HSBC back in touch

For those playing along at home, today I received a call from HSBC in the UK to let me know that my UK account had been successfully set up and all the documentation (cards, pin numbers, internet banking information) would be arriving in the post in the next 5-10 working days.

Whilst this has taken approximately 6 weeks to occur I am really happy as it means that soon I will have the ability to easily move my money between the UK and Brazil as required using the Global View function on HSBCs Internet Banking website.

I have to say it was a little strange speaking to the customer service lady in the UK. I am so used to trying to use simple, slow English or broken Portuguese on the phone whenever anyone calls me that I couldn’t snap out of it. I am sure she thought I was being horribly condescending to her!

 

Arrival of the cards

My HSBC Premier account cards have arrived. Since my most recent trip to the branch this has all happened really quickly. My debit card arrived within a couple of days and my credit card within less than a week.

Next step is to arrange Internet Banking, which I need to return to the bank to do as the alternative is to call up and do it in Portuguese over the phone. I also need to arrange for my salary to move each month from my Bradesco account, straight into my HSBC account (it is not possible to bypass the Bradesco account completely).

Finally, I must open a HSBC account in the United Kingdom so that I can transfer money from Brazil to the UK for no charge. I was contacted by the international arm of HSBC at the end of last week and they have told me that they will be able to open the account just after clarifying a few bits of information via email so I am starting that process now.

On a positive note…

… I have managed to get my boleto (barcode payment) service to work finally. The problem was that I have a limit that I can pay at one time so if what I am paying is more than that, it needs to be done in two installments. You can actually do this sometimes one straight after another, but other times you need to wait until the next day. Either way, I have cracked this little challenge so I am happy!

HSBC Premier in Brazil

In my previous posts I have spoken of my despair with local bank, Bradesco, and how I was making it a priority to set up a HSBC Premier account.

I went into the HSBC Premier branch in Ipanema two weeks ago now to get the process started. It took me almost two hours of broken English/broken Portuguese exchanges but I managed to sign all the paperwork required and was promised that they would call in a week when my card would be ready to collect at the branch.

Having heard nothing from them, I called them on Friday to check on the progress. At first they said they had no record of an account ever being created in my name(!), but later called back to ask  me to come back to the branch at my earliest convenience as they had found the account and the cards were ready. So, I took the afternoon off work today to finalise this process.

When I arrived, the very competent and lovely receptionist (she really deserves a promotion!) located my account details and asked me to set my pin number for the account. She then said that my cards would be delivered to my house in 7-10 days.

I was about to leave but thought to check whether it would be just the debit card or also the credit card that would be arriving in the post. It was at this point that she realised that a) no credit card application had been put in for me and b) the account that had been opened up was not a Premier account but a regular HSBC account.

At first, she told me I would need to come back at another time when my Account Manager was free to resolve but I think she could tell that I wasn’t keen on that idea so she arranged for me to speak with another Account Manager (Raquel) there and then. Raquel had actually been the one to help me out the last time I was in as she could speak a little English and therefore help translate between me and the Account Manager.

It took her about an hour, but she managed to unpick what had gone wrong, correct the type account and cards being sent and re-order the credit card. I signed a few more bits of paper and was promised that both my cards along with the pin numbers would start to be delivered in the next 7-10 days.

I am not holding my breath that these cards will actually turn up without another hiccup but I did appreciate Raquel’s attempt to try to get the issue resolved for me there and then. I think she knows that the longer this drags out for me, the more often she will find me sat in her office with my head in my hands!

The only part of the process that really annoyed me though was that at no point had anyone contacted me to update me on what was going on. The excuse for this is that our actual Account Manager (Ana) is not confident with English so didn’t want to call me. Whilst I can relate to this fear (I dread answering my mobile at the moment as I rarely can understand what the person at the other end is trying to say!) I think its a pretty poor excuse for just allowing our account application to sit incorrect and dormant for 2 weeks! Raquel has promised I won’t have this problem again so fingers crossed!

The next step will be to open a HSBC account in the UK. Raquel has promised to get the HSBC International team to give me a call in the next few days to start this process.

I will also need to arrange an appointment to go back to the Ipanema branch once the cards arrive to set up Internet Banking. Apparently setting passwords for this is a bit too complicated to be done over the phone so I appreciate their offer to help.

 

Boleto payment

I tried to pay my rent at the Bradesco cash machine tonight using the Boleto payment service where you just scan the barcode.

It didn’t work.

I am starting to think maybe its just me!

Bradesco up and running

Finally my Bradesco bank card has been fixed so that I can withdraw money and pay for things. Hurrah!

I also downloaded their app for the security feature that replaces the need to carry your token around with you all the time. There is other functionality on the app but I’m a bit afraid of breaking something so will just stick to this element for now!

Banking returns

A bit of an update on the banking situation for those interested.

This week I went to HSBC in order to open up a more “user friendly” account. I arranged an appointment at the HSBC Premier branch in Ipanema and was met by two women, both of whom understood some English but only one felt confident speaking English back to me. The regular Account Manager who deals with English speaking expats was on holiday but these ladies were extremely helpful in her absence.

It took about an hour and a half but I believe I have signed all the documentation required in order to set up a joint HSBC Premier bank account with a debit card each and a HSBC Premier credit card.

The monthly rates on the debit card feel high to me however, once our accounts are open, they have promised to arrange for a representative from HSBC International to phone me in order to set up a HSBC Premier bank account in the United Kingdom. I then only pay the monthly charge on one account but have a range of benefits permanently open to me wherever I live in the world including free international transfers between the accounts, premium exchange rates, wealth management services etc. So the way I see it, the cost over time will likely be worth it.

The only problem I had at the bank was trying to open a joint bank account. At first I thought the issue was that I am not married, but apparently, it is that Bradesco are unlikely to allow us to transfer two salaries into the joint account each month. This seems very odd to me but I am going to go ahead with the account and then check with Bradesco to understand more about the problem. The solution to open two HSBC Premier accounts (and pay two sets of account fees) didn’t appeal so if it really is a problem I am likely to just transfer one salary and leave the other one where it is for direct debits etc.

In order to open the account, I needed the following information:

• Birth certificate
• Passport
• Work visa
• CPF (of course!)
• Proof of address
• Proof of earnings

For proof of address and earnings, an official letter from my company sufficed.

So that step is now done, I will apparently get a call next week when my account is open and the cards are ready for collection. As always, I will not count my chickens however so far it has been a relatively easy process.

And now, in contrast, an update on my Bradesco account.

As you may remember, I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of my permanent bank card as right now I have no access to my money apart from being able to log into internet banking and see my balance. Earlier this week, my new card was dropped off at the office so I wasted no time in trying it out at a Bradesco cash point.

Lo and behold, it did not work. I spoke to numerous people at the bank and the best advice I could get was, “the card doesn’t work because the card doesn’t work”. Perhaps I am being a little harsh as, to be fair, the poor gentlemen working there did not speak English so the very unhelpful advice may have been a symptom of the lack of English words they knew as opposed to a true assessment of the situation however the fact remains that I still have no access to my bank account.

Our “agency representative” who dropped the card off at the office in the first place is apparently coming back to the office tomorrow to collect my new card, take it to her branch and try to resolve the issue. She unfortunately does not speak English so I am really guessing here that that is what she said she would do! Basically I am assuming that I will be lucky to see her and/or my card now before next week.

With these kind of issues, the relatively high HSBC Premier monthly account charge actually doesn’t seem that bad – especially as part of the fee goes towards a personal English speaking Account Manager which, as it turns out, would be exceptionally helpful!

Banking in Brazil

Through my company, I am automatically registered for a Bradesco debit bank account. I have received from them a temporary card, a 6-digit pin number and a token device where you press a button and get 6 random numbers.

Based on this, there are a handful of things that I would expect to do with this account. I have listed them below along with a summary of my success rate at performing this action so far.

– Withdraw money from a cash point: So far this has been a bit hit and miss, after several attempts my card let me do this for the first time about ten days ago. Since then, success really depends on the day and the machine . Usually if I try several Bradesco machines at the bank eventually one will work.

– Check balance at a cash point: I have tried this several times now with no success. I assume it is just not something that can be done using the temporary card and that hopefully, once I received my permanent card I will be okay.

– Purchase items in a store: Before I was able to withdraw money, my card allowed me to do this. Until this weekend that is. When I was trying to purchase my dining table at Etna, the card was declined. I was able to withdraw the cash the next day but the cashier could not get the card to work. Since then, each and every transaction that I have tried to place on the card has declined.

– Purchase items online: The temporary card is a debit card only and very few online outlets accept a debit card payment. When they do, you are required to enter some details relating to the card but each of those fields are missing from my temporary card. The advice that I have received, however is that it is quite important to also request a credit card in Brazil, even if like myself you are not generally keen on having on. A credit card is really the only way you can guarantee being able to purchase items online. As a side note I have been advised that Bradesco is not a good bank to get a credit card with so the recommendation is that I open a new account with another bank.

– Pay for items purchased online using the Boleto service: I really like this service in theory, but in practice it has not been so straightforward. In theory, you print the barcode on the Boleto slip provided by the online merchant and then you have a set time period (typically 48 hours) to take the barcode to your bank’s cash point, scan the barcode and complete the payment. Unfortunately, my temporary card does not allow me to do this and instead, I must go into the bank to request that they complete the transaction for me. Typically this takes them about an hour as they must verify my account details “with the agency” and then follow a number of protocol and validation exercises. Last time it took a little longer as they also needed to go for lunch! 😉 Like I said though, hopefully this is a symptom of the temporary card and soon I will be able to take advantage of the more typical Boleto process.

– Log into internet banking: To log into internet banking, I first needed to email the bank to ask for my account number. Once I received this, the next stumbling block was that it requested a 4-digit pin. All the pins that I have received to date are 6-digits so I am currently waiting to hear back from the bank on this one. Colleagues of mine have said that once you pass through the initial set up (I am currently stuck on step 2 of 6) it is a relatively easy to use service.

– Use internet banking to pay bills: I have not yet tried this but an important tip is that you must email the bank and ask them to change your internet banking profile to allow this. Otherwise, internet banking with Bradesco can only really be used to check your balance.

– Set up direct debit to pay bills: This is to be done direct with the organisation that you want to be paying. I do not believe it is any more difficult than providing them with your account numbers. I think I will wait until I have my permanent card before trying it out though.

– Use internet banking to transfer money: Like paying bills on internet banking, you must request access to the service from Bradesco before you are able to transfer money to third parties

– Transfer money to an international account: The feedback I have received from colleagues on this action is not to bother. Apparently, as Bradesco is a local bank, the red tape, forms and fees associated with moving money from the account to an international account is extremely extensive. Instead, the recommendation is for me to open a bank account with one of the international banks in Brazil, namely Citibank, HSBC or Santander. Whilst these banks operate as completely separate entities in Brazil and offer no benefits for existing customers or lesser fees if you open an account with their contemporary in another country, international transfers are at least possible and a lot more straightforward. I am speaking to an agent (in English) with HSBC on Thursday and will report back on the process I go through in order to get this second account up and running.