[PumpkinSpice]

A single retail account is of no consequence to a national bank that has tens of millions of customers. It doesn't matter if you're spending $10 or $50,000 a month. They care about you as an individual about as much as Google cares about a single Gmail account. If an algorithm flags you as potential trouble, off you go.

If you want better service, there are two ways. One is to be an ultra high net worth individual. But the threshold for that is pretty high - from what I recall, real private banking nowadays starts around $5M to 10M in assets with a single institution. The term "millionaire" doesn't mean as much as it did in the 1990s.

The other option is to go with a small local bank or a credit union. If you're in a CU with 10,000 members, it's a lot easier to resolve problems or discuss unique circumstances.

[KRAKRISMOTT]

For pseudo private banking, HSBC Premier is decent if you travel often to Europe or Asia. They are basically Wise for HNWs with a dash of money laundering thrown in.

[robocat]

Private banking can be easier in other countries, so long as you're not a US citizen. e.g. New Zealanders https://www.anz.co.nz/personal/private-bank/

  high net worth New Zealanders from a diverse range of backgrounds. Typically our clients have at least $1.5 million to invest, or significant lending with a personal annual income of $400,000 or more. *Additional income criteria may apply

[gnicholas]

Looks like they have a $50 monthly account maintenance fee, unless you have $75k on deposit, a qualifying mortgage, or $5k in monthly direct deposit. I guess the latter is the easiest, but this is significantly more onerous than any bank I've looked at.

[KRAKRISMOTT]

$75K/$5K per month is a very low threshold for private banking, other banks usually require somewhere in the three digits range.

[gnicholas]

What's the additional value beyond what you'd get with a standard checking account? As GP said, this is like pseudo-private banking. [1]

1: https://www.us.hsbc.com/checking-accounts/products/premier/

[KRAKRISMOTT]

You get priority support for telephone banking and you get a dedicated account manager (not sure if it's a fully accredited banker). You are automatically classified as one of the highest tiered customers for them and can get preferred rates etc. on many other services. Aside from HNW individuals, they also traditionally cater to "expats", which is a fancy British word for high income white collar professionals/digital nomads who either travel frequently or have foreign residencies for business. Your Premier status is global; you can easily create accounts at overseas branches with the same Premier privileges and (possibly credit history transfer too) and fund transfers between accounts are free, though I believe their conversion rates are not necessarily as competitive as a proper brokerage like Interactive Brokers. HSBC's premier service has been around long before the likes of Transferwise.

HSBC operates a bit like a franchise, each country's branch has to abide by domestic regulations but internally customers with Premier status are basically VIPs and get expedited during account opening at overseas branches. If I remember correctly, they generally take into account all of your assets with the bank including e.g. loans and mortgages etc. when banking. They don't only look at your cash assets when conferring Premier status. So if you have a house or car loan with them you can easily attain Premier.

[michaelt]

> they also traditionally cater to "expats", which is a fancy British word for high income white collar professionals/digital nomads who either travel frequently or have foreign residencies for business.

"Expats" is also used for elderly retirees moving to the Costa Del Sol, so IME it's not a particularly high-income or white-collar term.

Now, if you were talking about "non-doms" that would be a different matter :)

Of course, I agree that a bank accustomed to dealing with expatriates would probably be understanding of someone spending a lot of time in another country.