soon_to_Move

Been trying to set up our US account in advance using the HSBC international banking service that they officer. It was great in theory but they are awful at advising, different story every time. 'world's local bank' my arse!

Bob

wait till you get here...you'll get used to it

Duncan Roberts

Where are you moving to? HSBC doesn't have much of a presence in the US, I think the closest branch to me is about 400 miles away. If you don't know for sure that there are some close by you, it might be better waiting and signing up with a local bank.

Britinsac

Yes its all bollocks. HSBC is only on the east coast too. If you try like we did (because we have First Direct in the UK) to set up an account and be able to transfer money easily between them then forget it. I asked about being able to see both accounts at the same time for online banking. Just not possible, in reality they are totally separate organizations who share a name. No working relationship exists at all. And if you are on the West coast like we are.. then don't even bother. You would be better setting up an account in Azerbaijan.

Bob

probably get a better interest rate if you did

soon_to_Move

we're moving to NY and saw a few HSBC branches when we were looking for an apartment. We made a formal complaint this afternoon and been told we will now get personal attention to get our apllication through ASAP so our cards will be waiting for us to pick up when we roll up in January. I won't hold my breath!

Britinsac

Well let me know how you get on! I would love an easy way to transfer money online between uk bank account and us account. The only company I know of that does seem to be somewhat international is American Express which is great if you want a US credit card and you have a UK one.. they will just sort it out for you. But they are of course not a bank as such.

Xebedee

What about doing this in reverse then? Can you open up a HSBC acct. here in the US and then, going on the strength of that, open one up in the UK? From here and/or over there?

soon_to_Move

Natwest have a facility where you can have an international bank account which is used online and allows you to see your accounts that are in sterling and other currancies and you can transfer money between the two- perfect i thought! I spoke at length about this with them and you have to be earning lots of money to be able to use this facility. Not suprisingly we were turned away.

sangiano

I'm sorry to hear you had problems with HSBC.

We have set up our banking with HSBC and have found the service to be outstanding (this may be because we were able to get a Premier account (with no monthly charges) through our relo company).

We didn't have accounts with them before and they set up US and UK checking, savings and credit card accounts for us. All the info was fedex'd to Italy and we have been operating the US accounts online with no problem.

I haven't been into an actual bank branch for years so, personally, I don't see this as a problem. All fees for ATM use are refunded to our account.

We can wire money between the US and UK accounts free of charge, but I suspect the exchange rate wouldn't be great so I would continue to use XE using EFT and BACS so there are no charges.

I suspect we are luckier than many and it's possible we will discover problems with this arrangement when we arrive. If so, we'll just open another account with a bank or credit union that has local branches.

tonrob

Coverage is patchy to say the least, but there are a few out west but would depend entirely on where you live (I heard the west was kinda big!):

http://www.banking.us.hsbc.com/HICSe...language=en-US

Longy

It really doesn't get much easier then XE - the only way its going to be easier is to have your UK and US accounts all under one bank and one login, but this is never going to happen.

Britinsac

Yeah us poor skint buggers who can't even afford to pay the bank charges. I have put my money into a new bank - Mattress Financial Services

sangiano

That's exactly what we can do with HSBC Premier but, as I said above, XE will give better exchange rates, so it's a moot point anyway. I'll always take a better exchange rate over something that is slightly more convenient (but then I'm a tight git).