International student and Visa vs Solo.

Nomee

I opened an account with HSBC as international student in 2004 october. They said they will offer me credit card after six months. Two of my mates got the credit card with £500 limit after six months but I was doing well with my solo so never bothered to apply. At the end of this year I applied for a credit card and HSBC offered me a £2500 limit credit card. Its my 2nd year in UK and well I have been with HSBC for all the time and I think its a nice bank for students. If anyone of you have placed money in saving accounts can anyone tell me couple of things like:
1. For how long you have to keep money into saving account unless you get interest on it. (Minimum period you have to keep money in saving account).
2. Can you draw money out of saving account and will it be charged if you draw out within minimum time period.
3. Is it possible to get cash from credit card and place it in saving account for a month or so and pay only minimum credit card to avoid interest. It might save a lot if some one is on promotional offer like 0% interest for 9 months.

cyrus_2

Nomee wrote:

1. For how long you have to keep money into saving account unless you get interest on it. (Minimum period you have to keep money in saving account).

Well, that is a fixed term savings account. What I did was to open an instant access savings account with firstdirect and earn interest from the first month (you won't be paid interest on any month that you withdraw money though). For more info look at Martin's article: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1098730527,15721,
The trend is that if you can save a fixed amount of money every month for a year you can get a savings account (regular savings accounts) that pays a lot more.

Nomee wrote:

2. Can you draw money out of saving account and will it be charged if you draw out within minimum time period.

Again it depends on the terms of the account. If it is a instant access savings, you don't have a minimum time period (unless maybe the first month?) thus you are not charged anything.

Nomee wrote:

3. Is it possible to get cash from credit card and place it in saving account for a month or so and pay only minimum credit card to avoid interest. It might save a lot if some one is on promotional offer like 0% interest for 9 months.

It can be done but I have never done it myself. Have a look at the forums or wait for someone more experienced to reply :rotfl: