HSBC Regular Saver - Changing SO to 1st

intalex

I seem to recall a while ago that HSBC allowed you to edit a standing order date from its Current Account to Regular Saver from the monthiversary to another date, which meant accounts opened closer to the end of the month could marginally benefit by changing the standing order for subsequent deposits to 1st of the month, and I even remember the possibility of paying in a 13th monthly deposit in the final calendar month.

Is all of this still possible and does it still yield the same benefits, or is it better to leave things with a standing order on the monthiversary of the account opening?

masonic

Are you sure this was HSBC? I would normally take advantage of something like this, and never have with HSBC.

PloughmansLunch

You can cancel the HSBC standing order entirely - I’ve paid in manually slightly earlier for the last three months. I don’t see why this payment couldn’t be set up as a new standing order as long as you don’t mind that HSBC don’t make automated payments on weekends.

intalex

It's been several years since I tried it, probably the era of 8% AER, but I do think I managed to change standing order date and also a 13th payment in with HSBC.

But somewhere amidst the rate drops, I feel like I read something about HSBC's systems being re-programed to not pay the high interest rate until the monthiversary anyway and that too on the max £250 monthly increment, which would make changing the standing order date and 13th payment a waste. Tried searching on the forum but can't find anything definitive on this, hence decided to make a fresh post.

I know First Direct have re-programed their systems to only accept payments via standing order and on the monthiversary, so much so that even if you pay below their max £300 per month in prior months, the difference can only be paid in via a (separate) standing order on the upcoming monthiversary, so with them there is simply no means to try and optimise any further.

Anyway, I've just opened an HSBC regular saver today, paid in the initial £250, cancelled the standard SO set up for 30th, set up a manual payment for tomorrow (1st May) and a new SO from 1st June (10 payments). Will wait for more responses from others who may have tried it before considering changing anything.

wmb194

It's always been possible but the question was whether HSBC paid interest on amounts deposited prior to the monthiversary. The answer used to be 'no' but in a recent thread a poster said that it does (now?) work.

dealyboy

Just a note for people with SOs on the 1st of a month, they, together with DDs, will be processed on Tuesday 2nd May ... so no need to move money into the current account today.

AmityNeon

wmb194 said:

It's always been possible but the question was whether HSBC paid interest on amounts deposited prior to the monthiversary. The answer used to be 'no' but in a recent thread a poster said that it does (now?) work.

I haven't personally seen any evidence of where this 'no' answer originated. In practice, it would be exceptionally precise programming for no specific reason (i.e. clause/term). Even if that were somehow the case, if you amend the deposit schedule to the first of each month, whether via manual internal transfers or recreating the SO, the worst that could happen is HSBC just calculates interest in accordance with the original SO date.

The better question would be whether anyone has ever reported HSBC underpaying headline interest, i.e. exercising unspecified punitive measures, as a consequence of the customer amending the deposit schedule,

@piker57 said:

We simply cancelled the Standing Orders created by FD when the account was opened & replaced them with new SOs which go across from our 1st Accounts, on the first of the month, rather than the original date of the 26th.

We knew this would work as we did the same thing in the past with HSBC regular savers.

@piker57 said:

Yes interest was earned on the extra days. I only knew to cancel the SO and create a new one by reading MSE Forum posts.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79855770/#Comment_79855770

intalex

AmityNeon said:

wmb194 said:

It's always been possible but the question was whether HSBC paid interest on amounts deposited prior to the monthiversary. The answer used to be 'no' but in a recent thread a poster said that it does (now?) work.

I haven't personally seen any evidence of where this 'no' answer originated. In practice, it would be exceptionally precise programming for no specific reason (i.e. clause/term). Even if that were somehow the case, if you amend the deposit schedule to the first of each month, whether via manual internal transfers or recreating the SO, the worst that could happen is HSBC just calculates interest in accordance with the original SO date.

The better question would be whether anyone has ever reported HSBC underpaying headline interest, i.e. exercising unspecified punitive measures, as a consequence of the customer amending the deposit schedule,

@piker57 said:

We simply cancelled the Standing Orders created by FD when the account was opened & replaced them with new SOs which go across from our 1st Accounts, on the first of the month, rather than the original date of the 26th.

We knew this would work as we did the same thing in the past with HSBC regular savers.

@piker57 said:

Yes interest was earned on the extra days. I only knew to cancel the SO and create a new one by reading MSE Forum posts.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79855770/#Comment_79855770

Useful to know the workaround for First Direct, and also to know that for HSBC the deposit always has to be via SO which means I should cancel tomorrow's manual transfer and set up a SO for Tuesday instead, which I will thereafter cancel leaving the SO from 1st June (10 payments) to take over. Any idea about the 13th payment with FD / HSBC?

AmityNeon

intalex said:

Useful to know the workaround for First Direct, and also to know that for HSBC the deposit always has to be via SO which means I should cancel tomorrow's manual transfer and set up a SO for Tuesday instead, which I will thereafter cancel leaving the SO from 1st June (10 payments) to take over. Any idea about the 13th payment with FD / HSBC?

HSBC allows internal transfers.
First Direct does not.

Additional payments beyond the specified maximum balance were possible (with the extra interest), but whether they still are hasn't been recently confirmed.

@Bridlington1 said:

Moreover I discovered during lockdown that the maximum monthly deposit didn't seem to apply having accidentally set up 2 SOs for the HSBC monthly saver, resulting in me surpassing £3k quite comfortably. I don't know if it still works now though as it was a while back.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79981328/#Comment_79981328

wmb194

AmityNeon said:

wmb194 said:

It's always been possible but the question was whether HSBC paid interest on amounts deposited prior to the monthiversary. The answer used to be 'no' but in a recent thread a poster said that it does (now?) work.

I haven't personally seen any evidence of where this 'no' answer originated. In practice, it would be exceptionally precise programming for no specific reason (i.e. clause/term). Even if that were somehow the case, if you amend the deposit schedule to the first of each month, whether via manual internal transfers or recreating the SO, the worst that could happen is HSBC just calculates interest in accordance with the original SO date.

The better question would be whether anyone has ever reported HSBC underpaying headline interest, i.e. exercising unspecified punitive measures, as a consequence of the customer amending the deposit schedule,

@piker57 said:

We simply cancelled the Standing Orders created by FD when the account was opened & replaced them with new SOs which go across from our 1st Accounts, on the first of the month, rather than the original date of the 26th.

We knew this would work as we did the same thing in the past with HSBC regular savers.

@piker57 said:

Yes interest was earned on the extra days. I only knew to cancel the SO and create a new one by reading MSE Forum posts.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79855770/#Comment_79855770

Years ago I'm sure it used to be in the terms but it's moot anyway so I'm not going to expend any effort looking.

Section62

AmityNeon said:

wmb194 said:

It's always been possible but the question was whether HSBC paid interest on amounts deposited prior to the monthiversary. The answer used to be 'no' but in a recent thread a poster said that it does (now?) work.

I haven't personally seen any evidence of where this 'no' answer originated. In practice, it would be exceptionally precise programming for no specific reason (i.e. clause/term). Even if that were somehow the case, if you amend the deposit schedule to the first of each month, whether via manual internal transfers or recreating the SO, the worst that could happen is HSBC just calculates interest in accordance with the original SO date.

When I tried to change the SO date in 2017 they told me this -

(The reference to the 28th is the account opening anniversary)

Their exceptionally precise programming not only meant they didn't add interest at the headline rate for the extra days, it went a step further and calculated interest on that sum at a different rate.  This matched their T&Cs to the letter.

After 2017 IIRC there was a period where they prevented payments into the account other than a SO set up by HSBC (which had to be on the opening date anniversary)

AmityNeon said:

The better question would be whether anyone has ever reported HSBC underpaying headline interest, i.e. exercising unspecified punitive measures, as a consequence of the customer amending the deposit schedule,

I don't think they would not pay interest in accordance with the T&C's.

The issue is that the interest rate paid on sums in excess of what should be in the account (i.e. SO's paid before the anniversary date) is so low there is no benefit to be gained by changing the SO date... unless of course the people who say they got additional interest (at the headline rate) are correct.