Singapore Expats

dgdg

no one bank is best for expats. hsbc might be an option if you are a premier account holder for international money transfer. for day to day banking, any of the local bog standard banks will do. most do internet banking.

for better fx rate and lower charges, i usually go for a 3rd party fx broker/agant.

You might want to look into who gives the best 1-for-1 lunch/dinner deals, shopping offers, etc.

Apart from that, most banks are pretty much the same. Unless your priority is generating airline miles then you can probably narrow down the circle to about 3 banks.

Not to be a promo boy, but I am pretty pleased with citibank. especially for international things, online banking on my iphone, internatonal money transfers between account through paypal (less commission) and stuff. Just a pain to find a atm to get money sometimes....

Pepijn wrote:Not to be a promo boy, but I am pretty pleased with citibank. especially for international things, online banking on my iphone, internatonal money transfers between account through paypal (less commission) and stuff. Just a pain to find a atm to get money sometimes....

I've got iPhone banking, international money transfers, and lots of other features with my Stan Chart account... for less money than Citi.

Hmmzz strange. I don't pay any thing for my citibank account. Stan chart actually wanted to charge me money for having money being wired INTO my account. Also international ATM charges with citi are a lot cheaper (travel a lot for work).

Pepijn wrote:Hmmzz strange. I don't pay any thing for my citibank account. Stan chart actually wanted to charge me money for having money being wired INTO my account. Also international ATM charges with citi are a lot cheaper (travel a lot for work).

Do you have a list of charges, including monthly account fees? I'd like to compare. TIA.

Citi is a good choice for travelers because you can find it worldwide. However, within Asia, HSBC is a good choice too. I also have a UOB Credit Card, because the gave me a Union Pay CC too, which is very helpful in China. In addition, like HSBC and OCBC, they also have presence in major cities in China.

At the end, if you consider CC usage, it's about personal preferences, such as getting discounts while dining or shopping in Singapore (obsolete to me), converting card revenue into airline miles (rather helpful to me), oversea surcharges (very important for me).

inmotion wrote:However, within Asia, HSBC is a good choice too.

I would put my money in a paper sack before I would give it to those clowns at HSBC. You want really terrible service? Try HSBC. People who don't give a shit that you got terrible service? Try HSBC. Want to pay $100 for $500 wire transfer? Try HSBC. I absolutely detest HSBC.

Strong Eagle wrote:

inmotion wrote:However, within Asia, HSBC is a good choice too.

I would put my money in a paper sack before I would give it to those clowns at HSBC. You want really terrible service? Try HSBC. People who don't give a shit that you got terrible service? Try HSBC. Want to pay $100 for $500 wire transfer? Try HSBC. I absolutely detest HSBC.

I have my trouble too, with HSBC's service in singapore. However, similar trouble i have with the other banks in singapore as well. DBS and Co., all are a nightmare at times as well. Maybe I should rephrase my statement: Considering the local service circumstances, i vote, based on my personal experience, for Citi, UOB and HSBC as the best options out of the worse...
I amend, services provided by these "winners" barely meet my expectations of good customer service

I gave up to compare the service here with service in my home country...

Iam with Stan chart and they are great. Have phone banking, international transfers wont cost you a leg plus they have some great offers under their private banking park. Worth looking into

inmotion wrote:However, within Asia, HSBC is a good choice too.

Either yourself were extremely lucky or myself extremely unlucky as never encountered such pathetic customer service with any of the other banks (ocbc, uob, dbs) I have something to do with. Enough to say I did not manage to establish internet banking after half a year or so of trying to solve various problems. And half a year after all my accounts were closed I still could receive some notes regarding them.

x9200 wrote:

inmotion wrote:However, within Asia, HSBC is a good choice too.

Either yourself were extremely lucky or myself extremely unlucky as never encountered such pathetic customer service with any of the other banks (ocbc, uob, dbs) I have something to do with. Enough to say I did not manage to establish internet banking after half a year or so of trying to solve various problems. And half a year after all my accounts were closed I still could receive some notes regarding them.

maybe i was lucky so far...well, it also cost me a lot of calls and screaming and scolding, however, i got the things done with HSBC...compared with my worst experience i had with DBS several times...

or perhaps it's a matter of time, until we give a low rating to all banks here...

one thing appears to me, it might be, that there service levels are not consistent, so, one customer has good experience and the next one wants to ax them... looks like a lot of room for improvement...

inmotion wrote:one thing appears to me, it might be, that there service levels are not consistent, so, one customer has good experience and the next one wants to ax them... looks like a lot of room for improvement...

No, their service levels are consistent... they suck... all the time... all the circumstances... everything from cashing a check to trying to get a credit line... populated by idiots as far as I am concerned.

hmmm... i must admit i hardly use hsbc in singapore. service must have gone down the drain!