Has anyone here opened what i assume is an offshore account by HSBC   called    "HSBC expat"

Yes they have: but really if you have a question you should post it, not just a single line. 

There seems little point in doing that.

Just wondering if there is any compensation if it were to go broke 

Boycott big banks, they are fascists bast**ds !!

Keep your money with local small banks, or keep it under your mattress !!

I'm in the process of closing my account with them. They started asking so many questions about my tax residency, passport, etc..., with long forms to fill, and after a while I refused to do it because all this information had already been given when I opened the account many years ago.

 

Then they started blackmailing me that if I don't fill the forms my account will be restricted, and that's what they did !!

This is fascist practices, pure and simple.

 

 

What do you really need it for?

 

When I lived there I kept my Oz account and had a Thai account.

 

I transferred money over through Ozforex as I needed.

2 hours ago, salavan said:

Just wondering if there is any compensation if it were to go broke 

HSBC is one of the biggest banks in the world, if not the biggest. They're unlikely to go broke.

3 hours ago, salavan said:

Just wondering if there is any compensation if it were to go broke 

If you mean branches in Jersey or Isle of Man they compensate according to the jurisdiction of each place. I think this is up to 50,000GBP per depositor, but you can simply look it up by Googling.

 

They do not fall under the UK financial compensation rules,  last I read this was 80,000GBP, but I haven't checked this figure for some time.

 

HSBC are indeed a big bank, and unlikely to go under. However my personal experience with the Expat division is they are slow and incompetent.

54 minutes ago, bluesnake said:

Boycott big banks, they are fascists bast**ds !!

Keep your money with local small banks, or keep it under your mattress !!

I'm in the process of closing my account with them. They started asking so many questions about my tax residency, passport, etc..., with long forms to fill, and after a while I refused to do it because all this information had already been given when I opened the account many years ago.

 

Then they started blackmailing me that if I don't fill the forms my account will be restricted, and that's what they did !!

This is fascist practices, pure and simple.

 

 

 

It's annoying but all the European banks are doing this or will be. It's all about their anti money laundering and tax avoidance regulations.

 

I got really pissed off with them at one point because the forms were seemingly designed by someone who didn't know that the world wasn't only the UK. They has a few iterations after that and we finally got it sorted. The tax one is easier as long as you can give them a relevant tax ID number.

 

HSBC UK are just catching up. Only their form designer is clearly even less well traveled and globally aware than the one at Expat! There seems little exchange of information permitted between HSBC Group companies, or the remotest common sense. The UK proof of address document list is good - till you read that 90% of it is only acceptable if issued in the EU!

 

Keeping up to date information is good for security, their's and their customers. But applying common sense and thought seems beyond them!

1 hour ago, Dan5 said:

HSBC is one of the biggest banks in the world, if not the biggest. They're unlikely to go broke.

5th biggest ... The HSBC refers to Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corportation

 

Quote

 

5. HSBC Holdings 

This is a bank based in England. The bank has offices in 80 countries, and has 1,800 locations in the U.K. It provides private banking and consumer finance, along with corporate banking and investment services. HSBC has $2.57 trillion in assets.

 

 

1 hour ago, Dan5 said:

HSBC is one of the biggest banks in the world, if not the biggest. They're unlikely to go broke.

The big banks are most often the ones that fail, unless the govt saves them, which it typically does... until the day it cannot be done. Rule #1 - never place all of your money into a single bank, nor all of your assets into the banking system.

1 hour ago, Baerboxer said:

 

It's annoying but all the European banks are doing this or will be. It's all about their anti money laundering and tax avoidance regulations.

 

I got really pissed off with them at one point because the forms were seemingly designed by someone who didn't know that the world wasn't only the UK. They has a few iterations after that and we finally got it sorted. The tax one is easier as long as you can give them a relevant tax ID number.

 

HSBC UK are just catching up. Only their form designer is clearly even less well traveled and globally aware than the one at Expat! There seems little exchange of information permitted between HSBC Group companies, or the remotest common sense. The UK proof of address document list is good - till you read that 90% of it is only acceptable if issued in the EU!

 

Keeping up to date information is good for security, their's and their customers. But applying common sense and thought seems beyond them!

There's all kind of scam creeping in the name of HSBC. 

I suspect HSBC even to work together with scammers as long as they get some fees. 

I can recommend HSBC in Singapore. I have an account manager and the service is excellent. 

Just now, timendres said:

The big banks are most often the ones that fail, unless the govt saves them, which it typically does... until the day it cannot be done. Rule #1 - never place all of your money into a single bank, nor all of your assets into the banking system.

Yes, they're too big to fail, but the asset-holding expat isn't. 

Be extremely careful with offshore banking, UK government might suspect you for "money laundering" 

3 minutes ago, English Engineer said:

I can recommend HSBC in Singapore. I have an account manager and the service is excellent. 

I had a gangster or bankster in London who went by the name of Mark Sheridan. I still don't know if he's part of a Nigeria connection or for real. Guess he even fooled New Scotland Yard. 

1 hour ago, timendres said:

The big banks are most often the ones that fail, unless the govt saves them, which it typically does... until the day it cannot be done. Rule #1 - never place all of your money into a single bank, nor all of your assets into the banking system.

Have you ever heard of a big bank failing? Which one? I haven't. And yes, if they are in the USA, they would certainly be bailed out by the government. "too big to fail"

HSBC Jersey have a maximum of £50,000 per eligible account but there is a limit on the pool of £100,000,000 per 5 years, so depending on how many eligible accounts they have to pay, so could be much less than £50,000.

5 hours ago, bluesnake said:

Boycott big banks, they are fascists bast**ds !!

Keep your money with local small banks, or keep it under your mattress !!

I'm in the process of closing my account with them. They started asking so many questions about my tax residency, passport, etc..., with long forms to fill, and after a while I refused to do it because all this information had already been given when I opened the account many years ago.

 

Then they started blackmailing me that if I don't fill the forms my account will be restricted, and that's what they did !!

This is fascist practices, pure and simple.

 

 

 

Nothing to do with fascism. I've been through this too, with a 40 minute phone call from them. It's to boost security, they say, but like you I've already given them that information before. I got so fed up with their requirements that I told them I'd rather close the account I've had for 27 years than have to deal with it all, but the very nice lady talked me out of it.

I'm still dealing with it all, not helped by a rogue postman who decided he would not bother working two months before his retirement and destroyed all the mail he was supposed to deliver. Including a letter from HSBC. Now I have to get a form witnessed and notarised by a barrister or the UK embassy or whoever. My wife tells me that Thai banks all have legal staff who can do that, so my next port of call is to Bangkok Bank where I have an account.

1 hour ago, Dan5 said:

Have you ever heard of a big bank failing? Which one? I haven't. And yes, if they are in the USA, they would certainly be bailed out by the government. "too big to fail"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_U.S._bank_failures

http://www.businesspundit.com/25-biggest-bank-failures-in-history/
 

Note that, even while governments are expected to rescue failing banks, more and more frequently this is being done at the expense of the depositors - to wit Greece. The US now has law in place that executes a "bail in" for failing banks in the future by forcing depositors to accept shares of the failing bank in lieu of their cash deposit.

 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-brown/new-g20-bailin-rules-now-_b_6244394.html

2 hours ago, Dan5 said:

Have you ever heard of a big bank failing? Which one? I haven't. And yes, if they are in the USA, they would certainly be bailed out by the government. "too big to fail"

Royal Bank of Scotland / National Westminster and Lloyds in UK, both had to be bailed out by the tax payers.

2 hours ago, Dan5 said:

Have you ever heard of a big bank failing? Which one? I haven't. And yes, if they are in the USA, they would certainly be bailed out by the government. "too big to fail"

Lehman brothers to name one 

8 hours ago, bluesnake said:

Boycott big banks, they are fascists bast**ds !!

Keep your money with local small banks, or keep it under your mattress !!

I'm in the process of closing my account with them. They started asking so many questions about my tax residency, passport, etc..., with long forms to fill, and after a while I refused to do it because all this information had already been given when I opened the account many years ago.

 

Then they started blackmailing me that if I don't fill the forms my account will be restricted, and that's what they did !!

This is fascist practices, pure and simple.

 

 

I heartily agree.<deleted> the big greedy fascist <deleted>.

5 hours ago, Dan5 said:

Have you ever heard of a big bank failing? Which one? I haven't. And yes, if they are in the USA, they would certainly be bailed out by the government. "too big to fail"

Ever heard of Lehman Brothers?  One guy asked "What's going on?" when it kicked off, reply was "No idea, but there's a fat chick in reception with a microphone"

11 hours ago, salavan said:

Just wondering if there is any compensation if it were to go broke 

No.

5 hours ago, Dan5 said:

Have you ever heard of a big bank failing? Which one? I haven't. And yes, if they are in the USA, they would certainly be bailed out by the government. "too big to fail"

Dream on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banks_acquired_or_bankrupted_during_the_Great_Recession

55 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

No.

Don't post misinformation please.

 

https://www.launch.expat.hsbc.com/1/PA_ES_Content_Mgmt/content/hsbc_expat/pdf/en/important_documents/HSBC_Expat_Terms_of_Business_effective_from_1_Oct.pdf

"However, HSBC Bank plc, Jersey branch is a participant in the Jersey Bank Depositors Compensation Scheme. The Scheme offers protection for eligible deposits of up to £50,000. The maximum total amount of compensation is capped at £100,000,000 in any five year period. Full details of the Scheme and banking groups covered are available on the States of Jersey website www.gov.je/dcs, or on request."

11 hours ago, bluesnake said:

Boycott big banks, they are fascists bast**ds !!

Keep your money with local small banks, or keep it under your mattress !!

I'm in the process of closing my account with them. They started asking so many questions about my tax residency, passport, etc..., with long forms to fill, and after a while I refused to do it because all this information had already been given when I opened the account many years ago.

 

Then they started blackmailing me that if I don't fill the forms my account will be restricted, and that's what they did !!

This is fascist practices, pure and simple.

 

 

I'm betting you can even define what the word fascist means.

15 hours ago, Dan5 said:

Have you ever heard of a big bank failing? Which one? I haven't. And yes, if they are in the USA, they would certainly be bailed out by the government. "too big to fail"

This doesn't make a lot of sense. You say no big banks failed, but then you say that the ones that failed were bailed out.

 

Being bailed out by the FDIC implies that the bank has failed or is about to. Depositors may be protected up to a point and assets may be sold off but, for example, WaMu and IndyMac and Continental Illinois were big banks that failed.

 

Quote

In what is by far the largest bank failure in U.S. history, federal regulators seized Washington Mutual Inc. and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122238415586576687

 

From the FDIC's own list of bank failures in 2008:

Quote

 

2008

There were 25 bank failures in 2008. The list of Bank Failures in Brief was updated through December 12, 2008, the date of the last bank closing.

Washington Mutual Bank, Seattle, Washington, with approximately $307 billion in assets was closed. In a transaction facilitated by the FDIC, JPMorgan Chase acquired the banking operations of Washington Mutual Bank, and agreed to assume all deposits (approximately $188 billion).(PR-85-2008)

IndyMac Bank, F.S.B., Pasadena, California, with approximately $32.01 billion in assets was closed. Non-brokered insured deposits and substantially all of the assets were transferred to IndyMac Federal Bank, F.S.B., Pasadena, California.  The FDIC was named Conservator. (PR-56-2008)

 

 

 

https://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/bank/2008/index.html

14 hours ago, partington said:

Don't post misinformation please.

 

https://www.launch.expat.hsbc.com/1/PA_ES_Content_Mgmt/content/hsbc_expat/pdf/en/important_documents/HSBC_Expat_Terms_of_Business_effective_from_1_Oct.pdf

"However, HSBC Bank plc, Jersey branch is a participant in the Jersey Bank Depositors Compensation Scheme. The Scheme offers protection for eligible deposits of up to £50,000. The maximum total amount of compensation is capped at £100,000,000 in any five year period. Full details of the Scheme and banking groups covered are available on the States of Jersey website www.gov.je/dcs, or on request."

OK, I was being facetious. But 50K is derisory recompense for the substantial deposits held by HSBC Expat clients and way below even the modest sum (85k) retail customers of UK banks can claim in the event of a bank collapse.

 

 

 

8 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

OK, I was being facetious. But 50K is derisory recompense for the substantial deposits held by HSBC Expat clients and way below even the modest sum (85k) retail customers of UK banks can claim in the event of a bank collapse.

 

 

 

This compensation scheme is run by The States of Jersey in the event of a bank collapsing. The £100,000,000 cap in any 5 year period could make this figure even lower depending how many accounts the failed bank had. This is what the OP was asking in his second question. 

Lehmans failed Dan5. It was big and its demise was a significant spark in stoking the fire that was the financial crisis. Personal accounts are often underwritten to a certain level by local regulations, but that doesn't help corporates who hold the big money.