HSBC expat

[fletchsmile]

On 11/29/2017 at 12:47 PM, 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 not the banks that want to collect all this info. You'll find that many banks complain about the cost to them of and time taken by these various pieces of legislation

 

No they don't blackmail you. They tell you that if you choose not to play ball, then you can't expect a full game. Your choice

 

On the other hand, if the banks themselves don't collect this info then they are restricted in what they themselves can do. Penalties for them not collecting various info from you range from fines, to not being allowed to do certain business, to in severe cases losing their banking licence in a particular country.

 

So it's only logical. If you don't give them the info they need to be allowed to do business, then they don't want to do business with you 

 

 

[fletchsmile]

On 11/29/2017 at 1:47 PM, 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!

It's not just European banks. It's also not just their regulations either. Much of it like FATCA originates in the US. Unfortunately if the banks want to do any business in the US or any sort of USD activity they end up having to do this in every country they do business.

 

When you say you

 

Quote

"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"

 

You're very close to the mark. Only that they were designed by someone who didn't know that the world wasn't only the US, or so arrogant that they expect 200 other countries in the world to do what the US wants 

 

Kudos to banks like Tisco in Thailand who have just told them to stick it, and don't accept US clients, nor do they do any real business in the US (... for now at least LOL )

 

 

Edited December 1, 2017 by fletchsmile

[bluesnake]

3 minutes ago, fletchsmile said:

It's not the banks that want to collect all this info. You'll find that many banks complain about the cost to them of and time taken by these various pieces of legislation

 

No they don't blackmail you. They tell you that if you choose not to play ball, then you can't expect a full game. Your choice

 

On the other hand, if the banks themselves don't collect this info then they are restricted in what they themselves can do. Penalties for them not collecting various info from you range from fines, to not being allowed to do certain business, to in severe cases losing their banking licence in a particular country.

 

So it's only logical. If you don't give them the info they need to be allowed to do business, then they don't want to do business with you 

 

 

The info was given to them already at time of opening the account. On top of that, when you are like me and don't fit in the box, there is no answer to what they require, and you can try to explain it to them, but all you get is automated robot-like emails saying that if you don't comply you will have penalties. They don't need to do this blackmailing fascist crap. They can say that if i don't want to comply, they will restrict my account like a few months later, so it gives me time to find another bank or whatever. But instead they restricted my online banking, and I couldn't send me MY money that I needed to live here.