GBP and SGD Bank Accounts

[ajadams]

I am due to move to Singapore with my Company in January for 2 years. The company are still going to be paying my salary in GBP.

Does anyone know of a bank that offers both a GBP and SGD current accounts that I can transfer money to and from without getting charged and without having to have a silly amount as a minimum in my account (I looked on the DBS website and for a GBP account and you must have a minimum of GBP 30,000 in the account to avoid charges! Bit out of my league unfortunately!)

Any advice would be warmly received

Thanks

[Yutenji]

I am due to move to Singapore with my Company in January for 2 years. The company are still going to be paying my salary in GBP. Does anyone know of a bank that offers both a GBP and SGD current accounts that I can transfer money to and from without getting charged and without having to have a silly amount as a minimum in my account (I looked on the DBS website and for a GBP account and you must have a minimum of GBP 30,000 in the account to avoid charges!

Hi. Couple of possible solutions ...
- HSBC (probably others too) will allow you to have accounts in SGD, GBP, USD, JPY and a couple of other ccys too. I don't think the minimum amounts are unreasonable (about GBP 1,000, from memory) but there used to be significant delays in depositing GBP cheques (for example) into the GBP account.
- Or, try a combination of a HSBC local bank account for your SGD needs and an HSBC International (offshore) account for GBP. Charges for transferring between them are reasonably low (because they're both HSBC banks). You also might be able to take advantage of the offshore status of the International account (wink, wink ). To open the account you'll need GBP 5,000, but once it's open you can go below that amount.
Good luck.