Currency Account

A currency account is a way to store, send and receive multiple currencies.

The HSBC Currency Account is a way of managing money in foreign currency in a separate account.

You can:

Fees may apply if you send money to a non-HSBC account outside the UK.

• You can pay into your HSBC Currency Account by making a transfer from your HSBC sterling account, or from another bank account. You can do this online, in branch or over the phone. You can find your account details on your welcome letter, statement, or via online banking.
  
• You can withdraw money from your HSBC Currency Account by transferring money to your HSBC sterling account. You can do this online, in branch or over the phone
• Payments from your account can be arranged using our International Payment Service
• To pay in or withdraw cash, please visit a full service or cash service HSBC branch. For more information see Branch banking.

Please note:

• This account doesn’t have overdraft facilities. Please make sure you have sufficient funds in your account before making a payment or withdrawal
  
• We’ll be carrying out system maintenance from Saturday 22:00 – Sunday 08:00 (UK time). You may only have limited access to your HSBC Currency Account(s) during this time, if you’re accessing it through online banking
• During this maintenance period, you’ll be able to view your account but the balances and transactions may not be up to date. It also won’t be possible to make transfers to or from your HSBC Currency Account(s), or make payments from it

Payments out of your account

We don’t charge for any payments you make to other HSBC accounts. We also don’t apply any charges for payments in euros to another account in the EEA, regardless of the currency of your account.*

Please see the table below for charges applying to any other outbound payments in the currency of your account.

*European Economic Area includes Aland Islands, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portuga, Reunion, Romania, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, St-Martin, Sweden and Switzerland and UK.

International payments:

Online: up to £50,000 (or currency equivalent)

In branch: unlimited

Over the phone: unlimited for Premier customers, and up to £10,000 (or currency equivalent) for non-Premier customers

Transfers between your own HSBC accounts:

Online: up to £250,000 (or currency equivalent)

In branch: unlimited

Over the phone: unlimited

Note: transfers and international payments may not leave your account immediately. There’s no need to repeat the payments as you risk multiple debits from your account. 

Payments to accounts in the EEA in euro and sterling will normally be credited the next working day*. All other payments will normally take up to 4 working days* (but may take longer depending on the country the money is being sent to).

* subject to currency cut-off time and further checks, as from time to time we may need to conduct additional security checks to validate the payment.

If there have been no transactions in or out of your HSBC Currency Account for 24 months, it’s marked as ‘dormant’.

At this point it will disappear from your list of accounts in online banking.

If you see your account has gone dormant, please call us on 03457 404 404 or visit your local branch. We can reactivate your HCAs or transfer any remaining funds into another account. 

You can prevent your HSBC Currency Account from going dormant by making a transfer out of it at least twice a year to any other account.

It will then continue to appear in your list of accounts in online banking.

If it’s become dormant but you still want to use the account, simply call us on 03457 404 404 or visit your local branch. We can reactivate the account.