Moving to Asia but still need UK bank account

purpleskies_2

Hi all.

I'm moving to South Korea soon for a year (minimum) to teach English. As I graduated recently there is also the matter of paying off my student loan.

I need to have a UK bank account in order to do this, but I'd need one that isn't going to charge me too much every time Won is transferred into it and converted to GBP.

I have tried looking around for further information but a lot of Expat guides don't really cover this and most of the questions on here seem to be regarding accounts in Europe. Sadly I'm not eligible for the HSBC Premier account.

I've tried working through the information myself but it's giving me an unwelcome headache. Please help!

Hydromancer

If you have an HSBC Advance bank account, you can use their Global View online banking thingy as well. It does, however, cost £13 a month (currently on "sale" for £9.99 for 12 months)

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/international-features

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/current-accounts/hsbc-advance?HBEU_dyn_lnk=CurrentAccount_FilterTool_Advance_FindOutMore_Button

This might be of interest:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-1594494/Best-banks-for-expats.html

RetiredInThailand

Why not just keep your existing UK current/savings accounts and have your Korean bank do the conversion and send GBP? This will probably be cheaper than having the UK bank do the conversion. UK fees are very high these days.

Your existing UK bank may be happy to keep you on with a Korean address. If they aren't, just use a relative's UK address for the duration, or look for a UK bank that doesn't mind having non-resident customers.

purpleskies_2

Hydromancer - I didn't realise HSBC had a sale on their Advanced account. Will be worth looking into. I've also found out about Citibank who have a Plus Account with similar sorts of features but I'd only be paying £8 per month if I can't keep the minimum amount of money they require in there. I think I need to do some more research on each.

RetiredInThailand - I hadn't thought of doing it like that and this might be the easiest option. Do you know if it's fairly straightforward to get a Korean bank to do the conversion first?

RetiredInThailand

purpleskies wrote: »

Do you know if it's fairly straightforward to get a Korean bank to do the conversion first?

South Korea is an advanced and rich country. So I would be very surprised if their banks weren't up to this simple task. Thai banks certainly are.

Maybe you should ask on one of the dedicated expat forums? You will find people there who know a lot about the individual countries.

bendix

In my experience (previously living in the UK and sending money to Thailand, and now living in Hong Kong and sending money to Thailand), I've always found it cheaper to send the money in the currency of the country from which I'm sending it, and have the receiving bank convert it to their currency. The rates tend to be better.

Regarding conversion or transfer fees, I bank with Standard Chartered Bank (very big in Korea, I believe), and send money to a Standard Chartered account in Thailand. The transfer are free, but admittedly I am a Priority Bank customer, similar to the HSBC Premier level.