Banking and Credit Card

[pupsiecola]

Two months after the seed of moving to Singapore was planted and we are off in 2 weeks.

Just wondered if it's possible to set up a bank account from the UK. We have our condo from 1st July so know the address already. Have emailed Citibank to ask but wondered if anyone here has done this? Also, does anyone know if there's a credit card whereby you can collect Singapore Airlines airmiles as reward points?

Many thanks,
Karen

[Asian_Geekette]

There's a Citibank credit card which is called Premier Miles that helps you convert your rewards to Singapore Airlines frequent flyer miles. But these miles will not count toward your Silver or Gold Krisflyer membership renewal requirements.

[Mi Amigo]

It is (or certainly was) possible to set up an HSBC account from the UK; we did that back in 2004 and everything was ready when we arrived. Sadly our experience with HSBC deteriorated drastically after we stopped using their main branch and we closed our accounts there some time ago. But it was at least an useful stepping stone at the time. There may be other banks (possibly Citi?) that provide a similar service nowadays; you could try searching the forum for more details (use the Search button above and to the right of here, underneath 'Profile').

One thing to keep in mind is that the 'foreign' banks do not have many branches or ATMs, which is why many people end up opening accounts with local banks after being here for a while.

As regards credit cards for collecting Singapore Airlines miles, there are a number of options including the KrisFlier Amex gold card and DBS Altitude Amex. Here's the 'master' thread for that topic:

http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic68944.html

Good luck with your move and welcome to Singapore!

[pupsiecola]

Thanks for that. We've been with HSBC for 20 years. They want £100 to set us up over there and we're not prepared to pay it! Will check out that link.

[nutnut]

setting up a new account including getting an ATM/Nets card, credit card, cheque book and internet banking at DBS i Singapore will take you about 1-2 hours. Job done!

No need to do it from the UK!

[pupsiecola]

That's amazing! I imagined having to wait 2 to 3 weeks for cards to arrive!!

[Mi Amigo]

Amazing that HSBC would try to charge such a long-standing customer for the priviledge of continuing to be one of their customers in another country. I don't think they charged us a penny and we weren't even existing customers at the time. They really do seem to have lost the plot and I don't regret moving to another bank. FWIW we ended up at UOB and have had consistently good service from them since day 1.

IIRC (it was a long time ago), the advantage of opening the HSBC account in the UK was that we didn't yet have all the paperwork in place (EP, permanent address, etc.), but we were still able to go ahead and get the account ready. But if you already have an address here, then (provided you can show them the appropriate EP documentation), you should be able to open an account at any bank here pretty quickly, as nutnut says.

[x9200]

setting up a new account including getting an ATM/Nets card, credit card, cheque book and internet banking at DBS i Singapore will take you about 1-2 hours. Job done!

No need to do it from the UK!

Are you sure?

[ecureilx]

setting up a new account including getting an ATM/Nets card, credit card, cheque book and internet banking at DBS i Singapore will take you about 1-2 hours. Job done!

No need to do it from the UK!

Are you sure?

DBS now gives out "DEBIT Cards" / ATM Cards on the spot with your name imprinted ..

DBS Credit cards in 2 hour ? that's a miracle .. if it is true .. And internet banking too - they will post the token and cheque books as well .. never on the spot from what I know ..

Citi gives Credit cards out in 1 hour flat.

[JustMyself]

I don't know about credit card rewards, but we do our banking through Citibank. We set up our American account before we left the U.S. and then set up an account in Singapore once we arrived. We had our ATM cards within a week. I have never had trouble finding a Citibank ATM or branch. They are not quite as common as the local banks, but readily available. Also, their international transfer fees are roughly half of what other banks charge (at least from the research I did a year ago before we moved). So until the Singapore account was set up we just used out American cards to pull Singapore money out of the ATM and came out ok on the exchange rate. I suspect their policies are similar for their U.K. customers. You shouldn't be too inconvenienced if you wait to set up the bank account once you are in Singapore.

[zzm9980]

I don't know about credit card rewards, but we do our banking through Citibank. We set up our American account before we left the U.S. and then set up an account in Singapore once we arrived. We had our ATM cards within a week. I have never had trouble finding a Citibank ATM or branch. They are not quite as common as the local banks, but readily available. Also, their international transfer fees are roughly half of what other banks charge (at least from the research I did a year ago before we moved). So until the Singapore account was set up we just used out American cards to pull Singapore money out of the ATM and came out ok on the exchange rate. I suspect their policies are similar for their U.K. customers. You shouldn't be too inconvenienced if you wait to set up the bank account once you are in Singapore.

Every MRT station has a Citibank ATM minimally, so it is a decent footprint.
Now (as of a year ago at least) when you sign up with Citibank, you get an ATM card same day. The Visa-branded debit card take a week or so. It's also free to transfer Citibank SG -> Citibank Elsewhere. The other direction sometimes costs money, depending on where the other bank is. (US -> SG is $12 US I believe). The conversion spread is quite small too, less than a few cents for SGD <-> USD. Also, we discussed this in a few other threads, but the Citi Premier Miles Visa is one of the best airline mileage cards in Singpore right now (best non-Amex/Discover). Their Platinum SMRT card has 10% rebate at Starbucks too

Anyway to the OP's questions, it was pretty easy to open the account. I just needed my EP, a letter from my employer verifying salary, and a token opening deposit of $50 or $100. (You have a few days to get the rest of the minimum balance into the account) They set up the bank account and all of the credit cards at one time. The cards (except ATM card) took about a week. This is pretty standard at most Singapore banks I've used. (Citi, POSB, OCBC)

[AndyWillie]

It's actually pretty straightforward and easy to set up a bank account here. You'll need your employment pass, letter of appointment, identification, and minimum sum to open an account. In and out of the bank in under an hour depending on waiting time. I know banks like OCBC, POSB, UOB give you a banking atm card immediately while the rest of the debit/credit card take about a week.

P.S the weather in singapore now is really hot and humid so i hope you brought shorts!