UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

Al Salaam,

Couple quick questions:

1) Anyone have an impression of HSBC here in Dubai? My company has an account with them, and set me up, but I'm not overly impressed--and I have their Status Account.

Any banks anyone recommends?

2) Also, what's the cheapest way to wire money back home? HSBC charges 50Dhs, then my bank at home charges 20GBP!?! Anyone found a way to pass some of these fees?

Any help appreciated!

Cheers,
Fritz

Re: UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

Send a PM to Meow ....

Re: UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

I'm with them, they're crap.

you have to fill in a form by hand and deliver it to the bank for 'third party deposits', ie sending cash abck to the UK, you can then do it online, but it takes about 4 days - and they charged me AED 200. Jesus.

You can send it via UAE Exchange, will take 10 mins or so to sort details but pretty good and cost about AED 60 I think.

Re: UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

Check why HSBC are charging you if this is your only transfer.
With a status account you get one free transfer per month, my bank in the UK doesn't charge me.

Re: UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

I haven't got a status account, I think my salary is about AED 500 a month short, that also means I have to leave AED 5,000 in there even though I'm skint as a badger at the moment.

Re: UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

i am in canada and called HSBC and they said they are not connected to HSBC in dubai, any ideas which bank or service i can use in our case to transfer money to canada...
THanks

Re: UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

I am about to move to Abu Dhabi next month.

When i spoke to HSBC, they mentioned if i get a STATUS account, then i am allowed one free transfer per month.

Can someone please advice whether funds sent back to UK are taxable or not.

I have bills and Direct Debits to pay and will have to trf funds back to the UK, but don't want to get taxed.

Hope someone can advice soon, as i have not been able to find a satisfactory answer as yet

Re: UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

yeah course you can, it'll take 4 working days though, and as we work sun-thurs you need to be careful and just say it'll take a week.

Re: UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

you just don't tell the taxman everything ;)

Re: UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

There isn't a yes/no answer to this. It depends on your residency status and how long you plan to remain non-resident.

Worst case scenario is that you have a personal allowance (£5,435 in 2008/09) and income remitted below this is non-taxable.

Re: UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

Any bank can transfer money to any other bank. We use HSBC in Dubai to transfer money to HSBC in the UK - they're two totally unconnected banks (apart from the name).

Re: UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

Thanks for the tip...I now understand why there are always such long lines at the UAE Exchange branches--but they're worth it.

Only 45AED to wire money--and the rates were better than any banks.

Hands down, the undisputed heavyweight champion of wiring money back home.

Slight down side--for your first time sending, you need to complete an account with them, which takes about 20 minutes; and the lines--there's always a line at the UAE Exchange.

That said, their rates and fees were million times better than anything else I found here in Dubai.

Thanks again!!

Re: UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

Thanks for the update. Thats very good to know. Is the 45AED a flat rate? So do you need to take whatever you are wiring in cash? The other thing is do you wire to a bank account or to something like moneygram or westernunion?

Re: UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

1) Yes, its a flat-fee, regardless of how much you wire (it was 45AED to my account in States, but it may be different to other countries).

2) Yes, that was to a proper bank account. My bank charged me 7GBP to receive the transfer, but that's not much at all.

2a) To keep the charges the lowest, have UAE Exchange send the transfer in your local bank's currency; otherwise, your bank will charge you a higher rate. For instance, sending to States, UAE Exchange gave me a conversation rate of 3.68; my bank in the States would have charged me a rate of 3.74 if I had sent the transfer via AED.

3) They do offer Western Union etc, but I reckon they would charge more for those services.

Re: UAE Banks / Wiring money back home
 

Great. Thanks for all that information! I'll be sending back to the States so you have answered all my qustions. I appreciate it. Cheers!