NZ, but I'm now based in Vietnam and we will be moving to Brisbane in August without going either to the UK or to NZ. Which certainly adds challange to the task. I suppose I will need to contact people in HSBC NZ for advice, or, start opening the account process after I arrive (which is not ideal of course).

Tasha

YES! :)

I put a few notes together for opening an HSBC account in this thread.

Hi Everybody.

Thanks for all your replies. As we met the 100 point ID check, I hope I'm right in thinking that that means we would also meet the KYC check so I think I'm going to tick it and hope for the best.

Stefian - we DID take the form into our local HSBC branch and they hadn't got the foggiest what they were supposed to do with it. The 'very nice lady without a clue' photocopied all our docs twice and certified them all but didn't complete the 100 point ID form as she thought we were supposed to do it. In the end we ticked the boxes of the ID we had taken in and went back and the Manager signed it for us, but it left us with the questions 'Was the 100 point ID met' and 'did we meet the KYC check' as she forgot to fill them in. I'm guessing as it is just ticks, HSBC in Australia won't know who ticked them as long as it is correct and signed. Well here's hoping anyway...................:) .

If this doesn't work, I will ring the London number and try them.

Banks...............AARGHH:mad:

Sam:)

We are hoping to open a HSBC account once we arrive in Brisbane.
We have heard that all you have to do is walk into their branch and show them the necessary ID for the 100 point check and its all plain sailing(i hope)
We are going to use Hifx now,and then once we have the account number for the new HSBC one over there,we just phone Hifx back up and arrange the transfer.
If anybody knows any different i would be glad to hear.

Cheers

Darren

Darren
When we validated we went to open a bank account with HSBC. We did not bother in the end as to open an account you have to make an appointment days in advance. We went to Suncorp and they were so helpful and opened the account straight away:)

It does say on my forms that if you have arrived in Australia in the last 6 weeks you can open an account with just your passport as ID (as that meets the 100 points required). We have also used Halewood to exchange our money on a forward contract but have yet to use them to do the transfer but thats how I'm assuming it works too.

Regards

Sam:)

We were going to do it all in the UK and recieved all the forms from London but to gain the points we had to change our Debit card names from initials to our our full names(we are with the Halifax)to gain extra points , and also an introductary letter.
I wrote a letter to the halifax and they are dealing with it but don`t know how long it could take(3 weeks so far).And with time ticking away we didn`t want to take the risk of running out of time to open the account and us being in oz and our new HSBC cards arriving at our uk address.
:scared:
We are taking a bit of cash with us just in case we can`t open it straight away.

Darren

Hi Darren. We opened an HSBC account on our validation trip a couple of weeks ago. We thought we could just walk in off the street,but had to make an appt. for the next day. Apart from that, everything else was plain sailing. My partner, who was the one whose visa we validated just had to show his passport for the 100 points, but me, being the aussie, but having been back in the country for less than 6 weeks, had to show passport, drivers licence, medicare card to get the 100 points. The other little set back we had was getting the $2000 to them. was going to do a transfer onthe internet from my westpac account. off we go to an internet cafe. can't do it as there was only a $500 daily limit on my account, and it would take 5 days to get authorisation to increase the limit. My own fault, probably should have checked this out beforehand. so off to the bank to get them to make the transfer for me. they were going to charge $30, so in the end just drew the cash out and took it back to the HSBC branch and handed it over the counter. what a pillaver! But the account is all set up now, and we got all the cards, etc through the post today

Thanx for the info
Could you tell me how long it took to get your cards from the day you walked into the bank or from the day you put in $2000?
Just so we know how much cash to get us by

Cheers:)

Aren't HSBC the ones who have got rid of hundreds of jobs in the UK by shifting their call centres to India? If so then if thats how they treat their staff then how they gonna treat your money?

Just worked it out. opened the account in person on the 22nd June. received all the cards, etc today. so about 3 weeks. Bearing in mind, that as we were using my mum's address, they all went to her first and she forwarded them on.

That's basically what we did, although we did phone and make an appointment first - that's the best way. The whole thing took ten minutes. Don't forget your passport and you'll need a local address which need not be the one you will be using permanently.

Just thought id share my story.....
We opened it in the uk,(nitemare)but because we opened it 5 weekd b4 we went ,we were told we simply had to go to the perth branch and pick up r cards:D
Well what a farse..we gor there and was told that cards ad been sent to enlgalnd,so they arranged for them to be sent to us here.........Ha ha what a joke,we got a letter to go down and pick them up ..only to be told they wernt there yet !!!!(we live 40 mins from city)They are slow....dont seem to know what customer service is ,even if it hit them in the face,so we walked over the road and opened wi ANZ......I was so pleased to to transfer my dollar to them and they dint seem happi at all,any how,we got our anz cards 2 weeks b4 hsbc cards....Need i say more....thats just our story....Also,u can only transfer 10,000 dollors at a time and u get stung wi charges:scared:
natasha

Sorry to hear that.It sounds like you got the bad apple out of a good bunch.
Also there was a poll on here some time ago for people to vote for their favorite bank to open in Australia and HSBC came out top.

Well that matbe true,but we also get a better interest rate with the bank we r with now,and if it came top or not,i want whats best for my money and hsbc certanly int that !!!!Bad apple or not..ha ha
It s not the best 1 here ,theres so many to choose from,the best thing is to shop around and c which 1 suits u best,some banks charge for withdrawels and some dont!! depends what suits u.,we wanted a helpful bank,that valued us ,and gave out the best interest on our money.
Just my opinion:D

Re: Another HSBC thread!
 

Hi There

A KYC is a Know Your Customer form they are normally requested by the bank you are trying to set up with from the bank you were with.

I am trying to get an hsbc mortgage here in the US with the HSBC who I had been with for 24 years in the UK and the one thing holding it up is getting the KYC out of the UK.

Hope this helps

Re: Another HSBC thread!
 

We just walked into a Sydney HSBC within a couple of days of being here and opened an account there and then - no messing about with appointments and just the passport for the 100 points as within 6 weeks of arrival.

HSBC were a pain in the preverbial after that, all sorts of little things that weren't done or explained properly. All sorted now though.
Debit cards etc. took a couple of weeks to arrive so it was a pain having to carry cash all the time and convince the cashiers to let us have our own money without charging us for not using the ATM (but we don't have our cards yet...)

However, if you want debit cards straight away try St George, even if you don't intend to stay with them. Again, popped into a branch, opened an account, but this time we walked out with usable debit cards (pity about the pathetic $1000/day limit when you're trying to start a new life but better than nothing to get you going). Think it took another week to get the Visa Debit cards where you can actually get to spend all of your own money :)

We also found it useful to have more than one bank account as you have at least some history when it comes to applying for a mortgage.
1st broker we used was useless, wanted us to lie on forms :eek: and said the banks wouldn't touch us 'cos of our lack of earnings history (in Oz) and other factors and maybe two of the 50 or so lenders would consider us for a 60% mortgage.
So we completely ignored her advice and applied (honestly) to both St George and HSBC and were offered mortgages from both. In fact, going to sign up for one of those huge debt things tomorrow :scared:

Re: Another HSBC thread!
 

We visited the CBD branch of HSBC the day after we arrived in Sydney. We took our passports, driving licences and bank statements from back home and the account was opened there and then. They gave me an ATM / EFTPOS card on the spot as part of our welcome pack. Our cheque book, wife's ATM card and security devices all arrived within a week of us transferring over the $2000 to formally open the account.

The only gripe I have with the whole process is that every time I visit the branch the ATM is out of service, and I have to queue to withdraw over the counter. They do waive the fee though.