U.k. Hsbc u.s $ account extortionate charges

ralphwilliams

Hi,

Please could anyone advise me of what to do here?
I am being paid by an American company in U.S. $ checks and have a U.S. $ HSBC account, what is really !!!!ing me off is they have "negotiated" some of my checks and have charged me £10 for each one, but some of my checks they have "collected" on my behalf & have been charged £28.00 + $25.00(agents charges) per check!!!!

so for an amount like $737.09
- agents charges $025.00
-HSBC charges $045.39 = $666.70

Surely, this is'nt fair? is it?
what can i do to avoid this?
Please help!!!!!!

dzug1

Are you sure that's not the other way round?

Negotiating the cheque through an agent means you get the funds sooner, so it's legitimate to charge for it (says the bank)

You could ask them only to choose the cheaper method - it may be that which they use depends on the value of the cheque?

Otherwise find another bank - Citibank are often recommended here though I've no personal experience

Does seem to show that opening a $$ account to avoid charges can backfire

And please don't bleat about fairness - that doesn't enter the equation.

97trophy

Use Citibank London. They can be slow to open accounts but when up and running it works fine.

ERICS_MUM

You could:

1) get your employer to pay you with a US$ cheque drawn on HSBC London instead of on a bank in the US.
2)Open a US$ account in the US and get your employer to pay the money directly into it
3) get your employer to do an electronic bank transfer to HSBC London for your US $ account.

Fees will apply to all options but (2) should be the cheapest.


Linda

PS the HSBC fees you are currently paying seem average for foreign cheque collections/negotiations. Processing such cheques is mainly a manual exercise for banks, which is reflected in their charges, there is little (if any) profit margin for the bank for this sort of work. The agents charges seem a bit high, but that depends on who HSBC London are using as their US agent for cheque clearing. The agents charges might also be high-ish if the cheques are drawn on a small local bank which is not a direct member of the US clearing system, in which case there might be two agent banks in the chain, each levying charges.

HSBC should be able to advise which would be the most cost effective method of payment.