HSBC current account charges

zenmaster

The obvious model is to charge per transaction as they do for business accounts.

They did try charging for ATM withdrawals some years back, but it bombed and they U-turned.

So you would either pay a premium for the account and get travel insurance, phone insurance etc. as you do now or you pay a small levy per transaction.

If all banks levied a 20p charge on a withdrawal and stuck to it people would initially complain but eventually get used to it. Besides, it's a lot cheaper than the £1.50 or whatever charged by the private ATMs in pubs and service stations.

opinions4u

As HSBC will have to advise new customers of these changes at the time of account opening I'm assuming they'll publish them on the web site within a week.

I suspect the "end of free banking" theory is somewhat wide of the mark.

CKhalvashi

opinions4u wrote: »

I suspect the "end of free banking" theory is somewhat wide of the mark.

So do I. If they even think about it, there's a good chance they'll lost £2.4m of cash/investments.

CK

Hominu

zenmaster wrote: »

If all banks levied a 20p charge on a withdrawal and stuck to it people would initially complain but eventually get used to it. Besides, it's a lot cheaper than the £1.50 or whatever charged by the private ATMs in pubs and service stations.

I think it would certainly cause a lot of people to use their cards more - either withdraw £100 for 20p, or buy with card and get upto £3 cash back.

reclusive46

Hominu wrote: »

I think it would certainly cause a lot of people to use their cards more - either withdraw £100 for 20p, or buy with card and get upto £3 cash back.

To be honest the banks would probably prefer people to use their cards more to make more off interchange, I don't know why they haven't do it already :P

Gromitt

reclusive46 wrote: »

To be honest the banks would probably prefer people to use their cards more to make more off interchange, I don't know why they haven't do it already :P

I think they tried with the basic accounts saying "You can only use our ATMs, use anyone elses and we'll charge you" and got major backlash. I don't know if any of them still do it. I can understand the reasoning, as if you use another banks ATM, then your bank must get charged for the privilege.

EarthBoy

Gromitt wrote: »

I think they tried with the basic accounts saying "You can only use our ATMs, use anyone elses and we'll charge you" and got major backlash. I don't know if any of them still do it. I can understand the reasoning, as if you use another banks ATM, then your bank must get charged for the privilege.

RBS group (inc Natwest), and LloydsTSB still enforce the "our ATMs only" for basic accounts. You can't even pay to use other banks' machines; they are blocked completely. Lloyds made a slight concession by extending card use to Halifax and Bank of Scotland, which they own, but that's all.

innovate

I haven't had the pamphlet from HSBC yet (despite holding an active current account there), but I had one from First Direct today that seems to be using the exact same words the OP quoted.

The pamphlet also contains the exact details of what the changes on Sept 1 2013 will be, under the heading "Full details of the changes". I got an inkling that the HSBC and FD changes are 100% identical. Though appreciate this is yet to be confirmed.

No mention of any charges if you have "a current account always in credit, regularly funded".

The changes are just boring stuff they have to attend to - - e.g. change from FSA to FCA, mention of the PRA, new version of their mobile app, overdraft terminology, and some stuff relating to international payments and foreign cheques. Plus they might in future use secure messaging rather than cut-down trees to send important information. Good stuff, methinks.

Would love to understand what the OP's issue is.

dalesrider

Lith wrote: »

Long as its a full auth 4659 debit card then im happy.
.

Its the next 2 numbers that dictate if its a Auth all or not card.

4659 is a HSBC prefix which is also used by FD.