HSBC Global Money Account launched

OceanSound

PloughmansLunch said:

Marchitiello said:

TwiceNightly said:

Fairly simple question but worth asking probably - with this account could I keep a float of GBP in there for the rare occasions when I need to withdraw cash in the UK?

I never like to use my main bank account for that.

(Had to cancel my questioning of the motive)

technically yes, the card will simply use the GBP balance. My understanding is that whatever the currency of the ATM is, the card will withdraw from that Balance within your GMA account held in that currency. If not balance or not enough balance is held, it will withdraw from the GBP balance as a default but not sure what Precedence balance in other currencies take if the one of the ATM operator is not held or not enough of it is held.

(Over)spending on the card will pay first in local currency then make up the remaining balance from any held GBP at live GMA conversion rates. I accidentally found that out yesterday as I also had a GBP float in the account. Maybe this occurs at ATMs as well?

Does anyone have any experience where they haven't had the requisite amount in local currency or GBP in their GMA but did have funds in other currencies? Will the transaction still go through with hcbc charging the other currencies? What order are they charged?

I know this happens with Wise as I've experienced it. I will try and post the transaction details later.

Here's what the hsbc website says btw:

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/current-accounts/products/global-money/

Use your debit card as you would at home. We'll debit payment from your currency balance if funds are available. If not, or if the transaction is in a currency you can't hold a balance in, we'll debit your GBP balance.

The wise website says this:

https://wise.com/gb/account/

Pay your way round the world with a universal card
If you’ve got the local currency, we’ll use it. If you don’t, we’ll convert to it at a cheap rate. So in store or online, you’ve always got the right kind of money, for the right price.

As you can see hsbc website is silent about if you don't hold the transaction amount in local currency or GBP but do hold it in other currencies.

Wonder if wise uses the 'best' currency or currencies to convert. If so, how would this be done?

edit: answering my own question (I appreciate it's off topic - as this thread is about hsbc GMA - but I figured mention how a competitor goes about it), found this just now: 

https://wise.com/help/articles/2935778/what-if-i-spend-money-in-a-currency-that-i-dont-have-in-my-account

If you don’t have the currency you need in your account, you can still spend money. Our Smart Conversion technology will automatically convert the balance for you that has the lowest conversion fee.
If the currencies that you hold in your account have the same conversion fees, we'll use the one with the best exchange rate, so you get the most for your money.....

transaction details of wise transaction (as promised before) done a few weeks ago:

further details:

continued

I looked at the wise statements, I had 21.57 GBP in the GBP account, 8.11 EUR in the EUR account, and 60,000 VND in the VND account. 

The transaction has charged 21.57 GBP (full balance of that account), 8.11 EUR (again full balance of that account) and 15821 VND from the 60000 VND in VND account. 

So, presumably the smart conversion technology worked out that the GBP and EUR currencies were more favourable for conversion than VND. Those were the only currency accounts that had money in them.

I keep a bit of money in the jars too, so in case I need to use JPY, I just move JPY from jar to main JPY account. 

[Deleted User]

What would the benefits (if any) be with this account over say Starling/Monzo etc?

PloughmansLunch

Deleted_User said:

What would the benefits (if any) be with this account over say Starling/Monzo etc?

Not sure what Starling & Monzo rates are, but I got excellent rates - 1.38xxx Euros to the pound instantly at the same time as my (very rural) local bureau back in the UK was offering 1.09xxx

penners324

PloughmansLunch said:

Deleted_User said:

What would the benefits (if any) be with this account over say Starling/Monzo etc?

Not sure what Starling & Monzo rates are, but I got excellent rates - 1.38xxx Euros to the pound instantly at the same time as my (very rural) local bureau back in the UK was offering 1.09xxx

Are you sure? The rate was only £1.38 for a few weeks back in 2015

PloughmansLunch

penners324 said:

PloughmansLunch said:

Deleted_User said:

What would the benefits (if any) be with this account over say Starling/Monzo etc?

Not sure what Starling & Monzo rates are, but I got excellent rates - 1.38xxx Euros to the pound instantly at the same time as my (very rural) local bureau back in the UK was offering 1.09xxx

Are you sure? The rate was only £1.38 for a few weeks back in 2015

Sorry, fat fingers! 1.138

Marchitiello

Deleted_User said:

What would the benefits (if any) be with this account over say Starling/Monzo etc?

GMA is a multi currency account with great exchange rates if you want convert money to have balances in the desired currency. There are no fees for doing so (aside of the margin included within the exchange rate offered). You can do this when there are particularly favourable conditions and hold the currency until needed. If no balance is held in a particular currency you want to use via your card, it will apply Visa (the card network) exchange rate at the time of the transaction, with no additional fees. Finally you can use your GMA account to make international bank transfers ion the many different currency held (which you would have exchanged at favourable rates) and should in the futures be able to receive and hold payments in those currency as well (not currently possible but there is a workaround via HSBC Currency account as explained upthread).

Starling: you can only have accounts in GBP and Euro (no other currencies, but the Eur account can also be used to send and receive payments in that currency), and they charge you a fee for exchanging money between the currencies when you do this between the two accounts, and as proven earlier in this very thread, the net amount exchanged via Starling was lower than HSBC GMA. When you use your Starling card in other currency (and or when used particularly for euro transactions without having a Euro Balance in The Euro account), Starling will apply MasterCard exchange rates (in a similar way as described above for GMA).

Monzo can only hold balances in GBP (so it is not a currency account) and therefore will simply apply MasterCard rates to the exchange.

generally HSBC Global Money rates will be better than MasterCard or Visa rates, especially if preloaded in favourable exchange conditions.

hope this helps

PloughmansLunch

NB: Try not to exchange through GMA over the weekend, or it defaults to a less favourable fixed rate rather than the live market rate that is constantly refreshed throughout the week

OceanSound

Deleted_User said:

What would the benefits (if any) be with this account over say Starling/Monzo etc?

Do you only want to hear the benefits (as opposed to benefits and downsides)? One huge downside for me personally is that the range of currencies available for storing on HSBC GMA is limited. Whereas, Wise covers a wider range. If you're only interested in the 'major' currencies then it may not matter.

Btw, has anyone used the Currensea card for ATM withdrawals abroad? How does the rate compare with HSBC GMA?

One obvious downside with currensea (right off the bat) is that it works through a linked current account and has no  pots where you can keep already exchanged currency (so you can safeguard against a particularly volatile currency having unfavorable exchange rate at time of ATM withdrawal). However, just curious, how the rates compare otherwise.

Of course, currensea also has a limit on how much you can withdraw before there is a surcharge on the fx rate (the limit is £500 for the basic plan). Not sure if HSBC GMA has similar.

Maybe I will do a test ATM withdrawal of equal amount. E.g. 100 EUR and see which transaction was more favourable.

edit: As a test, I used both HSBC and Wise apps to check how many GBP neeeded to obtain 35 USD. 

Here's what I could see on the respective Apps:

with hsbc, in addition to GBP needed, only the rate is shown = 1.237667 

so if I divide 35.00 with ^^ rate  --->  35 / 1.237667 = 28.28 GBP

With wise app if I enter 35 USD as the currency amount needed, I can see the following:

- 0.12 GBP  Our fee

= 28.16       the amount we'll convert 

x 1.24290 guaranteed rate

We can see the 'actual' rate used by wise, which I believe is the same rate available to HSBC, but then HSBC has ended up using a reduced rate of 1.237667. ANy difference between 1.24290 and 1.237667, is the markup, fee, commission call it what you may that has ended up on the hsbc simulation/potential transaction.

c-m

PloughmansLunch said:

Tested my Global Money card this week in Spain and and could withdraw euros out from an atm with no fees. I also sent money from GMA via IBAN to a Spanish account with no problems. The only sticking point was sending a test euro from GMA to my HSBC currency account, which you can’t do anything with via the app. I used online banking and you can then tinker around with the currency account, but for some daft reason the global money account is invisible in online banking so you can’t easily send money back to the GMA. 

Which ATM did you end up using? IIRC nearly all Spanish ATMs charge a fee. I think Deutschebank and possibly ING are two that don't.

Deleted_User said:

What would the benefits (if any) be with this account over say Starling/Monzo etc?

It's a mutli-currency account more akin to Wise and Revolut. So the main benefit is being able to hold multiple different currencies and convert currencies at will thus locking in exchange rates. It doesn't have the utility of either of those (or Starling Euro if spending in euro). 

It has slightly better exchange rates, though unless you are transferring and converting large amounts you the difference is much. 

In terms of card spending, there isn't much difference between this and the likes of Starling or Chase. Neither of which charge any fees, and the latter offering 1% cashback is better. The GMA does have higher daily/monthly ATM withdrawal limits for those who like to carry cash. 

PloughmansLunch

c-m said:

PloughmansLunch said:

Tested my Global Money card this week in Spain and and could withdraw euros out from an atm with no fees. I also sent money from GMA via IBAN to a Spanish account with no problems. The only sticking point was sending a test euro from GMA to my HSBC currency account, which you can’t do anything with via the app. I used online banking and you can then tinker around with the currency account, but for some daft reason the global money account is invisible in online banking so you can’t easily send money back to the GMA. 

Which ATM did you end up using? IIRC nearly all Spanish ATMs charge a fee. I think Deutschebank and possibly ING are two that don't. 

I used Banca March. Deutschebank was the other I was looking for but couldn’t find an ATM. 

I have an amendment to my earlier post - my GMA test payment transfer was sent ok but still hasn’t arrived to date. HSBC say it cleared from their and the IBAN details were deffo correct, so I assume the Santander empresa account is withholding it for some reason as I can only see outgoings for the last month, but it’s simply not worth my time and money phoning up CS in Spain to try to sort it out over a single euro.