Gold Coasters

I have been looking at the website, http://www.hsbc.co.uk/ for a while now, and i can not see the link for me to set up an account in Oz.

I can see the "Ofshore" link, but i do not think that this is what i should be looking for.

Has anyone else used this site? Any guidance will be greatly taken.

Mark.

ABCDiamond

Is this the account you are looking for ?

http://www.hsbc.com.au/personal/accounts/osa.html

Boomie

hsbc au..... has their own page..... you can set up an online account..... you have to pay in 2000$ to start it up

love boomie
xx

Gold Coasters

Thanks ABC & Boomie, I did not realise that i could set that account up whilst we are still in the UK.

Do you have any idea how long it takes to set it up?

Our flights are booked for the 3rd August, is that enough time?

Mark.

ABCDiamond

Thats only about 8 weeks, maybe ?

Look at this thread:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...t=hsbc+account

and maybe ring the London Office and ask them.
HSBC International Branch
Tel: 020 7991 7278 (For opening Australian Account from UK)

yvsie

I sent for the forms by emailing them in the first instance.
we then went to our local branch, they were really helpful.I didnt want to muck up the application form so the manager bloke helped us fill them in (cos he needed to witness signatures etc anyway...i think!!..)

I think that it only took a couple of weeks to get bank account info but the cards etc took much longer... with the bank info it said that they would follow later but by then i didnt know where we would be living so i asked them to hang onto them until we arrived....that worked well for us...

be careful though...you get charged for a savings cheque account(ie with cheque book) with an online facility!!!
you need an online account with no cheque book if you dont want any banking charges....bad lesson to learn...megga charges until we could sort it out!


having said all that if you are arriving in oz with no travelling around and can go straight to the bank with you stuff for 100 point checklist then you can open an account there and then...but it still takes a while for things like cards etc to come through + you will have to go to the bank to collect things unless you know where you will be staying....
maybe you could do that and have your transfer of dosh ready and waiting....to open account with..or else you will need $2000 with you too

hope this helps

ABCDiamond

I'm curious about that point, as I have the online account, with cheque book, but I never paid, and still don't pay any fees at all. Unless of course I use a cheque, which I don't. If I did then the fee is $1 per cheque.

Were you actually paying fees on the account ? and if so, what were they ?

yvsie

yup used 2 or maybe 3 cheques @ $1 each

one month's charges were about $80!!!!

maybe cos i used too many eftpos transactions..having used switch in uk all the time i found this difficult not to do!!! ..esp when you're spending lots at first!

maybe a way round it would be to use eftpos and then get a large amount of cash to last you the rest of the month...or...use visa and pay that off at end of month...

so...abc...how do you think you've got away with it???....

young_lad

$80 :scared: You might as well be with the Commonwealth!

We are talking about the HSBC 'Online Savings Account' aren't we?

The OSA has free a EFTPOS facility. You shouldn't rack up $80 for too many EFTPOS transactions.

Apart from the cheque fee at $1 a time (and then only twice), I haven't incurred any charges.

As for my usage, I use my HSBC eftpos card for all my day-to-day transactions. I can't remember the last time I used an ATM to get cash (I just get cashback from Coles etc) so I don't have to worry about charges relating to non-HSBC ATM use.

Something not right there Yvsie....

ABCDiamond

A good question, I thought it was all free

We do use credit cards for all shop purchases though, and then clear it with one payment per month.

However, I thought that all EFTPOS purchases were free, as it says that on the web site. Your charges of $80 for one month do surprise me!
I don't even pay that in one year, and that's with a few bank accounts, and taking account of annual credit card fees !

I would be checking into it to find out why.. unless of course you were withdrawing cash nearly every day, that would add up, but even then.. $80 is a lot.

I'd be interested in hearing more about this. We did get charged by one bank, for something we didn't agree with, so we complained and got it refunded. Maybe be worth looking into ?

yvsie

thanks for your concern abc and young lad!!

but we are still with hsbc and now have sorted out the online account....yeah i was pee'd off but it was early days and had a lot to sort outso maybe stupidly i let it go and we changed to just online account...no charges since!
all i was saying was maybe people arent aware how they can be hit with charges here if they arent careful......
i do get free eftpos now but with the other account i was only allowed 6 per month and prob went over that initially++

so all is well now...worry not

ABCDiamond

Its good that these things do come out at times, to let the newcomers know about the possible problems.

It is all about getting the right info to get the right accounts.

I did a quick comparison of HSBC online, CBA Streamline and Westpac Classic:

CBA Streamline charge $5 pm - allow 15 free EFTPOS then charge 30c each

Westpac Classic $5 pm - allow 8 free EFTPOS then charge 50c each

HSBC online charge nothing and give unlimited free EFTPOS

It would be good to see a complete comparison, but there are lots of different accounts available.

plumber

We opened an oz HSBC saving account mths ago.

We had an existing account here in the uk , made an appointment to see our manager , he organized everything also got him to help us fill in the forms.

The whole thing took about 4 wks to sort and cost us nothing.


all the best plum

Gryff

Hmmm... we are with the commonwealth...not sure what the comment meant....aren't they any good?

creed

As Yvsie said setting up an account once your over here is simple - took 30 mins to set up account (with 100points ID check) and should have taken a few days to transfer cash from my UK account.

I did have some problems as my UK branch said that they needed a signed authority to transfer money which I should have set up before I left. As a result i had to wait an extra week to sort this out.

I've been told since that this isn't required, but that didn't help when I needed cash to pay bond etc

Again, I pay no charges unless I use other banks ATM's more than 5 times in a month.

The internet banking is great just like the UK site and HSBC has been good for me ..... however be warned that outside major cities there are no HSBC branches and a few places, esp one of the major petrol stations to not accept HSBC cards on eftpos - a bit tricky when you have no cash on you !!