The rates are the same. How do we choose between the two?

Flip a coin?

HSBC:
A $3.00 transaction fee will be charged for each outbound transfer from your HSBC accounts to your non-HSBC accounts

OTOH, Emigrant is limited to two linked accounts.

There are no fees for any transfers for the Online HSBC account, Emigrant has a limit as far as linking external accounts go, HSBC has none, to link accounts with HSBC you don't have to mail in checks, with Emigrant you have to mail in for the additional links, HSBC allows you to link brokerage accounts, There are no hold periods on ACH transfers, as soon as your money appears in your account is available to you, and you have nothing to lose by opening a free checking account, there is a $50 bonus out there, you get free checks, you can transfer between the 2 account instantly, I keep $0 in my checking until I need to pay bills thats when I transfer the money over, there are no fees at all, only fee they charge should not affect anyone here, which is a inactivity fee, If you have no activity for 3 months your hit with a fee, but everybody pays bills, so... The only negative I can say is - Today I was in Queens NY, I had 3 checks on me, I been holding on to them for a while so when I saw an HSBC branch I said let me deposit these checks, I walk in, pick up an envelope to deposit through the ATM, the whole thing was written in Chinese! not part Chinese part English but all Chinese! look at the deposit slip and it was all in Chinese! look at the tellers and none of them are Chinese, now when I deposit this, how will they be able to read this? I guess it's no big deal, but I was really pissed, If there wasn't such a crowd I would have spoken to somebody, We really need to make the English the official language!!! It's an outrage! But as far as choosing between the 2 there really is no competition, HSBC hands down.

How long will HSBC 3.5% last? Ever since EmigrantDirect is open there rate is always going up

hiddendragon999 said:TonySpero said:I walk in, pick up an envelope to deposit through the ATM, the whole thing was written in Chinese! not part Chinese part English but all Chinese! look at the deposit slip and it was all in Chinese! look at the tellers and none of them are Chinese, now when I deposit this, how will they be able to read this? I guess it's no big deal, but I was really pissed, If there wasn't such a crowd I would have spoken to somebody, We really need to make the English the official language!!! It's an outrage! But as far as choosing between the 2 there really is no competition, HSBC hands down.

HSBC is a forward looking bank. Chinese will be the official international business language in just a few decades. There are already 4-5 times more Chinese speaking people than English speaking in the world today.

Lol! Good one!

Ironic that there's so much xenophobia in a thread about Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation & EmigrantDirect.

Sad that some have such a dim view of the US - we're so small and dumb that we can only survive as a monoglot culture. A country that spans a continent and encompasses such a variety of cultures and languages. No one remembers the hundreds of german language papers in the midwest or considers the role miami plays as the financial capital of latin america.

Better to hide in a cave.

manuel said:Ironic that there's so much xenophobia in a thread about Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation & EmigrantDirect.

Sad that some have such a dim view of the US - we're so small and dumb that we can only survive as a monoglot culture. A country that spans a continent and encompasses such a variety of cultures and languages. No one remembers the hundreds of german language papers in the midwest or considers the role miami plays as the financial capital of latin america.

Better to hide in a cave.

Your so far off, nobody says other languages are not welcome, you bring up German papers, they are targeted to Germans, If you walk into a bank in NYC, is it to much to ask to be able to conduct business in English?

hiddendragon999 said:Kikkoman said:hiddendragon999 said:
HSBC is a forward looking bank. Chinese will be the official international business language in just a few decades. There are already 4-5 times more Chinese speaking people than English speaking in the world today.

Thanks for that tip, hiddendragon ... I'll get right on it. To better fit into the larger culture, I'll stop brushing my teeth from today and chop Lassie for a nice meal tonight.


English speaking people are a world minority group. Furthermore, all future mortgage applications will be in Chinese as they are your lenders. Find the nearest Chinatown, and enroll your children now!

China is overrated, ultimately doomed to be done in by its demographics. The Chinese birth rate is below replacement levels and in the next 20 or 30 years the Chinese will have a higher percentage of people over 65 than the US. The US and Western Europe also have problems with an aging population, but they are rich and can afford the adjustment with some effort. China will be the first poor country to face this, and it is doubtful that they have the finanical wherewithal to support such an aging elderly population and continue strong economic growth. This is going to cause them severe problems in the future.

HSBC is not a Chinese bank. It's actually founded by a Scotsman and headquatered in London.

I walked in to HSBC in NY Chinatown, and there were writings in Chinese but the person that we spoke with spoke fluent english.