Korean Job Discussion Forums

[le-paul]

Has anyone used HSBC banking in korea? I was thinking of returning home in afew weeks and since its an international bank (and they have branches in my home town), it may be easier to access funds from a korean account.
Any thoughts expereince?

Thanks

[Malislamusrex]

Use KEB, forget about HSBC Korea. I could write a long post about it but all you need to know is;

Use KEB, forget about HSBC Korea.

[le-paul]

i already have a keb account. Its actually been pretty good and i haven't really had any problems with it.
Is HSBC that bad? I was thinking about using it to deposit funds back home.

anyway, cheers

i just checked, they have a branch back home. So would I be able to use it?

[Lucas]

use KEB and set up an international remit account.

That is then linked to your home account - you'll need to take your home bank account number/sort code/SWIFT code/passport/ARC card. + have the address of your home bank branch

You then transfer money from your normal bank account into the KEB one.

That then bounces it on to your UK account - takes 3-4 days to clear.

You can transfer up to $50,000 per calendar year starting jan 1st - jan 1st following year

You can only transfer up to $10,000 per transaction.

There is a small charge w10-25,000 depending upon how much you transfer + an international 'middle man' bank sometimes take around 5-10 pounds too.....

[Lucas]

Also if you don't already have one - set up a credit card whilst you are home in the UK with internet banking.

This will help build your credit rating for if (when) you come to apply for a mortgage in the UK....

[Malislamusrex]

You can but you will pay more for a transfer from HSBC Korea to HSBC UK or any other country. HSBC Korea is not included in the global transfer program, but KEB is pretty specialized with global transfers.

In addition the HSBC accounts in Korea are premier accounts that charge 15k a month.

I sat down with an adviser from the branch of HSBC in my city, after 20 mins adding up all the costs for a transfer I asked her 'are you serious', and then asked why there are no benefits of having a HSBC account in South Korea and another country. She said, HSBC in Korea is separate to the HSBCs in other countries (I don't know why) so there is an additional fee. There isn't with KEB.

[le-paul]

cheers malis (cant spell the rest). Maybe Ill give the hsbc a miss then, I hadnt realised they wernt very good for global transfers.

Lucas, you seem very up to speed with all this. Ill try for the international remit account, thanks

[big_fella1]

HSBC styles itself as the world's local bank. In Korea they were a very local bank.

Part of the problem was as a foreign bank, they were unable to offer many services in their own right like credit cards, international debit cards and other services. The reason KEB is cheaper than HSBC for international transfers was KEB actually performed the transfers for HSBC.

All of this is academic, as HSBC announced to its customers today (July 8th) that they are exiting the Korean market. As of today they will not accept any new account or loan applications.

Try Shinhan, KEB, KB, Woori, or Standard Chartered I've found the best bank depends on the staff in the local branch.

[jjajangmyun]

[jvalmer]

[big_fella1]

I think HSBC dogded a huge bullet not buying KEB, and have made the right decision regarding leaving Korea.

Korean households owed their banks w959 trillion at the end of 2012. Source: [ http://www.bok.or.kr/contents/total/eng/boardView.action?boardBean.brdid=12085&boardBean.rnum=1&menuNaviId=724&boardBean.menuid=724&boardBean.cPage=1&boardBean.categorycd=0&boardBean.sdt=&boardBean.edt=&boardBean.searchColumn=&boardBean.searchValue= , p.25]

There is a saying if you owe the bank $50,000 and you don't have it, you have a problem. If you owe the bank $500 million and you don't have it, they have a problem.

Korean banks have a huge problem.

Now the best thing that can happen is that debt can stop increasing, as it still is albeit at a slower rate than before.
Source: http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2013/05/15/0503000000AEN20130515003300320.HTML

Then Koreans can actually start paying down their household debt. I use Koreans here as thanks to highly xenophobic banking practices, getting any form of debt as a foreigner is incredibly difficult. Not a bad thing, unless you would like to house your family and you don't have rich parents on either side of the family.

Hopefully housing prices will just stagnate, rather than go into freefall, although the giant Ponzi scheme, Jonsei makes this very difficult to achieve. If a deal seems to be too good, it probably is. I give you money, I live in the house rent free for 2 years, and you give me the money back. It sounds fantastic, and worked when there was a growing number of people looking for housing and prices were rising, but with less people looking and housing prices at least stagnating, it begins to look less impressive.

I really want to be wrong with my negative view on the Korean economy, because should all of this happen, I will have to support my entire Korean family, including in-laws and my wife's brother and family.

I am scared but also optimistic, as Korea has many times proved that doing their own thing, even in the face of advice from outside experts, has worked out okay.

Should anyone from HSBC be reading and you would like to sell a branch network and loan book cheap please PM me.

[jvalmer]

[big_fella1]

[Juregen]

[Otherside]