[nina_70]

Originally Posted by Sleuth

It took us about a month to get that. And, at one point in time, they told us we were rejected.

A mere month to get a credit card...that's decidedly speedy by HK standards ! My expectation window is 4 months for this next one. Who knows, we might get lucky...

[Sleuth]

We applied around Christmas, maybe it was a gift.

[discobay]

I once placed a large time deposit with DBS and they gave me a Treasures account. When I moved the TD to another bank my balance became (near) zero so the bank charged a monthly fee. I suggested that maybe I should close it and they came back with "oh don't worry we'll refund the charges" and they did. Strange.

[cendrillon]

HSBC hassled me a bit in the beginning to. They wanted a letter stating I was employed, I gave them my offer letter which they accepted, then no news for a month. When I called to ask they said they didn't know why and asked me to reapply all over again.

I called around, turns out they didn't like my letter being an 'offer letter' and not an actual statement saying I was employed (like I would move to hong kong to be unemployed .

So I got a new letter, and repeated the process because the letter said I was on a 'continuing' contract not a 'permanent' contract

The girl in the bank seemed to get a bit confused when I said it was a permanent position. Anyway, the whole thing went through in the end, a real hassle it was though. I only went through the trouble to get a free ipod + PSP (I ended up getting a DVD recorder in a lucky prize too). At the end of the day on an hourly rate given the amount of time I spent stuffing around it probably wasn't worth the effort

Go to another bank, HSBC are expensive anyway

[mfc]

Originally Posted by cendrillon

Go to another bank, HSBC are expensive anyway

Any recommendations?

[Sleuth]

Citibank worked for us. It took a month, but we have the credit card.
Had to buy a bunch of stuff for the apartment already, so HSBC has lost tens of thousands worth of transaction fees. (Just in case any HSBC guy is reading this: Ridiculous that your bank will lend to anyone who can fill in a form in the USA, but someone on the standard expat package can't get a credit card.)

[PaulSEA1]

I am a U.S. resident with excellent U.S. credit but spend a bit less than half my time in HK. I thought I'd try to open an HK$ CC account to save on the foreign transaction fees in HK. With all the HSBC adverts about "credit portability" and "world's local bank" I thought I'd give them a try. It turns out their ads are total bunk unless you want to plop down US$100,000 in a low interest account and become a "premier" customer. They say they'll bend over for you if you do that. They'd better! The fees I'd save by using an HK CC would be far outweighed by the losses on the low interest investment. Now I just pay cash for most of my transactions in HK but I'm totally put off on HSBC.

I've inquired at the other banks in town and they will also not do CC's without a deposit on the order of 50,000HK. !@#$ them all.

[PDLM]

Originally Posted by PaulSEA1

It turns out their ads are total bunk unless you want to plop down US$100,000 in a low interest account and become a "premier" customer.

I think you misunderstood them - you need a "Total Relationship Balance" of HK$1M to maintain Premier free of charge in HK. But the $1M can be in an investment available to you through HSBC. Which would include, stock, funds, bonds, gold, time deposits, or whatever you want.

[freeier]

but it does make sense, since u are not residence here, no stake in HK,and if you run they have no way of tracking you back.

the better way would be to negotiate a better deposit rate. or maybe even ask them to hold a US treasury for you or something (i think pdlm mentioned they do sell bonds), i.e. buy thru their nominee account.

[Monde]

Well I am on my third application I still just use my Card from home and transfer money back.