HSBC Global Money Account

[gt94sss2]

Zana wrote:

Has anyone had success moving non-GBP in an existing HSBC account into the UK Global Money Account?

I tried to move some AUD from my HSBC AU account into the UK Global Money account via “Global Transfers” and the only option is to get it converted to GBP first?

That is not possible yet but will be. From their FAQ:

In future you’ll be able to receive foreign currency into your account.

[Scottpat78]

I found a couple of Allpoint ATMs in the US where I was. Although HSBC surcharge free, they both were going to charge me $6.95 for withdrawing cash. I declined since I didn’t actually need any.

I did use the Global card in a supermarket just to test it, and it worked without issue.

Potentially has its issues for weekend spend or cash (when Curve would charge) but apart from that, not too valuable at this stage for me.

[Scottpat78]

Just withdrew some AUD$ in Sydney from an HSBC branch ATM.

I was charged AUD$5 for the transaction, which I didn’t think would happen at an HSBC ATM. It is advertised as fee free.

I needed the cash for the casino so went ahead and withdrew the money once prompted.

[Luca M]

Scottpat78 wrote:

Just withdrew some AUD$ in Sydney from an HSBC branch ATM.

I was charged AUD$5 for the transaction, which I didn’t think would happen at an HSBC ATM. It is advertised as fee free.

I needed the cash for the casino so went ahead and withdrew the money once prompted.

If it is advertised (where?) you are well positioned to ask HSBC UK to refund the fee.

I have had similar issue with some Santander ATM in Spain (not all) with my Santander Select Debit Card (should be Forex free and atm free when used at Santander ATM worldwide). It turned up to be a problem related to a recent Santander acquisition, where although they rebranded the branches /ATM’s, the actual systems were still running separately so it was not immediately recognised as a Santander’s ATM. a quick call to CS and the fee was refunded.

[Scottpat78]

From the FAQs:
I’ll try to chat to them this week to get clarification. Doesn’t seem it’s clear cut, May be my interpretation / assumption re using an HSBC ATM…

We won’t charge you for making payments or using your HSBC Global Money Account debit card to buy things or withdraw cash. However, some banks may charge to receive a payment.

[Chrisasaurus]

So, while it seems that you can easily and fairly cheaply transfer to a lot of locations – I’m seeing transfer times of 72 hours if I go to transfer to a Spanish account.

With Revolut it appears that the transfer is instant and certainly a test transaction was received within a couple of minutes.

Any experience in whether it’s truly that slow using the global money account?

[John]

Scottpat78 wrote:

From the FAQs:
I’ll try to chat to them this week to get clarification. Doesn’t seem it’s clear cut, May be my interpretation / assumption re using an HSBC ATM…

We won’t charge you for making payments or using your HSBC Global Money Account debit card to buy things or withdraw cash. However, some banks may charge to receive a payment.

Any response from HSBC? I think those ATMs are set up to charge all foreign cards $5

[sm]

Good morning. Was thinking of opening a global money Uk account. Can my relative living abroad transfer funds / pay in cash into my account? Or is it only money from your own account able to fund it? Thanks so much in advance.

[FearlessTraveller]

sm wrote:

Good morning. Was thinking of opening a global money Uk account. Can my relative living abroad transfer funds / pay in cash into my account? Or is it only money from your own account able to fund it? Thanks so much in advance.

For now, that feature isn’t available. You can only send money abroad. They said that in the future, they will enable the ability to recieve money onto the Global Money avcount

[Zacklee]

Did anyone hold 2 Global Money Account? I thought it can only be one?

I had UK Global money account for a few months, and today just open one on the Expat App.

[Zana]

Zacklee wrote:

Did anyone hold 2 Global Money Account? I thought it can only be one?

I had UK Global money account for a few months, and today just open one on the Expat App.

Not sure what the policy is re: opening one in multiple countries but I’ve had the HSBC Australia one for a few years and opened the UK one last year when it was launched with no issues. Both working for me.

(UK account offering slightly better exchange rates than AU account. Not sure why.)

[Zacklee]

Zana wrote:

Zacklee wrote:

Did anyone hold 2 Global Money Account? I thought it can only be one?

I had UK Global money account for a few months, and today just open one on the Expat App.

Not sure what the policy is re: opening one in multiple countries but I’ve had the HSBC Australia one for a few years and opened the UK one last year when it was launched with no issues. Both working for me.

(UK account offering slightly better exchange rates than AU account. Not sure why.)

Thanks for your reply Zana.
HSBC AU already have the Global Money Account for a few years? Wow, HSBC UK are really slow to catch up on this. I open the UK GMA on Dec 2022,and today I open GMA at Expat due to I can top up by currency accounts. I don’t have HCA (currency account) in the UK.

I did compare the rate for UK GMA and Expat, and can confirm that UK have a much better rate.

[SteveJ]

So if I need to accommodate USD inbound seems this account won’t (yet) do that?

Considered the expat HSBC account, but they charge for withdrawals to a non HSBC account, whereas Wise seems simpler. Am I missing a trick re the expat account? Really should bite the bullet and open HSBC Premier, that’d make it an easier choice.

[Froggee]

SteveJ wrote:

So if I need to accommodate USD inbound seems this account won’t (yet) do that?

Considered the expat HSBC account, but they charge for withdrawals to a non HSBC account, whereas Wise seems simpler. Am I missing a trick re the expat account? Really should bite the bullet and open HSBC Premier, that’d make it an easier choice.

HSBC will let you have a USD account free of charge. I was astonished that I was able to open one online given normally they want everything in triplicate presented at a branch along with both sets of my grandparents to vouch for my good character.

[Zacklee]

SteveJ wrote:

So if I need to accommodate USD inbound seems this account won’t (yet) do that?

Considered the expat HSBC account, but they charge for withdrawals to a non HSBC account, whereas Wise seems simpler. Am I missing a trick re the expat account? Really should bite the bullet and open HSBC Premier, that’d make it an easier choice.

With Hsbc Expat,you can hold different currencies. GBP/USD/EUR (HCA) etc, these accounts have inbound IBAN, you can exchange your USD at your Revolut, and transfer to these HCA, from there you can top up your Global money account without any fx exchange.

[SteveJ]

Thanks @Froggee and @Zacklee, inbound IBAN is definitely what I need, currently use Wise for that. Is there anything that either the expat or a standard USD HSBC account have that Wise doesn’t?

HSBC have £300 for opening an expat account right now, so the marketing has worked insofaras getting a happy Wise customer to even consider HSBC’s product.

[Froggee]

The HSBC USD account has a quaint clunkiness to it that will make you hark back to the days of dot matrix printers and dial up internet.

I opened it because I wanted a “permanent” USD account for the purpose of making USD investments into funds. The account number goes on application forms so makes life easier if I want my money back. Somehow using a fintech for that didn’t appeal. Global money is quite handy as I can now easily transfer $100 into it with zero fees every few months to keep it live.

If you’re happy using Wise then I wouldn’t be inclined to bother.

I’ve banked with HSBC since 2005. I switched to them as I was moving to Hong Kong and they made the move absolutely seamless. They are a bit clunky but have been brilliant with me. I had a Singapore account with them for a while which was handy when I owned a flat there and have had two UK mortgages with them also at decent rates.

So I’m actually quite loyal to them which I know is a strange concept nowadays. That’s on personal banking only. They were woeful on a business account.

[SteveJ]

Thanks @Froggee, I am thinking about moving my banking to Premier (about to take a hiatus from Amex Platinum, so if nothing else HSBCs travel insurance will come in handy), a nice switch bonus would shake me into action tbh!

Maybe at that stage their USD offerings will make more sense, til then I’ll stick with Wise.

[Zacklee]

SteveJ wrote:

Thanks @Froggee, I am thinking about moving my banking to Premier (about to take a hiatus from Amex Platinum, so if nothing else HSBCs travel insurance will come in handy), a nice switch bonus would shake me into action tbh!

Maybe at that stage their USD offerings will make more sense, til then I’ll stick with Wise.

Once you become their premier customer, there will no fees on transfer between your HSBC accounts in different countries. I have Expat, UK, and Hong Kong accounts, transfer money via their app is seamless.

[John]

HSBC Hong Kong comes with multiple currencies as standard, and now also with a debit card that lets you spend those currencies with 0.4% cashback and no forex fees.

The only issue is transferring currencies between your accounts has high fees/spread, even if there are no fees for same currency transfers with global view. I got banned from UK HSBC, so I need to sort out HSBC premier in Australia. I didn’t know Australia had the global money account so thanks for that info.

[Zacklee]

John wrote:

HSBC Hong Kong comes with multiple currencies as standard, and now also with a debit card that lets you spend those currencies with 0.4% cashback and no forex fees.

The only issue is transferring currencies between your accounts has high fees/spread, even if there are no fees for same currency transfers with global view. I got banned from UK HSBC, so I need to sort out HSBC premier in Australia. I didn’t know Australia had the global money account so thanks for that info.

Any reason why UK banned you?

[Luca M]

Just quickly read the last few messages but not sure this was really clarified (at least the terms used were not the correct one).

HSBC Global Money Account has great exchange rates but currently does not allow pay in different currency’s from third party accounts, but there is a workaround (a bit clunky to set up by very smooth once it is up and running):

You need to open specific currency account (separate from GM but the info are on similar pages on the UK website). The currency account is currency specific so for instance for EUR and USD you actually need to open two separate currency accounts. The account opening is virtually immediate but need to wait two days to start using it. Once it is operative you can receive payments into these account in the respective currency. Once in there you transfer the balance into the GMA relative currency pot and again once within the GMA you can exchange to GBP at the nice rate.

[RK228]

Luca M wrote:

Just quickly read the last few messages but not sure this was really clarified (at least the terms used were not the correct one).

HSBC Global Money Account has great exchange rates but currently does not allow pay in different currency’s from third party accounts, but there is a workaround (a bit clunky to set up by very smooth once it is up and running):

You need to open specific currency account (separate from GM but the info are on similar pages on the UK website). The currency account is currency specific so for instance for EUR and USD you actually need to open two separate currency accounts. The account opening is virtually immediate but need to wait two days to start using it. Once it is operative you can receive payments into these account in the respective currency. Once in there you transfer the balance into the GMA relative currency pot and again once within the GMA you can exchange to GBP at the nice rate.

This is interesting, thanks. The USD currency account would still count as a non-US account though, I presume, right? My US bank wants to charge a flat $40 fee for sending any money sent outside the US, it seems. Global Money Account has been great for converting currencies for travel and sending money to my US bank account, but not as great so far when sending money the other direction.

[ECJ]

RK228 wrote:

Luca M wrote:

Just quickly read the last few messages but not sure this was really clarified (at least the terms used were not the correct one).

HSBC Global Money Account has great exchange rates but currently does not allow pay in different currency’s from third party accounts, but there is a workaround (a bit clunky to set up by very smooth once it is up and running):

You need to open specific currency account (separate from GM but the info are on similar pages on the UK website). The currency account is currency specific so for instance for EUR and USD you actually need to open two separate currency accounts. The account opening is virtually immediate but need to wait two days to start using it. Once it is operative you can receive payments into these account in the respective currency. Once in there you transfer the balance into the GMA relative currency pot and again once within the GMA you can exchange to GBP at the nice rate.

This is interesting, thanks. The USD currency account would still count as a non-US account though, I presume, right? My US bank wants to charge a flat $40 fee for sending any money sent outside the US, it seems. Global Money Account has been great for converting currencies for travel and sending money to my US bank account, but not as great so far when sending money the other direction.

Hello, I recently switched to HSBC Prem from Lloyds Intl as their ex-UK offering was useless.

To answer your question, Yes if you hold a USD balance on your UK HSBC global money account, that’s still technically a UK account and people can’t pay into that, and it’s counted as a non-US account. I encountered the same issue with Lloyds (with also some bizarre complexity about the Isle of Man and also having no access to funds within the app which annoyed me even more). I’m not sure if there are different offerings with HSBC as I know there are several options (I have the US HSBC Premier Checking / UK equivalent & global money accounts on both sides).

I used Wise to have some real US account details in order for my US employer to pay me, before I moved from the UK the US (am an expat, moved from their UK office to their US office) and set up a US bank account. My US employer (who were not great at relocation, tbh) didn’t have any fees paying in USD to Wise, if that helps, which was an interim. I then used to convert what I needed to GBP within Wise and send to my Lloyds UK account. Now I have HSBC, I can see with Global View and transfer everything so seemlessly between the US and UK (or anywhere else I’m going) using the apps on my phone I rarely use anything else and it doesn’t seem to have any fees for anything at all (sending/receiving/converting). Hope that helps you. It is confusing/ a bit clunky like the other poster said, but eventually you get the hang of it, I did do it all myself – and I’m not remotely interested in Finance nor it is my field of work unlike a lot of people at HfP 🙂

[RK228]

ECJ wrote:

To answer your question, Yes if you hold a USD balance on your UK HSBC global money account, that’s still technically a UK account and people can’t pay into that, and it’s counted as a non-US account. I encountered the same issue with Lloyds (with also some bizarre complexity about the Isle of Man and also having no access to funds within the app which annoyed me even more). I’m not sure if there are different offerings with HSBC as I know there are several options (I have the US HSBC Premier Checking / UK equivalent & global money accounts on both sides).

I used Wise to have some real US account details in order for my US employer to pay me, before I moved from the UK the US (am an expat, moved from their UK office to their US office) and set up a US bank account. My US employer (who were not great at relocation, tbh) didn’t have any fees paying in USD to Wise, if that helps, which was an interim. I then used to convert what I needed to GBP within Wise and send to my Lloyds UK account. Now I have HSBC, I can see with Global View and transfer everything so seemlessly between the US and UK (or anywhere else I’m going) using the apps on my phone I rarely use anything else and it doesn’t seem to have any fees for anything at all (sending/receiving/converting). Hope that helps you. It is confusing/ a bit clunky like the other poster said, but eventually you get the hang of it, I did do it all myself – and I’m not remotely interested in Finance nor it is my field of work unlike a lot of people at HfP 🙂

Thanks for the response.

Yes, the best solution would certainly seem to be to open an HSBC US account to get global view, but I don’t think I meet the eligibility criteria for a US account with HSBC at this stage, which is a shame.

In the meantime, Wise is what I have used and it has been okay, although I don’t think it’s insured in the same way that your standard/traditional banks are in the US and UK, so I’m always concerned what would happen if Wise were to get into difficulty. I don’t keep any money in my Wise app/account; I use it strictly for transferring from my US bank to my UK account.