Dollar bank account - costs to/from USA?

In message , snipped-for-privacy@isbd.co.uk writes

It should be free (or subject only to the charges for processing a cheque without any currency exchange or transmission costs at all.)

Your US Dollar Account with HSBC isnt actually in UK at all, its in the USA (which it has to be if it is denominated in US dollars). They admin is done in UK and the statements are printed here so it looks as though it is in UK (which is what it is supposed to do)

So it's quite unlike a Euro account then?

You are saying that if I open a USD account it's basically like any US citizen's account in the US and I can receive payments by cheque and make them much as they would (with similar charges of, hopefully, less than a dollar per transaction).

A Euro account opened at HSBC (or anywhere similar) is not like this at all (as I understand things at the moment).

x-posted to uk.consultants

Does anybody have an HSBC US$ account (or other banks) who would like to share their experiences.

For my small Ltd company which receives cheques (checks) from the US every month, I have been using Ruesch International in London who charge £5 and pay in about 10 days for >1K, immediately for

In message , JIm writes

Why don't you just pay the US$ cheque into your Pound Sterling account?

Stephen

In message , snipped-for-privacy@isbd.co.uk writes

I am not up to date on the current charges, but you certainly wont incur the transmission and exchange costs. I would expect a charge for sending the cheque back to the states, thats all.

Perhaps you can explain further. In my day the Euro didnt exist!

Some people have said that Citibank is the best for that. I've never used them myself, so I can't comment.

Simple. Undefined processing time - normally ~ 6 weeks. Undefined charges - Ruesch = £5. Also Reusch can tell me next day how much the UKP amopunt is - even if it takes 2 weeks to get it. Jim

If one opens a Euro account at a UK bank and then sends a cheque drawn on that account to someone in Europe where Euros are the local currency you will still incur the £10 to £20 charge for an international transfer.

I was wondering if this is true for a dollar account vis-a-vis the USA.

In message , snipped-for-privacy@isbd.co.uk writes

Ahh I understand. AIUI the Euro has its own idiosyncrasies which you would expect for a currency that is domiciled in a number of countries.

AIUI the features you describe that relate to Euros wont apply to other currencies.,

There are two issues at play here, the currency doesnt determine where the account is domiciled. you could have a HSBC Bank plc (the UK bank) USD account (or equally one in EUR) or you could have a HSBC Bank USA NA (the US bank) USD account (or equally a CCF SA EUR account). which could all be opened by HSBC in the UK depending on how and where you trade.

in each case if you were paying a cheque into an account in the UK (whether it be denominated in GBP, EUR or USD) the cheque will be dealt with in the same way, it could be negociated or sent for collection which is the process which can take stupid legths of time.

however if the account into which the item is paid is within the 'domestic' clearing system that it originates from it will be dealt with in the same way as if you were a domestic person/business.

worth noting that collection (at least by HSBC where i work) is often not as painful as it has been in the past, eg rather than posting a cheque drawn on (eg) Wells Fargo to them for them to deal with at some stage, and get round to returning the payment to us, we simply deliver it to HSBC USA who process it through the domestic clearing system, and of course then we can deal with the funds much faster internally once received in the US.

Ian

...in each case if you were paying a cheque into an account in the UK...

In message , snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com writes

Yes it does.

For a US$ account you would operate it in UK, but in reality HSBC just 'tart up' the transactions to make it look that way. In fact, all your transactions are performed on HSBC UK's account with HSBC USA,

where the account is domiciled is a different issue to how transactions are processed.

a non clearing bank operates in a similar way. if you want to say that your account with Building Society A is just an account with Clearing Bank B then the above would be true, the transactions are completed by the clearing member rather than the BS, however that doesnt mean that the building society doesnt operate with its own balance sheet and hold its own assets. you will find USD assets and liabilities on HSBC Bank plc's balance sheet for example.

so whilst the transactions are completed on HSBC USA's account, the proceedes are offset across the group, and the assets for the account are held by Bank plc

however you could have your own HSBC Bank USA account which would be a vastly different account.

Ian