HSBC Advance vs HSBC Premier vs First Direct

colsten

If you are already with HSBC and think you have a reasonable chance to get accepted for their Advance account, I would do that first. Simply because it is a massive PITA to get a new HSBC at a later stage. It might even be a PITA to upgrade to the Advance - it took a whole hour on the phone when I upgraded. Their Regular Saver takes £250 a month.

You can open a donor account elsewhere (e.g. Nationwide) and switch that to FD if you also want to get the FD RS.

And you could switch yet another donor account to Nationwide, too. Just for the switching incentive.

TheEffect

HSBC Advance and first direct are very similar from what I can see.

In fact, someone once told me that they share a call centre.

FD internet banking isn't as good as HSBC.
FD app is better than HSBC (IMO), purely because it shows pending transactions.

Trying to get credit from FD is more of a pain than HSBC, as if you're not pre-approved, a human manually pulls your credit report and looks through it, where as HSBC are computerised decisions.

JuicyJesus

TheEffect wrote: »

HSBC Advance and first direct are very similar from what I can see.

In fact, someone once told me that they share a call centre.

They do. An HSBC rep once told me he could see FD from his desk.

Trying to get credit from FD is more of a pain than HSBC, as if you're not pre-approved, a human manually pulls your credit report and looks through it, where as HSBC are computerised decisions.

And this too. It was one of the reasons I left them.