Opening a USD bank account in the UK: HSBC, Fineco or others? Which has lower fees?

SouthLondonUser

I would like to understand what options I have to open a bank account in USD from the UK.
I have zero ties to the US so I doubt I could open an account directly in the US;
I simply want to “park” some funds in USD. I am not interested in getting a debit card, nor in depositing cash or cheques, and can live with zero interest paid on the account;
All I want is for the money to be protected by the FSCS (or equivalent), and either reasonable FX conversion charges, or the possibility to receive funds directly in USD (e.g. with a service like Transferwise);

Fineco provides bank account in USD, EUR and CHF. There is a very long discussions on the bank on this forum. However, it is an Italian bank and money is protected by the Italian financial guarantee fund (or whatever it’s called there); there will be different opinions on whether that’s irrelevant or a deal-breaker, I don’t want to discuss that, that’s not the question;

Transferwise provides an “account”, but the money is held with third parties and is not protected by the FSCS, which is a deal-breaker for me;

Starling offers a euro account but not a USD one;

HSBC provides https://www.hsbc.co.uk/international/currency-account/

Barclays has something similar, but you can apply in branch only (someone please tell Barclays this is 2019…) https://www.barclays.co.uk/current-accounts/international-bank-account/

Citibank’s offering is limited to private banking clients and to those who hold at least £150k of assets with the bank https://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/current-accounts.do#Current%20Account%20Eligibility%20&%20Fees

So basically it seems to me that HSBC and Fineco are the only realistic options unless you are a private banking client with hundreds of thousands of pounds (I'd rather avoid to hassle to go to a Barclays branch in person unless they offer much better terms).

Do you know of other banks? Have you verified which, between HSBC and Fineco, tends to offer lower conversion fees?

Thanks.



Please note: the question is what the options are, not whether you think doing it is a good idea. A discussion on the pros and cons would be very long and would be off-topic – again, that’s not the question being asked, so I'd greatly appreciated if replies could be kept on topic.
Thanks!

yams

I can't be of any help as those are the only options I know of but I'd be interested to know for CAD too!

londoninvestor

Lloyds in the Isle of Man:
https://international.lloydsbank.com/products-and-services/saving-accounts/bonus-saver/

It's covered by the IOM deposit protection scheme, not the FSCS - so as with Fineco you'd need to decide whether that was acceptable to you.

SouthLondonUser

Thanks, but I'd rather not open an account in the Isle of Man.

michaels

How do the exchange rates compare between hsbc and fineco?

zerog

If you went with HSBC or Barclays you would use a service like Transferwise to exchange the money, not accept any old rate they would give you.

I believe Fineco uses a rather good exchange rate, but if you want FSCS protection you will have to go with one of the UK banks.

Marchitiello

I have an account with Fineco (opened the first ever thread on this forum about it). I took the early offer of getting two debit cards, one in EUR (euro account) and the other in GBP for the £ Account. Rates were/are really close to the interbank exchange rate (better then MasterCard and Transferwise but slightly lower then Revolut on a recent test I did). I use regularly those two currency and the accounts therefore work well for me with exchanging money within the Fineco platform across the two accounts, and then withdrawing in EURO at a European ATM or make free SEPA Transfer to my other EURO accounts (different banks). However the problem with the USD account is that it is almost a virtual account, where you can indeed receive money in USD (charges may apply at receipt) but can either exchange it to EUR/GBP and then use them, or make forward payments from the USD account (which I believe that charges always apply, so no so great).