Opening A Bank Account In Singapore Or Hong Kong

[Papa D]

I'm trying to set up the PayPal system for my ecommerce business. Unfortunately they will not let you register an account in Thailand. My options are Canada (where I'm a citizen and will probably pay extremely high taxes) or the closest accepted countries of Singapore or Hong Kong.

Does anyone know if I can open a personal bank account in Singapore or Hong Kong without actually visiting these places?

I think an off-shore is probably a good idea but at this time I'm not sure I can affort that option.

Thank's in advance for you help!

[TRIPxCORE]

I have been in touch with numerous banks in Singapore with this in mind as well. What I found was that we can open an account there but you need to maintain a pretty hefty balance in your account or you must pay exorbitant maintainence fees. I thought the whole thing to be not worth the trouble.

Not sure about Hong Kong but suspect the same.

[stumonster]

to get a HSBC account in singapore I had to visit a branch there. i went to the claymore hill branch.

to open an account you are supposed to have 500 sing dollars to deposit(and passport), though you can withdaraw that immediatley as far as I could tell.

you can have the choice of openning a sing dollar or foreign currency account.

with a sing dollar account they can issue you with an atm card in about an hour( just do not go there during the lunch hours ( 11-2 ) , else you will not get the experienced people looking after you.

you have to maintain an average balace of 2000 SGD per month or are subject to a 50 SGD fee, and using your atm card at a non HSBC machine will cost you 8 SGD.

I have been happy with mine( 3 months use ) and also have internet and phone banking enabled. ( international transfers take about 2-3 working days )

Hope this is of some help

[Papa D]

thanks joey... what i've now have found out is the Paypal account will only accept usa or candian bank accounts as places where balances can be sent and subsequently withdrawn using a usa or candian debit card.

If anyone has any background on what this means tax wise to a thai company accepting payment in Canada and then withdrawling it in Thailand to use for supplier payment here, I'd be grateful.

papa d

[p_brownstone]

I'm trying to set up the PayPal system for my ecommerce business. Unfortunately they will not let you register an account in Thailand. My options are Canada (where I'm a citizen and will probably pay extremely high taxes) or the closest accepted countries of Singapore or Hong Kong.

A colleague of mine tried this some months ago - doing business in Thailand but using a foreign Bank Account to receive payments through Paypal.

When Paypal found out that his business was not in the same Country as his Bank Account - and he was not resident in that Country either - his Paypal Account was frozen and eventually closed.

You may want to look at alternatives such as Western Union or Asia Debit.

[Bobcat]

Please DO NOT do what you are proposing to do with Paypal. I speak from experience. I opened a bank account in Hong Kong so that I could use Paypal, even though I reside in Thailand. Everything seemed to work well for a while. However, once they find out (and they will, believe me) that you access your account from a non-Paypal country (Thailand) your account will be frozen. They will then ask you to show proof of your residence. They ask for your electricity bill and telephone bills. I explained to them that I live in Thailand but my company is incorporated and does business in HK. They don't care. My account is still frozen (after 3 months) and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. They have said that they will return my money to me after my account has been frozen for 180, but I am not sure they will do this. They are in the right, apparently, becuase you have breached their rules - ie operating from a non-Paypal company - irrespective of where your company/business is based. Trust me, do not use Paypal.

Please try to get a merchant account with Worldpay - www.worldpay.com - go to the Asia Pacific section which is based in Singapore.

For more horror stories about Paypal, please see www.paypalsucks.com.

Bobcat

[TRIPxCORE]

Just to add another note about the Paypal idea-I have heard that you can only withdrawl a very small amount of money from your Paypal account at any one time. So if you were looking to conduct large transactions via your Paypal account to put some money in your pocket, you could be in for a rude awakening. Maybe others have experience or first-hand knowledge of this.

[Bobcat]

I strongly urge you to consider other options. If you proceed with opening a bank account in HK or Singapore, you will get burned. I know a number of other people who have done this and who have been burned by Paypal. It's just not worth the risk.

[zedato]

was not aware that paypal was so strict -

getting to the point - I have a "parked" 2chechout account I am not using at the moment but that I soon will be putting to work on a ecommerce site of me own.

QUESTION: by chance - are there any horror stories regarding 2chechout ?

would be nice to know prior getting into deep poo - thanx in advance

[zedato]

errata corrige the above to read 2Checkout - can't say I am not persistant in my errors

[kandt]

The same question except using PayPal was on the forum 6 weeks ago. Might be heplful to take a look, http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5520

Cheers........kandt

[et33.com]

my friend

stay away from paypal.com

it's a nightmare to use them

trust me...

paypalsucks.com

[adroc]

Just wanted to let you all know that YES PayPal does suck but I have been using it for the past 9 months from Thailand with no problems. I have it attached to my US bank account and use there ATM/Debit card every day and the only thing that has happened to me is they put a block on my debit card for 1 day because they thought it was stolen and it only took a 5 minute phone call to clear that up. If you do plan on using them withdraw your money every day and deposit it into a Thai bank account so that if it does go sour you still have your money.

the best of luck to you