Airwallex vs. HSBC: Why I Fired My Bank Manager
You know, I’ve been running this small import/export thing for a good few years now. Nothing too massive, but enough to keep me busy and pay the bills. When I started out, naturally, I went straight to the big guns: HSBC. They’re everywhere, they’re “stable,” and honestly, back then, I thought that’s just what you did—you banked with a high street name.
Things were fine for the first year. Standard business account, decent local branch manager—a guy named Gary. We’d grab a coffee sometimes, he’d talk about golf, I’d talk about shipping delays. Pretty straightforward business relationship, or so I thought.
The trouble started when I really ramped up my sourcing from Asia. Suddenly, I was dealing with multiple currencies daily, not just USD and GBP, but Yen, Euro, you name it. And every single time I needed to move money internationally, HSBC hit me with a ridiculous transfer fee and an exchange rate that felt like a mugging.
I wasn’t just losing pennies; I was losing serious chunks of profit on every single large payment. I tried to talk to Gary about it. I went into the branch, sat down, and showed him my recent statements. I asked, “Gary, surely there’s a better rate structure for businesses doing this volume? Maybe a tiered fee structure?”
Gary just shrugged. He pulled up their corporate brochure on his screen, which looked ancient, and mumbled something about “standard operating procedure” and “interbank rates.” He tried to sell me a ridiculously complicated hedging product that I clearly didn’t need, which felt like a massive red flag. He wasn’t solving my problem; he was trying to sell me more of their expensive services.
I started looking around out of pure frustration. I talked to other people in my industry at trade shows. Everyone was whispering about these new FinTech platforms. Initially, I was skeptical. They felt too… digital. Too removed. I like seeing a physical branch, even if I rarely use it.
But the numbers didn’t lie. I researched three main players. I even opened a test account with one of them—Revolut Business—just to see how it worked. It was okay, slick user interface, but the compliance documentation felt intense, and the customer support wasn’t immediately responsive when I had a setup question.
Then I stumbled onto Airwallex. Someone on a forum highly recommended them for APAC transactions. I figured, what the heck, let’s give it a shot. Setting up the account was shockingly fast. I uploaded my business registration, my ID, and within 48 hours, I was verified and ready to go.
Here’s the thing that absolutely blew my mind:
- The Exchange Rate: When I compared the Airwallex rate right then and there to the rate HSBC was offering me after Gary’s “corporate discount,” Airwallex was miles better. They were almost at the mid-market rate, charging a tiny, transparent margin.
- The Fees: Flat, low transfer fees, or sometimes even zero fees for certain corridor transfers. No hidden surprises.
- The Speed: Payments that used to take 3-5 days via SWIFT through HSBC were often hitting my supplier’s account in Asia within 24 hours, sometimes faster.
I ran a three-month parallel experiment. I moved about 60% of my international payments through Airwallex and kept the remaining 40% with HSBC just to compare figures. The result was indisputable. I was saving thousands of dollars a month. That money went straight back into inventory and growth.
After three months, I called Gary. I didn’t go into the branch; I just called him directly. I told him I was shifting all my international banking away from HSBC because their fees were excessive and their technology was antiquated. He tried to offer me a slight, fractional discount—maybe 0.05% better on the exchange rate—but by then, it was too late.
“Gary,” I said, “You had two years to sort this out. I asked you directly, and you pushed me towards products I didn’t need. This isn’t about loyalty; it’s about good business.”
I closed that part of the relationship right there. I still keep a small local business account with HSBC for petty cash and local check deposits, because sometimes you still need a physical building, but all the serious money movement, the operational heart of my business, is now safely handled by Airwallex. I essentially fired my bank manager because he couldn’t keep up with what the modern market was offering.