Your introduction to Zing, HSBC’s new multi-currency and FX payments app

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• Cymro says:

  19 Aug19 August 11:43

  Do any of these workin reverse? Trnaferring to an account at a decent rate. I’m selling a place in Italy in a month or so for a couple of hundred thousand Euros and working out what account, with IBAN, to send the Euros to, for immediate or later currency conversion, is surprisingly difficult.

  • ChrisBCN says:

    19 Aug19 August 13:13

    Download both Zing and Wise, then you can plug in the amount you want to transfer and it tells you how much you will receive.

    • ChrisBCN says:

      19 Aug19 August 13:16

      This assumes you have an Italian (or other euro) bank account and a UK bank accouny

      • Cymro says:

        19 Aug19 August 13:29

        This will be a payment from the purchaser into ‘my’ account.

        • ChrisBCN says:

          19 Aug19 August 15:10

          Ask the purchaser to send it to your Italian bank account, if you have one. You then transfer from there

  • PIL says:

    19 Aug19 August 14:16

    You can get an HSBC currency account and store the Euros there until you decide what to do next

  • Londonsteve says:

    19 Aug19 August 23:16

    I don’t think these Wise or Revolut type products are suitable for the sort of sums involved in the sale of a property. They all have limits due to money laundering restrictions and people seldom have very large balances as they’re not banks; they’re designed for daily spend and sending modest sums of money. In any case, even the low exchange fees charged will translate to a very large total fee if you’re sending a couple of hundred thousand Euros. You’re far better off having the purchaser send the purchase price to an Italian bank where you can liaise with a local branch to overcome any potential money laundering concerns, e.g. by supplying the sale deeds as evidence, then negotiating a bespoke rate with a currency broker that specialises in converting larger sums via whom you should get a much better exchange than Wise, Revolut or Zing can provide.

    • Cymro says:

      20 Aug20 August 15:57

      I would do but BNL closed our Italian bank account two years ago on the basis that we shouldn’t, after 20 years with them, be allowed to have one. I’d like to find a Euro account just to hold the money and then I can shop around / wait for a good rate and get the conversion done.

  • HW99 says:

    20 Aug20 August 12:04

    Best option would be to do as PIL says, have the buyer transfer the funds in to euro account in your name. (UK or Italian based doesn’t really matter as long as it can hold Euro’s)

    Then you hold all the cards as to when and how you want to exchange into GBP.

• Stuart says:

  19 Aug19 August 12:08

  I’ve been using Wise for many years. The customer sevice has been surprisngly good and I can send and receive SWIFT payments which the HSBC app doesn’t appear to allow. I have a physical card which allows me TWO free ATM withdrawals per month and their currency rates appear highly competitive.

• MJ says:

  19 Aug19 August 12:41

  Aside from a US bank account (which I can’t get as I’m based in the UK), are there any products available that I can pay US$ into and then spend the $ as if it were in a US bank account?

  I have a Barclays Bank account in which I can hold $, but I can only get the $ out as cash, which is hardly practicable.

  I get US stock as part of my pay, and I’m fed up getting hit twice on the currency conversion when I go on holiday to the US.

  • The Original David says:

    19 Aug19 August 12:56

    Doesn’t Revolut work for that?

  • DJ says:

    19 Aug19 August 13:36

    HSBC USD Currency Account. You can pay $ in cash via any HSBC counter service branch.

    Then you can transfer dollar into your Global Money account and spend it via its Visa card.

  • TM says:

    19 Aug19 August 16:40

    Wise used to give US based USD accounts, but not sure if they do anymore.

    If you’re HSBC UK Premier then you can open (for free) a HSBC US Premier account. It’s a fully functional USD and US based bank account.

  • a says:

    19 Aug19 August 17:18

    Next time you are in the US walk into a bank of america with your passport and another form of ID, and open an account as a non-resident…. you do not need an SSN or ITN, you just need a US address that can receive the card (do you have an office or friend?), a current overseas address, and to fill in a W8-BEN, which makes the account non-interest bearing. It will be a normal account aside from that.
    My original account that I opened this way is actually still non-interest bearing, as for some reason it got missed off when I converted all my others when I got an SSN.

    • MJ says:

      20 Aug20 August 10:59

      Thanks – that’s really helpful advice.

• Kevin says:

  19 Aug19 August 13:11

  After reading this likely to be sticking with Wise mainly as it handles my monthly USD transfers, allows withdrawals from ATMs, spend cash in local currency all the usual stuff and then I tried something last month which worked which surprised me and thats a Euro based direct debit to a Euro bank account within Wise.

  I subscribe to a UK company for a service in France to pay for road toll charges. The UK company is expensive compared to the French tariff but to get the French rate you need an account which accepts the French debit debit. I tried using HSBC IBAN and simply rejected it. Tried Wise as when you hold a local currency with Wise, in this case Euro’s you also get a Euro bank account sort code/acc number. Used this for the French debit and it worked and was able to subscribe to the French tariff as a UK customer. Surprised it work but have my French supplied toll tag to prove it!

  • Londonsteve says:

    19 Aug19 August 23:21

    I suspect this worked because Wise is based in Belgium and can therefore supply kosher EU-based accounts with full Euro identifiers. The HSBC account you referred to might be a Euro denominated account at HSBC UK which, based on the identifier, the system immediately recognises is a non-EU account.

• TT says:

  19 Aug19 August 14:51

  I have been using Revolut for years for regular transfers from UK account to a French account. The transfers were always below the max £1000 monthly amount. Until suddenly the French bank started charging €15 bank fees. Revolut told me these are fees charged by third party intermediary banks they use to transfer the money and Revolut has no control over. So out of nowhere my „free“ transfers with Revolut cost me €15 every time. It became a total Lottery to use Revolut. So I stopped using Revolut and use Wise now.

• Jody says:

  19 Aug19 August 15:55

  I need something that will work the other way?

  Son is currently working at a camp in USA. He has managed to open a Chase account in the USA, but it is a very basic one, and he apparently can’t use it to transfer money back home to his UK account (I did get him to ask that specific question and that is what they said).

  Does anyone happen to know if he can use Wise that has been mentioned on here, or XE to send his money back home? Even with some fees, he is going to get a much better rate than if he withdraws it in $ before leaving, and brings the cash home to change (not to mention the danger of carrying all that cash around).

  Currently trying to help him out with the logistics of this, as he has barely any signal at camp, so only very limited chances to try and work it out.

  • ChrisD says:

    19 Aug19 August 16:20

    Yes Wise or Revolut will work for this if his US bank does an ACH transfer to the local (US) account details provided by Wise or Revolut. I use this all the time for transfering US share proceeds.

  • ChrisBCN says:

    19 Aug19 August 16:25

    It’s very easy to do in Wise, just go to Send, choose the UK account, change the send currency to USD, then choose how you want to get the money from the US account into wise (it will show you different prices to send from a connected account or a wire transfer – also debit card or Google pay, but they will cost more).

    • Jody says:

      19 Aug19 August 16:53

      Fab, thank to you both for your replies. Will take a look into Wise (no revolut account)

• Will says:

  19 Aug19 August 16:22

  @illuminatus Sadly can’t get the Barclays avios from curve as I have Hilton card. Can I link to another family member’s Barclays avios card?

• Mikeact says:

  19 Aug19 August 17:20

  Would be happy to receive an invitation, but best way ?

  • ChrisBCN says:

    19 Aug19 August 20:31

    I think it’s OK for me to leave an invitation here –

    You’re invited to join Zing – the worry-free international money app – and get £20. Eligible for 18+ UK Residents only. T&Cs apply. https://zing.me/referrals?referralCode=Yjk3Njk0MTUtOTNiYS0zMmY3LTgyZTktYTc5MDRmMjUxY2U0

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