HSBC Premier Account Question

John_

The Premier branch in Canary Wharf (the one in the tower) is lovely, and the main reason that I still have a Premier account.

intalex

The_Urbanite said:
From my reading of the HSBC website - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/content/hsbc/gb/en_gb/international/using-your-card-abroad/

With HSBC Premier, you will be charged the 2.75% non-sterling conversion fee. You will not be charged the fixed cash withdrawal fee that other HSBC account types have.

Sounds like the 2.75% conversion fee gets charged even if you use an HSBC ATM overseas, which isn't great!
Santander's 123 gold card doesn't have any fees at Santander ATMs overseas, unfortunately there are no Santander ATMs in Greece, only HSBC and other local banks (all of which now charge a local ATM use fee).
Only thing left to try is Santander Zero Debit / Metro Bank cards at an HSBC ATM and see if I can avoid a local ATM use fee, since there are no conversion / withdrawal fees from Santander / Metro.

The_Urbanite

intalex said:

The_Urbanite said:
From my reading of the HSBC website - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/content/hsbc/gb/en_gb/international/using-your-card-abroad/

With HSBC Premier, you will be charged the 2.75% non-sterling conversion fee. You will not be charged the fixed cash withdrawal fee that other HSBC account types have.

Sounds like the 2.75% conversion fee gets charged even if you use an HSBC ATM overseas, which isn't great!
Santander's 123 gold card doesn't have any fees at Santander ATMs overseas, unfortunately there are no Santander ATMs in Greece, only HSBC and other local banks (all of which now charge a local ATM use fee).
Only thing left to try is Santander Zero Debit / Metro Bank cards at an HSBC ATM and see if I can avoid a local ATM use fee, since there are no conversion / withdrawal fees from Santander / Metro.

Fair enough. Depending on which country you are visiting there should be free-to-use ATMs at the airport at least. There are a few products out there offering fee free cash withdrawals abroad, but sometimes capped to a few hundred pounds worth a month before charging a fee.

BaZza81

Nightmare Bank to deal with via phone. 
The human beings on otherside of the phone working there are Great. HSBC WAY OF BANKING IS OUT OF DATE. RUBBISH. 
Recently opened premiere current account and there after opened regular saver.
1) Had to take passport + other ID into branch before account could be opened. Weired as opened Metro savings account online and it was straight forward.
2)Same thing when I opened thier regular saver.  5 days later After i applied a letter sent to me to say go into branch to provide proof of ID. Weird as they should have this saved and can't open regular saver with out a Hsbc current account. (i got told thier left and right hands don't talk to one another)
3) transfer into Hsbc account is fast. Transfer out is slow as hell!! 
Even did a experiment. 
From santander to hsbc instant transfer. 
From HSBC to santander . A day!! 
Nationwide to Santander instant. 
Halifax to Santander Instant  
Metro Bank to santander Instant 
Barclays to santander instant. 
So as you can see from my experience HSBC is not a great bank to be with even as a premier account holder thier Way of banking is absolutely OUTDATED/SLOW and lower standards compared to others. 

Final straw... Wanted to take large cash out of Premier account so thought I'd call premier team and make sure bank branch can have it ready  NO!   Premier call staff can't call branch but only request it via a memo.No way for me to tell if they will get it, if or when my money will be ready.
Experience with Santander, Barclays, Nationwide was easy.. Called telephone banking,they called branch  Money confirmed ready and went to collect within 1 hour  
Rubbish out of date service from HSBC. Even as a Premier customer.
As a result.. All HSBC accounts closed. 
BETTER alternatives out there with 2020 way of banking not the 1990s way of banking. Feel sorry for the wonderful HSBC staff facing who have shown frustration over old skool way of banking. 
Any one else had any of these weird out of date experiences from HSBC? 

csgohan4

If you apply for premier account and put 50k into a savings account, do you always have to that 50 k in savings account when you have opened the premier account, assuming you satisfy their 75k a year income criteria?

Will taking that 50k away mean they downgrade you to advanced account?

Speedbird676

csgohan4 said:

If you apply for premier account and put 50k into a savings account, do you always have to that 50 k in savings account when you have opened the premier account, assuming you satisfy their 75k a year income criteria?

Will taking that 50k away mean they downgrade you to advanced account?

Yes, you need to keep the £50k with HSBC.

csgohan4

Speedbird676 said:

csgohan4 said:

If you apply for premier account and put 50k into a savings account, do you always have to that 50 k in savings account when you have opened the premier account, assuming you satisfy their 75k a year income criteria?

Will taking that 50k away mean they downgrade you to advanced account?

Yes, you need to keep the £50k with HSBC.

at interests rates of 0.1% i have to rethink then. with £50 interest and my  1.5% saving account, not worth the loss of 700 pounds for insurance that could be got for Around 200 a year 

polymaff

Exactly.

For several years immediately after the  2008 crash, £50k with HSBC earned quite a competitive rate.  That was an aberration.  Before and since, their rates were/are abysmally low, making the trade-off between bundled benefit and return on the  £50k in 2010 and 2020 quite different.

polymaff

BaZza81 said:

Nightmare Bank to deal with via phone. 
RUBBISH. 
Any one else had any of these weird out of date experiences from HSBC? 

HSBC has, apart for a few years (see above), never been interested in Retail Banking - as you've discovered.

When I asked them to downgrade my Premier account to Advance my Premier manager was apoplectic...

csgohan4

polymaff said:

Exactly.

For several years immediately after the  2008 crash, £50k with HSBC earned quite a competitive rate.  That was an aberration.  Before and since, their rates were/are abysmally low, making the trade-off between bundled benefit and return on the  £50k in 2010 and 2020 quite different.

guess Nationwide Flexplus here I go, shame I didn't get it before the Covid problem