HSBC Advance Save Together

masonic

spenderdave wrote: »

I am puzzled with this product but have not looked at the terms. I am fully paid into my ISA this year, but if in April I put in the full £15k their top up would take it over the annual limit - presumably that isn't allowed.

It isn't a problem, because it isn't a subscription, it's interest.

bowlhead99

spenderdave wrote: »

I am puzzled with this product but have not looked at the terms. I am fully paid into my ISA this year, but if in April I put in the full £15k their top up would take it over the annual limit - presumably that isn't allowed.

£15k a year (increasing to £15240 a year for 15/16) is the most that you can subscribe. What the bank puts in is not a new subscription from your own personal assets. It's effectively a bonus bit of interest.

A silly analogy for ISAs: HMRC are watching the entrance door into the rabbit hutch to count the rabbits that go in. If once they're in there, they do what rabbits do, and multiply, you will end up with lots more rabbits in your hutch, and eventually more will come out of the exit than ever went in the front door. With stocks and shares ISAs sometimes the rabbits can die and then you get rather less out of the exit than you hoped. But either way, HMRC are only watching the front door.

So, as long as you only put £15,000 this tax year, £15,240 next tax year and so on through the front door of the ISA from your own bank account, HMRC don't care if it grows quickly or slowly once it's in there.

Chaykin

spenderdave wrote: »

As soon as you move that £300 out of the ISA it will lose its tax free status and then earn zero interest in your current account so pretty pointless. I would imagine HSBC would not give you the £10 per month under that arrangement, and would certainly ask questions.

As I said in my original post - I don't care about the interest. Nowhere in the HSBC Loyalty Cash ISA or the Save Together offer T&Cs does it say that this is not allowed?

KTF

Call them up and ask. They dont bite.

TrustyOven

So, late last year, HSBC decide to chop off their cash ISA interest rates to 1.0%, and now they do this new Advance Save Together?

What's the catch?

KTF

TrustyOven wrote: »

What's the catch?

You have to tie up £300 (or £25x12) with therm for 1 year. Thats it.

The rate on the account is almost irrelevant.

TrustyOven

But why are they doing this?
Aren't they awash with government money and they dont need our money?

KTF

TrustyOven wrote: »

But why are they doing this?

Who cares.

Its a marketing incentive (which they think will make) people move their main bank account them so they can flog them more products.

bowlhead99

TrustyOven wrote: »

But why are they doing this?
Aren't they awash with government money and they dont need our money?

They want you to be a customer when the government money goes away. They know that loads of people leave their money languishing in old and uncompetitive products. So for every person who grabs the free tenner a month and scoots off after the bare minimum number of months, there will be people who put a couple of thousand in and leave it there at 0.1% interest for the next decade and still remember them as being the folks that gave them free money.

There are all sorts of bank deals on at the moment. Should I open an account at TSB for 5% interest on £2k, or at Lloyds for 4% on £5k, or Santander for 3% on £20k, or Halifax for £5 a month free in a current account, or HSBC for £10 a month free in an ISA? They are all throwing money around to get you to come in and be a 'main current account user' which they simply enforce by saying you have to deposit a certain amount each month and maybe jump through some other hoops. All of that can be managed if you can spare the time for the admin - so it's all up for grabs!

Alisha2008

TrustyOven wrote: »

But why are they doing this?
Aren't they awash with government money and they dont need our money?

They are doing not to lose customers.. I was about to go to another bank because of their poor interest rates, but with this offer and the 6% regular saver, I stayed as i was going to get the same interest and it saved me the hassle of changing.