migrantoz

I found the following statement on the HSBC website when looking to open an online account.

There is a minimum of A$2,000 deposit required to open an Online Savings Account, but this does not need to be maintained after account opening. Please note applicants who are under the age of 16 or not Australian residents are not eligible to open an Online Savings Account.

The last sentence says you have to be Australian resident, so how has anyone managed to open an account with the HSBC whilst still living in the UK? I was hoping to open an account from here in the UK so that I have an account ready with available funds for when I arrive in Australia.

ABCDiamond

You open it from the UK, via the HSBC International Branch
Tel: 020 7991 7278 (For opening Australian Account from UK)

podgypossum

How come we opened one 9mths ago and were not granted PR until September.

P.S. we shall be closing very shortly too..their customer service is the wors ti have ever experienced. Their call centres are base din Malaysia and more often than not the person you speak to cannot understand you and vice versa... so far they have ballsed things up on no less than 5 occasions in the short itme we h ave been with them...no point flogging a dead horse anymore..i'm looking for better options now

Oh...and their EFTPOS card dooes not work in many places... very embarrassing when you've filled your car up with fuel and then cant pay for it!!!!

sj oldfield

we also opened ours in the uk. did it online, then took the required ID to the local HSBC branch for verification. All very straightforward.

lindseyden

We opened ours online from UK too with no problem, just took our 100 point test and ID to our local branch.

Lindsey

Wol

You probably need to be a little creative in the application! They will need an Oz address if you open it in Oz, but that can be a temporary one.

We found them very good when we opened the account, everything happened quickly. I did have a problem with their ATM in Sussex St, Sydney, which accepted my ATM card PIN, accepted the new one which I entered to change to a memorable one, then locked my card up! HSBC did take almost a month to get THAT sorted out - but the non-delivery of a new PIN may well have been the Oz Post Office..........

DPD

What are there rates like? I would mind opening an account and putting in some money and swapping currencies when the rates avail themselves.

Wol

It's presently 5% I think if you have $2000++ in the account. A much smaller rate if you dip below that.

Deb

My hubby opened a HSBC account about 5 months ago and does all his banking there at the moment. When he opened the account he told the guy we were hoping to emigrate to Australia..
The guy said there would be no problems opening an account in Oz, they would just transfer the money over and all they needed was six weeks notice to complete the transfer...

Deb...

worzel

I have seen posts in the past suggesting Commonwealth bank are much better than HSBC. Does anyone agree / disagree with this?

mlbonner

I'm with Commonwealth, I swapped to them from Westpac. So far I've been with them for three months and have found them helpful and efficient. I've never banked with HSBC though, so I wouldn't know how they compare.

ABCDiamond

I think the main difference is in fees. How much do you pay in transaction and monthly fees for a CBA account?

JAJ

Commonwealth appear to be a lot more consistent than HSBC. If you deal with the CBA's London office, you get a standard process and they will be able to open up an Australian account for you before leaving the UK. And transfer money to it.

With HSBC, policy on opening an account in Australia from the UK seems to depend on who picks up the phone that day. I may be doing them a disservice, but judging by posts on this forum they are completely inconsistent in whether they offer this service or not.

Jeremy

ABCDiamond

I think the reason for that, is that people try to open the account from the local High Sreet branches, and then have problems.
If they were to deal only with the HSBC's London International office, that office has a straightforward system.
If you compared the two London offices that deal with that, they would probably be very similar, problem is that the HSBC has 1,000+ ?? high street branches to stuff it up for them

nikkers

We have managed to open a HSBC account whilst here in the Uk its an online service and our cheque books etc are on the way to us.We went through the London International office just got our documents verified at the local branch.

It all went smoothly apart from us not verifying with something that had our full name on so I had to return to the local branch with something else.

We wanted to be able to transfer money to the account as an when the rates were good as we won't be in Brisbane until 31st December.

Nikki x