Siouxie

All banks charge an incoming wire transfer fee - it's a fixed fee, no matter what the sum is. Check the links in https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Banking-Canada - however!! If you open a Newcomer Account (with any of the banks) they all do a 'special, no fees' introductory offer - which could save you a few $$$$ You usually get 6 months or a year free banking, x amount of free international transfer, perhaps an overdraft / credit card facility, help with a car loan etc., I've banked with Scotia and RBC - they were both fine.

Hurlabrick

The fee TW charge is a percentage amount of the transfer, the percentage varies according to the size of the transfer (lower % for bigger transfers). The percentage fees are published on their website and very clearly shown on any on-line quote you generate.There are NO other charges made by any other institution (as they use Canadian direct credit equivalent and NOT a wire transfer per se).

Pulaski

Transferwise's business model is not to actually "transfer" the money at all - they take your money, say GBP, and put it in their account in the UK, then give you, say CAD, from their account at a bank in Canada, so all you have is two local transfers, and no international transfer at all. I presume that Transferwise sends periodic "rebalancing" wires if too much money is going in one direction.

Hurlabrick

I know. That is what I was getting at when I said they don't use the money markets (FOREX) at all - hence their rate.

Pulaski

True, but Transferwise still has to follow the market rates almost precisely, otherwise their transactions would be one-way (people would pile-in, in one direction) and they'd literally be giving money away. So I would argue that their attractive rates are the result of efficiency, not of them "doing their own thing".

I responded on BE a couple of months ago to someone emigrating to Australia, who hadn't realized that all you can ever hope to do is move your exchange transaction as close as possible to the mid-rate (which the media commonly refer to as "the exchange rate") and that that is true no-matter how large a sum you have have to exchange, in other words, you can't get an extra 5¢ or 10¢ more just because you are moving £250,000.

In extreme cases the opposite is true and massive transactions will actually tend to move the market rate against you. My employer back in the 1990's needed to exchange USD600million for pound sterling in the UK and was advised by their bank that if they tried to move it all in one day it would move the GBP-USD rate about ¾¢ against them. Taking half that as an average, it would have cost them about £1.5 million in reduced proceeds of the exchange!

Scotcad

Hello,

I'm making the move to Canada in April and also had a couple of queries in relation to HSBC who I bank with already.

1. How does the credit history transfer work? I appreciate this only applies to HSBC financial products but does it significantly increase your credit limit on a credit card for example when you move over?
2. I am also in two minds about how to transfer over my funds either via Global transfer or through Transfer Wise. Did anyone get any further what the exchange rate they apply is?
3. I saw as part of the newcomer package you can receive a $500 welcome package if you transfer over at least $10,000 within the first few weeks, has anyone done this and received this bonus?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Colognia

Transferwise is a good app. I think you send up to 10 K each transaction. I hope this helps

i_Seeker

Hi, there happy to help out. Just to make clear again, that I am a customer and don't represent HSBC in any way. I am in the process of opening a bank account and still need to verify a few things, such as their transfer fees.

1. I don't know the answer to this question, yet. Once our accounts are open, my wife and I plan to make an application for a credit card each. I will keep you posted.
2. I haven't tried Global transfer yet as muy accounts haven't been opened. If it is true that they charge what google shows, it would blow all competition out of the water in my humble opinion. No fees and no exchange rate fees.
3. I don't know which bank you are referring to.

Pulaski

Re 2. - don't get suckered by the "no fees" spin - most people on BE, though not all, report that the exchange rate spread (the gap between the mid rate and the rate you actually get*) on HSBC "no fee" transfers, is poor. In other words, there might not be "fees", but HSBC gives you less foreign currency for your pound sterling, and vice versa.

* the exchange rate for the day might be reported in the media as being, say, C$1.72/£1 but HSBC might only give you C$1.68 for each £1 you exchange, and conversely on the same day someone else might have to pay C$1.76 for every £1 they want to buy - and HSBC would make 8¢ for every £1 they bought from you and then sold to the person with C$ that they want to exchange for pounds sterling, but without ever charging a "fee".

i_Seeker

I take your point and it remains to be seen whether HSBC deliver. If they do, and that's a big IF, can you find a better deal elsewhere? When I get the accounts up and running I'll update this thread.

Hurlabrick

Yes, precisely!

It's a bit like foreign exchange brokers proudly saying 'no commission'. Commission and fees on holiday money transactions went out over 20 years ago! They make their money on the cr*ppy 'buy' and 'sell' rates they use.

Because TW only use mid-point money market rates, their only source of income is the fee they charge, which they are entirely up-front and transparent about.

Scotcad

Thanks for your reponse, i look forward to any updates once you have done so.

The welcome bonus I was referring to was from here;
https://www.hsbc.ca/chequing-account...unt-offer-ntc/

adrianj

this is what I did, I had $250,000 from sale of house , on first landing for Visa I opened a TD bank account, transferred £240k or so over, when I finally landed, transferred £9k, then with bank fees, I had my dad take out the rest and bring it over
put $250k into a bank and see the service you get LOL, we never used to line up at our TD, my wife was queuing one day, one of the guy's ran out and took her into an office to sort out her query, coffee on the side, much to the stares from the other 20 people in line. BTW, wife had her own account, that was th emoney from the sale of my house.

i_Seeker

To everyone wondering whether HSBC allows the exchange rate Gooogle displays....

No, they don't. I just did a test transfer. Google is showing 1.74 as an exchange rate and HSBC offered 1.668.

Pulaski

H01y ¢rap! That's outrageous - even worse than I imagined!