Which of the following provide the worst service?
HSBC
Citibank
Local Bank
My Mattress!
HSBC seem to charge a premium over other banks for the privelege of banking with HSBC. I have a letter to that effect from one of the expat managers, which was a response to my complaint that as an HSBC UK account holder sending money from HSBC Taiwan to HSBC UK is twice as expensive than even a non-HSBC account holder sending money from any other Taiwanese bank to HSBC UK.
Almost everything you can think of is cheaper and better at a local bank. And we know their target market is not non-Chinese speakers!
Must be a face thing. If you set the barrier high enough, all the snobs will run to HSBC just to get one up on the Jonses.
Very impressed with HSBC in the UK though.
Finally closed my account with HSBC. I gave up in despair. Then today, they wouldn’t even sell me t/cs over the counter. What is up with that bank?
I wrote a long post about it, too.
I just wish the management would bother to find out what their clients really think.
HSBC = Citibank at twice the price with half the service. Citibank now require NT$250,000 on deposit or they charge a monthly maintenance fee. If you have at least that on deposit they are actually a great bank. I have a GBP savings account with them that gives me 5.75% per annum, no 0.0001% per ice age here. I have a credit card although I do have to wait twice as long as locals for credit increases, upgrades etc. (every 12 months instead of 6 months). Customer service is about as good as any other Taiwanese bank (i.e. crap) but for multi currency accounts and credit cards they’re fab.
If you just want a bare bones account and don’t have much to deposit, forget with the wai shang banks and go for Taishin. They don’t give foreigners credit cards as a matter of strict management policy but they’re pretty decent for foreign exchange, fund transfers and general banking.
[quote=“llary”]HSBC = Citibank at twice the price with half the service. Citibank now require NT$250,000 on deposit or they charge a monthly maintenance fee. If you have at least that on deposit they are actually a great bank. I have a GBP savings account with them that gives me 5.75% per annum, no 0.0001% per ice age here. I have a credit card although I do have to wait twice as long as locals for credit increases, upgrades etc. (every 12 months instead of 6 months). Customer service is about as good as any other Taiwanese bank (i.e. crap) but for multi currency accounts and credit cards they’re fab.
If you just want a bare bones account and don’t have much to deposit, forget with the wai shang banks and go for Taishin. They don’t give foreigners credit cards as a matter of strict management policy but they’re pretty decent for foreign exchange, fund transfers and general banking.[/quote]
Unfortunately I also think TaiHsin sucks for banking but is great for credit cards! I have one. Never had much of a problem with it: except some funky online payment system that wouldn’t recognize my ID number. Other than that, they’re fine. The bank sucks though, and I had to use them. Eventually I funneled the money elsewhere. But interest rates here are LOW and inflation is NOT. There’s at least a 1.5% differential between bank rates and inflation.
Kenneth
Now? I opened an account there more than 6 years ago and they already had that requirement. A couple of years ago I asked at HSBC and there limit was only 150k.
But transfer some money to overseas and see how they rip you off when routing the money via the intermediate bank, which of course is Citibank, too. And they won’t tell you at first. (search for my old post regarding that if you care about the details)
Probably unrelated to HSBC and Citibank in Taiwan, but I have an HSBC account in HK and a Citibank credit card. However, there is no way I can transfer money from my HSBC savings to the Citibank credit card. Citibank won’t even let me pay at the counter, so I have to deposit into one of their ATM machines. The first time I tried transferring al looked good until my card was stopped for missing a payment. I then, and only then, realised it hadn’t gone through. Apparently the account number for the Citibank card is too long for the HSBC system.
Bastards must be loving my late payment money. I’m waiting on a new card from Amex and I’ll drop Citibank like a hot rock. Here the deposit requirement is HK$35,000, but for what?
HG
I’ve long since stopped using Taiwan banks for anything other than living expenses BUT despite the paltry amount of business I give citibank I find their over-the-counter service to be quite good. Perhaps because they ‘know’ me? Or because I have been a pain in their ass for 4 years?
Now? I opened an account there more than 6 years ago and they already had that requirement. A couple of years ago I asked at HSBC and there limit was only 150k.
Lucky you, when I opened my account it was $300k. Things are really on the up and up for us foreigners :discodance:
Damn, that’s good. Do they have similar rates for USD accounts?
Unlikely, or rather no. Interest rates are related to the currency, so no matter in which country the bank is located, you will get more or less the same for the same currency. Actually foreign banks (as seen from the country of the currency) usually offer a somewhat lower rate.
Damn, that’s good. Do they have similar rates for USD accounts?[/quote]
You’ll be lucky to get 0.25% on a USD account right now. AUD accounts were up to 7 or 8% not so long ago and lots of Taiwanese seem to have signed up without realising that the risk of exchange fluctuation is not worth the extra few percent interest. I just happen to make most of my money in GBP so it works out great.
The foreign savings rates at Citibank depend on the length of term and time deposited, but the term is flexible down to each month. I have a 3 month GBP deposit at 3.7%, a 14 month deposit at 4.6% and a 20 month deposit at 5.75%. I also have a continually cycling 2 month NTD deposit at 1.something % for emergencies - it’s still better than a normal zero interest NTD current account. Once the amount is stashed that rate is locked in until you either cash in the bond or let it cycle (which can be done automatically).