Could you Get HSBC travel Insurance without paying or Maintaining a certain Balance?

adindas

In this thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6429754/hsbc-has-frozen-all-my-accounts-high-earner-left-penniless/p1

A few people confirmed that they could get HSBC premier account without paying fee, presumably no need to maintain high balance that pay no interest in that account (?)

It is true that HSBC does not automatically upgrade you but  it is basically a free upgrade (does not carry a monthly fee)  that does offer some few perks, notably a full family world wide travel insurance, that does not cost few pennies at all

HSBC Premier offers:

1. An interest free overdraft.
2. Its a very good family insurance policy.
3. You also get better customer service; and 4. Better rewards/benefits on a HSBC Premier credit card... among other benefits

all for free.

I prefer not want to hijack the previous thread, so asking in this new thread. Also not because I do not believe what have been said by the posters, just try to find out how to get that.

I wonder how many people out-there get this premier account for Free from HSBC ??

Did you also get HSBC premier account entitle you for Free worldwide travel insurance without paying monthly fee or maintaining a certain balance in the account that pay no interest ? If you could what did you do to increase the chance to get free travel insurance.

I am already. aware that multi trips travel insurance cost less than £100, a few are even got be gotten for £50 if not pre Existing medical history

username

It's free only if you qualify under their criteria:

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/current-accounts/products/premier/day-to-day-banking/bank-account/

1. Income and product

Have an individual annual income of at least £75,000 and 1 of the following with HSBC UK: a mortgage, an investment, life insurance or a protection product.

2. Savings or investments

Have savings or investments of at least £50,000 with HSBC UK (within 6 months of opening your account if you're new to HSBC, or before you open your account if you're an existing customer).

3. International Premier

Hold and qualify for HSBC Premier in another country or region

The poster in that thread would likely qualify under point 1 and 2.

Marchitiello

As per the link posted by the previous responder, it is all very clear on HSBC own website.

if you qualify for their Premier criteria, you need to specifically apply for it (when I did it some years ago I had to have an appointment in branch with their Premier Relationship Manager, discuss my income via P60/Tax Return, and was upgraded there and then, including being approved for the HSBC Premier World Elite Credit Card.

the OP in the other thread also specifically declared to have earning well above £75 and £50k in saving with HSBC so it would have been a straight forward application form an upgrade under point 2 posted above (point one would have required the poster to open an additional product, like an investment account, life /home insurance or other similar products). 

gt94sss2

adindas said:

In this thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6429754/hsbc-has-frozen-all-my-accounts-high-earner-left-penniless/p1

A few people confirmed that they could get HSBC premier account without paying fee, presumably no need to maintain high balance that pay no interest in that account (?)

It is true that HSBC does not automatically upgrade you but  it is basically a free upgrade (does not carry a monthly fee)  that does offer some few perks, notably a full family world wide travel insurance, that does not cost few pennies at all

HSBC Premier offers:

1. An interest free overdraft.
2. Its a very good family insurance policy.
3. You also get better customer service; and 4. Better rewards/benefits on a HSBC Premier credit card... among other benefits

all for free.

I prefer not want to hijack the previous thread, so asking in this new thread. Also not because I do not believe what have been said by the posters, just try to find out how to get that.

I wonder how many people out-there get this premier account for Free from HSBC ??

Did you also get HSBC premier account entitle you for Free worldwide travel insurance without paying monthly fee or maintaining a certain balance in the account that pay no interest ? If you could what did you do to increase the chance to get free travel insurance.

I am already. aware that multi trips travel insurance cost less than £100, a few are even got be gotten for £50 if not pre Existing medical history

If you qualify for HSBC Premier, the travel insurance is included as standard for free.

If you don't meet the HSBC Premier qualification criteria, they usually give you 6 months from the date of opening/upgrading your account to meet them.

If using the £50,000 savings criteria, the funds can be in any savings account, including cash and share/self select ISAs.

adindas

Thank for clarification. I understand that criteria has been there for sometimes now. At least I saw those condition since a few years ago.

"Have an individual annual income of at least £75,000 AND 1 of the following with HSBC UK: a mortgage, an investment, life insurance or a protection product."

So apparently I have misunderstood, what Have been said. I have impression from the previous thread that you could get it without those additional products solely based on banking relationship and income. I wonder how many people would have interest.in doing that considering people could get multi trip annual travel insurance for as low as £50. All of those additional requirements are inferior offer, so you might even lose your money.

Marchitiello

If you qualify for income, with the £75k income, you could open a £100 GIC and select the funds you want. There are minimal fees when transacting, but overall I have made returns of at least 7-8% per year on my GIC. Definitely not costing me anything to have the account. 

If you are a family, a comprensive International Travel Insurance is much more of £50 last time I checked and or as I said before, a good friend informed me about (between my wife and I we have three travel insurances as part of different products, so never look at getting quotes nowadays. 

if you qualify on £50k saving or investments (for some it could be a rolling balance) then you do not need an additional product.

adindas

Marchitiello said:

If you qualify for income, with the £75k income, you could open a £100 GIC and select the funds you want. There are minimal fees when transacting, but overall I have made returns of at least 7-8% per year on my GIC. Definitely not costing me anything to have the account. 

If you are a family, a comprensive International Travel Insurance is much more of £50 last time I checked and or as I said before, a good friend informed me about (between my wife and I we have three travel insurances as part of different products, so never look at getting quotes nowadays. 

if you qualify on £50k saving or investments (for some it could be a rolling balance) then you do not need an additional product.

Well IMHO, people should not make a £50k saving / investment, mortgage decision solely based on you get free travel insurance which could be gotten for £50-100. I just got £200 reward by switching to Lloyds Silver account which also cover multiple trips International annual Travel Insurance but I immediately downgrade it as soon as I have £200 in my account. My aim is just to get that £200.

Not to criticise but just commenting. Each to their own, but for some people with reasonable knowledge of investing that return of 7-8% per year you could easily get it anywhere else with all market platforms, and for some people, it is an inferior return. Again come back to the main point that MHO, people should not make an investment, mortgage decision solely based on you get free travel insurance which could be gotten for £50-100.

It was a long time ago, I was investing using HSBC platform when I was so naive and pushy HSBC financial advisers  telling people about investing on HSBC platform. At that time I have not learnt much about investing, Like mentioned before their other products which is a condition to get free travel insurance are not the top notch in the market.

Marchitiello

Edit to add for clarity: we are obviously not talking of making your choice solely for the £180 worth of free travel insurance (as explained later) but if it either does not involve you making changes to your current arrangements or need taking out a nice product with a minimal commitment, than it is a straight forward choice. (Your Lloyds silver switching bonus will not end up being a net £200, considering the fee for the time it will take for you to qualify for the bonus, would it not? Compared to that, Nationwide NatWest Premier Black or even Amex Platinum, HSBC Premier offer a true Comprensive Wolrdwide, multi trip, family travel insurance for free!) 

Original response: 

Firstly, the OP in the other thread made it sound as the £50k was his rolling balance between current and saving accounts. He could well have other lucrative investments, and he has the needs of having such easy accessible balance. Also for what he wrote, he had a less complex banking arrangements than the majority of MSE here (basically all of his banking with HSBC, small pot with Monzo, and nothing else). For anyone in similar shoes, an upgrade to Premier would be the straight forward choice.

 Anyway, as I said before, I have £100 originally invested since I opened the account years ago in GIC, that has made such a return that it is actually now grown and reinvested and still return that much.. people have £100 easily sitting in a 0% account, so are we really arguing that this is a cost or a min balance, when in fact it is making some money (better than the 2% I could get elsewhere for £100 sitting there instead)? 

This title is asking if you can really have HSBC free travel insurance  without paying (there is no monthly or yearly fee) or maintaining a certain balance (established that I do not consider £100 a min balance required for the Premier account), than the answer, once again, is yes.

BTW, the product could be an home insurance, and on my last renewal HSBC was actually slightly cheaper than the one I went for (as it had other perks/rewards I was interested in and did not need an additional HSBC product for my Premier qualifying criteria, I went for the other anyway).

Now, as you keep mentioning £50-£100 cover, you made me curious and I run my scenario (family size and what HSBC cover for and I have actually made claim on) into few comparison sites, and the cheapest quote I get is £180… now there is no way that my GIC £100 could earn me £180 pa elsewhere, I am pretty satisfied that my HSBC Premier Worldwide Travel insurance is  free, and this should be enough to disprove YHO.


Premier account has other benefits, for me initially the attractiveness was the Avios bonus I could get via the HSBC World Elite MasterCard, but that is also no longer the case (the card being downgraded to the free version before my next renewal date, after I got the last two years for free due to Covid).