Lots of banks everywhere still decline to open accounts for US citizens and particularly, US addresses even if they will open accounts for other countries. I’m not sure if that extends to Canada as well, or not, but it could.
Compliance costs and potential risk (from their point of view) seem to be the reason as they don’t want to become subject to US reporting requirements amongst other reasons. It is simpler for them to have a blanket policy to refuse customers from the US.
It would not surprise me if HSBC was the same.
I would strongly recommend Wise if Wise can do the job - I even have ACH (American Clearing House) numbers with Wise so it’s clear that at least for now, Wise has got it sussed.
Frabkly I would not hasten to get your first experiece of French banking either - you will have to eventually though if you start to do a lot here.
Hi Helenocka Yet again tried by my app. Still been rejected. When you scroll down on the app to what country you reside. If your Country does not come up then you cannot open an account.
France and other European countries simply don’t feature in the list so you CAN’T apply via the app. What a bunch of w*nkers.
The main advantage of having an HSBC current account over say, Wise, would be if you had significant amounts of £ and wanted to keep these Sterling savings in NS&I where you would get a decent return.
If that’s the case, I would give HSBC UK a ring (and tell them their signup process is atrocious).
Otherwise just go with Revolut or Wise.
Revolut is a bank in France. But a fintech in the UK. The UK and the French businesses are two separate legal entities.
Honestly I wouldn’t worry too much about the fintech thing - you’re only going to drop significant sums of money into them for a short period of time, not use them for long-term savings.
You would have to be incredibly unlucky to have Wise go bust and their client money safeguarding to fail, all while your money is in transit.
Unlike banks they don’t operate by lending client money to others - they keep client money in short-term securities like government bonds:
We make sure your money is safe and readily available to you. Most of your money is in secure liquid assets — such as EU, UK and US Government bonds, and money market funds as of 1 April 2024.
For a government bond to fail, the government would need to default on their loan payments, which almost never happens with stable governments.
The bonds we hold are mostly short-term bonds, so we’re not materially exposed to increasing interest rates, making us more resilient.
The average duration of the bonds we hold is under 6 months, with the majority of bonds having a remaining term of 3 months or less.
The money that we put into banks, we hold it in several reputable banks with strong liquidity.
Of course there could be serious corporate malpractice or fraud but again I think it’s pretty unlikely.
I so agree they are a bunch of W*ankers.
The problem with Revolut is the amount of money I will have in the account which is risky.
Bl**dy Brexit.
Thanks for your time.
Elaine
It happened of course with Greece. And the next government might be…..?
You write two negatives that unfortunately do not, like in mathematics, make a positive.
They are on w*nkers because of brexshit. So only necessary to blame brexshit and its voters. But funny that - very difficult after the event to find anyone admitting to being that stupid
Yes it can happen. But for Wise to go bust and you to lose a money transfer, all the governments in whose bonds they have invested, plus all the banks into whose hands they have deposited money, would have to fail simultaneously so that they declare bankruptcy at the exact time they were transferring your money.
Vanishingly unlikely. And if any government was looking dodgy they would not be leaving money with them. As the quote above explains, they keep client’s money in short-term bonds or on bank deposit so that they can be withdrawn easily.
As I have made clear before, I am not advocating leaving large deposits with Wise - but as a means to get money from the UK to France at reasonable cost, they are a viable option.
No. really. They’re w*nkers because their website is so bad. Seriously take a look at it - I sent the link. Imagine you were a French resident trying to open an account. Try following their instructions. You get nowhere.
Of course not. Brexshit saw to that. The brexshit w*nkers wanted to cast off from the mother ship and that is what has happened. It is no good moaning about it now.
Adam this has nothing to do with Brexit. It’s about a website that states it’s possible for French residents to open an account. And then fails to properly explain the procedure for doing so. That’s all.
I should add - it IS possible for French residents to open an account with HSBC UK. My friend and others have managed it. But the website is opaque.
Yes, I concede your point having gone into their website. They say it is possible, but the caveats are aimed at only thos intending to return to the UK, or have some idea of doing so or some connection. But yes, it could be clearer.
I phoned HSBC UK. You can only open a UK account with a UK address and income from the UK. Banking controls have really tightened up in France and the UK and Brexit obviously hasn’t helped!
