Personal accounts in Singapore\Hong Kong

[Silvio]

All HK banks require personal visit.

" Do you know if I can create a‌ bank account in China, from ICBC's branch in another country? "
I've seen branches of‍ ICBC in other countries but no idea if you can open accounts there and if⁠ they will open you an account in China - I guess that the answer is⁤ no.

 

[zeytin]

I managed to open Standard Chartered back in 2012 in HK. Their online banking was‌ so poor, I hardly transferred my 1000 USD initial deposit back to my local bank‍ (it doesn't say how much it'll cost to send a Swift, so transaction fail etc)⁠

It is probably closed due to inactivity and they were interested to sell me some⁤ investment products. I believe if you are desperate enough, you can always open an account⁣ with them if you accept investment products.

Perhaps they renovated their shitty online banking in⁢ the past 8 years.

PS: They refused to open a business account for my newly︀ created HK company at that time (while Citibank accepted me because I had an IPB︁ Citibank individual account at Singapore with some money in it). The guy told me the︂ only way they're going to open a business account is if I get a better︃ CPA for secretarial services (maybe he meant also a solid business plan with more details?︄ I don't remember) plus they asked me to invest some percentage of Turnover with them︅ into anything (stocks, timed deposits, etc). They were against withdrawing whole money in and out.︆

 

[JohnLocke]

Do you live in China or how did you managed to open an IPB account‌ with Citibank? I tried them in a few different countries but never got success with‍ it.

 

[ontherun]

WHen I tried to open with ICBC Asia they refused. I was considered too high‌ risk. I came back a few months later with a Chinese girl who I gave‍ CNY10000 so she would open the account, hand me the documents and go shopping or⁠ something. They opened it based on her documents and I've been using the account ever⁤ since. It's going quite well. The only danger was caused when I called their phone⁣ line one day and the person on the other side of the line noticed that⁢ the account was opened by a female, while I have a male voice doh948"" close call...︀

 

[ontherun]

BTW I was able to have the address changed to my Georgian address, and they‌ do send letters and replacement cards to my Georgian address all the way from Hong‍ Kong...

 

[JohnSeed]

So you fooled a Chines Girl to get her documents and to open an account‌ in her name, I wonder if she still is a live! It's the same model‍ as often discussed on this forum with the homeless! You may have had a even⁠ better idea.

The question is how long this will work, I know China has a⁤ very good control of their people and monitor them almost 24/7/365.

 

[zeytin]

I opened it in Singapore back in 2011. Things⁠ were easy back then. Min deposit was 20k usd and they wanted you to deposit⁤ it in 90 days. When you fall back that amount, no problem. They started to⁣ charge 30 usd a month for balance less than that amount then increased to 50⁢ USD. However, new requirements are much higher than that so they keep charging 50 usd︀ a month but I'm happy to pay for it.

 

[JohnLocke]

Yeah okay, back in 2011 it was possible to open a Cyprus bank account with‌ darks in less then 20 min 😀

I thought it was in our decade you have‍ done that 😉 Anyway, thank you for your feedback.

 

[Martin Everson]

I was watching and‍ thinking the same thing. 2011 verse 2020 is night and day 😕. 99% of the⁠ accounts I opened a decade ago I could not do so now.

 

[ontherun]

I don't do anything remotely sketchy with the account. I mostly just collect deposit⁢ interest. I would like to manufacture spend so that I qualify for one of the︀ Hong Kong VISA Platinum cards but this seemed to be difficult without being there