HSBC Business account HK - Inward remittance

[mortenaa]

Hey guys.

We recently got a HSBC Business account for a HK company. I can't find an answer for my question elsewhere, so I try my luck here, since maybe someone else here has been in my situation.

The HSBC account is multi-currency, which is great. But recently I got a transfer from a Scandinavian client in a currency that the account does not support. The transfer was done the 24 of November. I was not notified of any transfer from HSBC - and I didn't receive any funds. So I started digging, starting with the client - did they actually transfer? Answer was yes. So then I had to ask HSBC. After several calls to customer service, my call was returned on Friday. The funds had been returned the bank of origin! Reason, the sender had not informed of what currency it should be converted into. What???

When I do banking with Kasikorn in Thailand, I get a call from the bank to inform me of the incoming funds, and then they will ask me to agree on the exchange rate, and the funds will be available.

So now I have many unanswered question of this strange behavior from such a, to my knowledge, professional bank like HSBC.

- Why can't they just convert it to HKD?

- Why didn't they simply contact me to inform me about the situation?

- How can I avoid such situations in the future?

- Is there possible to set a default currency for inward transfers of unknown currencies?

If anyone have any experience with HSBC HK Business banking, please reply. Thanks!

Edited December 6, 2014 by mortenaa

[SheungWan]

HSBC's instructions do not sound strange. You should consider standard trade practice of asking the sender to convert funds into either USD or EUR (or even GBP) before posting funds. Alternatively if you want to keep to the current arrangement of this particular client posting funds in presumably a Scandanavian currency then try to set up a default conversion for this specific client. Easiest to do so by visiting any HSBC branch in HK. You could do this at HK airport. Terminal 1 for Premier, Terminal 2 for the rest.

[mortenaa]

HSBC's instructions do not sound strange. You should consider standard trade practice of asking the sender to convert funds into either USD or EUR (or even GBP) before posting funds. Alternatively if you want to keep to the current arrangement of this particular client posting funds in presumably a Scandanavian currency then try to set up a default conversion for this specific client. Easiest to do so by visiting any HSBC branch in HK. You could do this at HK airport. Terminal 1 for Premier, Terminal 2 for the rest.

Thanks for your reply. If I call customer service, would they be able to setup a default conversion, or would I have to visit a branch?

[Sviss Geez]

"So now I have many unanswered question of this strange behavior from such a, to my knowledge, professional bank like HSBC.

- Why can't they just convert it to HKD? Because you opted for a multi-currency account.

- Why didn't they simply contact me to inform me about the situation? No point because you cannot amend instructions from a 3rd party.

- How can I avoid such situations in the future? Tell people sending funds which currency you want it in.

- Is there possible to set a default currency for inward transfers of unknown currencies? Obviously not or it would have been done.

[SheungWan]

HSBC's instructions do not sound strange. You should consider standard trade practice of asking the sender to convert funds into either USD or EUR (or even GBP) before posting funds. Alternatively if you want to keep to the current arrangement of this particular client posting funds in presumably a Scandanavian currency then try to set up a default conversion for this specific client. Easiest to do so by visiting any HSBC branch in HK. You could do this at HK airport. Terminal 1 for Premier, Terminal 2 for the rest.

Thanks for your reply. If I call customer service, would they be able to setup a default conversion, or would I have to visit a branch?

I looked at your message again. If it is the case that what we have here is a HK company transmitting funds to an HSBC business account opened by you in Thailand what is stopping you visiting the HSBC branch in Bangkok to sort out the problem?

[CRUNCHER]

HSBC's instructions do not sound strange. You should consider standard trade practice of asking the sender to convert funds into either USD or EUR (or even GBP) before posting funds. Alternatively if you want to keep to the current arrangement of this particular client posting funds in presumably a Scandanavian currency then try to set up a default conversion for this specific client. Easiest to do so by visiting any HSBC branch in HK. You could do this at HK airport. Terminal 1 for Premier, Terminal 2 for the rest.

Thanks for your reply. If I call customer service, would they be able to setup a default conversion, or would I have to visit a branch?

I looked at your message again. If it is the case that what we have here is a HK company transmitting funds to an HSBC business account opened by you in Thailand what is stopping you visiting the HSBC branch in Bangkok to sort out the problem?

HSBC do not have a BKK branch anymore.

[SheungWan]

HSBC's instructions do not sound strange. You should consider standard trade practice of asking the sender to convert funds into either USD or EUR (or even GBP) before posting funds. Alternatively if you want to keep to the current arrangement of this particular client posting funds in presumably a Scandanavian currency then try to set up a default conversion for this specific client. Easiest to do so by visiting any HSBC branch in HK. You could do this at HK airport. Terminal 1 for Premier, Terminal 2 for the rest.

Thanks for your reply. If I call customer service, would they be able to setup a default conversion, or would I have to visit a branch?

I looked at your message again. If it is the case that what we have here is a HK company transmitting funds to an HSBC business account opened by you in Thailand what is stopping you visiting the HSBC branch in Bangkok to sort out the problem?

HSBC do not have a BKK branch anymore.

They do for business accounts only.

[mortenaa]

I looked at your message again. If it is the case that what we have here is a HK company transmitting funds to an HSBC business account opened by you in Thailand what is stopping you visiting the HSBC branch in Bangkok to sort out the problem?

This account was opened in HK. I wasn't aware of any HSBC branch here in Bangkok anymore.

[theoldgit]

This account was opened in HK. I wasn't aware of any HSBC branch here in Bangkok anymore.

They only have one branch now and that's just for corporate accounts.

They pulled out of personal banking a few years ago and closed all business accounts last year.

[mortenaa]

"So now I have many unanswered question of this strange behavior from such a, to my knowledge, professional bank like HSBC.

- Why can't they just convert it to HKD? Because you opted for a multi-currency account.

- Why didn't they simply contact me to inform me about the situation? No point because you cannot amend instructions from a 3rd party.

- How can I avoid such situations in the future? Tell people sending funds which currency you want it in.

- Is there possible to set a default currency for inward transfers of unknown currencies? Obviously not or it would have been done.

Well, I still feel its strange. The funds were supposedly returned to our client, but still haven't arrived in their account. I have a instructed them to convert to Euro before making the transfer again. I don't like to bother my clients with this sorts of problems..

[SheungWan]

I looked at your message again. If it is the case that what we have here is a HK company transmitting funds to an HSBC business account opened by you in Thailand what is stopping you visiting the HSBC branch in Bangkok to sort out the problem?

This account was opened in HK. I wasn't aware of any HSBC branch here in Bangkok anymore.

theoldgit has corrected my error, only corporate business.