I opened BMO checking accounts (USD & CAD) with a room I was renting by the week as an address and no permanent residence or Canadian Social Insurance #.

Is this true? I had a Premier rep tell me that you have to deposit 100k initially and you can't just open the account with the intention of paying the fee indefinitely.

So HSBC Premier doesnt have a problem with poker?

It's up to each rep as I guess. I only have 80k and she said not to worry about. I need to get 20k in soon to avoid the penalty. She told me that it's up to each rep to decide when to close an account for being under 100k; she told me if I didn't care about the $50/month fee, she wouldn't close it (I could keep 80k on there and not deposit more)

I'm an equity analyst consultant. The money will be going from ewallet to foreign account. Then a bank transfer to my US account. The foreign account will be fine and the US account will only receive money from my other HSBC account. I pay my taxes so I could care less about being audited (if you don't report the majority of your winnings, Premier is really bad for you).

So you're going to connect your pokerstars account to an ewallet and move funds like that? Then from that ewallet move funds to your HSBC account in which you transfer back to your USA account? i'm guessing that's why you recommended the premier account so that you can do this whenever you wanted from any location?

IDK which part you are asking about....

You don't have to be Premier to get a bank account in a foreign country. You can pay $200 and they will do it for you (if you have a normal HSBC account). The problem is

(1) You pay all fees (exchange, wires, etc..)

(2) Your accounts aren't linked. When I sign into my account, I see both of them. Premier treats your individual foreign accounts like your standard US checking and savings account; you can move money around with 1 click.

The ewallet will obviously work with any foreign account, but the ability to have all my accounts, foreign and domestic, linked is pretty awesome.

Log in to your Wells Fargo bank account and you will see all your US accounts (Savings, checking, etc)

When I log into my Premier account, I see all accounts (Premier US checking, Premier CA Checking, etc....). It's easy to transfer money from your US checking to savings.... it's the same for all foreign accounts with Premier. No wire fees, exchange fees, etc.. (I still need to get more clarification on the waiver of exchange fees since that seems too good to be true).

right, ok, sounds good. ill look into getting one. and yeah i like sleeping at night not worrying about the IRS.

steel, you should make it clear you are unaware whether your HSBC account will be able to receive large withdrawals from an ewallet. there have been reports of them seeking the specific source of the funds once you start cashing out, and that didn't go well for those posters.

Impossible for me to test since I can't activate my CA account (would have to fly to Toronto and sign paperwork).

The easiest solution is having your rep open a Hong Kong Premier account for you; the process is done without you going there. I have high doubts that the HK HSBC would care about money being moved from ewallets. If I go this route (my second option), I'll ask the HK branch specifically regarding ewallets and cashouts; I'll update if I go this route.

Has anyone looked into the HSBC "advance" account? The requirements are easier to meet (25k, have 1 year to reach?) than the premiere account and you can set it up without being in Canada. http://www.hsbc.ca/1/2/en/personal/i...l-services-new

Aside from my skepticism that you will be able to use your hsbc account for serious poker transactions, I do just have a question. Can you send from a Moneybookers account attached to a Canadian address to a bank outside of Canada? I would have expected that you needed to send from within your country of residence (Canada), but that was just pure speculation.

Has anyone successfully deposited or cashed out money since relocating?

+1

This is starting to worry me. I really have no idea how I will be able to withdraw once I make it to Canada, since I have no CSIN.

What about withdrawing via check? Could that work?

it really depends on what type of future withdrawals you intend. if you are a HSNL player and win HS type money, you have a lot to worry about, if not, not so much. there are options out there for HSNL/MSNL winners out there and there is a chance these Canadian accounts will work out, but i wouldn't bet the house on it..

???? I have sent 3 emails to moneybookers about this and no response yet. Worst case scenario, I'll wire the money directly. HK doesn't care......

I've cashed out two checks and did two MB withdrawals. I've received one check 2Kish, deposited at BMO, and funds are available in my account. Other check on the way. The two MB withdrawals were processed and in my MB account within a couple hours but haven't hit my bank account yet - going on about 3 days now since the first withdrawal from MB. I'm planning on depositing my 2nd check at HSCB.

Ugh. 2k or a few 2k withdrawals doesn't really do anything to make many feel comfortable. I would not anticipate a bank noticing a few tiny cash outs. If you do 50 of them in a shortish period of time though, or much bigger ones, report back!

I wouldn't anticipate them noticing a 2-4K cashout either.

If you're concerned with too much money coming into one bank, then open 10 different bank accounts and take turns withdrawing to each one.

I feel comfortable. The bottom line is that they'll always be some way to get our money from Poker Stars. Neither Poker Stars or the banks are going to abscond with it.

And why would anyone do a much bigger withdrawal at this point? Do that in the US. Are you trying to say 2-4K/Day isn't enough?

I never received my address verification letter from MB that I requested on May 11, so I emailed MB a copy of my cable bill and they accepted that and verified my address.

I also was looking into other options than the hsbc premier account because I dont have 100k laying around. The advance account seems like it could be an option and i also found offshore accounts with lloyd TSB that have an even smaller minimum balance of 5k. If I were to setup an offshore account, would that make it much easier to cash out since the poker site would no longer have to deal with a US bank? Couldn't I just wire the money from my poker account to the offshore bank account or is it not that simple?

Also i read in another thread that someone tried to open an HSBC account but was denied because they were a professional poker player. Did any of you guys with an HSBC account list poker as your profession or do you have another job that you listed instead?

lol, this is HSNL. Some people anticipate making a lot of money. Good luck cashing out 2k a day every day without getting noticed. If you are a low stakes guy who occasionally cashes out 2-4k, as I said earlier, I would say you have very little to worry about. That sounds like your situation and there is nothing at all wrong with that.

Banks, however, are not stupid. If you cash out 200k in one transfer or in 100 straight days of 2k, you will be noticed either way. As an American without any official Canadian residence, in that scenario, you do have something to worry about. Maybe the banks won't care, but there is good chance they will and to not be prepared for that would be pointless.

I'm not a NL player at all actually, I'm a high stakes limit player. These types of threads don't exist in the limit section. Are there really that many NL players that are making so much that 2-4K a day isn't sufficient?

I understand your point but you just keep reiterating the same thing over and over, post after post. We all understand there's a risk. The worst that's going to happen is the bank closes your account and cuts you a check for your balance. It just happened to me in the US before I left. No biggie, I went to a different bank the next morning and opened a new account. That's why I think it's smart to open several accounts.

They'll always be a way to get our money from a poker site.