Oh and if you go into your local branch asking questions about overseas accounts/transactions you'll be met with a wall and a fob off of we don't deal with that here you'll have to ring in. Back in July/August and I'm not sure how it is currently but they shut the international department down in the UK (Covid/staffing blah blah), but they still try to put you through to the number which of course nobody answers 🤷‍♂️

So if you ring up do ask the question - is the international dept open or you'll be on hold for a very long time like I was.

I've just made the move and have kept my UK HSBC account for pension/rental income/UK bills. I've just updated my address and phone number to Thai with no real issues, except a message telling me it affects investments/ISA as you aren't a UK resident.

If you don't already I'd suggest you start using/getting familiar with the online application rather than just a phone app as some things you can't do on the app.

As regards transfers, if you use Wise I'd suggest sending a transfer to the 'holding' account within Wise if you think you might use it. I usually transferred straight into my Thai bank account but the first time I tried to send to my holding account HSBC stopped the payment and suspended my account as they viewed it as fraudulent activity. This required a phone call to unlock it again which would be a pain from Thailand.

Thanks for all the comments. Very enlightening 👍Cheers.

@Darren **********

Is that via Bangkok? Or do you have to approach them directly? Plus would I be any better of contacting Singapore for advice than UK, not sure I'd be any better off?

@Darren **********

Sounds like they are shutting up shop too...

@Darren **********

Interesting, I'll raise that point when I spend my savings calling the UK...

@Greg *******

Yes business accounts only, no personal banking apparently.

@Greg *******

Thanks Greg, I already do exactly the same with HSBC/Wise/Bangkok Bank funnily enough. I'm happy with that system but the expat link seemed to be an added bonus with my existing bank/account, but clearly not... 🙄😁

@Greg *******

Shame HSBC in the UK seem to be blissfully unaware and happily advising people to open expat accounts 😂

@Bobby *******

Unreal. I also had an email and message from them yesterday saying now I'm living overseas I need to update my residential status, can no longer use my UK advisor and would have to call them to discuss options. I'm pretty pissed off as I could have looked at all this back in the UK. And yes so much for 'world banking'... 😎