’APPY DAYS!

We asked our panel members to list the apps they find most useful in Hong Kong. So, grab your smartphone and download these!

FOOD

Hungry in Hong Kong? These apps will variously let you get groceries and meals delivered to your home, bookmark your favourite restaurants, make reservations, accrue loyalty points and more.

Deliveroo

Foodpanda

UberEats

GO by Black Sheep Restaurants M&S HK

BistroChat ist oC at

OpenRice

TRANSPORT

These apps will help you find a taxi when you need one or pre-book one for later, plan your MTR journeys around Hong Kong and generally make your commute quicker and more efficient.

CityMapper

HK Taxi

TakeTaxi

Uber

TaxiCards

MTR

Moovit

LEISURE

Whether you’re keen to meet parents in your area and make new friends, book cinema tickets, or find out the next available workout session, there’s an app to help.

MUMZ

Hong Kong Movie

Pure 360 Lifestyle

SHOPPING

There are apps for buying and selling items in Hong Kong, and also rewards apps that let you collect points as you shop in supermarkets. Carousell yuu

Marketplace

WEATHER

Make sure you’re prepared for when a typhoon rolls into town, and get the latest updates on the air quality index. MyObservatory

Windy

Air Visual

PROPERTY

Search real estate listings in Hong Kong to find the p perfect place to live – and then hire a man in a van to move your stuff! Spacious S

GOGOX G

LOGISTICS

With this grabbag of different apps you can send m money to friends instantly from a an HSBC account, top up your O Octopus card, and get items d delivered quickly across town. PayMe P

Octopus O

Pickupp P

SF-Express S

Hongkong H Post

Expats in Hong Kong regularly find themselves needing to send funds overseas. You might have to pay for a child’s boarding school fees abroad, for example. Or perhaps you’re keen to exchange earnings here into your home currency while exchange rates are favourable. Then, of course, there’s online shopping; you may be especially eager to tap into the global marketplace – that favourite dress you’ve seen in a Bali boutique, for one thing!

RISE IN DIGITAL MONEY TRANSFERS

COVID-19 has thrown up additional reasons too. There are those who’ll be eager to help out family members who are isolated on account of travel restrictions or who may be battling some health-related issues. Others might be relocating from Hong Kong entirely – they’ll need to send back any savings (from the sale of a home here, for instance) in order to set up a new life.

“I would say that in the midst of a pandemic, the customer experience side of transferring money overseas is more important than ever,” says Australian expat Jane Wright. “I want to be able to handle my remittance needs with ease.”

Trust is another important factor. “When I’m sending money abroad, I look for a credible and reliable brand because security is so important,” says Jane. “I think that banks have traditionally been seen as very trustworthy in this way; but the downside is that they usually offer less competitive exchange rates. And often the services you might be able to get from a relationship manager at a bank are offered to VIPs only.”

EASY APP

These factors drove the team at money service provider KVB Group to come up with an alternative. It was clear to them that a user-friendly app, with accompanying professional services, would be very useful for anyone needing to do money transfers.

The product they developed is GCFX, an app that offers easy transfers all over the world. Here’s how it works:

1 Download the app and sign up with an email address and password.

2 Set up your account. Same-day setup is simple – you just need a few relevant documents; GCFX uses a digital nonface-to-face (eKYC) process with facial recognition features for this.

3 Check rates on the app and place a transfer request (all major currencies are supported).

4 Deposit money into the recipient’s account using one of GCFX’s multiple options for sending and receiving: this can be via bank deposit, an FPS transfer, POLiPay (for those in Australia or New Zealand), Alipay and Union Pay (for those in mainland China).

And that’s it! There’s no minimum amount; plus, the exchange rates are competitive and the fees are transparent, with no hidden charges. Things like bank charges and GCFX’s competitive exchange rates are clearly displayed by the app before you confirm the deal.

Finally, if you do happen to be leaving Hong Kong, KVB can help families and businesses move their assets securely, and across borders seamlessly.