Looking for a Hong Kong online business bank account that you can connect your Paypal and Stripe / Braintree merchant account to?

Wouldn’t that be amazing, without the utter nightmare Hong Kong business owners are going through now begging these archaic banks to allow them to deposit their money?

We here at Global From Asia know the pain that you, our entrepreneurs and hard working global business owners have been going through. As digital nomads; e-commerce sellers and FBA business owners, we feel the pain ourselves. This is why our clients for our corporate services enjoy working with us. We understand you.

And we also know that the biggest pain point for almost 2 years now has been – such a basic need – a business account solution in Hong Kong.

One with credit cards for you and your staff. Or, one that can link to your Paypal and Stripe.

We’ve been testing so many and been talking to so many – and today we’ll be talking about one we’ve been following for years.

So I am focusing today on their business product – Neat Business Account (technically not a bank, but a HK banking alternative). I know exactly what you guys are looking for – and here is a list of their features:

Unique Account / IBAN number

You will have your own dedicated account number with Standard Chartered. This isn’t like some other solutions where you have a sub-account and need to put in your TT (telegraphic transfer) banking notes your sub-account number. This is a dedicated account number ONLY FOR YOU and your business. I’m not sure the technical way they got this – but this is the amazing part – that allows you to do the following:

Connect /Verify your Paypal Hong Kong

We have a Paypal Hong Kong guide that gets a lot of attention on how to verify your Paypal. You need a “unique” or dedicated IBAN number. This Neat Hong Kong business solution gives you that – unlike other online / virtual banking solutions I have come across.

Connect / Verify your Stripe HK or Braintree merchant account

Similar to Paypal, you need a unique bank account in your company name in order to get Stripe and any other merchant account setup. Don’t worry – this will work here too. We have a full list of merchant account comparison here that is popular as well.

Issue Company credit cards

You can order credit cards! Yes, finally! You can see a company credit card in your company name here in HK without having to sign your life away and deposit your life savings! Seriously, readers know it is hard to get a Hong Kong credit card.

Deposit paper checks

Many ask how to deposit checks (yes, Hong Kong does still use quite a bit of paper checks). This works too. You need to go to Standard Chartered Bank, in person and deposit. You can’t do it at the ATM.

English, Online Banking

And of course, it has online banking. In english too! Well, that is actually something we need to write as a bullet point, as some banks we are forced to work with in our partner corporate services agency, don’t have online banking. Or, it takes forever to get issued.

I think this has huge potential, and I may finally be able to rest well at night when we get new clients for a Hong Kong company (read our Hong Kong registration guide here) setup and yes, their request to get a local HK bank solution (technically we can’t say bank, but instead banking alternative).

There are recent updates issued by Neat HK that will be helpful to the users of this solution and also to those looking for a solution to their business’s financial needs. Here are the said updates:

• Partnership with Visa

A lot have been waiting for this and this comes as a very exciting news. For us, this will mean added perks. Starting December 2020 then, Neat will be issuing Visa cards instead of Mastercards.

• Neat Account

The Terms and Conditions for affiliates were updated to include the new terminology when referring to Neat. “Business account” and “Bank account” are no longer valid terms. Instead, the term Neat Account shall be used. This will be more identifying of the kind of solution that you are using.

The changes in Neat HK were meant to improve your whole experience. But one thing that they are consistent with is their aim to keep it simple, for you to save time and money and be stress-free so you can focus on growing your business.

These are the services that they are currently offering based on the new service introduction brochure that they sent out:

Wallet

Transfers

Cards-coming soon

Neat has been undergoing some major improvements especially in customer support. In their email that we will show below, they advised that they will be upgrading their customer support software to Zendesk.

Of course, there will be a bit of inconvenience that can be experienced during the upgrade but all that is being addressed and fixed by Neat. To better understand what Neat is trying to do and what changes we will be seeing after, here’s their advice:

Here is the big, big one that I know our readers at Global From Asia will love. You can apply and get approved online. So now, once we get this moving smoother, we can help clients open a HK company and HK bank financial solution without needing to fly here.

Can you say…

Game changer!?!

Wow, Hong Kong may be back open for business. It’s been a rocky road since March 2016 but we may be out of the ice age and entering normal business climate.

I met David Rosa, the founder of Neat hk a couple years ago (approximately early/mid 2016) when they were in their early stages. He visited me in my TST office and we chatted about the struggles of banking in Hong Kong and Asia in general. I had been doing my podcast already for a couple years then and was helping clients open up companies and banking. I explained the utter nightmare it was to beg a bank like HSBC to please let us deposit money with them.

At that time Neat was focused on the consumer banking side (individual accounts) but he said once that was going he’d work on their business banking solution and let me know.

I also have gotten to know others on his team, and he had been merging with other local Hong Kong fintech startups I had been following.

It’s true – Global From Asia is a great blog and media source for Fintech in Hong Kong and Asia. So I am always getting startups, trying to solve this nightmare banking issue, find me and send me their new products and solutions.

It is my biggest pleasure to be able to blog about this and give everyone hope. There is light at the end of the tunnel and I really hope this disrupts these archaic banks who destroy small business owners’ livelihood.

Let’s give power back to the SME and let’s leverage online banking – who needs to visit a corporate banking branch anyway?

As I have been telling clients about this new banking solution – some are still a bit nervous. A startup holding your funds is a big risk, not as simple as a social media app where you share what you ate for dinner.

True, I always have to disclose you need to use any financial solution at your own risk. But they are recognized in Hong Kong as an accredited Fintech company and work inside Cyberport. I should get him on the podcast as well (update: we got them founders on the podcast, see below!).

We had a great chance to have co-founders David Rosa and Igor Wos on our very own podcast – check the Story of Neat HK and enjoy!

Andre in the community went to their office and posted this in our wechat group and agreed for us to share this here:

I got the opportunity to go to Neat’s office in Wanchai and sat down with Andrew Ngo, head of Customer Support. Everything below is my opinion and I am not affiliated with Neat in any way, other than being a customer. So I am just trying to be helpful for you all. As usual if you have issues with Neat contact them via their support channels.

I was overall very impressed with Andrew’s transparent and honest responses. Andrew has been in the customer relationship and customer service industry for many years, including within Telstra (Australian Telecom Company), Citibank and even Uber. He definitely knows what he is doing and is pro-customer. He completely understands the frustrations of business owners and of the bugs and issues with Neat. He recognises that a lot of things need to be changed for customer satisfaction and so the company can grow, survive and thrive.

Andrew has only been with Neat for 3 months and there were major issues with the previous person not being a ‘connector’. For example, if there were certain issues, the information would not be relayed to the correct departments hence issues kept re-occurring. Andrew is implementing many changes, but it just cannot be done overnight.

I felt reassured and positive that a lot of things are being rectified and that Andrew can make a real difference.

• Accounts being closed:

Standard Chartered closed a number of accounts due to compliance issues, this had nothing to with Neat. Also, if you submitted a KYC stating your company does ‘YYYY’ industry yet you really do ‘JJJJ’, they will find out through a background check. This is just standard procedures in HK, don’t think using a virtual account means you don’t need to follow any rules or laws. Banks and financial institutions in HK try to cover themselves anyway possible.

• New virtual account numbers:

Some old customers were transferred to new virtual account numbers, because it is a new banking partner a new KYC process had to be completed, hence some people could not keep their accounts open and why some customers were being asked to submit business information again.

• Business account monthly fees:

the actual date the account fees will start is TBA as Andrew wants any bugs or common issues too be ironed out first, at this point it is November 1st but may be pushed forward.

• Lack of information on updates:

before doing changes (for example SCB to DBS) Neat has stated they do send e-mails but some e-mails may go to spam boxes. I suggested Neat use a social media account for example on Twitter where they state any updates, changes and if there is any backlog or delays occurring. This would give all customers an external view to what is going on internally.

• Customer service issues:

unless you were to be swearing and abusive to customer service staff, there is no ‘banning’ or ‘blocking’. Customer queries will all be dealt with but due to limitations in the current CS software (which Neat has a 2 year contract with) there are some issues in how Chat/Tickets are arranged and sorted out. This is something which Andrew has a huge issue with and he wants to implement a whole new system.

• Customer relationship managers:

this is something that may be possible in the future. But as Andrew says, he sees all customers as equal so why should some get a dedicated account manager and some not.

• Lack of information and resources on the website:

the ‘SUPPORT/FAQ’ part of the website is going to under-go a massive transformation so that it eliminates the need to ask basic questions. The issue now is that the ‘SUPPORT/FAQ’ is so empty and bare bones that you almost always need to send a e-mail which is frustrating for the customer and means Neat uses up resources answering questions that could already have been answered. I suggested they also add Tutorials and articles on all the most frequently asked questions / issues.

• TFP prefix:

Neat hopes to have no prefix in the future, this is a on-going discussion with banking partners but is so far not possible. It seems all virtual accounts in HK are the same.

• Issues for some companies with dashes:

like above, this is something Neat wants to resolve in the future, but at present, no timeframe.

• Bug:

sometimes bugs occur in the app and website, often this is stand-alone bugs for individual users, not platform wide. If you do have any bugs make sure to contact customer service and give as much information as possible so they can pass it onto the tech team.

• EUR and GBP accounts:

payments must come from banks within SEPA, other transfers will be rejected. This is the policy of the partner company, not Neat.

• Transfers being delayed from overseas:

in most cases it has been found some information was not entered correctly, for example, beneficiary name not including the TFP prefix, bank or branch code being incorrect, etc. If there is some issues, contact Neat support and show them the transfer receipt from the customer/source of funds. If everything is correct then maybe there is some bug.

• Delays with Stripe or PayPal:

sometimes these payments need to be manually approved due to the TFP prefix not being in the beneficiary name. Ensure the virtual account numbers are correct.

• Payments being flagged:

like any financial provider Neat has to follow HKMA policies. If unusual payments do come in the system may flag it and someone may ask for more information. This is industry standard. If you were to say receive large deposits all at once, there should be no issue unless it is suspicious. Like any bank or financial company, if you’re doing nothing wrong you should be fine.

So I probably have you on the edge of your seat (I hope!) and I have you excited to apply.

If you are starving and about to die of starvation as you have a HK company already and just need a freaking bank account, then this is a great solution for you. You can browse over to Neat Business Account and apply (update: Neat is out of closed beta, and also technically Neat is not a bank – but a current account and banking alternative). We are a Neat Business Service Provider Partner and have a special relationship with them. We can help you get expedited, prioritized service but that is only if you’re a client of our corporate services division (Unipro). Then, you can talk to our client services department to get that going.

Don’t have a HK company yet and now feeling more confident you can build one and get a banking alternative account for it? Then let’s work together. Check out our HKVIP package and let’s get down to business.

This may have just reopened the doors to doing business in Hong Kong for online business owners. That plus the corporate tax rate has been dropped to 8.25% (from 16.5%) for SMEs with less than 2 million HKD in revenue. Ice age in HK may be past us. Let’s hope and we will keep you updated as this progresses.

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