Today's weather: High = 9 Low = 4
Partly cloudy
A successful resolution to the mainland money debacle that had been dogging me for the past few weeks. No wonder Hong Kong is known as a money town if the main purpose of a trip there is related to money.
While pounding my head in frustration at the mainland banks earlier, I had resolved to throw the towel in with HSBC on the mainland and shut down the account.
The sucker punch account I have now on the mainland is setting me back 150 RMB per month on below-balance charges, since I don't have a minimum balance of 100,000 RMB. Actually that HSBC mainland account is known as an "advance account" for multi currency options. And it doesn't even offer Thai Baht, which is a key currency I want to deal in. Will be expanding more on eventually with this blog, if I ever get around to it -- been so behind on posts lately.
Mainland China offers slim pickings when it comes to multi currency bank accounts, but that should hardly come as a surprise. If not the advance, there is the "premier" which requires a balance of a half-million RMB or else 300 RMB monthly below balance charge. Citibank, their main competitor, is hardly any better while offering similar accounts and below balance charges.
Meanwhile, it was an interesting discovery in Hong Kong to find out about a SmartVantage HSBC multi currency account which requires 10,000 HK dollars or else a 60 HKD below balance fee. It offers the same services and benefits as the advance account, without the higher fees. This kind of account is simply unavailable with HSBC on the mainland.
This all seems to indicate that mainland Chinese people who deal in foreign currencies must be filthy rich. Yet it can't be possible that all banks cater to these high-end customers. Rumor has it that ICBC (Industrial Commerical Bank of China) offers multicurrency accounts at good rates, and will bring a Chinese friend along to make inquiries.
As for the HSBC account on the mainland, it's time to shut this baby down.
No comments:
Post a Comment