HSBC Global Money Account launched

Marchitiello

IAMIAM said:

So which is cheaper if purchasing abroad, barclaycard rewards or HSBC global?

In my experience it depend a bit on transaction value (due to rounding) and more if one has had a chance to previously convert and held the currency within a currency wallet.. 

for example if you have previously converted 1000 USD at a rate in the past that was particularly good, and now the VISA average daily rate is worst off, then using your USD balance is better, no doubt.

however if no currency is held and transactions need to be funded from the GBP balance, then both will use VISA exchange rate but Barclaycard Rewards will give you a tiny bit of cashback. in that case an alternative would be Chase, using the better MC exchange rate.

obviously there is also the Credit Card vs Debit Card consideration as others have said . 

Marchitiello

c-m said:

The account seems like an interesting development. 

For those of you that have sent payments from the account to another, does it give you a statement of the transfer? i.e. something showing the transaction and the status pending/settled?

There is a status field with the transaction record but I honestly did not check it before now. 

Daliah

c-m said:

The account seems like an interesting development. 

For those of you that have sent payments from the account to another, does it give you a statement of the transfer? i.e. something showing the transaction and the status pending/settled?

The exchange is instant AFAIK, and all transactions are shown in your Global Money wallet. Not sure how debit card transactions are reflected.


The FAQ says there will be statements 

Marchitiello

Marchitiello said:

c-m said:

The account seems like an interesting development. 

For those of you that have sent payments from the account to another, does it give you a statement of the transfer? i.e. something showing the transaction and the status pending/settled?

There is a status field with the transaction record but I honestly did not check it before now. 

@c-m I have just done another transfer and went back into the transaction immediately after and the status shows as “processing”, so pretty sure it does update the status overtime. I guess your question was to compare it to something like Wise, where the transaction status is much more obvious and prominent within the main screen, whilst here you need to click and expand into the individual transaction but it is good enough for me. 

c-m

I was more thinking about it in terms of a downloadable transaction statement. Revolut offers this, as does Starling (but oddly not for its euro account). Often in places like Spain companies accept bank transfer for a variety of payments and ask for proof that is has been sent. 

Daliah

I haven't yet got a statement for my Global Money account as it only gets produced once a month but I can download / print / forward statements from my HSBC current account. I think that functionality is almost certainly also available for the Global Money account. However, there is every likelihood that the money has in most cases arrived at its destination long before the payment transaction appears on the next monthly statement. HSBC don't offer you the option to create a statement for a given timescale - you just get what they provide, once a month (which appears to be an account month, not a calendar month)


As to Starling: they most certainly do  provide downloadable statements for the Euro account, certified and uncertified, as you prefer. You just have to select the Euro account to look at the Euro account statement (and the GBP account for GBP account statements)

Marchitiello

c-m said:

I was more thinking about it in terms of a downloadable transaction statement. Revolut offers this, as does Starling (but oddly not for its euro account). Often in places like Spain companies accept bank transfer for a variety of payments and ask for proof that is has been sent. 

Yes, I have had such request from Spain, France, Italy and Germany, but also some business to business transactions in the UK (payment remittance) and the HSBC Global Money transaction status screen would be acceptable in my experience as it has all the references needed. The statement produced at some point would have the same entry (based on similar transaction from an HSBC Business account I use)

Kenzie2k3

Hi, I recently got one these Global Money accounts and needed a little help understanding how it works. If I transfer money in GBP from my current account to the Global account and pay for something in Europe, will it automatically debit the total to Euros or do I need to tranfer the balance into the account as Euros? Hope that makes sense?

Marchitiello

Kenzie2k3 said:

Hi, I recently got one these Global Money accounts and needed a little help understanding how it works. If I transfer money in GBP from my current account to the Global account and pay for something in Europe, will it automatically debit the total to Euros or do I need to tranfer the balance into the account as Euros? Hope that makes sense?

You have both options, pay from your GBP balance (if not EURO balance is held) or from any held EURO balance, but with the following difference:

- if paying from your GBP balance, the exchange will happen at that day VISA (Card Network) exchange rate

- if paying with a EURO balance (which would be automatic if you held it), you would have previously exchanged the currency at potentially a better rate.


As an example, if I was spending 100€ right now from a GBP balance, I would be charged £87.66 (according to VISA site) 

however if I was converting first 100 euro from my GBP balance before spending it, right now it would cost me £86.71 according to HSBC global money quotation (so almost a £1 difference in £100 or almost 1%) 

Shanwick

The HSBC UK site suggests that the exchange rate for a EUR purchase coming from a GBP balance might actually be the Global Money exchange rate whereas the VISA rate would apply if the purchase currency was not a Global Money currency.

If you have enough funds in the currency of the transaction, no exchange rate will apply.

If you don't have the transaction currency, or there isn't enough of it in your account, your card will auto-convert from your Global Money GBP balance if you have enough funds. (The Global Money Exchange Rate is used if it's a currency we can hold a balance in, otherwise the Visa daily exchange rate is used.)