[Clay]

Ok thanks for the help bud. Much appreciated. I just got off the phone with my father and he's going to wire the money for me tomorow, and I'll mail him a check, so I'm all set!

[ucdaggie03]

Clay,

I was in the same situation a week ago. I did my wire over the phone and they let me as I explained to them my situation (that i'm not in the states) as long as I had my ATM card number, SS # or my account #. The max for a wire over the phone is, however, only $5,000 US.

HSBC will honor american checks (again, I was in the same predicament), but only at certain branches but the $$ would take a month for it to come back around for you to use.

Hope this helps and good luck on Tuesday.

[Clay]

EDIT: got your pm, thanks.

ucdaggie03: You wired money from a Washington Mutual account to a HSBC account via phone? I just got off the phone with WaMu about 2 hours ago and I spoke with both a normal CS rep and his supervisor, both of which told me they could not wire my money unless I physically walked in to a WaMu branch.

If you were able to do this successfully would you be able to tell me the phone # you called and what you said to them to get them to do it? This would make my life a lot easier! Also, how long did the transfer take to clear into your account? I have added you to AIM and MSN but I guess you're not online anymore.

[wing]

Try Citibank. I think you can do it online if you establish an online account with them.

Brokage house e.g. ML, Schwab, etc are usually cheaper than banks. You can either do it online or call up (800/888) to get it wired.

It usually takes only 24 hours. Make sure that you don't do it on Friday or Saturday in the States because HK is a day ahead of US.

In addition, if you have a Citibank ATM card, you can withdraw money in HK without paying fees. It may be easier to use the ATM card to withdraw HK dollars and pay the deposit for the apartment rental.

[emperorau]

Actually,
you can write a written authorization to send to the branch you bank with to get them to send the money to the account in HK. I did that with HSBC Canada. I just send them a written authorization to transfer the money into my HSBC account in HK.

But I don't know if it is because they are the same company that they are willing do that or not.

Anyway, you can ask your bank if they accept written authorization for you to get them to do something for you. For sure, they don't accept faxes.
Do you have internet banking? You can see if you can set up a transfer from internet banking?

Anyway, I can say if you have HSBC in your home city, you should plan to open an account with them when you go back to America.

I think internet banking in Canada and US are ver slow in technology even from the same banks.
HSBC in HK internet banking is superior to HSBC Canada. Go figure that out.

Oh well.

[PDLM]

Some banks will accept faxes. I had that arrangement with my UK bank for many years and it was particularly useful before the days of internet banking.

It did of course require me to sign an indemnity form at my UK branch which basically said that if they had a fax that appeared to come from me then they could act on it at my liability. But for any significant transactions they called me on the overseas number they had for me in order to verify my instructions. There was no charge for this service - thanks NatWest.

[emperorau]

Are there such list as top 100 banks? Or something like that. That would be good to find out.

Which banks accept written authorization or instructions through telephone, or faxes, etc... This will be good so these banks may get themselves to better their services as well.

Unless, you have a lot of money to wire then withdraw money by using ATM is good enough. Some banks will waive the service fees if you branch with the same bank overseas though.
It is just the exchange rate changes though. Each day the exchange rate can be different.