Chile Forum

From what I've read on this site I will greatly miss the automatic bill payment service in Santiago not for lack of availability but for lack of practicality. I will find out which days are best to line-up and pay bills directly, however...that is for bills due in Chile. I still need to pay bills in the USA and the salary will be paid in Chil$. I would like to know which bank or banks have been most effective for managing finances locally as well as transfering funds to USA banks.
On another note I read that savings accounts are ceasing to exist in chilean banks. Why? Where are those who do save putting their money?

patagoniax wrote: open a dollar account in Fondos Mutuos, potentially a useful method to warehouse dollar funds while waiting for residency and the additional punishment one receives from Chilean banks, or while waiting for a better rate for converting to pesos. Not sure if it beats stuffing bills into the mattress.

I smiled when I read this since it is exactly what we are doing. Better to stuff the mattress than dealing with the banks...IMHO. ( lack of trust )

I'm no expert, but I think in you situation, it could work to open an account with HSBC before you come here, as you can then easily open a local account with them and transfer money without fees between your USA (assuming that's where you are from?) and Chile accounts.

I wouldn't touch Santander with a 10-foot pole. I bank with Banco Chile and am happy with them, but we have preferential banking, so we get nannied, pretty much.

el puelche wrote:Gloria...where exactly do you live---and do you guys siesta?

p-andido

We just moved to Rapa Nui and although we don't siesta, we let loose the real sharks around the island.

Tombi wrote:I'm no expert, but I think in you situation, it could work to open an account with HSBC before you come here, as you can then easily open a local account with them and transfer money without fees between your USA (assuming that's where you are from?) and Chile accounts.

I have friends who recently moved to Stgo from the states. They opened an account with HSBC in the US before they left, as they were told it would be easiest for transfers, and if they had an account in the US, it would be easy to open an account with HSBC in Chile. Not so.

They had a nightmare of a time convincing HSBC they could even open an account, let alone getting the type of account they wanted. In the end it would have been far easier to go with their relocation agent to Banco de Chile. That said, it is often a nightmare to open accounts in chile, but if you have a contact (hence the relocation agent) it is much easier. I am sure now that they have the account open, transferring funds will ultimately be easier, though they have not tested that theory yet. We're with Banco de Chile, and transfer funds (back to aus) semi-regularly (a few times a year) and have yet to have a problem. Fees for transfer have been between 0.2 and 0.6 %, and the transfer generally takes 3 working days due to the need for an intermediary bank (this is where presumably HSBC would be a better option - a direct transfer from what I have been told, not confirmed).

We like the bank that will open you an account as a foreigner and keep it open. That changes with the wind in Chile.

You need to open a premium account with HSBC in order for them to open you an account in Chile, not just their regular local account. Think the minimum balance is something like 30,000-50,000 US I believe depending on what country you open it in.

Also, if you are moving wires back and forth, you are going to want to watch out for the paperwork. You might send one or two, or perhaps a dozen, without a problem, and boom they will close your account because someone decides to not do the paperwork. Normally going out of the country is not much of a problem, in bound is where all the banks get flaky.

Most of those problems I should add go away if you have permanent residency and job. It is the new arrivals that have the problems with the banks for the most part.

I would be careful about HSBC. When I heard they were opening here I thought I´d change to them and hopefully end up with some kind of decent service, but fortunately never got around to it. I can´t recall on which topic in this forum that I saw a recent comment from Simone, who did just like others here say you can do, ie open an account outside and then have no problems here. The problem is that the Chile end is apparently a complete disaster; so much so that he closed his account- HSBC weren´t even interested in the reason why, and he now is trying BCI. I´m with BCI and Banco Edwards. I wouldn´t "recommend" either them or Santander here for that matter; it´s more a matter of making do with what´s available. It seems with HSBC that when they opened, their idea was to attract the top end expats etc, but the problem was that instead of doing the job properly and either bring staff from abroad or alternatively take local staff with no experiecne and send them away to be taught how to do a decent job,they just took staff from other local banks who had already been indoctrined into the politics of Chilean banks, and hence offer the same lousy service as all the other banks.

admin wrote:Most of those problems I should add go away if you have permanent residency and job. It is the new arrivals that have the problems with the banks for the most part.

We are not moving until my company finishes the process of starting an entity there. We were told the process should be completed in a month or so. Once done, I will be signing a new contract to be employed by the new local office. The problem will be during the time that my family moves and our furniture "arrives". We will not be moving into a home without furniture, so no residency. Thankfully we will have access to a relocation company, so I hope that they should help us through the hoops of getting a bank account.

paladin wrote: I saw a recent comment from Simone,

Yes, that was me.
I was delighted when HSBC opened here as I bank with them abroad and thought this could only be positive....however after a list of problems too long to go into, I will only say that it was my worst banking experience (not being able to see my statements on line, money not being given at the ATM but still taken out of account, a credit taking 4 months and it goes on!). I finally decided to close the account as it became evident that their processes just are do not appear to be working and coupled with inefficient customer service I had enough. I definitely think they are experiencing start-up problems and they will hopefully (surely?) iron these out but I no longer wanted to be the guinea pig. Maybe I was just unlucky and someone else can share a positive experience about them, otherwise I would suggest waiting another 6 months+ until they sort out their problems or start hearing some good comments about them.

First, It has come to our attention to stay away from HSBC; not only from reported possible violations, but that I don’t trust these days ANY bank that is predominantly anchored in New York. Here is a report >>>”LONDON—The U.S. unit of HSBC Holdings PLC is being investigated for possible violations of anti-money laundering rules and other federal laws, according to a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday”. From> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 48682.html …
Secondly, my wife is a native of Chile and I am about to receive my permanent residency. We recently had planned to use BCI, due to our daughter being also a native and her family with years of services by BCI. However, just a month ago we transferred just under $10,000 cash via USAA bank into BCI for exchange into pesos. Took the pesos to an automotive agent Fallabella account for a deposit and it would not accept the pesos cash. The reason: BCI gave all bills with stamped/initialed markings; we went back to BCI and it would not issue us a clean pack of new bills. They would not even offer to our daughter’s account clean new bills, a 10 year account with more deposit than our cash.. .. We too would like to know of a better bank, if anyone can recommend.
HECK

Took the pesos to an automotive agent Fallabella account for a deposit and it would not accept the pesos cash

You could have used a vale vista which is safer then carrying round a bagful of cash.

We have been with BCI for almost 20 years. They are crap. We haven't changed because none of the other banks are any better.