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HSBC Premier Lifehack

Will you cancel it in February? Or what to do now?
You have 6 months after the new limit comes into force to fulfill the conditions for retaining Premier (if you hold Premier status already by that date).
Maybe in August the TRY decreased enough to keep Premier with only 35 k$. ;)

I personally opened an HSBC Expat (Premier) account a few years ago, completely remotely. HSBC Expat is based in Jersey, and the minimum balance when I opened it was the equivalent of 50K GBP.
They changed to to 75k GBP a few month ago.

What is strange, is that you pay about 4% on TRY consumer loans while the time deposit rate is 7%. Sounds like you can get a consumer loan and then put it in a time deposit?
This might really work. But keep an eye on the withholding taxes.
But will they really give you a 30k consumer loan as a non-resident?

Does anyone know what will happen if you lose the Premier in Turkey and have an HSBC expat account (without holding 75k GBP with them)?
Will they really charge you the underfunding fee from day one?
What happens to your long-term time deposits in Jersey?
 
You have 6 months after the new limit comes into force to fulfill the conditions for retaining Premier (if you hold Premier status already by that date).
Maybe in August the TRY decreased enough to keep Premier with only 35 k$. ;)

Thanks. Yes, it says so in the small print of the email.

HSBC Premier is a product/service package of HSBC Bank A.Ş. As of 10 February 2025 you should have savings or investments of at least TRY 2.000.000 or equivalent amount of convertible foreign currencies with our Bank (Wealth Criteria) to qualify for HSBC Premier Your balance may consist of TRY/FX Time or Demand Deposit, Precious Metals, Mutual Funds, Pension, TRY/FX Treasury Bills/Government Bonds/Eurobond and/or Equities. HSBC Bank A.Ş. does not provide any Investment Advice and Portfolio Management service. If your balance stays under than Premier wealth eligibility criteria during the consecutive 6 months, your Premier Customer status and benefits will cease.
 
How long will it take for HSBC entities in other countries (Jersey, UK, Singapore etc.) to receive the information about the loss of Premier status in Turkey?
They do not participate in Global View. Do they really share the information about Premier immediately?
 
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Once you have it, why not just open an account in another jurisdiction and then start paying the fee there? If it's 500 GBP per year or so, what's the big deal if you really like the account?
Might be less risk than keeping 65k in Turkey?
 
Once you have it, why not just open an account in another jurisdiction and then start paying the fee there? If it's 500 GBP per year or so, what's the big deal if you really like the account?
Might be less risk than keeping 65k in Turkey?
They won't go bankrupt. But at 3% interest, 60k USD still cost you 1800 USD per year.
 
To be honest, I have a hard feeling entrusting more than 40 k$ to a single bank. So far I have spread my money over many banks. And 2 million TRY is way more than 40 k$.
(For example, what happens if HSBC Turkey freezes my account and I have all my money there?)
So I am still looking for a way to keep Premier until the TRY loses enough value.
As long as you are still Premier in Turkey, it should be easy to open an account in another country.
Would it be possible to open a Premier account in another country, which would allow Premier for a fee? Jersey or Singapore has an underfunding fee if the conditions for Premier are not met. But you remain Premier, if I understand correctly (in SG for max. 1 year).
So I would still be Premier worldwide as I retain Premier status in Jersey or SG by paying my underfunding fee, right?
If so, which country has the cheapest underfunding fee? :p
 
To be honest, I have a hard feeling entrusting more than 40 k$ to a single bank. So far I have spread my money over many banks. And 2 million TRY is way more than 40 k$.
(For example, what happens if HSBC Turkey freezes my account and I have all my money there?)
So I am still looking for a way to keep Premier until the TRY loses enough value.
As long as you are still Premier in Turkey, it should be easy to open an account in another country.
Would it be possible to open a Premier account in another country, which would allow Premier for a fee? Jersey or Singapore has an underfunding fee if the conditions for Premier are not met. But you remain Premier, if I understand correctly (in SG for max. 1 year).
So I would still be Premier worldwide as I retain Premier status in Jersey or SG by paying my underfunding fee, right?
If so, which country has the cheapest underfunding fee? :p

If you are worried about having 40K in a single bank account (especially in a large international bank like HSBC), then it probably means you are not yet at the level to truly optimize your international banking setup. Just keep a few basic retail bank accounts in your country of citizenship and your current and/or previous country of residence. Add an IBKR account, and that should be more than enough for now.
 
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To be honest, I have a hard feeling entrusting more than 40 k$ to a single bank. So far I have spread my money over many banks. And 2 million TRY is way more than 40 k$.
(For example, what happens if HSBC Turkey freezes my account and I have all my money there?)
So I am still looking for a way to keep Premier until the TRY loses enough value.
As long as you are still Premier in Turkey, it should be easy to open an account in another country.
Would it be possible to open a Premier account in another country, which would allow Premier for a fee? Jersey or Singapore has an underfunding fee if the conditions for Premier are not met. But you remain Premier, if I understand correctly (in SG for max. 1 year).
So I would still be Premier worldwide as I retain Premier status in Jersey or SG by paying my underfunding fee, right?
If so, which country has the cheapest underfunding fee? :p
I think most HSBC charge about 50 USD if you do not meet the requirements. I think it will probably be possible in Turkey too.

If you are worried about having 40K in a single bank account (especially in a large international bank like HSBC), then it probably means you are not yet at the level to truly optimize your international banking setup. Just keep a few basic retail bank accounts in your country of citizenship and your current and/or previous country of residence. Add an IBKR account, and that should be more than enough for now.
You can try Malta or US or somewhere where there is a governmental asset protection scheme.
 
If you are worried about having 40K in a single bank account (especially in a large international bank like HSBC), then it probably means you are not yet at the level to truly optimize your international banking setup. Just keep a few basic retail bank accounts in your country of citizenship and your current and/or previous country of residence. Add an IBKR account, and that should be more than enough for now.
Most of my accounts are already offshore, and I am not worried about 40k in a single bank account.
The question is not how much money can I lose in order to get into financial trouble, but rather how much money can I lose and still be able to sleep peacefully at night without being mad at myself..
I have been involved in 3 bankruptcies so far. All of them were 5 figures. And I have been able to sleep at night without being angry at myself.
I've several (comparatively small) bank accounts frozen because they want to get some documents I don't want to send. I can still sleep well and keep the accounts frozen.

A peaceful night's sleep is one of the most important things in my life.

About HSBC, I just don't trust HSBC that much. In this company nobody knows what's going on where and how. Take Jersey Branch, for example. The website says minimum relationship balance is 50 kGBP. I opened the account and received an e-mail. It also states 50 kGBP. In the introduction call I was told that 75 kGBP is the minimum.
Another HSBC entity is not able to upgrade me to Premier. “Technical error” is the statement. I have tried via secure message (which are not answered), chat and phone. So far without success.
I have made a transfer between 2 own HSBC accounts. This should be free of charge. I was charged about 20 $. The receiver HSBC entity refers to the sender HSBC entity and says the transfer must be free of charge on both sides. Sender HSBC entity says that they cannot help me any further. It's a really small amount of money, but it doesn't make a professional impression.
How can I really trust such a bank so much and sleep peacefully?


I think most HSBC charge about 50 USD if you do not meet the requirements. I think it will probably be possible in Turkey too.
In Turkey, there is no underfunding fee. They simply withdraw the premier status if you don't meet the requirements.

You can try Malta or US or somewhere where there is a governmental asset protection scheme.
Thank you for your suggestions.
I don't care about asset protection. I think HSBC is too big to fail.
I'm more worried about account freezing and struggling to get the money back. If it's a small amount then I can just ignore it. But with 2 million TRY, I can't just ignore it.
(Btw, if I remember right Turkey has asset protection only for Turkish citizens)
 
Ui! My information seems to be outdated and there seems to be a protection for foreigners now.
Almost 10 years ago, I considered opening an account in Turkey. At the time, I was informed that in the past only Turkish citizens were compensated in the event of bank insolvency. (I must confess that I did not cross-check this information)
After that, I never looked into Turkey's Deposit Protection Fund again.

But which banks went down?
Two were in Europe and the well known EPB.
 
Since they require a minimum TRB in cash or investments, can I place there some stocks with a transfer from IBKR?
 
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