Guest Posted March 25, 2003 Report Share Posted March 25, 2003 Hi, I was wondering whether anyone had opened an account with HSBC bank in Thailand after October last year? I have just finished having a discussion with the HSBC International Banking team and they have informed me that the minimum balance is 500,000 Baht for a normal account, whereas prior to October last year the minimum balance was 30,000 Baht. I cannot understand how a bank can increase the min. balance by 16-17 times in one hit??? This has really pissed me off :cussing: as I would prefer to continue banking with HSBC as I have been the whole of my life, but, this is f'ing ridiculous and it does look like I will be moving to another foriegn owned bank in Thailand and possibly they may have the same regulations .. Anyway, if anyone can verify this min. balance then that would be great. Sanukboot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 26, 2003 Report Share Posted March 26, 2003 The missus was going too Bangkok today and I asked her to pay HSBC a visit and find out what their story is : Well, it is correct they have increased the min. balance to 500,000 Baht for a normal account. The reasoning behind this is because there costs are too high, therefore, they want to be much more selective with their clients. Interestingly to note they had move from their original offices in Sala Daeng (Silom Road) to their brand new spanking office building on Rama IV (?)........I guess business couldn't be that bad if the upgraded their environment..... Nonetheless, HSBC and Sanukboot will cut ties and I will move to another bank in Bangkok. The next question will be , which one. So for all you Bangkok bankers out there let me know which one you use and why you choose that bank. Thanks SB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 26, 2003 Report Share Posted March 26, 2003 Cant give a definitive answer on minimum balance, but ? About October last year they sent out some literature including a revised scales of charges ?to give you better banking value, more options, more efficiency and more reasons to bank with HSBC?. (Translation: we move our office from the highly convenient location in Silom Road to that highly inconvenient place on Rama IV and someone has to pay for the move and you have been selected for that honor.) The literature would win an Olympic gold for confusion and baffling presentation but it seems that they have two (maybe three) sorts of customers General Customers (poor people like me) and Premier Customers (people with a minimum balance of Baht 3MM or $70K ? who get a different, reduced scale of charges, and some charges waived). They also seem to have another class of customers called AssetVantage but no information anywhere in the literature about who these are. Poor people (aka General Customers) can open Baht current accounts, time deposit accounts, savings accounts and foreign currency accounts (range of foreign currencies ? and presumably in the same variants as the Baht accounts). The only reference to what might be a minimum balance for opening an account is under ?Deposit Accounts? where they state that for ?Thai Baht Accounts? the ?Initial deposit and average balance requirement ? for Baht accounts is 100,000 (and for Foreign Currency Accounts is $15,000). The only reference to 500,000 relates to a Monthly Service Fee, Nil if the minimum average balance is 500,000+, 300 per month for 100,000 to 500,000, and 500 per month for less than 100,000. (There is also a Non Resident Account Service Fee for non residents customers maintaining a Thai baht Account of 500 per month.) The only thing I can suggest to help you is for you to ask them for a copy of their Tariff Guide Book (?An easy guide to general bank tariffs for personal customers effective 01 October 2002?) point them at page 6 and ask what ?Initial Deposit ? 100,000? means. To me an Initial Deposit is the amount required to open an account, but then again what do I know. Careful with a deposit account though. I have a US$ savings account and with one of them you do not get a passbook, ATM card or a credit card (none of which bothers me) but just make sure what the account you try to open gets you in the way of ATM cards etc to make sure it fits your needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 26, 2003 Report Share Posted March 26, 2003 Why bother with this crap?? Go offshore as was posted here before. Sorry, but there are lots of choices. Not pissing on you dude. http://www.loyalbank.com/eng/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 26, 2003 Report Share Posted March 26, 2003 Banks everywhere pretty much suck, but they particularly suck here IMHO. Some of this has regulatory reasons, some has to do with a long history of being in a protectionist environment where "customer service" was an unknown concept, some has to do with how many local banks were really set up as financing arms of big family conglomerates, and some has to do with basic bank economics. Your issue with HSBC falls into the latter category. The fact is that often the top 10-20% of accounts make up MORE than 100% of the profits; that is, banks lose money by serving poor slobs like us. That makes especially foreign banks concentrate on high net worth accounts; hence hefty fees for small fry. I have an account at TFB that I need simply because some people who pay me money on occassion have accounts there and it's simpler for them to pay me there (and I always try to make it simple for people to give me money!). I also opened an account with Bank of Asia (ABN Amro) that I'm reasonably satisfied with. I don't know what the minimums and such are, but I don't pay any fees (though I must admit I've got a hefty sum in that account), it automatically rolls my current account balance into an interest bearing money market account, and automatically transfers the other way when I write a cheque, and they have a branch in Central Chitlom that's open on Saturdays. All in all, fairly convenient. But I wouldn't try to ask them for any special services, their people are pretty dim; the Chitlom branch manager was unaware that their bank was owned by ABN Amro! But for routine transactions, it's reasonably competent. Good luck, Scuba Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 26, 2003 Report Share Posted March 26, 2003 > Why bother with this crap?? Unfortunately when you live and work here you sometimes have to deal with various amounts of crap. Having a bank account where you can deposit local cheques and also write local cheques for payment (e.g. rent) is one such piece of crap that you're sort of forced into. I'm not aware that you can do this with an offshore account - can you? Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soongmak Posted March 26, 2003 Report Share Posted March 26, 2003 I still have a savings account at bank of asia, and no minimum balance was required back then ( october 2000). I was not able to open a checkings account at the time, because I was here on a tourist visa. The fact that this bank is owned by dutch Abn Amro gave me a (false?) sense of security. Current balance: 300 baht! Cheers, soongmak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 27, 2003 Report Share Posted March 27, 2003 The min. balance I was talking about was not the initial deposit , but, the average monthly sum. I am not going to be forced to keep half a million in the bank earning .75% interest or a little bit more in time deposit (locked in)...... Anyway, seems Bank of Asia maybe an option ..... Anyway had experience with Bangkok Bank? Sanukboot. PS I don't want an offshore account as that would make it too difficult for my work in Bangkok to pay my monthly salary. Unless your going to tell me otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lopburi3 Posted March 27, 2003 Report Share Posted March 27, 2003 Wife has used Bangkok Bank for 30 years and jointly we have used it for the last ten. No problems during that time. Wife used TFB for a brief period but was not happy with their service or attitude. Also use SCB for a deposit account for grandchild and find their attitude also sucks (perhaps just the three or four branches I have used but suspect it is a general trait). I do find BBL lines are often long but they seem to be trying to get people to use machines and have them available at most places. Also their atms have accepted my Plus and Cirrus cards when other atm were flaky a few years back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 27, 2003 Report Share Posted March 27, 2003 Sorry SanukBoot I misunderstood the problem. My reading of the literature is that a minimum average balance of 500,000 must be maintained to avoid a monthly service fee ? less, then the scale charge I noted above applies. It seems that they are now saying that if the balance falls below 500,000 then they close the account. That?s serious kick ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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