Switching banks - Credit Card question

byeo

I've been looking recently at moving from HSBC elsewhere. I've seen the First Direct offer in the past and as it's back on again I'm tempted to open an account with them. Before I make the switch and close my HSBC bank account with them, I'm unsure about what happens with my HSBC credit card, does that stay open as it's a separate product to the bank account ? What about savings accounts, too ? I've currently got a Regular Saver at 3% which matures in November, does that stay open or will that also get transferred over and put into a similar savings account.

I have seen FD offer a 5% savings account so my money will be going in there. Just a few questions that have popped into my head before a pull the trigger.

Thanks

Neil_Jones

Normally the credit card unless it says otherwise in the T&Cs for either the card or the account that you need one or the other, the credit card will remain active.

Savings accounts are usually not affected by your moving account, the exception to this is probably your HSBC regular saver which you can only have if you have a HSBC current account. If you switch away it tends to get closed with the balance and interest paid back to you.

You can't transfer regular savings from pot to pot, so if you had say £1500 in the HSBC saver you can't shift all that in one go to the First Direct one, you have to feed it in manually month by month from another account up to the limits of the RS account, in the case of FD £300 a month.

byeo

Neil_Jones wrote: »

Normally the credit card unless it says otherwise in the T&Cs for either the card or the account that you need one or the other, the credit card will remain active.

Savings accounts are usually not affected by your moving account, the exception to this is probably your HSBC regular saver which you can only have if you have a HSBC current account. If you switch away it tends to get closed with the balance and interest paid back to you.

You can't transfer regular savings from pot to pot, so if you had say £1500 in the HSBC saver you can't shift all that in one go to the First Direct one, you have to feed it in manually month by month from another account up to the limits of the RS account, in the case of FD £300 a month.

Thank you, kinda what I expected but it's always good to double check. Thanks again.

bigadaj

byeo wrote: »

Thank you, kinda what I expected but it's always good to double check. Thanks again.

HSBC offer a regular saver with 5% interest if you hold their advance account.

You can have more than one current account of course, and many people would say that two is recommended in any case as banks do have issues which mean that with one account you run the risk of not getting access to your money. First direct is obviously a part of HSBC so it's not great as an alternative because any HSBC issues may well also affect fd.

You can open a second account with HSBC or another provider, normally recommended to be a bank you have an account with as it is quicker and easier, then add what you need for a switch incentive such as direct debits, payments in etc and switch that.