If you are paying tourist rates for your business transactions then anything is going to appear good. I thought it quite clear by how I phrased my post but for you I meant an extra 1% to the dollar.
Every high street bank in the UK I have used for TT in the UK only needs you to fill in 1 side of A4 and fax it to them, no more. Which is less work than you admit to having to do with this company.
I am not saying trustworthy companies only come for the UK but you can have a bad experience with any company of any size anywhere in the world. But when it comes to financial matters its infinitely more difficult to resolve it if the company is not UK based and regulated by the FSA. By the way HSBC is a British company headquartered in the UK.