For folks who have a premier banking relationship with Bank of America, there are no ATM or foreign exchange fees for withdrawing cash or using their debit card. HSBC promises the same for their Premier customer, but here are the results of a test I did in China earlier this month:

I did two sets of simultaneous transactions at the same time, one with HSBC and another with Bank of America, to see if there were “hidden” charges. Here are the results:

First transaction: Credit card purchase of 800 yuan: HSBC statement shows $120.44, Bank of America $120.38. Very close.

Second transaction: ATM withdrawal at HSBC-owned ATM machine of 2500 yuan: HSBC account shows a debit of $378.90, Bank of America $376.15. This surprised me. Maybe HSBC is using a different conversion rate?