Steve2.0

Within the next 4 months I hope to be relocating to the US (Seattle / Redmond area) one of the key tasks is to sort out banking.

I hold a UK HSBC joint account (First Direct i.e. not HSBC premier) on contacting their International banking team they did a quick check and confirmed my account was eligible to be transferred to the US subject to the US branches approval.

My question is has anyone recently used this service, obvious advantages appear to be the setting up of an account before I arrive and without a SSN, what's not clear is whether there are further benefits such as an easier path to getting a "real" credit card or better still an advantageous route to getting a Mortgage (I live in hope!). I know Premier account holders get loads of benefits but that not an option.

Thanks
Steve

texasjan

Definitely set up your bank account BEFORE you move. I am trying to do it afterwards and 5 months on still not completed (cards supposed to be in the post tho )
As well as a bank account, HSBC have given us a credit card and transferred our credit score. We have so far only managed a 100 dollar Macy card before that.
If I had found these useful people on this site before I moved I would have known so much more

Wibblypig

We were going to do that....until we discovered there were no branches at all where we were moving too!

In the end we just opened an account the day after we landed and it was as easy as could be, you don't need a SSN to open a bank account.

HTH

IPM

We have used HSBC for quite some time and they did all my account set-up before we moved over to the US. The main benefits are that they should give you a check book and credit card before you go which is helpful for dealing with rent, upfront cash issues etc.

I can't say I ever use branches, but I've found the E-Banking very easy and helpful to move funds btw accounts. Whilst I do have Premier status, I would suspect that most of these benefits would be available to all with a decent track record.

GeoffM

HSBC (business) were going to set up an account for me before I left the UK but it never happened - they blamed it on the UK branch not responding to them. I ended up going into the branch after I arrived but it's been two weeks now and I still haven't received cards or anything from them. Are there any branches of HSBC in Seattle that will be close to you? If not I'd consider another bank.

Like Wibblypig I opened a personal account the day after I landed, easy, no SSN. That was with Wells Fargo - cheques and card arrived in less than a week, though they gave me temporary cheques the same day.

I haven't applied for any credit cards or store cards yet. I did have AMEX which they transferred over for me.

TexasPenguin

Not answering your question directly but, just an FYI. We have a First Direct account and they were very happy to simply change our registered address to our permanent US address when we moved out here. As many people say it may be a mistake to actually close a UK bank account, you never know what the future holds. Having the UK account sure is useful when returning "home" on vacation - chip and pin debit card, for one thing!

Weeze

Excellent point re. Amex. We did this to. If you don't have a uk Amex, open one now and they may still transfer for you in 4 months. Then you'll get a proper credit limit and not a rubbish, no us credit history one.
We were lucky enough to use wells Fargo international which sorted us with a proper credit card and checks straight away. Unfortunately they don't offer the international service anymore, but you can still open a normal account without your SSN. You just let them know when you have it. Even since switching to the regular team at wells Fargo rather than the international, the service has been excellent.

Steve2.0

Thanks for the replies.
There is a branch in Redmond and Bellevue which should be ok for the, hopefully few, times I'll need F2F time with the bank.
Already have an AMEX that will be transferred, so covered there.
We will be retaining a bank account in the UK, whether it's First Direct or our other account depends on the logistics.

Not sure where I got the idea you needed a SSN for the bank account but good to hear it's one less hurdle if HSBC fail me.

Cheers
Steve

RICH

Opening an account is way too easy. My parents came on vacation (holiday!) and opened one at Bank of America, with whatever docs they had on them, plus my local address. Back in England they changed address via mail, and it works fine for them 2 years later.

When I arrived in 2004 I went into a branch to ask what would be needed in terms of docs etc, and came out 30 mins later with an account opened. Shocking really.

Having said that, back then I had HSBC and owed them money, and they would not transfer me to US.

VJW

Hello, we did exactly as you are hoping to do back in September 2011. We are FD customers and asked HSBC to do the international bank thing. It took 3 months to set up! Partly my fault as I gave my driving licence as ID and it had expired. Even after my cock up though, we had to chase it an awful lot.

It was finally opened the week we arrived so that was fine. However it then took ages to order check (cheque) books, some hold up there too. Once we were here we could then get a credit card through them. Interesting though even though we had transferred info they wouldnt give us much credit so we carried on using our FD credit cards and just recently have switched our addresses with FD and they are fine with this. We could just have done this to begin with and set an account up when we got here.

We are now thinking of changing the HSBC account to a local bank (we are upstate NY) as HSBC call center is terrible, really terrible, especially if you are used to FD who are so good. I have held on for hours in the daytime and evenings trying to get through, and you can't do everything on line it is not in our opinion as good as FD.

Hey Ho, such is life. Good luck with your move

ned1983

You need an SSN to set up a "resident" bank account from scratch. All i did was set up a visitor account then took my SSN in today and got them to turn it into a "proper" account.

I am now going to have to build up a credit score with a guaranteed credit card for the next year or so...tough times ahead.

Wibblypig

Never heard of a 'resident' account, we opened a normal checking account without a SSN, in fact I still don't have a SSN as I am not allowed one. Our original account was with Wells Fargo, although we have opened an account with Chase as they opened a branch really close by and Wells Fargo are changing their terms and conditions and are going to start charging a monthly fee....grrrrr!

A branch is important to me as I like to be able to withdraw money without being charged and also for those occasions when the kids hand me a letter whilst leaving the house on the way to school needing to take money in that day for something!!

GeoffM

I've never heard of a visitor or a resident account. Although they asked for my SSN when setting up, when I said I only arrived yesterday they moved straight on to the next question and it wasn't a problem at all. It's a normal account, nothing special. In fact I ought to give them my SSN now I have it.

In fact I've been impressed with the banking after hearing about how backwards and 1980s it is here, from these forums. I had a wire transfer from the UK show up in the account within an hour and the cash available within 24 hours. I can do most stuff online and even changed my address over the phone (probably could have done it online). The staff are really helpful and the lady that signed me up even addresses me by name when I walk in (okay, so she's pretty and I didn't need to go into the branch those times but...).

denzil75

We had HSBC accounts back home (still do) and our local branch in the UK set everything up in the States for us, it was so easy and our credit rating was transferred over which I think helped with financing the cars etc. We still have our HSBC accounts back home which is good for transferring money between the two accounts if needed. You can do it online and avoid any charges. We also have our mortgage through HSBC although didn't really shop around so not sure if we got a good deal or not, seems to be in-line with what our friends have.

Mr Weeze

I believe the Chartis Travelguard offers help with banking & credit cards too. You'll probably want it for car insurance anyway, may be worth looking into.