Originally Posted by karenkaren1

our local HSBC branch closed and our accounts got changed to Citizens. Subsequently, we closed our accounts!

Originally Posted by tht

I am waiting for this to happen, already all set on the US side with a US bank, but what do you do in the UK? Did you keep your UK HSBC account, once the US premier gets cut? Just downgrade to a “regular” UK HSBC account or are they pulling out of the UK as well?

Originally Posted by durham_lad

I am also set up with an alternative to HSBC US and if they switch me to Citizens then I will close the account and also not bother maintaining Premier status in the UK. Probably look at Chase UK which is what our daughter is using, it seems to be really good.

Originally Posted by tht

It looks like chase UK require UK Residence:
https://www.chase.co.uk/gb/en/suppor...tax-residence/

Need to find a bank that will service non UK residents…. Trying to avoid Channel Islands / IOM.. just want a vanilla UK current account.

Originally Posted by tht

I am waiting for this to happen, already all set on the US side with a US bank, but what do you do in the UK? Did you keep your UK HSBC account, once the US premier gets cut? Just downgrade to a “regular” UK HSBC account or are they pulling out of the UK as well?

Originally Posted by karenkaren1

We opened HSBC US accounts originally when we moved to US because we bank with First Direct (subsidiary of HSBC) in the UK. The First Direct account is still active. I thought it was just US branches that were closing... my preferred US bank is now TD Bank.

Originally Posted by tht

Yes, but I can see the next step being to close US resident UK account holders accounts. I have had mine since 1997 or so, I think it was Midland Bank then, but without the US Premier account linked will they want the increased cost of compliance for an account I only use once or twice a year to pay class 2 NIC or send small sums for things like wedding gifts to extended family.

Originally Posted by durham_lad

Recently while our daughter was still living in the US she opened a Wise borderless account with a UK sort code and account number and sent money to my UK bank and paid a UK lawyer to do the conveyance required for a house she is buying here. She also paid a UK surveyor using her Wise account. I would expect you could also pay NI contributions with a Wise account, which also comes with a UK debit card. Costs nothing to set up now and try in readiness should you lose your UK HSBC account.

This is what I have done in reverse, setting up a Wise account denominated in USD with US bank routing number and account number and have it linked to my financial account from which I have transferred money several times in case US HSBC closes my account.

Originally Posted by tht

I have a UK/US setup with the Wise “money transmitter”, what I like to maintain is a proper / insured bank account. I haves used services like Wise even for very large transfers (for companies) but would never maintain a balance with them.

Originally Posted by tht

It looks like chase UK require UK Residence:
https://www.chase.co.uk/gb/en/suppor...tax-residence/

Need to find a bank that will service non UK residents…. Trying to avoid Channel Islands / IOM.. just want a vanilla UK current account.

Originally Posted by penguinsix

This was a problem for me for awhile, but eventually my HSBC Premier USA office was able to 'vouch' for me in setting up an HSBC Premier UK account. They were able to sign off on the 'know your customer' requirements with the support of the US office.

Originally Posted by tdrinker

HSBC has just announced 114 branch closures in the UK next year.

Originally Posted by karenkaren1

our local HSBC branch closed and our accounts got changed to Citizens. ...

Originally Posted by durham_lad

I am also set up with an alternative to HSBC US and if they switch me to Citizens then I will close the account ....

Originally Posted by durham_lad

In that case hang onto your UK HSBC account, they are not going to exit the UK. Close lots of UK branches but they are not going to leave. ...

Originally Posted by durham_lad

Recently while our daughter was still living in the US she opened a Wise borderless account with a UK sort code and account number and sent money to my UK bank and paid a UK lawyer to do the conveyance required for a house she is buying here. She also paid a UK surveyor using her Wise account. I would expect you could also pay NI contributions with a Wise account, which also comes with a UK debit card. Costs nothing to set up now and try in readiness should you lose your UK HSBC account.
...

Originally Posted by Steerpike

I'm confused. If HSBC close a specific branch in the UK, are the accounts 'housed' / 'based' at that branch transferred to Citizens? Do they offer to transfer the account to another HSBC branch in another location instead? I don't care where my HSBC account is located, as long as I can access it online and pay HMRC in GBP. What I want to avoid is the painful initial setup process of the 'app' on the phone, which I did 'in person' while I was there in 2019 (as an aside, I was successful in switching the HSBC app over to my US phone, because keeping a UK 'payg' number from expiring was next to impossible).

The account I have is the most basic HSBC account ('BNL' - Bank Account No Lending), no cheque book, with a 'brick and mortar' HSBC branch in Yorkshire, which I opened in 2019 to hold about 5,000 GBP for no other purpose than to pay future annual NIC payments, and random gifts. So far I'm averaging one transaction a year. I tried to set up an account with every bank I could find (Loyds, Barclays, NatWest, etc) but none would allow it, due to my not having a UK residence / not being a resident.

To answer your question about a Wise account, yes you can open a Wise account with no UK address and no intention of ever having a UK address.

I only have a few years more to go with my NIC payments to complete the 'catch up', and the amount is only about 160 GBP per year, so I don't need much! I guess my options are:

1. hope that HSBC don't close my branch, or if they do, that they transfer me to another HSBC branch
2. hope that, if I do get transferred to Citizens, that the old HSBC app continues to work (fat chance!) or that citizen's 'app' is easier to use (and hope they don't ditch me as a non-resident) and can be set up without visiting a brick-and-mortar branch.
3. Get myself a 'Wise Borderless Account'. Can I get one, as a non-UK resident who has no plans to visit UK in person in the near future?

As a matter of interest, Barclays did offer to give me an account, but it was an IOM offshore type, and had high maintenance fees IIRC. They also took MONTHS to approve the application, while HSBC took me on the spot.

Originally Posted by durham_lad

Never heard of HSBC UK transferring UK accounts anywhere regardless of branch closures. It is only HSBC USA that decided a year or 2 ago to focus only on high value clients and began transferring non-Premier account holders to Citizens Bank. If you don’t have an HSBC USA account you have nothing to be concerned about.

In the UK, HSBC closing branches has zero effect on the branch account holders. That happened to us a few years ago. The only noticeable difference was physical access to a branch which is rare for us these days anyway. Account numbers and sort codes don’t change if your particular branch closes, the HSBC app does not change at all.

As for opening a Wise account, you don’t need a UK address or have any intention to ever have a UK address,