HSBC Interest rates

gingergirl21

Me again - having a general rant today.

I have several HSBC accounts and use online banking. They are pretty good at informing you of interest rate changes unlike other banks.

However can anyone explain to me (before I call them and growl at some poor unsuspecting person in India who probably won't know the answer) why, even though the Bank of England rate hasn't changed, they are putting their rates down another quarter of a percent?

What is confusing me is their wording which says something like

"on 5 March the Bank of England changed their rate from 0.5% to 0.5%. We are therefore changing the interest rate on your account from 1.75% to 1.25%"

Eh?

Lokolo

They changed it from 1% to 0.5% (the base rate)

nzseries1

gingergirl21 wrote: »

"on 5 March the Bank of England changed their rate from 0.5% to 0.5%. We are therefore changing the interest rate on your account from 1.75% to 1.25%"

It's not "from 0.5% to 0.5%", what they mean is BOE have lowered their rate down 0.5%. I.e. it was 1.0%, now it is 0.5% - a decrease of 0.5%.

Agreed though, I had to read and re-read their message several times before understanding it completely.

gingergirl21

Honestly! - and I consider myself to be pretty good at reading things like this - I work in law for goodness sake. Well that clears that one up for me - I wish they'd be a little clearer though!

gt94sss2

gingergirl21 wrote: »

What is confusing me is their wording which says something like

"on 5 March the Bank of England changed their rate from 0.5% to 0.5%. We are therefore changing the interest rate on your account from 1.75% to 1.25%

The message I got from them said:

The Bank of England have reduced the Base Rate by 0.50% to 0.50%..

Regards
Sunil

dougz_2

None of which justifies them slashing their Online Saver by no less than 0.85%

Doshwaster

dougz wrote: »

None of which justifies them slashing their Online Saver by no less than 0.85%

I've just moved the bulk of my savings out of HSBC. Last summer I was getting 5.5% in an online account. Now it's 0.5%.

In the current climate you just have to keep on top of the banks. They'll keep on offering new accounts with attractive interest rates then just let them slide over the next few months. At least with internet banking it is easy enough to move money around now.

nzseries1

Doshwaster wrote: »

I've just moved the bulk of my savings out of HSBC. Last summer I was getting 5.5% in an online account. Now it's 0.5%.

In the current climate you just have to keep on top of the banks. They'll keep on offering new accounts with attractive interest rates then just let them slide over the next few months. At least with internet banking it is easy enough to move money around now.

Me too, I saved in their Online Saver / Online Bonus Saver for 2 years, and then moved to Kaupthing Edge when it opened when I realised what a higher rate I'd be getting (but see how that nearly turned out )

meinnit

You could do worse with a Flexible Saver which pays 0.05%!