HSBC UK/AU Global Transfer to Maintain Premier Status
Without an Australian local bank account, use HSBC UK's AUD account and Global Transfer to complete the monthly A$9,000 deposit requirement and maintain HSBC AU Premier.
As long as the HSBC Premier in the main relationship country meets the requirements, all associated HSBC accounts in other countries are unconditionally upgraded to Premier with no monthly fees. I am based in Vancouver. After HSBC Canada was acquired by RBC in March 2024, I no longer have a local RM available, and subsequent accounts were all opened remotely.
The UK address and Australian address come from local relatives and friends who can collect mail.
UK-AU HSBC Account Opening Sequence
I applied for HSBC UK first. At that time, I did not know that I could apply for Premier directly in the UK, so I went through the regular account path. After a while, I applied for HSBC AU and logged into the UK account when applying. Initially, I automatically received an upgrade invitation after maintaining A$9,000 for three months.
HSBC AU Premier Maintenance Requirements
HSBC AU has two ways to maintain Premier: deposit A$9,000 per month into a transaction or savings account, or maintain an asset balance of A$150,000. The lowest-cost method is clearly the former.
HSBC US maintenance condition is monthly direct deposit of U$5,000, which also belongs to the easy-to-achieve tier.
However, HSBC AU’s terms state that the deposit must come from an external account, not transfers between other HSBC AU accounts.
There are many online tutorials teaching how to ACH withdraw from US brokers to HSBC US. Information on using similar paths with HSBC AU to maintain Premier is much less available.
No Australian Local Bank Account
Most Australian banks are connected to the border system. If you cannot prove that you are actually in Australia, account opening is basically not allowed. I do not have any other Australian bank account.
So I confirmed a key question with HSBC AU customer service: if the deposit comes from HSBC in another country, does it count as an external account. The customer service gave an affirmative answer.
UK HSBC AUD Account
HSBC UK provides an AUD account. After opening it, my maintenance method is as follows:
Every month, transfer A$9,000 from HSBC AU to HSBC UK’s AUD account via Global Transfer, then a few days later transfer it back to HSBC AU via Global Transfer using the same route. Both transfers are same-name Global Transfers between HSBC Premier accounts with zero fees.
Operate once a month, repeating the cycle.
Setting the Main Relationship Account
Each country’s HSBC account only records whether it is the main relationship account, and does not care which country the main relationship account is actually in. If you need to modify the main relationship account, contact the RMs of the original main relationship account country and the new main relationship account country respectively. Accounts in other countries do not need to be handled.