Will those cheques clear as quickly as local ones or are we looking at a substantial clearing period due to them being in a foreign currency?
All local clearing USD checks are cleared though USD Cheque Truncation System (CTS). The cutoff time is 1pm, and the clearing period is two working days.
Also, won't there be any charges for clearing a foreign currency cheque to either of those accounts?
All other local banks clear local USD checks for free *except* HSBC (who charges USD5 for each local USD check).
I would check this as bank transfers in other currencies are treated as international transfers, hopefully cheques are easier to deal with and don't attract the same fees.
It's only possible to move USD via checks locally. All other currencies can only be moved between banks via TT.
HSBC is actually one of the better banks you could be with - they offer a proper MCY account with very good online exchange rates, plus in other countries their spreads are even tighter. And if you have Premier status then you can make transfers between accounts in different countries for free, and best of all the funds are credited instantaneously. So even though it takes them some time to process a transfer from one continent to the next, you will see the funds moved between your accounts in different countries in just seconds.
No interest? Big deal. Nobody gives any interest nowadays that would be worth looking at. Cash withdrawals are at 0.75% with a min of S$25, not a huge problem for the convenience but there is a fee nonetheless.
Of all the banks I've used, unfortunately, I've found HSBC to be one of the worst. They were the only bank that I decided to close all my accounts after just 8 months.
Also, HSBC offers one of the *worst* exchange rates, with possibly the highest buy-sell spread among banks here.
The following are the USD TT buy/sell rates from various local banks taken just a few minutes ago:
Buy; Sell; (Spread); Bank
1.2456 1.2846 (3.04%) HSBC
1.2527 1.2786 (2.03%) Citibank
1.2560 1.2755 (1.53%) OCBC
1.2580 1.2750 (1.33%) UOB
1.2569 1.2729 (1.26%) DBS
1.2570 1.2730 (1.26%) BOC
In other words, with HSBC, for every USD10k you receive and convert to SGD, you receive SGD113 less, and for every USD10k that you send, you pay SGD117 more; when compared with DBS.
A number of banks offer 'proper' MCY accounts - Citibank, UOB, and DBS, just to name a few.
Citibank offers free Global Transfers between your accounts too; and DBS's multi currency account (supposedly?) allows you to withdraw foreign currency notes without any fees.