NeonHippy

Last year their was an interesting thread http://britishexpats.com/forum/malay...h-peak-846487/ that developed into a discussion of how to move your fixed deposit and home equity if you decided to leave the MM2H program. Repatriation of your money is an established principle but what if you only want to send a small lump sum?

If I get my sums right my pension will cover my cost of living in Penang with a bit left over. It is not unusual for the children to want to make a withdrawal from the bank of mum and dad so I'm keen to know I can send some money back to a sterling account should the need arise. I tried to set up a small transfer yesterday using HSBCs global view but just before getting to press send I was presented with a couple of drop down boxes. The first required a reason for transferring from a Malaysian account. This list is very long but I couldn't see anything obvious. For a small selection of the answers see the attached picture. I tried one that seemed to be more personal than business related only to be confronted with a pop up box stating that the transfer would require approval from BNM and would be delayed.

Has anyone managed to send small sums of money to the UK and what reasons do you use?

bakedbean

I don't know the answer but were you trying to export ringgits? I'm not sure if you can do that. Or were you transferring from a GBP account here?

NeonHippy

I was trying to move money from my MY current account to my UK current account. That would be from MYR to £.

xizzles

Bank transfers have gotten a bad rep of late, ever since a certain Malaysian was caught with his hand in the cookie jar to the tune of two point six bazillion big ones

bakedbean

Could try GBP to GBP ? Presumably Bank Negara only interested in ringgits. I assume you also have a GBP account here.

InVinoVeritas

NeonHippy, HSBC suggested I use code 09000 for everything. I've had no problems doing transfers to other countries, I've not tried MYR to GBP but see no reason it wouldn't work as it will be converted first. I think the exchanges would need to be open before the transfer is executed though.

BTW HSBC Malaysia will automatically suspend an account which is not used for a year. To keep it open a transfer in and out is required (or out and in). To restore a dormant account you have to visit the branch with your passport.

bakedbean

Might want to look at the exchange control rules here:
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-ad...y-requirements

It's at the bottom of the page.

Think you might be better holding some GBP in a GBP account here if you want to do transfers back to UK. Should be easier.

You can always exchange the GBP up here in Malaysia into local currency. We do that with AUD.

NeonHippy

BB & IVV, thanks for your comments. I only have MYR accounts in Penang. And my test transfer was only for 300RM so well under the controls threshold. I maintain a sterling account in the UK for my pension to pass through and thought it would be easy to transfer from one a/c to another using global view. I will have a look at the code IVV has suggested. We should arrive on Penang 4th October so I will pop into HSBC then and see what they suggest.

InVinoVeritas

I think this refers to physical currency ie what you take through customs with you.

meinkl

HSBC is easy both ways with Global view online. Plus you can have a UKP savings account held in Malaysia as well as a RM one. Just visit the local HSBC branch. Even easier if you are a Premier customer.