The Nitty Gritty of Taiwan Banks

3-23-13 6:57am Sat. (1)

      I went with Leona to the HSBC meeting with Kelli Li, Mortgage Acquisition Manager at the HSBC Bank. The first thing I was asked to do was write a brief letter saying that I chose to take out a mortgage for my wife, Leona Temple. The mortgage is actually mine since I am the one with a higher income last year and the only one with an income now and in the future, pension though it is. The policy is explained in English and will be given to me after the mortgage is approved. It would be based on 30% down payment. The interest rate is fixed to government policy which is now 1.99%, soon to go up to 2.1% I have to open an account with HSBC to facilitate the mortgage. Furthermore, I can open an account in an HSBC in Brooklyn on Ave U and have them transfer funds I could send there from TD Bank. The only problem with that is they charge $50 a month if your account is under $100,000us. If HSBC is the only bank that will give us a mortgage,  the cheapest way would be to take the monthly premiums from an TD Bank (up to $670us a day, three days a week [with prior notification to the bank]) ATM machine here and deposit it in HSBC. Cathay Bank (the one Shih-Dong’s wife works for) will also evaluate our request for a mortgage but it remains to be seen if they’ll give one to Leona since she doesn’t have a regular income anymore, or pension.

      Richard Hartzell, the man who helped aboriginal abused wives and me with Libby in 1989, is still around and giving legal advice on Forumosa, a website in Taiwan for foreigners. He responded to my question about foreigners owning property here and confirmed a few details. I wrote this letter back to him:

“I am letting my Taiwanese wife buy the condo, and complete all the paperwork in her name, but I am applying for the bank loan and 'choosing' to give her the mortgage since she has no job in Taiwan and my income is from a pension in New York . THEN, some months later (how long. we will find out) , my wife will give me 50% of the ownership of the house. This is a formal GIFT procedure under current Taiwan law.

贈與 is the Chinese. Between husband and wife, there is no GIFT TAX on such an arrangement. The loan from HSBC is 70-80% at 1.99%. I'll open an account in NYC to facilitate the transfer.
     HSBC told us to get a registration number from the immigration office but when my wife called to find what documents to bring, they told her the number I need was my alien resident number! Even some officers at an international bank don't know how to deal with the paperwork.
     The real estate agent who helped close the retainer deal said he thought a local bank (Cathay) wouldn't be able to give us a mortgage because of having no income in Taiwan. He suggested HSBC and HSBC said 'no problem.' We are still going to check what Cathay has to say (my wife has 'A+' status there for having insure with them for more than five years) because her sister-in-law works for them!”

 I told him that he had helped me out in 1989 and was thankful. He then sent whimsical information about Obama and Biden’s ID if they were living in Taiwan (?)

Leona went to visit her family while I was at work last night. She told her sister-in-law David would probably take out the mortgage with HSBC because it is more convenient and has the terms printed in English. But the main reason we would go with HSBC would be if only international banks could give me a mortgage based on my stateside pension income. If Cathay would give a mortgage to Leona (she would be the recipient based on ‘A+’ status from having her life insurance policy with the bank) at the same or better terms, we would go with them and just pay through ATM withdrawals from TD Bank, just what we’d do for HSBC.