Refused HSBC Advance account for £175 switch purposes

kingwheeler

After applying for the account using the link on here, I was refused the account and offered a standard one. I put in a low estimated annual salary as I'm just starting out as a self employed app developer so don't really know how much I'll be making, but have a rough idea. Is it possible for the Advance account you need to be earning a decent salary? Or maybe they don't like self employed/sole traders.  

Anyone else been refused?

Thrugelmir

HSBC have a target market for their customer base. That's a commercial decision and nothing personal. Be plenty of people who don't meet the criteria for the account. 

kingwheeler

Haha that's cool, I wasn't taking it personally!

I just wondered if we knew what the criteria was and maybe that could be added to the articles on here to help people.

kingwheeler

Oh wait, there is a whole section (section 4) about you might get refused due to the credit check etc.

eskbanker

kingwheeler said:

Is it possible for the Advance account you need to be earning a decent salary? Or maybe they don't like self employed/sole traders.

Both - they've always had a reputation for having a fairly high (but unpublished) bar on salaries, but in any case you should be opening a business account rather than a personal one if you're planning to use it for business-related activities, as stated in their Ts & Cs....

kingwheeler

it wasn't going to be for business stuff, it was always going to be for personal use (shared account for bills etc). But they needed to know my salary for some reason.

Zanderman

No consolation for the OP, but this time I was accepted, having never managed to get an HSBC account other than their standard before.  On previous switch offers they've turned me down for the account in question and tried to fob me off with the everyday one.

I assumed that I would fail this time too, especially as they fell silent for a few days (HSBC are the only bank I know who say it will take up to 15 days to decide whether they'll offer you an account!).  But today the email came through saying I was successful.  Despite me having a relatively low income. And self-employed too. 

So neither factor is a definite no-no, they are just fussy  - and no-one can tell you definitely what it is they're fussy about.

WillPS

eskbanker said:

kingwheeler said:

Is it possible for the Advance account you need to be earning a decent salary? Or maybe they don't like self employed/sole traders.

Both - they've always had a reputation for having a fairly high (but unpublished) bar on salaries, but in any case you should be opening a business account rather than a personal one if you're planning to use it for business-related activities, as stated in their Ts & Cs....

Although there was never a published minimum salary, they did used to have a minimum pay in of £1750 pcm - that could well be an indication of the sort of salary they are looking for.

eskbanker

WillPS said:

eskbanker said:

kingwheeler said:

Is it possible for the Advance account you need to be earning a decent salary? Or maybe they don't like self employed/sole traders.

Both - they've always had a reputation for having a fairly high (but unpublished) bar on salaries, but in any case you should be opening a business account rather than a personal one if you're planning to use it for business-related activities, as stated in their Ts & Cs....

Although there was never a published minimum salary, they did used to have a minimum pay in of £1750 pcm - that could well be an indication of the sort of salary they are looking for.

Indeed - MSE used to gross that up to a £26K salary and claim that this was effectively what was needed, but it caused more grief than it solved....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6004490/hsbc-advance-account-switching-cashback-175/p1

alternate

It used to be much stricter with a a 1.5k a month pay in and when my partner applied several years ago she had to provide wage slips to back up her salary claims.

Zanderman

eskbanker said:

WillPS said:

eskbanker said:

kingwheeler said:

Is it possible for the Advance account you need to be earning a decent salary? Or maybe they don't like self employed/sole traders.

Both - they've always had a reputation for having a fairly high (but unpublished) bar on salaries, but in any case you should be opening a business account rather than a personal one if you're planning to use it for business-related activities, as stated in their Ts & Cs....

Although there was never a published minimum salary, they did used to have a minimum pay in of £1750 pcm - that could well be an indication of the sort of salary they are looking for.

Indeed - MSE used to gross that up to a £26K salary and claim that this was effectively what was needed, but it caused more grief than it solved....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6004490/hsbc-advance-account-switching-cashback-175/p1

Having just been offered the advance account (as detailed above) and earning a lot less than 26K I think I can safely conclude that relying on that figure for guidance is now, and probably always was, misleading.  Which may be what that old thread concluded as well.