Opening a bank account in Hong Kong

[Irishman]

With the Euro starting to look very shaky I was thinking of putting my savings into another currency out of the Eurozone and it occurred to me that with Sunny in Guangzhou now and as she has a Hong Kong visa that maybe opening a Hong Kong Bank account may be an option.

We both already have Bank Of China Accounts but I think its easier to put money into those than take them out again unless you are in China!
I imagine its easier with Hong Kong bank accounts?
Anyone have any experience with this? Any free/low cost banks in Hong Kong that you can use internet banking with to put money in and transfer back again online?

[Arnold]

Irish , this will not help with a HK account .. but I thought I mention it here .
Qing's brother's Wife bought a House Cash here Sept. and Escrow will close soon on it . When it comes to pay for it from China , each Person is only allowed to send $ 50,000 ( US ) in one(1) years time . So anyway , the house was $200K's . What their doing now , is using four Family Member's names and each sends $50K's under their name to pay for it . The brother will do this again next year with another Home .
So ask those kind of questions , if you ever think of large amounts to tranfer back out of China/HK .. what the limit's are .

[Irishman]

Thanks Arnold, that's very interesting. Is that a property purchase limit or a general limit on how much money they can send abroad each year?
50K USD would be fine for us to be honest if that's the case.

I was hoping that HK would have more flexible rules without restrictions if we ever did need to move larger amounts.

[Willy The Londoner]

Hi Irishman

I applied for a bank account in Hong Kong.  I needed 2 x proof of address in Zhongshan and also I needed to deposit 100,000 hong kong dollars to open it. About 8000.oo gb pounds. Hong Kong has most of the banks that you see in the UK and Ireland. HSBC, Barclays etc. You do have to go in person to the bank to sign up. You can have internet banking.

I once made enquiries with the Bank of China in London to open an account there but was surprised to find that it was classed as a seperate bank and that I would still have to pay those exorbitant international bank transfer charges to transfer money from their to my Chinese bank account.

Arnold. I hear that a lot of Chinese are buying up homes in the USA now as the prices have fallen so much there can only be a revival.  With banks paying sometimes less that 3% interest on savings here then that will be a good investment.

Willy

[Arnold]

Arnold. I hear that a lot of Chinese are buying up homes in the USA now as the prices have fallen so much there can only be a revival.  With banks paying sometimes less that 3% interest on savings here then that will be a good investment.Willy

Exactly Willy ! This is what there planning to do with their Money , invest it into four/five Houses here . I'll Rent them out one at a time and have a nice (1/2) the Rent to put some $$ aside for my old Age . They will wait 8-10 yrs. for them to gain in Value and sell .

What I don't know , how do these Chinese Men come over here and buy those Beach Homes that run in the Millions for " Cash " ? So there must be some other way of bringing $$ here .

[Willy The Londoner]

Possibly Cayman island accounts?

I would rate them just a little higher than a Nigerian one. Haha

If I can't walk in when I want I dont need it.

Ask Bergur (Iceland) about the Icelandic bank that went down and took a lot of money with it.

Willy