[saltwater]

Originally Posted by mrcheese321

PDLM,
Banks make money off of investing the money that you deposit with them. They make so much in fact that it isn't necessary for them to charge their depositors to see someone inside of the company that they are "loaning" money to.

By 'investing' I hope you mean they segregate it all and make sure there's always enough cash on hand to meet capital adequacy laws? The cash they are permitted to 'invest' (which is a small fraction of the overall deposits they have on hand) is very limited to what it can go towards - ie only bonds are allowed. They are NOT allowed to invest it in things like shares, property or anything else that involves significant risk.

The amount of deposits they have determines how much they're allowed to lend... but remember the cash the banks lend is in fact "the banks" money, not their customers.

[BenderBends]

Originally Posted by PDLM

1 through 3 : the fundamental problem is that cheques are an obsolete technology in Hong Kong. Paying by cheques here is like going into a US bank and insisting that they convert dollar bills into the underlying "real money" (i.e. gold) that they represent. It can probably be done, but it ain't going to be easy.

again...i was just suggesting that i be able to write my own check from a HK bank payable to myself and mail to the USA to avoid fees. In USA i only use checks as reference of address.

Originally Posted by PDLM

4. Simply not true - I set up online payments of all sorts free of charge on a regular basis. All you have to do manually, once, is set the limits on what you will wish to transfer by each means (this is there as a security check / fraud limitation device).

well, i am just going off of what Bank of china and HSBC told me today when i visited them. If this is true, then i have no grudge. Do you know if they will mail a bill pay to USA? or only in HK?

Originally Posted by PDLM

5. I have never paid anything for teller service in my 6 years in Hong Kong. But this is because the bank has a significant amount of my business. They aren't a charity - how would you like them to make enough money from you to support their business?

Not sure why people keep referring to banks as charity....i never once said they were. i am simply used to not having to pay for these services, so its a bit of a shock to all of a sudden have to pay a ton of fees...even if they are miniscule.

obviously this isnt the end of the world, and i will just have to adjust my financial process

Originally Posted by mrcheese321

3) to Avoid all fees, I simply go to the AMEX office here and do a payment for the exact same amount as my transfer. They charge $20HK for doing this.

is this a HK based AMEX or a foreign based AMEX? cause i could do that easily.

also...just a note about Credit cards and auto pay....
the first time i went to a Sunday shop to setup my cell phone service they were able to setup auto pay for my usa based citibank visa card. i didnt have my HKID at the time...so they had to put the account in my friends name.

i went to change my name and add the 2 numbers one sim card function for china...and they ask to see my credit card again...and now they say it is impossible to use foreign visa cards as auto pay...


anyone know which answer is right?

[p800hkg]

Originally Posted by mattstewart

most of the banks do not accept US checks for deposit. The ones that do charge a fee for deposit called "handeling fee".
wtf are they handling? ive worked in a bank before...and trust me...there aint nothin to handle...

The local banks have to mail the US checks back to where they were issued, wait for 3 weeks for them to be cleared. They then hold the fund for another week to make sure everything is alright before they release it to you. The handling fee should be around HKD60 (?). You can access the money at least one month after you deposit a foreign check (or money order). However, they reserve the right to get the money back if the issuing bank discovers any fraud. This is what some tellers told me. If this is true, I think it's reasonable for them to charge a handling fee.

[mrcheese321]

I use an American AMEX Card to do my transfers.

That is how I'm moving money back to the States as well.

I'm overpaying my two AMEX cards, then doing a no fee BT to my Citi Card. Then Citi is writing sending me a check for the over amount. That way I get bank rate with only the 20HK fee to pay my AMEX card

[penguinsix]

Wow, really had pretty much none of the experiences you had with my HK bank. Who are you using?

[sll]

Citibank has offshore accounts that may solve some of your problems

[BenderBends]

Originally Posted by penguinsix

Wow, really had pretty much none of the experiences you had with my HK bank. Who are you using?

are you asking me? i dont have a bank account here yet...trying to find the least lethal one...

i spoke with hsbc and bank of china


hsbc had told me the fee for depositing a US based check (even govt backed ones) was 200HKD and would not be available for 1 month.

bank of china said they would charge 100 HKD

they both said there was an online fee for transfers as well of 100 HKD, and an online account fee of 100 per month.

[PDLM]

Surely the answer is not to find a bank that's still in the dark ages - you should insist to be paid by more modern methods than cheques...

[tx75070]

Openned an HSBC account today. Totally different than what I am used to in the states.

1. Starting in Jan. I will receive my pay in HK, but will still have bills to pay in the US. I read in this thread that HSBC allows international transfers over the interenet for $100HKD. So I am thinking....OK, no problem. When I asked the guy at HSBC about this today he told me that I need to have the account open for 6 months before I can transfer money out of the country. He told me it is HK law. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He assured me for about 10 minutes that there is no way around this. So basically I have to leave enough money in my US bank account to cover the bills for 6 months. I was orginally planning on transferring money over as necessary.

So then I ask, "what if I want to transfer money to my HSBC account from my account in the US?" Of course he says "NO PROBLEM!" So then I said to him "You are basically telling me I can bring my money in, but I can't bring my money out for 6 months." He said "that's exactly right" WOW!!, what a piece of work. I guess the other solution is to mail a stack of cash.

2. Then I was told I will need to have $100,000HKD in the account in order to avoid service fees. I will once I make the tranfer from the US, but I was still appalled that they charge people for handling their money in their bank.

[KnowItAll]

>> He told me it is HK law.

Contact these folks: http://www.info.gov.hk/hkma/eng/contact/index.htm

I am not aware of any local laws. There might be some issues with US laws in terms of "know your customer" or a money laundering issue.