Offshore Banking

[Negita43]

Anyone have experience in setting up a bank account in Hong Kong (or Singapore)

 

Thanks

[al007]

CIMB Singapore

 

LLoyds Isle of Man

 

PM me if you wish and will give you my phone number

[thescot]

HK & Singapore will most likely need you to visit in person. Lloyds will not allow it if your staying in Thailand. They allow a company account but would not allow a personal account - strange but true.

Standard Bank (Jersey) can be done easily online but one negative is they will not issue a credit card for people living in Thailand.

[al007]

38 minutes ago, thescot said:

HK & Singapore will most likely need you to visit in person. Lloyds will not allow it if your staying in Thailand. They allow a company account but would not allow a personal account - strange but true.

Standard Bank (Jersey) can be done easily online but one negative is they will not issue a credit card for people living in Thailand.

 

Amazing we all have different experiences, I have a Lloyds I O M account personal one with my Thai address, and also Visa card

 

Opened CIMB  Singapore from Thailand had CIMB premier account Bangkok, needed 1.0 M Bhatt in BKK, did not have to go to Singapore

 

 

[Pinot]

You can set up an International account with Charles Schwab in America. 

[Jiggo]

After looking hard due to mine closing found Barclays IOM the best........need 20000 pounds to keep open some wanted 100000

[peterpop]

Transferwise are in the process of offering ''Borderless Bank Accounts'', don't know how good they will be but I am definitely interested.

[12DrinkMore]

You need to define what banking facilities you need, in particular currency.

 

Singapore is the easiest, just get on a plane to Changi. However, it is harder to find a transactional account in anything other than SGD and USD. But they are very professional and provide a good customer service.

 

Most UK banks no longer want expats unless you have a large wad. I have an account with Lloyds international for receiving pension money, but their parochial internet banking does not allow international transfers. Have to ring them up and do it by phone.

 

 

[al007]

12 minutes ago, 12DrinkMore said:

. I have an account with Lloyds international for receiving pension money, but their parochial internet banking does not allow international transfers. Have to ring them up and do it by phone.

Your statement is correct, however as I have also a sterling account with Bangkok Bank in Thailand, I do an instantaneous transfer to Bank Bangkok London, on line, and it automatically arrives in my Bank Bangkok account the next day in Bangkok

[topt]

40 minutes ago, 12DrinkMore said:

I have an account with Lloyds international for receiving pension money, but their parochial internet banking does not allow international transfers

 

23 minutes ago, al007 said:

Your statement is correct, however as I have also a sterling account with Bangkok Bank in Thailand, I do an instantaneous transfer to Bank Bangkok London, on line, and it automatically arrives in my Bank Bangkok account the next day in Bangkok

Strange that because they allow it if you have a Euro or $USD currency account.

However transferring $ to Thailand into a Thai baht account it is cheaper to phone them and ask to pay the charges (normally free at their end) to avoid the corresponding/intermediary bank charges.

[abrahamzvi]

3 hours ago, thescot said:

HK & Singapore will most likely need you to visit in person. Lloyds will not allow it if your staying in Thailand. They allow a company account but would not allow a personal account - strange but true.

Standard Bank (Jersey) can be done easily online but one negative is they will not issue a credit card for people living in Thailand.

There are quite a number of European, US. and even Singaporean banks, which would not issue credit cards to customers residing in Thailand. However, most will issue debit cards, which serve mostly the same service as credit cards.

[shadowmaster1971]

For HK & SG u will mostly likely needful to go there.

 

I bank in  HK. I'm with Bank of China. But below is essentially the same for the likes of HSBC and Standard Chartered in HK.

 

My BoC standard back account comes with a savings, checking and multi currency account  MTCN.  The MTCN holds 10 different currencies.

 

The accounts allow you to do online transfers anywhere in the world. You can also buy stocks from these accounts on the HK stock market. You can buy managed funds, bonds, set up term deposit, currency trading. Buy stocks for new IPO listing. Buy precious metal online eg gold silver, platinum. You can receive money into the savings and checking account from anywhere in the world which would be converted into HK$. Unless the n money is deposited directly into one of the currencies in your MTCN account eg AUD pounds US euro etc.  You get an Union Pay ATM card which you can use virtually anywhere these days.  ATM charges in Thailand 150 baht.

 

All of the above activities are done  online.

 

You can link an account to I think hk and Singapore PayPal accounts.

 

You need a couple of forms.of ID something with an address. Account takes about 30mins to open. ATM card given on the spot. 

[rak sa_ngop]

2 hours ago, 12DrinkMore said:

Most UK banks no longer want expats unless you have a large wad. I have an account with Lloyds international for receiving pension money, but their parochial internet banking does not allow international transfers. Have to ring them up and do it by phone.

 

If you open a Sterling Money Market Call Account with LLoyds International you can make on-line international transfers.

 

The problem comes when you want to transfer money from an ordinary LLoyds International savings account (Premier) to your Market Call Account. This requires a phone call which requires answering security questions to 2 LLoyds departments, so takes 5 to 10 minutes to make one transfer. (No on-line transfer available)

 

Two solutions, pay you pension into the Market Call Account, or do what I do: make a free BACS on-line transfer to another UK bank, and after the money arrives on-line transfer it back to LLoyds but into your Market Call Account and then make an international on-line transfer. This will all take a few days but no lengthy telephone calls to the UK.

[Stocky]

I'm with HSBC Singapore. I made the arrangements via email and then flew down to open the account. Just needed my passport and two documents showing proof of address. I have SGD plus multi-currency accounts as well as debit and credit cards. It is a Premier account, so there is a minimum balance requirement of SGD200,000.

[Negita43]

Just to Clarify.

 

I do not want UK bank offshore account. I do want an account in any of the following £, Euro, $, HKD (which is linked to the US$), with a CREDIT CARD (in my experience many companies here in Thailand will not accept debit card transactions by phone or internet)

[abrahamzvi]

4 hours ago, Negita43 said:

Just to Clarify.

 

I do not want UK bank offshore account. I do want an account in any of the following £, Euro, $, HKD (which is linked to the US$), with a CREDIT CARD (in my experience many companies here in Thailand will not accept debit card transactions by phone or internet)

I do not know of any Thai companies and never experienced any refusal to accept payment by debit card. As a matter of fact most companies accepting cards don't see the difference. As far as they are concerned payment to them is guaranteed and so is the commission rate charged to them. The difference is applied to the customer. Payment by a debit card is debited immediately to one's account and no credit is allowed. With a credit card, in addition to various benefits, credit is allowed, although at very high interest rates, and the charges are to be paid monthly, which could result in up to 4-6 weeks of interest free credit.

[Negita43]

Thanks for the lesson on the difference between a debit and credit card.

 

I can only speak from experience, for example I think it was Thaivivat insurance would not accept a debit card number over the phone, and there have been several instances of this happening. It might also be interesting to note that I have also applied for a Thai credit card - (I have debit cards) and have been refused on the grounds that I am too old in spite of the fact that I have several cards from my country of origin.

 

As some one said in an earlier post different people different experiences.

[speedtripler]

6 hours ago, Negita43 said:

Thanks for the lesson on the difference between a debit and credit card.

 

I can only speak from experience, for example I think it was Thaivivat insurance would not accept a debit card number over the phone, and there have been several instances of this happening. It might also be interesting to note that I have also applied for a Thai credit card - (I have debit cards) and have been refused on the grounds that I am too old in spite of the fact that I have several cards from my country of origin.

 

As some one said in an earlier post different people different experiences.

Try another bank, the higher your account balance is the more inclined they are to bend the rules and give you whatever you want.. 

When you build up a good relationship with one bank manager you should stick with him, I get great service from my branch but if I go into another branch in the city the experience can vary