HSBC Currency Account Exorbitant Fees

WastedWords

mlz1413 said:

I haven't personal moved more than £2000 for holiday use, but every transaction I have made has been fee free.

Not fee free but fee hidden in Fx fee which is in the region of 0.6 - 0.7%.
This is a comparison of EUR to GBP from a couple of months ago.



I wouldn't bother with Atlantic as it is takes a few days and a lot of faff for relatively small quantities.

WastedWords

pecunianonolet said:

Use currency account to receive Euro

Use Global Money to send Euro or any other currency

HSBC changed terms of GMA account in April and you can now receive currency direct into the GMA without it being converted to GBP. 
I suspect that as part of HSBC "changes in strategic business priorities" that the need for Currency Accounts will be under review and they will go the same way as Zing. 

Ballard

nyermen said:

31.50 EUR seems high, sepa is pretty cheap.  Suspect it is indeed going via SWIFT?  (especially with mentions of correspondent banks).  That or HSBC France is taking a big chunk of commission.

Edit: This https://www.hsbc.co.uk/international/what-is-sepa/ seems to confirm they must be using swift.

A technical point, but SEPA payments also use Swift MT103 messages, they just have to abide by more stringent formatting requirements. If the payment isn’t formatted perfectly, the payment can still go through but won’t be SEPA compliant and charges can be applied. 

Olenna

Ballard said:

nyermen said:

31.50 EUR seems high, sepa is pretty cheap.  Suspect it is indeed going via SWIFT?  (especially with mentions of correspondent banks).  That or HSBC France is taking a big chunk of commission.

Edit: This https://www.hsbc.co.uk/international/what-is-sepa/ seems to confirm they must be using swift.

A technical point, but SEPA payments also use Swift MT103 messages, they just have to abide by more stringent formatting requirements. If the payment isn’t formatted perfectly, the payment can still go through but won’t be SEPA compliant and charges can be applied. 

Charges can be applied regardless as the UK is no longer part of the EU/EEA.

Ballard

Olenna said:

Ballard said:

nyermen said:

31.50 EUR seems high, sepa is pretty cheap.  Suspect it is indeed going via SWIFT?  (especially with mentions of correspondent banks).  That or HSBC France is taking a big chunk of commission.

Edit: This https://www.hsbc.co.uk/international/what-is-sepa/ seems to confirm they must be using swift.

A technical point, but SEPA payments also use Swift MT103 messages, they just have to abide by more stringent formatting requirements. If the payment isn’t formatted perfectly, the payment can still go through but won’t be SEPA compliant and charges can be applied. 

Charges can be applied regardless as the UK is no longer part of the EU/EEA.

SEPA includes a handful of non-EU countries, including the UK. 

https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/sites/default/files/kb/file/2024-11/EPC409-09%20EPC%20List%20of%20SEPA%20Scheme%20Countries%20v5.0.pdf

Olenna

Ballard said:

Olenna said:

Ballard said:

nyermen said:

31.50 EUR seems high, sepa is pretty cheap.  Suspect it is indeed going via SWIFT?  (especially with mentions of correspondent banks).  That or HSBC France is taking a big chunk of commission.

Edit: This https://www.hsbc.co.uk/international/what-is-sepa/ seems to confirm they must be using swift.

A technical point, but SEPA payments also use Swift MT103 messages, they just have to abide by more stringent formatting requirements. If the payment isn’t formatted perfectly, the payment can still go through but won’t be SEPA compliant and charges can be applied. 

Charges can be applied regardless as the UK is no longer part of the EU/EEA.

SEPA includes a handful of non-EU countries, including the UK. 

https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/sites/default/files/kb/file/2024-11/EPC409-09%20EPC%20List%20of%20SEPA%20Scheme%20Countries%20v5.0.pdf

SEPA and the EEA are not the same thing... 

e.g. Switzerland is part of SEPA but is not part of the EEA. 

Ballard

Olenna said:

Ballard said:

Olenna said:

Ballard said:

nyermen said:

31.50 EUR seems high, sepa is pretty cheap.  Suspect it is indeed going via SWIFT?  (especially with mentions of correspondent banks).  That or HSBC France is taking a big chunk of commission.

Edit: This https://www.hsbc.co.uk/international/what-is-sepa/ seems to confirm they must be using swift.

A technical point, but SEPA payments also use Swift MT103 messages, they just have to abide by more stringent formatting requirements. If the payment isn’t formatted perfectly, the payment can still go through but won’t be SEPA compliant and charges can be applied. 

Charges can be applied regardless as the UK is no longer part of the EU/EEA.

SEPA includes a handful of non-EU countries, including the UK. 

https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/sites/default/files/kb/file/2024-11/EPC409-09%20EPC%20List%20of%20SEPA%20Scheme%20Countries%20v5.0.pdf

SEPA and the EEA are not the same thing... 

e.g. Switzerland is part of SEPA but is not part of the EEA. 

I’m not sure what your point is. 

pecunianonolet

WastedWords said:

pecunianonolet said:

Use currency account to receive Euro

Use Global Money to send Euro or any other currency

HSBC changed terms of GMA account in April and you can now receive currency direct into the GMA without it being converted to GBP. 
I suspect that as part of HSBC "changes in strategic business priorities" that the need for Currency Accounts will be under review and they will go the same way as Zing. 

Would you mind sharing where I can find more detailed info on this policy change?

All I could found was the below.

gt94sss2

pecunianonolet said:

WastedWords said:

pecunianonolet said:

Use currency account to receive Euro

Use Global Money to send Euro or any other currency

HSBC changed terms of GMA account in April and you can now receive currency direct into the GMA without it being converted to GBP. 

Would you mind sharing where I can find more info on this policy change? 

The HSBC changes to their T&C are listed at https://www.hsbc.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/2025/notice-of-variation-terms-and-conditions/

It includes

We’re changing how we deal with money which you receive into your Global Money Account in a foreign currency from an HSBC UK account in another person’s name or from an account outside HSBC UK.

We used to convert that money to GBP using the HSBC Exchange Rate at the time we received it. Now, if you receive money in a ‘currency balance’ we support, we won’t need to convert it. You can find a list of ‘currency balances’ we support in the Mobile app, or you can ask us.

If you receive money in a non-supported currency, we’ll treat it as we always have and we’ll convert it to GBP.

pecunianonolet

So for clarification:

I have a Euro currency account that provides me with an IBAN and BIC. Now I have a friend in another Euro country and can receive a normal SEPA payment into my currency account. I now move it via internal transfer to GM and on my next holiday I can just spend it.

The Euro currency account was always fee free unlike the other currency accounts (only free with Premier).

Now, I have another friend in Poland. In the past the only way would have been a Polish currency account with fees but HSBC never offered a PLN currency account so there would have been no way of receiving this. Wise and other solutions would have been required.  

As PLN is a supported GM currency I should be able to receive this now and HSBC would automatically credit incoming PLN as PLN in GM. 

However, what IBAN & BIC details would I give in this example my Polish friend and where would I find those details?