Direct from my US Relationship Manager:
The Premier World Mastercard credit card has a 0% foreign transaction fee, 0% interest on purchases for the first year until December 2nd of 2010 and almost 20% interest on cash advances (not recommended of course since all credit cards have a high APY when you do a cash advance).
The debit card will not incur a foreign transaction fee when you withdraw money from other banks internationally since it is a Premier card but the other banks will charge you a per withdrawal fee. If you withdraw from HSBC HK, you will not incur any fees whatsoever.
Our Premier Support team stated that Hang Seng may not be reimbursed.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
EMS SpeedPost = USPS Express Mail International
For people sending mail to the US via Hong Kong's EMS SpeedPost, the tracking number given is usable at the usps.com (US Postal Service) website once the package arrives in the US.
Of course, the Item No is trackable at the hongkongpost.com website.
Once your package arrives in the US, you can track it using the hongkongpost.com website or the usps.com website. The usps.com website will provide more info however.
For my package, USPS attempted a Saturday delivery to the title company which of course was unsuccessful. Additionally, a delivery notice wasn't left, so the title company had no reference no. to use to track the delivery attempt. I had to keep tracking the usps.com website and notify the title company that the delivery was unsuccessful, at which point someone from the title company went to their local post office to pickup the package. They had to email usps.com to get the reference no first.
Of course, the Item No is trackable at the hongkongpost.com website.
Once your package arrives in the US, you can track it using the hongkongpost.com website or the usps.com website. The usps.com website will provide more info however.
For my package, USPS attempted a Saturday delivery to the title company which of course was unsuccessful. Additionally, a delivery notice wasn't left, so the title company had no reference no. to use to track the delivery attempt. I had to keep tracking the usps.com website and notify the title company that the delivery was unsuccessful, at which point someone from the title company went to their local post office to pickup the package. They had to email usps.com to get the reference no first.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Notes on getting documents Notarized in Hong Kong
I got my HSBC closing docs a week ago and had to get a few of the docs notarized. Here are some of the things you should know.
1) You should first make an appointment to get your docs notarized at the US Consulate. You actually can walk in without an appointment (I had to do this since one of my docs wasn't marked properly so I had to go back for a walk in). They have a lunch break from 12-130PM so they'll make you wait outside until 130PM, then they give you a plastic placard to show that you are a walk-in.
2) It costs $30 USD for the first notarized document, $20 for each document thereafter.
3) Go through all your docs to make sure you know what you need to get notarized. Two of my docs had yellow stickies signifying that I had to get them notarized. But as I was signing and initial'ing the rest of my docs at the post office, I found one additional document that wasn't stickied at all. I ended up having to go back to the US Consulate the same day, without an appointment to get it signed. This added 2 hours to my ordeal.
4) While HSBC doesn't require your last two years tax returns, one of the forms they'll have you sign is a release giving them permission to get tax return transcripts direct from the US Government. I guess this is actually better for them as there's no opportunity to forge documents.
5) I paid HKD 127 to send the closing documents back to San Francisco by SpeedPost. They say it takes 3 days to get delivered, but in actuality, it takes 3 days to get back to the US and pass customs. From there it gets delivered to the local post office and delivered. If you take the breezeway to the Central Post Office, you'll need to go down one flight of stairs to send the parcel via SpeedPost as those are sent out from the ground floor.
1) You should first make an appointment to get your docs notarized at the US Consulate. You actually can walk in without an appointment (I had to do this since one of my docs wasn't marked properly so I had to go back for a walk in). They have a lunch break from 12-130PM so they'll make you wait outside until 130PM, then they give you a plastic placard to show that you are a walk-in.
2) It costs $30 USD for the first notarized document, $20 for each document thereafter.
3) Go through all your docs to make sure you know what you need to get notarized. Two of my docs had yellow stickies signifying that I had to get them notarized. But as I was signing and initial'ing the rest of my docs at the post office, I found one additional document that wasn't stickied at all. I ended up having to go back to the US Consulate the same day, without an appointment to get it signed. This added 2 hours to my ordeal.
4) While HSBC doesn't require your last two years tax returns, one of the forms they'll have you sign is a release giving them permission to get tax return transcripts direct from the US Government. I guess this is actually better for them as there's no opportunity to forge documents.
5) I paid HKD 127 to send the closing documents back to San Francisco by SpeedPost. They say it takes 3 days to get delivered, but in actuality, it takes 3 days to get back to the US and pass customs. From there it gets delivered to the local post office and delivered. If you take the breezeway to the Central Post Office, you'll need to go down one flight of stairs to send the parcel via SpeedPost as those are sent out from the ground floor.
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