Has Anyone Done A Money Transfer With Hsbc?

[mafaso]

I want to transfer about 40k baht into my Krungsi bank from my American HSBC bank. Is it better (i.e. cheaper) to do a bank to bank transfer or use an ATM and then deposit myself into the bank. I am on Samui and there is no HSBC ATMs here either.

Thanks in Advance!

Mafaso

[guardian]

Sorry I don't have any advice to give you about transfer or ATM, but it seems that HSBC has a lone ATM for entire Thailand

[Jeff1]

ATM's have a fee on both ends as do banks. With my ATM I am only allowed to take out $400.00 a day. For larger amounts I do a bank to bank transfer. $20.00 no limit on the amount at Chase bank.

[Dave the Dude]

I want to transfer about 40k baht into my Krungsi bank from my American HSBC bank. Is it better (i.e. cheaper) to do a bank to bank transfer or use an ATM and then deposit myself into the bank. I am on Samui and there is no HSBC ATMs here either.

Thanks in Advance!

Mafaso

Hi Mafaso

I have an HSBC online account and regularly do t/f's into Thai a/c. Although usually a bit more than you say, I am charged £35. Assuming you are a HSBC customer you should be able to use most ATMs (look out for a MEASTRO logo). Each Atm withdrawal will cost around £10 so you can work it out whats cheaper and how many times you will be charged via ATM. Good Luck, enjoy Samui and say Hi to Nile who runs the Tropical Murphys bar!!!! A gr8 place!!!

[tutsiwarrior]

I want to transfer about 40k baht into my Krungsi bank from my American HSBC bank. Is it better (i.e. cheaper) to do a bank to bank transfer or use an ATM and then deposit myself into the bank. I am on Samui and there is no HSBC ATMs here either.

Thanks in Advance!

Mafaso

Hi Mafaso

I have an HSBC online account and regularly do t/f's into Thai a/c. Although usually a bit more than you say, I am charged £35. Assuming you are a HSBC customer you should be able to use most ATMs (look out for a MEASTRO logo). Each Atm withdrawal will cost around £10 so you can work it out whats cheaper and how many times you will be charged via ATM. Good Luck, enjoy Samui and say Hi to Nile who runs the Tropical Murphys bar!!!! A gr8 place!!!

I'm with First Direct bank in the UK (a telephone bank with no premises for customers) which is an HSBC affiliate and can use my bank card all over the world...just look for either Maestro or Cirrus logo at the ATM. Any amount can be transferred from the UK to an account anywhere with a phone call for a flat fee...no need to seek out HSBC ATMs...I've been with them for 15 years and move around a lot...recommended...

[jackbox]

You say that you have an HSBC USA account. If you have the online savings HSBC will charge you no atm fees for withdrawals from any foreign atms for your online savings and your checking account. I have both types of accounts with HSBC USA and was charged no fees for numerous atm transaction in Thailand last year using both HSBC atm and other bank's atms.

I did a wire transfer from Washington Mutual (WAMU) to my SCB account in Thailand. HSBC USA was the correspondent bank (main correspondent bank for SCB Thailand). HSBC USA did not take any fees from the wire transfer. SCB in Thailand charged me a minimum 200 baht wire receive fee.

Also, if you are still in the USA go open a WAMU Free Checking account. This account comes with free wire transfers both domestic and international. If you use this account to send money to your account in Thailand they will not charge you a sending fee.

[Khun Bob]

If you have an HSBC visa debit card - you could ask in bank what the costs would be to swipe the card and have the money given to you or put into a savings account with the thai bank you are in.

Other people have used the UK's Nationwide Flex card to do this, for quite large amounts - 600K + baht - and not been charged - but this may be a feature unique to the nationwide card. Even if there are charges it could work out cheaper then a wire transfer.

Just been reviewing some past posts for my next post and people have reported being able to take 40K from an ATM in 1 transaction - but this is dependent upon the ATM and the issuing bank of the card - a few phone calls and visit to the bank before may answer these questions.

[Jeff1]

You say that you have an HSBC USA account. If you have the online savings HSBC will charge you no atm fees for withdrawals from any foreign atms for your online savings and your checking account. I have both types of accounts with HSBC USA and was charged no fees for numerous atm transaction in Thailand last year using both HSBC atm and other bank's atms.

I did a wire transfer from Washington Mutual (WAMU) to my SCB account in Thailand. HSBC USA was the correspondent bank (main correspondent bank for SCB Thailand). HSBC USA did not take any fees from the wire transfer. SCB in Thailand charged me a minimum 200 baht wire receive fee.

Also, if you are still in the USA go open a WAMU Free Checking account. This account comes with free wire transfers both domestic and international. If you use this account to send money to your account in Thailand they will not charge you a sending fee.

I agree with Jack on this. WAMU has the best deal of any bank in the states that I have found, today. I just do not see it lasting long.

[sfokevin]

Has anyone done a wire transfer with WAMU?... A previous thread stated that WAMU's wire transfer are only allowed by requesting them in person

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...shington+mutual

[Barney_the_Dinosaur]

If using HSBC overseas to remit money, be very careful. In fact avoid if at all possible.

They will use HSBC Thailand as their routing mechanism - i.e an intermediary, rather than send direct to the destination bank.

HSBC Thailand will dip in and take another fee (unannounced), as big a fee as they think they can get away with.

When challenged on their act, they gave the money back to me, but of course a lot of times people don't notice.

[kudroz]

Intermediary (Corresponding) banks will generally not be higher than $15-50 USD

[apetley]

I use HSBC(UK) to transfer to my Kasikorn account quite often.

Just one phone call and my money is always there the next day, sometimes within a few hours.

Very efficient, and before you say it I do not pay extra for a fast transfer, just the usual fee.

I did read somewhere that HSBC and Kasikorn have some sort of banking alliance that speeds up the process.

[percy2]

Sorry I don't have any advice to give you about transfer or ATM, but it seems that HSBC has a lone ATM for entire Thailand

There are at least 2 machines.

But they are in the same location.

As a foriegn bank they are only allowed to have ATM's at their branch and they can only have one branch.

As others have said their cards are accepted at almost all ATM's.

Cheers

[pnustedt]

I use HSBC in HK and transfer money from that a/c to my Bkk Bank a/c in Sisaket over the internet.

It's very quick and you get a good exchange rate. My last transfer just less than Bt2mil. cost Bt620. You need to register your Thai a/c on your HSBC internet a/c first.

[cmsally]

If you have HSBC premier you should be able to transfer to HSBC BKK (you'll need an acct both places)free of charge.

Then you should be able to use one of their cards to withdraw or transfer to different bank in thailand.

That's what I understood when I opened my accts but as I don't need to do transactions v often , haven't tried it yet.

[Barney_the_Dinosaur]

Intermediary (Corresponding) banks will generally not be higher than $15-50 USD

I found US$300 had been slipped out of my remittance from HSBC Indonesia to Bangkok Bank Thailand.

HSBC Thailand admitted they'd taken it for acting as middleman. They gave it back.

[Khun Bob]

Has anyone transferred money to or from hsbc singapore ?

What was it like and if you have an account there, do they provide reasonable service for someone not living in singapore ?

Cheers

[pukkagent]

I'm living in Thailand, have a HSBC account in the UK, and to be honest, I've never had so much trouble with a bank account. They locked me out and wouldn't reset my account because I was abroad. They chewed up my current account card and my credit card. They charged me over £950 in overdraft/unpaid direct debits, etc. I got it all back, but it's been a mess on sorting it out! I'm still pressing for the interest for what they owe me on both counts. I kept my current account only coz I can't be bothered to get another account, and I have a spare credit card for emergencies...

Sorry off topic!

I need to transfer money eventually from my Thai to my English account. I wonder how that works? I can never get anyone on the phone, but I'll have to ask in the bank on Monday.

Cheers for giving me stuff to read about HSBC though, helpful!

Regards

PG

[jackbox]

Has anyone done a wire transfer with WAMU?... A previous thread stated that WAMU's wire transfer are only allowed by requesting them in person

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...shington+mutual

Yes, unfortunately, they require you to appear in person at a branch to initiate a wire transfer. They do not allow you to them by phone or internet or any other method than in person.

[niggle]

I have a premier Hsbc account in the UK. Initially I had loads of problems transferring money uk - Thai, due in the main part that I did it on the telephone via their Indian call centre. After all that sorted out, I only transfer £ via a bank branck in person so I can check all details are correct. They charge about £23 for the transfer through their routing bank and then the recipient bank charges as well. I can use ATMs with no charge apart from currency charges and have found it ok at all atms. If you may need more than the regular withdrawal from atm they should be able to arrange this for you. Overall though, not the cheapest bank or the most customer friemdly

[hughden]

I also have a HSBC Premiere account in the UK, and an HSBC account in BKK. I use Internet banking with my UK account and transfer to BKK; costs nothing and arrives the next day. Costs me 10 baht to draw cash from ATMs using BKK ATM card.

[Khun Bob]

I'm living in Thailand, have a HSBC account in the UK, and to be honest, I've never had so much trouble with a bank account. They locked me out and wouldn't reset my account because I was abroad. They chewed up my current account card and my credit card. They charged me over £950 in overdraft/unpaid direct debits, etc. I got it all back, but it's been a mess on sorting it out! I'm still pressing for the interest for what they owe me on both counts. I kept my current account only coz I can't be bothered to get another account, and I have a spare credit card for emergencies...

Sorry off topic!

I need to transfer money eventually from my Thai to my English account. I wonder how that works? I can never get anyone on the phone, but I'll have to ask in the bank on Monday.

Cheers for giving me stuff to read about HSBC though, helpful!

Regards

PG

The following may help you getting charges and interest on withhelp money back :

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/v...141050760,24632,

[Khun Bob]

HSBC Premier is for the high rollers in the UK with an income of over £75K. Once you in Premier in a country you qualify for all other countries too and get benefits like free transfers and atm withdrawls.

My understanding is that if you have just a regular HSBC account in the UK, to do a transfer to another country HSBC account, it is £10.

As first direct (HSBC UK subsiduary) announced today to start charging for accounts receiving less that £1.5K per month, I shall be closing that account soon and getting an HSBC UK account, which is being advertised at the moment as free of charges.

All the regulators coming down on banks unfair charges is making the banks think of alternative ways to keep their margins up... Times a changing. Maybe UK bank customers will be charged for having an ATM card and Internet access in the near future - mmmhhh just like where else ?

[Thaicoon]

I transfered money from the UK to Thailand to pay for a motorcycle, i sent it from my Lloyds TSB account to the guys account in thailand, Bank of Ayutaya, when it got there it was 10,000 baht short, also it took a week, nearly lost the deal on the bike, rang Lloyds, they told me it was with the paying bank in London, the international side of HSBC, this was the paying bank, as it is the only bank that has a contract with bank of Ayutaya, stinks, the HSBC took the 10,000 baht, and i also paid the 20.00 GBP for sending with Lloyds, it is in the hand of the bank at the mo, i told them if it is not refunded they will loose my account and my Business Account, up to them, rip off merchants. so just waiting for reply, with the international moneymover i paid 20.00 GBP for, it should of got there within 3 days.

Edited November 16, 2006 by Thaicoon

[Khun Bob]

I transfered money from the UK to Thailand to pay for a motorcycle, i sent it from my Lloyds TSB account to the guys account in thailand, Bank of Ayutaya, when it got there it was 10,000 baht short, also it took a week, nearly lost the deal on the bike, rang Lloyds, they told me it was with the paying bank in London, the international side of HSBC, this was the paying bank, as it is the only bank that has a contract with bank of Ayutaya, stinks, the HSBC took the 10,000 baht, and i also paid the 20.00 GBP for sending with Lloyds, it is in the hand of the bank at the mo, i told them if it is not refunded they will loose my account and my Business Account, up to them, rip off merchants. so just waiting for reply, with the international moneymover i paid 20.00 GBP for, it should of got there within 3 days.

Give them hel_l :

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/v...141050760,24632,

[jfchandler]

I have an HSBC account based in the U.S., and originally thought I could use their HSBC Branch here in BKK for my local and international banking, but that turned out to not be true.

It was a choice between two bad alternatives with HSBC:

1. If I opened either a Thai baht or U.S. dollar HSBC account based in Thailand, they'd be happy to do funds transfers and everything. But, they'd charge me a fortune in fees to move funds from the U.S. to Thailand. And, their Thai accounts had pretty steep minimum deposit amounts (especially when I'm keeping most of my funds in U.S. interest-bearing accounts) in order to avoid a raft of local account fees (both monthly and transactional) for almost everything under the sun.

2. The alternative was to shift the status of my U.S. HSBC account to HSBC Premiere status, which requires close to a $100,000 cumulative balanceamong all your HSBC accounts, regardless of country. If you go that route, supposedly they will waive all the account based fees as well as those for international wire transfers. But once HSBC dropped the interest rates on their U.S. online savings and other accounts to pretty well below the market leaders in the U.S., I wasn't about to park $100,000 with them at a low interest rate just to save on a bunch of bank fees that I shouldn't be paying anway.

So in end, I didn't use HSBC at all, and went for the combination of fee-free U.S. ATM card withdrawals for daily cash needs, and various American bank to Bangkok Bank in New York online funds transfers for larger amounts. There have been a lot of threads and posts on this later approach.

John, formerly from L.A.

[sgunn65]

If you have HSBC premier you should be able to transfer to HSBC BKK (you'll need an acct both places)free of charge.

Then you should be able to use one of their cards to withdraw or transfer to different bank in thailand.

That's what I understood when I opened my accts but as I don't need to do transactions v often , haven't tried it yet.

I do this regularly and it is free (I have a premier account). HSBC Bangkok even phone me to tell me the money is there and what the rate is. So I can keep it in sterling if I want.

[blue eyes]

I have an HSBC account based in the U.S., and originally thought I could use their HSBC Branch here in BKK for my local and international banking, but that turned out to not be true.

John, formerly from L.A.

I was thinking of opening an account at HSBC in the US just for the same purpose as your thinking.I am glad that I read your post.Saved me some time.I had figured that it wouild be an easy way to get money from the US to Thailand in my retierment.At present when we are in Thailand we use our ATM cards to get money to spend.They all have no fee for the first 5 to 10 withdrawls.Depending on the bank card that we use.

[BalthazarBeefheart]

HSBC Premier is for the high rollers in the UK with an income of over £75K. Once you in Premier in a country you qualify for all other countries too and get benefits like free transfers and atm withdrawls.

My understanding is that if you have just a regular HSBC account in the UK, to do a transfer to another country HSBC account, it is £10.

As first direct (HSBC UK subsiduary) announced today to start charging for accounts receiving less that £1.5K per month, I shall be closing that account soon and getting an HSBC UK account, which is being advertised at the moment as free of charges.

All the regulators coming down on banks unfair charges is making the banks think of alternative ways to keep their margins up... Times a changing. Maybe UK bank customers will be charged for having an ATM card and Internet access in the near future - mmmhhh just like where else ?

I hope you discovered First Direct do not levy any charges if you use their other services for example if you hold their Visa card. It used to be if you used the HSBC atm you were not charged and got a good rate - now charged and rate is not so good. Their overall service is probably the best still.

I suppose I ought to get a nationwide flex card when I next return to Blighty for a holiday - does anyone know if that can be done without proof of a UK address ?

Cheers BB

[jfchandler]

I have an HSBC account based in the U.S., and originally thought I could use their HSBC Branch here in BKK for my local and international banking, but that turned out to not be true.

John, formerly from L.A.

I was thinking of opening an account at HSBC in the US just for the same purpose as your thinking.I am glad that I read your post.Saved me some time.I had figured that it wouild be an easy way to get money from the US to Thailand in my retierment.At present when we are in Thailand we use our ATM cards to get money to spend.They all have no fee for the first 5 to 10 withdrawls.Depending on the bank card that we use.

Glad to be of assistance. Obviously, I spent a lot of time going down that path before realizing that only thru getting Premiere status with them ($100,000 in deposits or loan balance) does it become convenient or worthwhile. I still have my U.S. HSBC accounts that I opened at home before relocating here. But, I don't use them for anything here or keep any significant balances there, for the reasons previously stated.

Turns out last week, I got an e-mail from the HSBC rep in BKK (a very nice lady banker) that I had met with months back, before moving. She inquired why I had not proceeded with opening a Thai account with them. When I replied about their Thai non-resident (no work permit) accounts having a raft of user and monthly fees, and that I had meanwhile opened accounts with BKK Bank and Siam Commercial Bank that are entirely free and have no user charges, I asked here if HSBC could match those kinds of offers. She said they could not.

I also have a U.S. checking account with a smaller bank that has unlimited ATM use, no fees and no surcharges, period. So I likewise get all my spending money that way (max $500 per day), and it never costs me a dime. If I ever need to move bigger money, there are some ways to do that also, without getting hit with heavy fees.