HSBC Premier Account

Miles86

IanManc said:

Miles86 said:

IanManc said:

Miles86 said:

AFAIK the advisors are qualified IFAs. This page seems to have some details on what's on offer:

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/investments/advice/financial-advice/

"We’ll recommend investment and insurance products, hand-picked from selected providers, including HSBC."

So sounds like a Multi Tied set up. Also:

"You can receive our financial advice if:

you have £100,000 or more in savings and investments

you have an HSBC current account and you're registered for online banking

you're at least 18 years old

you're a UK resident

you aren't a US national, citizen or resident (eg a US passport or green card holder)"

There is nothing on that page to which you provided a link which suggests that the advisors are IFAs, and seeing they only recommend products from "hand-picked providers" and themselves it is clear that the advisors are tied salesmen.

I'm going by a friend of mines experience when he applied for said job a few months back.

The FCA doesn't allow for "recommend" without being a qualified advisor. Multi tied advisors are a regulatory status approved by the regulator.

You said "AFAIK the advisors are qualified IFAs".

The are not IFAs. They are not independent. If they are only able to advise people to invest in the bank's own products or products "hand picked from selected providers" then they are bank employees who are tied salesmen.

Yes sorry, they're qualified to the same standard as an IFA, but are *tied advisors*.

Marchitiello

I have had the HSBC Premier Account and  Premier World Elite Credit card for some year (will downgrade to the free version few weeks before my annual fee is due in some months time).

if you have a way to qualify on Income or do figure out a way that the money tied up with them are earning you enough money, than the Travel Insurance is quite good. I made a couple of stress fee claims over the years and can highly recommend it (managed by Aviva, Amex Platinum is managed by AXA for reference). However as others have said if there are significantly earning opportunity lost by moving that much saving to HSBC, than I would look at a standalone Travel Insurance and/or one that comes with a more regular package account like Nationwide’s.

with regards to non Amex Avios earning cards, especially if you are looking at HSBC free version (so no LoungeKey included), the current Barclaycard offering is much better.

HSBC points can be exchanged at 2:1 ratio to Avios (2 points per 1 Avios) although usually, once a year, they run a 25% bonus promotion. With the free card earning 1 point per £ spent, it means you are earning 0.5 Avios per pound or in the best of case with the promotion just over 0.6 Avios per £. 

The free Avios Barclaycard will earn you 1 Avios per £1 spent and would not need you to qualify for their Premier account (although requirement have been relaxed and actually it opens up even more avenues to earn further Avios). In addition you can also earn an upgrade voucher (not of great use for me but it is still something additional) if you hit the spending target. 

trient

OT, but I wonder if Lloyds will shake up this market at some point. They have had a new offering in the works for what they call mass affluent customers since their 2022 strategy update, but funny enough they still seem to be hiring for the top job..

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/lloyds-controversial-plan-to-give-10-million-loyal-customers-a-second-rate-service/ar-AA165zNP

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3442239670

Marchitiello

trient said:

OT, but I wonder if Lloyds will shake up this market at some point. They have had a new offering in the works for what they call mass affluent customers since their 2022 strategy update, but funny enough they still seem to be hiring for the top job..

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/lloyds-controversial-plan-to-give-10-million-loyal-customers-a-second-rate-service/ar-AA165zNP

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3442239670

I would not be too hopeful for a market shake based on that announcement .. they are basically suggesting that they should be officially re-enter the “Premier” (£75-£100k income bracket) banking sector with a dedicated product as they are the only major bank that currently do not have one officially (it goes from normal retail banking to private). However they look to differentiating the service on actual customer “spend” with the bank rather than potential (like other banks Premier Products)

I said officially because whilst they have not “officially” a premier product/service, they have been assigning personal bankers to people in the above mentioned income brackets and more recently offered the access to Schroders Personal Wealth services (a joint venture between Lloyds and Schroders)