I have sent international transfers into Gox through both your HSBC and Sumitomo bank accounts, and I have found that Sumotimo/Sumitomo's intermediate bank almost always takes a very large cut in processing and conversion fees - between 4% - 10%. I am sure I am not the only person this has happened to. By comparison, HSBC have always been extremely cheap (less than 1%).
MagicalTux can you please get your HSBC account reinstated, it would save a lot of bitcoiners a lot of money. I would much rather my money go towards supporting the bitcoin price than supporting Sumitomo's bottom line.
Hi,
The intermediate bank depends on your own bank, not the receiving bank. Also there should be
no conversion fees, unless your bank messes up something. The only fee that should appear in a perfect world (ie. for example when sending from a major US bank) is our reception fee of ¥1000.
HSBC officially stated that they do not want to see anything related close or far to bitcoin, and kicked out. We asked if it'd be possible to get back in and got politely told that it wouldn't happen anytime soon.
Mark
Thanks for the response MagicalTux. That is interesting news about HSBC. If HSBC have indeed sworn off bitcoin, would you consider opening an extra bank account with another more bitcoin-friendly bank? Having only one bank account for accepting international wire transfers seems a bit precarious to me - what if sumitomo decided to take the same line as HSBC? Also, I think it would help in alleviating the large international wire transfer and conversion fees that many of us are experiencing. Just a suggestion.