HSBC to launch new 8% regular savings account

lswwong

Yup! Paul (Herring) said it. Not worth the bother unless one's already banking with HSBC and has his/her salary paid into the relevant current account.

In terms of opportunity cost, it is just a £27 (as calculated above) gain for rather a lot of hassle.

lipidicman

A lot of people on here were musing over transferring their salary (by standing order) to HSBC. The days without interest during the transfer and the 0.1% on the HSBC current account would add up. So is it worth the hassle. If you already have Abbey and Halifax accounts you are probably going to have to fund this from a saving account (or you earn s**t loads) and that is another move - DO YOUR SUMS!

Personally I thought Abbey made it hard (no change in ammount - no change in standing order details ie you cant change your current account!) but these accounts are starting to take the mickey, and thats from a moneysaver. Halifax say a lot of customers see the rate and completely misunderstand the account (ie if you have a lumpsum then other accounts are better, or drip feeding if you are dedicated)

As said above £27 benefit and you are forced into a poor current account. Get switched to lloydstsb plus account at 4% and you get £50 (and so does a friend if they recommend you) for a lot less hassle

crana999

They won't let me open one with regular income from a student loan, even though I've been having that paid into my HSBC Student Acct since I started uni

Reaper

I'm disappointed a First Direct bank account doesn't count, though not entirely surprised. They seem to be run as two entirely separate banks competing with each other.

Ah well, I'm not about to swop banks from FD (good customer service) to HSBC (bad customer service) just for a few quid in interest, so I think I'll pass.

Margaret_Millne

crana999 wrote:

They won't let me open one with regular income from a student loan, even though I've been having that paid into my HSBC Student Acct since I started uni

Well I don't actually have my salary paid in each month, as my Pension is paid annually, and my salary is from a private company which comes in in fits and starts. I logged on and applied on line, and it didn't actually ask any questions about salary. Presume they can see from my statements that there is always cash coming and going, and I always make sure there is enough in to cover standing orders and direct debits.

Or they may just contact me later to say I can't have one after all.

bert

I already bank with HSBC and my salary is paid directly to them. However, only last week I opened a 7% regular saver with Halifax.. I don't have enough money to regularly save with HSBC account aswell! I suppose I could reduce the amount I'm regularly saving into the Halifax one to fund the HSBC one.

Does anyone know what happens at the end of the 12 months? Are we free to do what we want with the money? Does it automatically get shifted into a HSBC instant saver?

lipidicman

In answer, from the T&Cs

5 First Anniversary
5.1 On the first anniversary of the date your RS was opened your account
will cease to be a RS. If you have one of the following accounts with us
in the same name(s) as your RS, your money and any accrued interest
will be transferred to that account:
• Instant Access Savings;
• High Interest Savings Account;
• HSBC Premier Savings Account;
• any account that we have replaced any of the above with.
If you have more than one of the above accounts listed we will transfer
your money to the account which pays the highest rate of interest.
5.2. If you do not have any of the accounts set out in clause 5.1 above with
us, your account will convert to a High Interest Savings Account and
will be subject to our Personal Banking Terms and Conditions except
that you will not have to give 60 days notice to withdraw any of your
savings from it.
5.3 We will send you a statement on the first anniversary of the date your
account was opened. If you chose to receive your statements
electronically, you will not automatically receive a paper statement.
5.4 You authorise us to transfer any standing order which you have set up
and which remains in force to your RS, to the appropriate account as
set out in clauses 5.1 and 5.2 above on the first anniversary of your
RS.

From the second bold bit you can see they hope you just keep regularly saving to the converted account, at least halifax open you a new regular saver (if the offer is still around, Im hoping!)

monki_man

bert wrote:

Does anyone know what happens at the end of the 12 months? Are we free to do what we want with the money? Does it automatically get shifted into a HSBC instant saver?

The HSBC bloke down at charing cross told me that the money gets transferred to the highest saving account in your hsbc. I told him was it easy to move that money to my current account and then move it elsewhere and he told me "yes".

You can also see the amount you've put in so far when you log onto your accounts via the HSBC website. I agree with alot of you, when you say you must be a hsbc customer to have this and how all the money dries out by having other reg saving.

I dont know if this makes sence but if you are going to do this reg saving account then when you pick a date for the money to go out (providing you have enough funds in your account) I would pick the date one day after you've open this account. If you pick say the 1st when you open up the account then you lose out on a few day's interest. Not sure if that makes sense but hope someone knows what im on about.

Quickly add, the bloke also told me this offer is only until mid april he thinks.

MSE_Martin

I have added a section on this account to the Regular Saver Article

westernpromise

Paul_Varjak wrote:

The headline 8% rate sounds good until you relaise that is must be funded from a current account paying just 0.1%!

Good catch.