i work for HSBC and you are correct when you say about transferring your account to be able to operate in australia.

Are you not better staying with a bank you know and still being able to have contact back to the UK. Is the saying not better the devil you know than the devil you don't. If we get to aus i will be transferring my accounts with HSBC for peace of mind that it will go through and also ease, not having to stress about having to apply for a new account with a new bank.

Any questons re transferring account to Aus contact HSBC branches they will be more than willing to help or point you in the right direction.

I'm with HSBC and have never had to use an ATM - you can get cash out for free at any Post Office or as cashback at any supermarket. And you get a reasonable interest on your "current" online account. And no fees. To me it's a no-brainer.

Ok, I had to travel to Sydney yesterday to get four bank cheques for a property purchase but (I hope) I won't be doing that too often!

We've had a similar experience to yourself. We have First Direct accounts so thought it would be easier to open an account with HSBC. How wrong were we!!! We tried twice to open an account from the UK but the 1st set of forms were lost & the 2nd batch arrived to close to leaving the UK.

We are in the Mornington area & discovered our nearest branch is Glen Waverley. We had passports but hadn't recd our tax file numbers (they take 28 days) so address I.D. was required. I had a receipt from the Holiday Park to prove we were staying there but we were moving into a rental property a few days later & only had a rental agreement signed by us only which was unacceptable. When we drove to the branch to supply them with our updated address details they were not changed so we've had to write to Sydney with the proof again.

The lady who opened the account was excellent but everything else was rather poo. HSBC machines are very thin on the ground & we've just received d a letter saying HSBC are reducing the transcations you can get from a machine e.g. mini-statement.

Looking back I don't know why we made all that effort. We are going to look into changing banks very soon.......

Don't really understand the "no-brainer" part to the above - you can only draw cash out when the PO is open, or you spend $10 at the supermarket? Am I missing something, or is it worth me opening an HSBC account ?

Rgds

Dave

We have a First Direct bank acct in the Uk and opened a HSBC acct here in Oz from the UK before we came over. It was all done very efficiently and we had all our bank cards for the Oz acct delivered to us in the UK before we came over. Then all we had to do once we got here was validate them in an ATM machine. We have been here for 7 mths now and have never had any problem at all getting money when we need it. You can have 5 free ATM withdrawals from any machine and free withdrawals from the Post Office or cash back from shops. If bigger purchases are needed then pay by Bpay, it's easy. We have no problems with HSBC at all.

Lorraine

Hmm.... interesting...

HSBC Australia is certainly not controlled by banking regulations in Hong Kong. The proof of address practice might just be an HSBC Australia rule, nothing to do with Hong Kong.

I have an account with HSBC and also an account with WestPac but can't recall them having different requirements for opening an account. Both accounts were opened with just my passport, like you say, to prove I had been in Oz for under 6 weeks.

Mrs JTL

It obviously depends on your individual spending habits but for us it *was* a no-brainer. Most supermarkets will let you take out cash without spending - it's a win-win for them as well since they don't have all that money lying around in the tills.