Relocating to Singapore Help

[Asian_Geekette]

Regarding cheques, they are still quite useful in Singapore but you can pay all your bills (or 99.9%) using an SAM machine which you can find at any street corner and which is very convenient.

LoriW,

Aside from the SAM, there's the AXS machines which you can use for bill payment. You just need to make sure you have an ATM card from the local banks which has the Nets feature.

[LoriW]

Aaaahhh "Nets" ........... I've seen that acronym around ............ what does it mean/stand for and how does that work??

[littlegreenman]

Google.com.sg is your friend. Network for Electronic Transfers (Singapore).

I think I remember the HSBC debit card I got being a visa debit, but not a NETS card at the same time. However if you go with one of the local banks you certainly will get a NETS card: OCBC, UOB, POSB. I have been ever since with UOB and have always been happy with them as they also allow you to use OCBC ATMs. POSB also allows you to use DBS ATMs. In the end they are all more or less the same though. My advise is to literally pick the one with the lowest charges from the above three. The only thing I noticed that in Hougang Mall the queues for the POSB ATM are always longer than those for the UOB ATM, thus I chose UOB back then.

[Asian_Geekette]

I chose POSB since there's a lot of ATMs around Singapore and at that time, they had the smallest amount of initial deposit. Plus I found out that there's a DBS banks in Taipei and Hong Kong so I could just withdraw from the ATMs there without incurring charges in my POSB account.

[LoriW]

Thanks folks! So would the best thing be to just go round all the major high street banks and see what they are offering?

Do the cashpoints not work as in the UK with the "Link" system where you can go anywhere and use any machine then?

That's a pain - and going back to a good few years ago when I'd have to search out a NatWest cashpoint to get any money!

I don't want to wander around with a pile of cash and I've probably left it a bit late to get travellers cheques now - flying out tomorrow morning for a 2 week visit to organise things. Can I do some sort of electronic transfer from my UK account? Will I need to call my bank to sort this out?

[littlegreenman]

Thanks folks! So would the best thing be to just go round all the major high street banks and see what they are offering?

Close but NO! You can check it online before you leave. You will have better things to do there than check for the best price going from branch to branch (and believe me, you might have to wait for an hour or so for an advisor to become available). You can rest assured though that as Singapore is the perfect example of a perfect competition economy, that they all charge the same. Otherwise somebody would have said already that one of them is cheapest (a very Singaporean thing ). In this case it is really just up to you to make a pick.

Unfortunately all the different ATMs are not availble across banks like the link system here in the UK. So in one corner you have UOB and OCBC, in the other corner you have DBS and POSB. As OCBC has slightly less branches than UOB or POSB I would suggest you just pick either one of the two. Flip a coin (again, you really don't want to go from branch to branch there to compare, it takes hours). You can rest assured, whichever you choose, they are all the same .

One thing to keep in mind though, if you do have a HSBC account in the UK it is cheaper to open a HSBC account in Singapore as well as you can transfer money cheaper.

[LoriW]

Hmm............ I think I might pop into an HSBC branch this afternoon!

As well as finish packing for our trip and go to the theatre tonight, then get up at 5am tomorrow to leave for the airport at 6am !!!

I had tried phoning and emailing HSBC over the past couple of weeks and they have been pretty useless so I was planning to go to a branch.

[AngMoKio]

I would advise against the HSBC account. We have a HSBC account in the US so I went with the sing account there... and we have had nothing but problems and fees and more fees.

It has been a nightmare.

Money transfer fees in sing and international have been very high, despite the fact that it is the same bank.

[LoriW]

OK, cool, thanks AngMoKio! I think that the fact I've had no sense out of HSBC so far doesn't bode well anyway!

I'll pop into a branch of whatever, POSB probably on monday!

[sierra2469alpha]

Just to follow up on YatesD's post - I agree HSBC are totally a pain, but if you need to transfer money between countries and qualify for their Premier program, you will save significantly.

We were premier with HSBC in Australia before we moved, and despite the pain, they work out pretty well. Local ATM access is poor, unless you do the occasional shop at Cold Storage, where you can also get the Choice card and earn yourself frequent shopping points (although CS IS expensive), but you also use your ATM card at CS to get up to $1000 a pop free of charge.

Lots of options - but as I have mentioned before (search my posts), it's all about what suits your needs - there is no one-size-fits-all.

HTH, Mr. P

[Tammy138]

Hi YatesD...I am from the UK too and will arrive in Singapore mid June. So glad you mentioned HMRC..I have been calling them everyday but they still won't answer the phone and their website (although detailed) is somewhat useless for those wanting to work abroad.

Do you need to tell HMRC your planning to leave the UK for good?

Also, please let me know about the monthly transfer to the UK as I also have a mortgage to pay.

Thank you!