Bank account issues totally confused please help!

I heard that if i opened an account with HSBC here in the US then when I moved to the UK they would transfer it over to a UK account.

Then I also heard, that any of my HSBC credit cards because they are an international company could be transferred over as well.

Now after calling HSBC, they tell me not only will they not transfer my bank account over but I will have to open an additional HSBC account in the UK.

And they tell me that none of my HSBC credit cards will be able to be transferred over.

Can any of you confirm if any of this is true?
Also if in fact none of it will transfer over, how do you pay your bills in the US?
I have done a lot of reading but I'm very confused. It doesn't seem like there is really a simple way of doing this without incurring a lot of fees.

What I need to open an and HSBC account in the US, and then when I get to the UK open an account out there? And then when I want to pay bills transfer funds back and forth?

I read on one post that that could take a few weeks.

Although I'm responsible for the budget and do it quite well, I'm not comfortable with banking terms etc. heck neither is Gary and all this banking stuff really confuses me.

So if you could make your comments in simple terms and dumb it down for me I would really appreciate it.

Also I read something about HSBC and offshore accounts and didn't know if that applied to accounts in the US.

Again I don't understand and any help would be greatly appreciated

Unless you represent a premier customer to HSBC (like have £60,000 in savings or investment with them) the story about not moving would seem to be correct.  If you do have this type of savings, HSBC will go out of their way to make your transition smooth.

Now it is possible to open Pound Sterling accounts with HSBC from the States... but this isn't probably what you are looking for or need.

The offshore accounts can be in Pounds Sterling, Euro's or US Dollars, but a minimum requirement of a deposit o £5000 is required to open the account (and it appears that they will now charge a fee if you do not maintain at least £25000 in the account according to recent postings here). The website is here http://www.offshore.hsbc.com/

You can transfer funds between accounts and it should be a little quicker then a few weeks, though I don't know the details.

Most people look into XE Trade to pay items in the States if they do not want to maintain a US bank account. https://www.xe.com/fx/

Is your move to the UK permanent or how long is it?

Is your move to the UK permanent or how long is it?

Thanks Kit, no i dont have that kind of money so they wont bend over backwards for me.

you said " Now it is possible to open Pound Sterling accounts with HSBC from the States... but this isn't probably what you are looking for or need."

that may be somthing looking into so we can have an account in the Uk and start building credit before we get there. How do i go about doing that?

Our move will be permanent

Kath

Most people look into XE Trade to pay items in the States if they do not want to maintain a US bank account. https://www.xe.com/fx/

Don't you still need a US bank account to use XE?  How do you pay bills with it?

I currently have a US bank account and use Paypal to transfer money to it, but am looking for a better way, if possible.

I opened an international account with HSBC from the US before I moved over. I am not sure if it made my life easier or not since they kept sending the documents to the wrong US address meaning that I had to sort it out once I arrived.

I was not a US HSBC customer originally, but the manager waived the rule that you needed to have been a customer for 6 months prior to open the international account. I opened both accounts concurrently last January, and there are threads about my experience.

I have a US credit card with HSBC but they would not transfer it over. I now have a UK credit card with them too, but the limit is paltry since I just arrived. I have not transferred a huge amount of money yet, but they do charge even though it's the same bank. When the time comes to move a big amount, I am planning on using XE. When I first arrived, I had money in 3 different US banks, and simply pulled the max amount out via the ATM each day for several days. It was enough to get me started.

Good luck and hope that is helpful.

Building UK credit is one of the most difficult things.  I am still struggling with that one myself.  Luckily I have a UK partner and I sort of hang off his coat tales for the credit thing.  I was able to sort out a pay monthly mobile phone, which should start getting me in the right place eventually.  Trying to get one I got a lot of mis-information, but this board helped sort out the whole thing.

A lot of the credit is based on finding you on the voter rolls, which you won't be until you have indefinite leave to remain (or you happen to be a Commonwealth System already).  I was able to open a bank account, but with no credit card and no overdraft.  I am going to have to see if I can upgrade my account in a few months based on my history and when I have the money moved over.

Getting a lease is difficult to do as well, when you don't have a British spouse or partner.  You guys appear to be doing everything you can, but hopefully someone else will have some sage advice.  You can continue to use your US credit cards from the UK (though Chip and PIN mis-understanding abound), retain your US bank account, open a UK bank account and continue to transfer money for a while.  It sounds less then ideal, but I can't really figure out another way.

Hiya,

I've previously done initial research at my HSBC branch to see if I can get a US HSBC account - I remember something about the Premier service or requirement but the figure in my head about it is that I needed to have a UK Sterling balance of at least £5000. That's the last I remember, so for them to ask/request you have the equivalent of £60,000 over in the US seems a little over the top to me at this stage - of course that may be the case - i'm just a little surprised.

Seeing as many threads/posts here deal with bank account opening - I suggest you take a look over at those to get more of a picture.

As for credit cards, it may be in a thread/post here somewhere, but I strongly urge the following for all recent arrivals into the UK - to help build credit, ensure you use your credit card and pay off the whole balance at the end of or just prior to the end of the month or payment date - I've been told that this is exactly what the credit card companies look at in order to 'bump' you up their internal 'ratings' system. Other (probably all) financial institutions have a similar system.

Wehn I was asking for my Business account to be opened, the branch operative checked my personal account and looked at a particular figure. she looked at it and said 'ahh thats an excellent score/rating - I asked what she meant, she said they have a rating which instantly tells her what my credit is like I think the maximum they'd ever see is a figure like 87 and mine was 78 or something. She said, I now know I don't have to do xyz in order to check up for your eligibility for a business account, you have enough there to have an auto approval.  I asked how I got that figure, she said we know you've kept a good banking history with us, you've not really been in overdraft, you pay on time, your credit cards are clean and low balances and any balances you have have been cleared quickly and you've kept a good positive balance in your account for a vast proportion of the time it's been opened.

I know many newcomers can't do most of those except for the pay off quickly what you borrow thing.

Hope this helps !

Cheers DtM! West London & Slough UK

Take a look here - that might be what you're after.

thanks Tam ill have a look
Kath

you're american and your partner is british, right?  you both live in the US and are moving to the UK.  does he have an old UK bank account?

when i moved, i didn't fuss with HSBC dual bank account things... this is what i did...

if so, you probably have a US bank account in your name or your joint names.  keep it.  you probably also have a US credit card.  keep that as well.

when you move to the UK, i would withdrawl your US money at a UK ATM.  note- certain banks have agreements whereby the withdrawl charges are less (bank of america - barclays for example).  use this money to put down a deposit on a flat, etc (assuming you're not staying with friends/family).

register for council tax ASAP.  register for all your bills.  once you have a bill with your name on it.  go down to any local UK bank.  show them the bill & your passport and viola a uk bank account. 

teatious process but can be done.

when i moved, i didn't fuss with HSBC dual bank account things...

Nor did my Hubby - he got an account as a non-resident prior to our moving over for good due to new rules brought in over a year ago.

Thanks for all your help, you all are really so great and helpfull.

Made alot of inquiries today and this is what i found out.

Option 1:

I can go into a branch and open a regular HSBC account here in Philly then 2 days later  I can call HSBC and ask for the International banking Dept and they will send me out paperwork to open a HSBC UK account. Once that is done then I will have both accounts.

Or

Option 2:

I can open an account here in US and wait as Meg said and open one in UK. However if i do that I will need (as meg said) proof of residency and a bill, both of which I may not have when we first get there straight away.

I will still have a house here in Philly area and until it sells will need to pay the mortgage and utilities on it so monthly I will have quite a few bills to pay so the US account will be great for that.

They said I will be charged $15.00 for moneybeing transfered into my HSBC US account and $30.00 to transfer it out.. But I am going to look into that EX trade thing and see how that will work with my US account.

So thats that for now... thanks for your help
Kath

another thing you can do if your husband has family.  can they add his name to a utility bill?  then you can use that bill & his passport to open a UK bank account pronto.  once you get a bill in your own name, you can be joined to that account?

i transferred money ONCE from bank of america (US) to natwest (UK).  i was not impressed by the charges & length of time.  (sorry 3 years ago once, can't remember the charges).

i now use foreign currency exchange company, www.customhouse.com.  i set up an account with them and now I do a $ to £ exchange in 3 days or so.  there are lots of companies out there that do this.  def more geared up to doing international money transfer than your local bank.  i can't remember the charges at the moment.

is there any way to leave enough $ in your US bank account to pay for the mortgage/utilities? that would be ideal (duh). 

if you do need to do a monthly transfer of £ into $, it would be more efficient to transfer a lump sum every few months or so.  less charges.

and one bright note- the weaker & weaker the $ gets, the more your £ will be worth in $.

I would recommend shopping around for a bank when you get here. I never thought of doing this, but the woman at the first bank actually recommended that I do this. She was right, I got a better deal at another bank and I appreciated her honesty.

I don't know, Kath. Your option one sounds too easy...almost too good to be true! I can see how this could potentially cause problems once you get here. I agree with Meggles that you can use the ATM to withdraw money from your US account until you can get a bank account open. Can anyone comment if it's actually a benefit for her to open an HSBC account in the US prior to leaving? I guess I don't see how it would be, even if she ends up banking with HSBC in the UK. I have a Lloyds account her in the UK and my bank at home is a tiny credit union. It costs $40 to transfer money from the credit union to my UK account. I just pay bills in the US online. So, if you already have an account in the States that you like, I see no reason for you to transfer to another bank there.

Thanks all of you for your help. You cant pay for this kind of help and I really appreciate it.
After Bmore posted I began to think she was right.. so i dug a little deeper and this is what I came up with. I hope it helps someone down the line.

I called the international banking department of HSBC in Buffalo NY 716-841-0613 and talked to Ray, he said it is in fact just that easy to open an account here in US and then through the mail open one in the UK and it can be up and runing in 4-6 weeks. The reason why they ask for a address and bill in the Uk is because of the laws in the UK that dont apply to us here.

You do have to have an account already in the US to open one in another country. Once you have a US account, you can open a UK account with a US address here and do all the paperwork, they send it to the UK and send back everything in 4-6 weeks.

I shared with Ray that I had a mortage and other bills to pay in the US monthly for a while as well as a cild still in uni here who needs moms help and he said to transfer money on a regular account there will be a 25.00 outgoing and 15.00 incoming fee for a total of 40.00 per transaction. If i do this 2 times a month im out $80.00 which is goin to get expensive.

Ray then  mentioned a great new account called the Premier account and i laughed telling him im not rothchilds and dont live ina big castleand i have read on this account and I dont have 100 K to keep in as a balance. He said you need 100,000.00 to not be charged a fee but you can buy into this account with no minimum monthly balance for $50.00 per month which is just 10.00 more per month than the transfer fees. But You can make as many transfers as u need in one month. You have the ability to link both accounts for free and send money back and forth with no additional charges.

Its all here:http://www.banking.us.hsbc.com/premier/premiersummary.pdf

The great thing is the perks when you move: I copied some for you:

"Your dedicated Premier Relationship Manager will take care of all your banking needs abroad before you leave home. In particular, we will ensure that your credit history with HSBC follows you so you have access to credit facilities for loans and mortgages. Also, your HSBC Premier checking and savings accounts and your HSBC Premier MasterCard® Card will be established prior to your arrival - complete with checkbooks, debit cards and PIN numbers."

"The last thing you want to worry about when moving abroad is losing your established credit history. That’s why as an HSBC Premier client, we’ll ensure your HSBC credit history follows you wherever you move, so you can still access HSBC credit facilities. - Take advantage of free HSBC self-to-self international fund transfers via secure Internet access in more than 40 countries."

The $50.00 billed in US dollars, to save money, $25.00 gbp
www.us.hsbc.com

So thats what I got. They dont advertize that you can get into this account for $50.00 per month and for some it isnt good value for money but for us its a savings.

Hope it helps someone

Hugs
Kath