Bank wire
SWIFT looks cheap until SHA and FX show up
A published HSBC outgoing fee of tens of Hong Kong dollars is not the all-in cost. Correspondent banks take a slice on SHA instructions, the receiving tariff may clip another HK$60–150, and the board rate is not the mid-market rate.
Recipient gets
Models last reviewed 2026-09-16. Providers change tariffs without notice. This is a ledger, not a booking engine.
Pieces of a Hong Kong wire
- Sending fee + cable. HSBC HK personal online has been in the region of HK$50 plus a cable charge; branch is higher. Other banks differ.
- SHA vs OUR. SHA lets correspondents deduct from the principal. OUR pushes more cost onto the sender and still is not a guarantee of a full landing.
- Incoming fee. Traditional Hong Kong banks often charge on foreign credits; some virtual banks advertise zero incoming.
- FX. If the credit is converted to HKD, the spread is usually larger than a specialist’s mid-market print. A USD/EUR/GBP HSBC account avoids that conversion until you need HKD.
Use SWIFT when you need a bank-to-bank paper trail or the counterparty cannot pay locally. For repeating freelance or ad-network payouts, compare Wise vs PayPal and, for Google publishers, AdSense EFT, which is a local Hong Kong transfer, not SWIFT.