HSBC Advance overseas account opening?

grumbler

LeDe wrote: »

What's that supposed to mean?

This means that I asked you whether you were *sure* and received the above words in in reply. Nothing more.

I came asking as to whether anyone had used the HSBC account opening service for overseas accounts and you seem to have taken issue and you're taking it out on myself, for what reason, I don't know

If you told me that you were *sure* I wouldn't waste my time on trying to persuade you that most likely you didn't need these accounts and would be wasting money on their maintenance.

gt94sss2

LeDe wrote: »

I'm opening a HSBC Advance account (upgrading from Student) and I regularly go to Hong Kong and the UAE which leads me to my question of whether it's possible to open accounts in either (or both) of these countries?

Yes.

Does anyone have any experience of HSBC's international account opening without an address in the country of potential account opening, also is it possible to secure a credit card as I'd prefer a local credit card for peace of mind when I'm there.

I used the International Account opening facility with HSBC years ago. It worked smoothly though took some time - I suspect its a lot quicker now.- back then they didn't advertise it as a feature as they do now.

Also, when I joined HSBC Premier in the UK, they gave me 6 months to meet their requirements. If they still offer this and you wanted to,you could use this period to open the accounts overseas without charge and then consider downgrading your account.

I guess you really need to speak to their International Banking Centre.

Regards
Sunil

camperdown9

Hi

One major benefit of banking with HSBC in the UK and in another country is that they make it easy to transfer money between the two accounts. You can do it online or via the app. It's a simple as transferring funds between your current account and your savings account. When I banked with a local french bank I always had issues with funding the account. The main options seamed to be 1. Pay my UK bank fees to transfer the money, 2. Transfer a large amount once a year or so via a money changer or 3. Take cash into my local branch, and this was becoming difficult as they are starting to limit the amount of cash they will except as a deposit on a personal account.

I can't help with the UAE but I used HSBC Premier to help me open a French account about 6 weeks ago. It was fairly simple but took a bit of time.

I asked my account manager by phone for details of HSBC France current accounts. After a few days he sent me an email listing the product that I could have. I then had to make an appointment to go to the branch and open the account.

When I went to the branch to open the account he took some photocopies of my passport and some utility bills for UK and France. He then called HSBC's international department and explained what we wanted to do. He then handed the phone to me. The guy on the other end of the phone asked what seamed like a 100 questions. Most of it fairly basic stuff. They did ask for details of my address in France and also how much money I would pay into my HSBC France account when the account was opened and how much per month. At the end of the call he sent my account manager a completed application form by email for me to sign.

About a week later I got an email from HSBC's international department asking me to confirm some of the details. This was a bit annoying as I had already answered these questions before.

Then maybe 10 working days after that I received an email telling me the account was open and asking me to call and fund the account as soon as possible. I called the number on the email, they gave me the account numbers and then put me through to HSBC Premier to arrange to fund the account. Once online banking for my HSBC France account was up and running I was able to managed the account via the app or online.

About a week after that a cheque book and the debit card pin arrived in the mail. And the debit card arrived by fedex.

It was all fairly simple it just seamed to take a bit of time.

Alex

baby_frogmella

Just be aware, to open ANY kind of a bank account in UAE requires you to have a residence visa if you're a not a local. Only way to get a residence visa is to be in local employment or have purchased a property there. Otherwise forget it!

LeDe_2

camperdown9 wrote: »

I asked my account manager by phone for details of HSBC France current accounts. After a few days he sent me an email listing the product that I could have. I then had to make an appointment to go to the branch and open the account.

When I went to the branch to open the account he took some photocopies of my passport and some utility bills for UK and France. He then called HSBC's international department and explained what we wanted to do. He then handed the phone to me. The guy on the other end of the phone asked what seamed like a 100 questions. Most of it fairly basic stuff. They did ask for details of my address in France and also how much money I would pay into my HSBC France account when the account was opened and how much per month. At the end of the call he sent my account manager a completed application form by email for me to sign.

About a week later I got an email from HSBC's international department asking me to confirm some of the details. This was a bit annoying as I had already answered these questions before.

Then maybe 10 working days after that I received an email telling me the account was open and asking me to call and fund the account as soon as possible. I called the number on the email, they gave me the account numbers and then put me through to HSBC Premier to arrange to fund the account. Once online banking for my HSBC France account was up and running I was able to managed the account via the app or online.

Thank you for this run down, I'm going into HSBC today to talk to them about an account, from what I was told on the phone while HSBC Advance isn't possible in the UK, I should be able to open similar overseas and I think it may be similar to how you did it, I'm prepared for the time it'll take

Thank you once again

baby_frogmella wrote: »

Just be aware, to open ANY kind of a bank account in UAE requires you to have a residence visa if you're a not a local. Only way to get a residence visa is to be in local employment or have purchased a property there. Otherwise forget it!

If required I can get a residence visa through my father's company although both ADCB and Standard Chartered seemed positive that I could open an account without the need for one. I guess I'll find out when I'm there in a couple of months

JKSandy

Looks like it's already been mentioned that the HSBC Advance is offline now.

They are making changes to "improve" it which is why they have taken it off sale and going to relaunch it at the end of year apparently.