HSBC has just launched a new product called Zing It focused on international remittances to better compete with fintech companies such as wise (formerly TransferWise) and revolution.
Bloomberg books The app has been on its way to the App Store and Play Store for a few days. It’s now officially rolled out, so let’s take a look at what HSBC offers and whether it’s actually a competitive service. Zing is completely separate from HSBC’s existing banking products. You don’t need an HSBC bank account to use Zing.
Zing also has a completely different approach to foreign exchange as it is relatively transparent when it comes to fees. You can see the exchange rate and conversion fees at any time in the app or On the Zing website.
As the wise CEO Christo Karman He pointed at the XThis is a departure from HSBC’s regular banking products since the company has a bad habit of including hidden foreign exchange markups when transferring money from one currency to another. “Today, HSBC charges its customers a 3.7% fee in the form of hidden foreign exchange markups for ‘free’ euro transfers,” Carman wrote.
Zing customers can currently hold funds in their accounts in ten different currencies – GBP, EUR, SGD, USD, CAD, JPY, NZD, Hong Kong Dollar, Australian Dollar and UAE Dirham. However, Zing is currently limited to customers living in the UK
When they open an account, they can top up their wallet with GBP through open banking, bank transfer or debit card payment. Euro wallets also come with bank details, meaning Zing customers can receive Single Euro Area (SEPA) payments directly to their Euro wallet. This will be beneficial for Britons working in Europe temporarily or permanently.
On this front, Wise’s offering is much better as customers can get their local bank details to receive money from other people (or yourself) from Dozens of countries.
This has also been a major advantage against Revolut as the company only provides banking information in your local country. “As an existing customer, if your new country of residence has a Revolut branch, you will need to close your account and reopen it again as a new account if you wish to maintain a local IBAN for that country,” Revolut says in its report. Support documents.
When it comes to sending money, Zing has your back Dozens of currencies – More currencies than the ten mentioned above. You enter the recipient’s banking information and can then send them money in their local currency.
Finally, when it comes to the exchange rate, Zing is actually cheaper than HSBC. When you convert GBP to EUR, Zing charges an exchange fee of 0.6%. Wise charges about 0.45% for the same lane.
Revolut is a bit different as fees may vary depending on your subscription plan. The company charges a 1% fee after an exchange limit of £1,000 per month for free accounts. Plus accounts can exchange up to £3,000 per month with no exchange fees. They are then charged 0.5%.
Premium, Metal and Ultra customers do not pay an exchange fee, but do pay £7.99 to £45 per month in subscription fees. It’s also worth noting Revolut’s fees 1% markup fee On foreign exchange during weekends – no matter your plan.
Zing charges different fees to other currencies. For example, the USD to GBP exchange fee is also 0.6%, but the company charges 0.75% for USD to EUR conversions.
What I like about Zing’s fees is that you mostly have to focus on those exchange fees. Pretty much everything else is included otherwise. Incoming bank payments are free and outgoing bank transfers cost nothing other than a transfer fee.
For example, if you use Wise to convert USD to EUR, you’ll only pay a 0.552% conversion fee, but there’s an additional fee for incoming ACH or USD wire transfers.
Zing customers also get a Visa debit card that they can use with any currency wallet. As long as you have funds in that wallet, there are no fees for card payments. However, if Zing has to transfer funds from another wallet because your local wallet balance is insufficient, the company will add a 1% currency conversion fee on top of the Visa exchange rate. In this scenario, Zing is very expensive.
Overall, Zing is a compelling alternative to Wise. In some cases, it will be a little more expensive than Wise. In other cases, it may be the opposite. Naturally, it will be important to know whether HSBC plans to maintain these low exchange fees for the long term or whether these are just introductory rates.
Currently, Zing’s coverage is very limited as it can only be used by people living in the UK. But expats and frequent travelers will appreciate a new competitor in this space.