£20 free - HSBC credit card

kuohu

Another note re the £20 for opening the Online Saver account.. you need to deposit £500.

freebie_lover_3

sloth wrote:

but they will charge one from 1 may 06. 2% uncapped

i doubt you will get your card before the 1 may??

you might as when i applied for my cc from hsbc ( a while bk now) it only took a week n half for the card to come through.

honey123

Hi
I have been to HSBC and it seems the £20 if you open plus accound and not a current acount. and the mimimal term of plus accound is 12 months and you pay charge 12.9 monthly so you end paying them more than £120 to get the £20? do i miss some thing

Chippy_Minton

honey123 wrote:

Hi
I have been to HSBC and it seems the £20 if you open plus accound and not a current acount. and the mimimal term of plus accound is 12 months and you pay charge 12.9 monthly so you end paying them more than £120 to get the £20? do i miss some thing

Yes, 'membership', as they call it, includes a few bits and pieces like worldwide family travel insurance, and costs £137.40 if the account is opened before 31 July 2006. It's up to you to decide whether the benefits are worth it.

msaquib

kuohu wrote:

Another note re the £20 for opening the Online Saver account.. you need to deposit £500.

Yes but can you transfer £500 back once the account has been opened? Does this effect the £20 cashback offer?

Milarky

msaquib wrote:

Yes but can you transfer £500 back once the account has been opened? Does this effect the £20 cashback offer?

Most questions you could have are answered here:

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/PA_1_4_24P/content/uk/pdfs/en/easter_offer.pdf

[I have a First Direct credit card but I've applied anyway as the wording was: "You must not have a HSBC Bank Credit Card" and HSBC issues these in their own name despite owning FD]

kuohu

msaquib wrote:

Yes but can you transfer £500 back once the account has been opened? Does this effect the £20 cashback offer?

I can't see an answer to that question anywhere, so I'll just leave the £500 in for a few days to make sure I meet the financial obligations then withdraw most of it back out to my normal savings account. (I don't like the fact with this HSBC one that if you make a withdrawal in a month then you lose that month's interest, so I don't intend to change where I put my savings).

One minor annoyance...
I already have a HSBC credit card and hence internet banking. It says that to apply for the Online Saver ...

Already with HSBC Bank?
Take the easy route.
Apply from Internet Banking. Logon and select 'Apply for – Savings' from the left hand menu.

..But I didn't have 'Apply for - Savings' on my left hand menu after logging in! Only Apply For - Loans, mortgages, etc.

So the easy route wasn't available. I applied using the 'not existing HSBC customer' route by having to fill in all my details again.

Like I said, no big deal but how come website niggles like this don't get checked and corrected?

Nick

chuckles1066

DazzaMc wrote:

Does that mean you have to accept their offer when it comes through and recieve the card?

yep but my pair of scissors are already poised

schiff

I've just had the same problem as you, Nick. I already have a HSBC CC and, like you, there was no link to 'apply for savings a/c'.
Forty minutes on the phone (0800) with an interminable list of people didn't solve it. I'll give your idea of trying as a new customer a spin.

As for closing the account as soon as it is opened, I don't think this is a good idea (or actually very fair - I'm a bit too reasonable an individual to be so ruthless - as a Libran!).
Best to at least wait till June when the £20 is received and cleared surely and, let's face it, what's wrong with 4.75% AER?

Finally any closure of the account is obviously best done on the 1st or 2nd of the month to avoid the rather nasty provision of no interest on anything if you make a withdrawal in any calendar month.

kuohu

I didn't say I was going to close it straight away, just that I wasn't going to leave the £500 in it for very long. It doesn't say that £500 is the min balance.

I haven't got £500 to spare (for very long) as I'm hammering a CC debt down at the moment and every spare penny goes towards that. The t&c of the account state that no interest is payable if the balance is under £500, so there's no benefit for me to leave anything in it. Also there's no interest if a withdrawal is made in a month, but I need flexibility to dip into savings often.

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/PA_1_4_24P/content/uk/pdfs/en/online_savers_tandcs.pdf

So the account isn't really for me. If I can get a free £20 then that will be cool, if not then nevermind.