Sending money to Hong Kong
 

My parents live in Hong Kong and I am in the US. I want to be able to send them money periodically but wiring money both costs money and is a pain. What is the easiest way to do this?

I was thinking opening a bank account in the US (maybe Schwab) and send them the ATM card in the mail. When I want to send money I can move money from my regular bank accounts to this special account, and having them take money out directly in HK using ATM. Would this work?

Thanks!

I have been hearing about this app called Transferwise that purports to save people transfer fees by aggregating transactions within and across countries. Also, I have previously used the international FX services of XE.com with success (wiring between your own accounts in different countries).

Sending an ATM card still incurs a x% fee so you're not escaping that.

No fees on the Charles Schwab account I believe. The only issue might be whether Schwab will be happy to see the card being used in HK all year round and never anywhere else? Also what happens if your parents lose the card, do you have a good explanation for why you're in the US but the card was used in HK as giving the card to someone else is probably a violation of their terms and conditions.

Transferwise is now called Wise and their fees are about 0.75% for US to HK.

If you and your parents have HSBC accounts you can try to open an HSBC HK account from the US, you can then use Global View to send USD to your HK account and then to your parents' account with no fees (at least for Premier. There used to be a small fee for Advance but they've now changed that to HSBC One which may have no fees, not sure). Your parents can then withdraw the USD cash and exchange it in HK for the best rate, or just use HSBC's slightly poorer exchange rate to exchange it in their (or your) account

HSBC US has sold all their non-Premier accounts so unless you're a Premier customer this won't work.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Wise seems like the best option here.

My Capital One 360 savings and checking account and ATM card continues to get international ATM withdrawals at interbank +0 rates.. I strongly recommend this.

No fees. No markup!

One other new thing to look at is Revolut which I believe has opened shop in the US. I had been using Wise for all my international transfers for years (including, as a HSBC Premier account holder, USD in HSBC Premier in Jersey to MYR in HSBC Premier in Malaysia because HSBC's internal exchange rates are so terrible even if they crudely mask it with no wire fees between Premier accounts) but earlier this year I started using Revolut (UK version) and now pay for the UKP120 a year Metal card (which you get back as cash back over the year) because (a) the exchange rates you get from USD to HKD or any of its other supported currencies are the same rate without fees you will see on xe.com and (b) there's no wire fee to send the currency (in your case your exchanged HKD) to the destination account. If you're doing this regularly then this will be by far and away the cheapest and most straightforward way of doing these transactions using the Revolut app.

I have now moved all my international banking transactions to Revolut and closed HSBC Premier in the UK, Jersey, Malaysia, and mainland China (okay, so the last is because I've moved from there and will never return and if I did I wouldn't bother with HSBC again).

I've been using my Schwab card for ATM withdrawals in China and HK for years. No fees and good fx rates. My standard withdrawal limit is $1000 per day but I can message them to get that removed for 24 hours whenever I want.