Alternatives To Hsbc With A Bangkok Branch

[SantiSuk]

I was moved to comment thus to HSBC UK today

"You can get details of our current interest rates from our website at www.hsbc.co.uk".

This was the message I got [from the help facility (not sic)] after 10 minutes of hunting the website for details of interest payable on my E-ISA account. Why cannot HSBC provide the current interest rate on the account page or at least a link to the listing of current rates?

If you think it is a good idea to keep customers in the dark it is not - my searching which I have had problems with every time I have looked over the last year or two makes me more and more angry and more and more inclined to move my money to Lloyds or Halifax where the internet sites are far more transparent on interest rates.

If you are going to send me a fob-off answer like "thank you - we have referred it to another department" I will regard it as a non-answer and move my accounts by the way

I am a long-standing HSBC Premier customer and was about to investigate opening an HSBC account in Bangkok to make transfers of our living expenses here a little cheaper. In the expectation I do not get a decent response can anyone recommend any alternative UK mainstream banks with a Bangkok branch. I suspect there are none

[No need to tell me other means of transferring money from the UK cheaply - TV has enough threads already on that subject!]

[davee58]

Do you get any interest on this account??

Looking at the HSBC site under the Current Accounts tab there are several account types, BankAccount, Advance, Premier..

The Bank Account tab has Interest Rates at the top of the screen, this opens a pop up window.

Current rates

General Price List and Interest Rates - applies to HSBC Advance, Current Account, Bank Account, Basic Bank Account and MyAccount (PDF)

HSBC Premier Price List (PDF)

Student and Graduate Price List and Interest Rates applies to Student, Graduate, HSBC Advance (Graduate) and Gap Year services (PDF)

HSBC Passport- Price List and Interest Rates (PDF)

HSBC Amanah - Price List (PDF)

So it looks like everything else has "Price list and interest rates", the Premier just has "Price list" so no interest is paid.

Here is the popup link, hope it works:

Interest Rates

Hope this helps..

[SantiSuk]

I was a bit obtuse. A Premier customer is a comfortably off bastard with more than £50k in various accounts, for which you get some rather dubious privileges. The accounts that a Premier customer holds money in are the same accounts inhabited by the hoi palloi. (tongue-in-cheek).

The specific account I was looking for interest rates in was an E-ISA account. If you click on the E-ISA account marketing tab then you are told that newly applying customers get 1.75%, but I cannot be sure that applies to all existing customers without a more definitive listing. And my compliant was that you cannot readily access the interest rates from a logged in status. Willing to be shown otherwise.

Thanks for taking the time to respond though davee58.

[chantorn]

Try Standard Chartered. They have lots of branches.

[davee58]

I am a long-standing HSBC Premier customer and was about to investigate opening an HSBC account in Bangkok to make transfers of our living expenses here a little cheaper. In the expectation I do not get a decent response can anyone recommend any alternative UK mainstream banks with a Bangkok branch. I suspect there are none

What about Citibank?

I hold my main account with Lloyds TSB offshore, but transfer cash (via internet) to my Citibank UK account, and use my Citicard to make ATM withdrawals worldwide.

The Lloyds TSB cut on the exchange rate is rather high, plus Lloyds make a 2 quid charge for each international ATM withdrawal (International account ??)

Citibank is far more reasonable on the rate and there is no charge.

If you use your Citicard at a Citibank ATM it is even more reasonable.

Citibank have a branch in Bangkok, I suggest that you might investigate that..

Regarding your problems with HSBC, that is supposed to be a decent international bank. But I assume that you are still UK tax resident otherwise you would not be eligible for an ISA.

Chantorn - I investigated Standard Chartered a few years ago but was not impressed, cannot remember why though.

[SantiSuk]

Thanks for the replies. Yup - still UK resident but it's something I constantly review. Last week I definitely wanted to sever ties with the UK. This week? Not so sure!!

[Soutpeel]

Citibank is far more reasonable on the rate and there is no charge.

If you use your Citicard at a Citibank ATM it is even more reasonable.

Citibank have a branch in Bangkok, I suggest that you might investigate that..

Regarding your problems with HSBC, that is supposed to be a decent international bank. But I assume that you are still UK tax resident otherwise you would not be eligible for an ISA.

Chantorn - I investigated Standard Chartered a few years ago but was not impressed, cannot remember why though.

Very impressed with Citibank in Singapore where I hold my accounts, but problem with BKK and the ATM card is that there are too few Citibank ATMS about

[chiang mai]

I don't understand the OP's concerns other than he seems to have been unable to find something on the HSBC website that he hoped he might find, that being the case the OP should contact his relationship manager for that information, that's what they're there for.

[pkrv]

I don't understand the OP's concerns other than he seems to have been unable to find something on the HSBC website that he hoped he might find, that being the case the OP should contact his relationship manager for that information, that's what they're there for.

I cannot understand the OP'squestion he is paying a large amount of money or has secured investments. The answer is on the pinned thread 'opening a new bank account in Thailand'.

I actually would not recommend HSBC for most of the guys on this forum.

If you are already an HSBC Premier customer there are probably some advantages for example you could open an account in Thailand remotely from the UK.

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/personal/hsbcpremier?WT.srch=1

But you either have to have an annual income of 100,000 GBP paid into your account or investments of 50,000 GBP invested with HSBC.

For the guy on the street there is also some critical information.

HSBC only have one Branch in Thailand.

If memory serves you can withdraw cash, free of charge at that branch.

Use of every other ATM in Thailand carries a charge.

There are two pages worth of information detailing VERY, VERY, creative charging mechanisms!

Essentially these guys attach a large suction pump to your account - which does not apply if you are a Premier account holder.

On the plus side they are dead keen to let you open an account. However I balked at the prospect.

HSBC's Thailand wesite - link below.

http://www.hsbc.co.th/1/2/home-en?changela...mp;chglang.x=en

968 Rama Iv Road

2nd Floorhsbc Buildingsilom, Silom, Bangkok 10500, Thailand

+66 2 6144000

Yes you are correct in what you have written - for me however the advantages of Premier are well worth the cost which honestly are not that huge. Having a single Premier account in any country gives me Premier accounts and credit cards in additional countries of my choosing, without any additional cost. It also means that I can transfer funds between the different country accounts in real time and without any further cost also. In my case my original Premier account was in Hong Kong which gave me further accounts AND local currency credit cards in Thailand, the UK and the US. If I fall below the limit in HK it costs me about GBP 20 a month which is less than the cost of a single international funds transfer with many banks.

Why are you not drawing on what you paid for?

Edited April 14, 2010 by pkrv