It's been a crazy couple of months settling into a new country (or "Special Administrative Region," to be precise). As of early November, the weather has turned from deathly hot and humid to something that resembles more of a normal summer, which we are very grateful for. The local perspective on this weather shift is quite mind boggling to me though. As I walk the streets in normal summer apparel like shorts and a tank top, many people have busted out their fluffy UGG boots and sweaters. It's still a solid 80-85 degrees Fahrenheit at least each day though! It might just be that I'm 8 months pregnant, but I can't even look at these overdressed crazies without feeling hot and uncomfortable. We'll see what December and January bring, but I'm thinking it might be a few years before my sweaters see the light of day. Other transition developments include: Knowing where to go to buy yogurt for less than $4 USD per individual yogurt, finding a way to walk to Isla’s school with only about 15 stairs, which officially makes it “stroller friendly,” and learning to cook with lemongrass! I’d say we’re pretty much nailing it.
While ex-pat life is never exactly normal, we have definitely found our routine and figured many of the important things out. So, I've used this bit of slight extra time on my hands to try out a new hobby of some international money laundering. I just get such a thrill out of hiding money in my savings account from fake business ventures while Isla naps!
...Or so that's what our bank would have you believe! When we first moved abroad, we selected a large international bank for our all primary accounts as we knew there would be some odd transfers and the need for lots of various currency cash withdrawals, and, not to call anyone out, but we are currently less than thrilled with this bank that starts with "H" and ends with "SBC!"
Sure, we’ve had inflows to our account like US rental income, the insurance claim settlement for damaged items in the move from a Hong Kong company, and health insurance claim money from an Australian obstetrician's office, to name a few. And these transactions have been coupled with daily maximum cash withdrawals in Hong Kong dollars - you know, to pay our electric and water bills at 7-Eleven, of course! The sheer volume of odd transactions apparently hit some unacceptable threshold with the bank. However, instead of calling us, HSBC apparently thought it best to shut down all of our accounts and restrict all access to cash last week. Aaaaahhhh! This isn’t the first time a bank or credit card blocked our access or suspected fraud (in fact, this is a pretty regular occurrence), but it was certainly the most severe! Many phone calls and escalation to bank management later, this has now mostly been resolved. It’s a tricky thing though as we’ve entered a vicious cycle that goes like this:
- We try to open a Hong Kong bank account so we can transfer money in HKD to pay our bills. Every time we try, they say there is some piece of information we haven’t demonstrated fully. We say screw it and go out for a good Thai lunch instead.
- We have to pay all our bills in HK cash without an account, so we take cash out of the ATM daily.
- The bank sees the above as suspicious and shuts down our accounts.
- We fix the issue and go back to the bank. Last time, we had a bill in my name but not in Nate’s. This time we have both, but realise Nate’s HR team has my passport for 2 weeks because I am in need of a China visa (which we need to do now because I’ll need it back by the time the baby’s born in a few weeks in order to apply for US citizenship and a passport for him/her.)
- Back to the ATM!
Okay, so maybe we are only partially nailing it. We figure, by the time our finances, passports and visas are in order, it will probably be time to move again!
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| Happy belated Halloween from Princess Elsa (and my prince!) |
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