HSBC Account when moving away from Malta

koko_malta Member

Member since 28 February 2019

koko_maltaMember28 February 2019 09:24:38

Hello,

I've got a current account opened in HSBC Malta and a debit card attached to it with some money on the balance. I'm planning to leave Malta and move to the North America.
Given that I won't return to Malta, would it be safe to keep this account open and never close it, and just transfer all the money from it when I open a new account in Canada? Will they charge me with some additional fees when I stop using this account and my balance may go negative because of those fees or other kind of penalties (e.g. not returning a debit card to the bank)?

I would love to close this account before leaving Malta, but that would mean that I would need to withdraw all the money in cache which is more than 15k and carry this cache with me to a new place聽 because I don't have any other bank accounts where I'd be able to keep those funds in a meantime.

PS: I've read posts from different people and they could not transfer their HSBC accounts between countries, they had to open new accounts from scratch when they moved to different states. It also seem to be not possible to close an account in Malta when you are abroad.

volcane ViP

Member since 03 November 2015

volcaneViP28 February 2019 09:44:00

1077

The answer depends on every branch and every person you speak to, suggest you ask help from the bank manager, they might be able to do something

koko_malta Member

Member since 28 February 2019

koko_maltaMember28 February 2019 09:52:04

@volcane

Sure, I'll ask the manager as well but I can't fully rely on their words too.

F0xgl0ve Malta Expert

Member since 11 November 2013

F0xgl0veMalta Expert28 February 2019 14:46:37

1976

You could open an account with ' Transferwise' and using their bordeless account have a debit card which can be loaded with any currency you wish at a very good conversion rate and used anywhere.

So you top up you $ borderless account using 鈧� from you HSBC debit card and then close your HSBC account. (you could also put a few 鈧� on to your transferwise card to see you through the move and then change anything you have left on it to $ later.
Just to give you an idea we have a bordeless account in The UK, US and EU (Germany) in their respective currencies but you only have one card which is used for all.