QRM wrote:Am I missing something here? Just open an HSBC bank account here and have one in the UK and few click of the mouse and the wonga is transferred to the UK. With the global view online account you can see all the global accounts? (though I am a tad suspicious of letting one bank be able to see all your global assets)
Only for HSBC Premier. The account balance minimums required for that tend to be high enough that if you can maintain them you're not worried about small wire transfer fees: ~S$200k. If you have that, you should be putting it elsewhere than an HSBC account and making significantly better returns so that the occasional wire transfer fee is inconsequential. Or, just leave $50k parked in the UK to cover costs.
Most posters here use Citibank in both locations. They don't have very high minimum balance requirements, something like $5k I think. It's instant and a "fair" forex rate outbound from SG. UK or US back has pretty low transfer limits. If it's just a few thousand a month though the exchange is fine.
