HSBC Online Bonus Saver

tracyyi

It used to be crapped at £10,000.
Now is £50,000 for 4% interest with no withdraw within that month.

ForumUser7

tracyyi said:

It used to be crapped at £10,000.
Now is £50,000 for 4% interest with no withdraw within that month.

*capped... 😂

Bridlington1

tracyyi said:

It used to be crapped at £10,000.
Now is £50,000 for 4% interest with no withdraw within that month.

Well it was only a matter of time before someone got to the bottom of that one.

pridehappy

Not too bad to be honest, although Virgin Money is currently offering 3.75% on an instant access Cash ISA or 3.03% for a standard instant access savings account. 

Nationwide also offering 3.3% off a triple access saver with a maximum of £2 million. 

Skipton Building Society offering 3.6% on a standard instant access savings account capped at £200,000.

Although I do understand for those who bank with HSBC this might be an okay option, although certainly not the best. I choose not to invest in HSBC because of ethical and service issues, although pleased to see they are still offering savers a decent rate. Just wondering where the high interest comes from! 🤣

[Deleted User]

pridehappy said:

Not too bad to be honest, although Virgin Money is currently offering 3.75% on an instant access Cash ISA or 3.03% for a standard instant access savings account. 

Nationwide also offering 3.3% off a triple access saver with a maximum of £2 million. 

Skipton Building Society offering 3.6% on a standard instant access savings account capped at £200,000.

Although I do understand for those who bank with HSBC this might be an okay option, although certainly not the best. I choose not to invest in HSBC because of ethical and service issues, although pleased to see they are still offering savers a decent rate. Just wondering where the high interest comes from! 🤣

It's been my experience that Nationwide pays as little as it thinks it can get away with - relaying on brand loyalty. 

The Nationwide one defaults to a rubbish interest rate after one year or three withdrawals - whichever comes first. 

balsingh

Great news that. I used to have my savings split over two account. 10k in the HSBC one and the rest elsewhere. Now I can keep it all in one account! Happy days!

westv

Is the "hack" that allows you to withdraw money but not lose the bonus still available? Or maybe I have got that wrong and there is no such thing??

PloughmansLunch

westv said:

Is the "hack" that allows you to withdraw money but not lose the bonus still available? Or maybe I have got that wrong and there is no such thing??

I've read that you could potentially close the existing account and then open a new one in the same month, but I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of HSBC

Bridlington1

westv said:

Is the "hack" that allows you to withdraw money but not lose the bonus still available? Or maybe I have got that wrong and there is no such thing??

You will earn the bonus interest rate in any given calendar month provided you don't withdraw during that calendar month. If you withdraw money from the account you don't earn the bonus interest for the entirety of that calendar month. So if you withdraw money on 1st of the month, empty the account in the process and never put any money back into it until 1st of the following month your interest loss will be minimal.

westv

Bridlington1 said:

westv said:

Is the "hack" that allows you to withdraw money but not lose the bonus still available? Or maybe I have got that wrong and there is no such thing??

You will earn the bonus interest rate in any given calendar month provided you don't withdraw during that calendar month. If you withdraw money from the account you don't earn the bonus interest for the entirety of that calendar month. So if you withdraw money on 1st of the month, empty the account in the process and never put any money back into it until 1st of the following month your interest loss will be minimal.

I must have misunderstood the benefit of the "hack".
Surely taking all the money out on the 1st of one month and then redeposit on the 1st of the following month you will earn less interest (even with forfeiting the bonus) than if you had left it where it was and just taken out what you needed?

Bridlington1

westv said:

Bridlington1 said:

westv said:

Is the "hack" that allows you to withdraw money but not lose the bonus still available? Or maybe I have got that wrong and there is no such thing??

You will earn the bonus interest rate in any given calendar month provided you don't withdraw during that calendar month. If you withdraw money from the account you don't earn the bonus interest for the entirety of that calendar month. So if you withdraw money on 1st of the month, empty the account in the process and never put any money back into it until 1st of the following month your interest loss will be minimal.

I must have misunderstood the benefit of the "hack".
Surely taking all the money out on the 1st of one month and then redeposit on the 1st of the following month you will earn less interest (even with forfeiting the bonus) than if you had left it where it was and just taken out what you needed?

Say you had some money in the account and you withdraw some of it on 15th August. The standard interest rate would apply from 1st-31st August. It doesn't matter when in the month you withdraw, you will earn just the standard rate for the whole of August. The advantage of making withdrawals only on 1st is that you minimise the amount of time your savings are kept at the lower rate of interest. I can't ever recall the standard rate of the HSBC bonus saver being above the top easy access rates so if you need to withdraw at any point in August, a good option would be to withdraw the entire balance on 1st and put what you don't need in the top paying easy access account, before adding funds to the bonus saver on 1st September (assuming you don't need the funds in September).

Regardless though even the bonus rate of 4% is quite a poor rate these days given that you can up to 4.63% on an easy access account elsewhere. See:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6392978/top-easy-access-acs-ranked-top-of-the-pots-no-chat/p1

https://moneyfactscompare.co.uk/savings-accounts/easy-access-savings-accounts/?quick-links-first=false&id=null&business-type=16&activity-type=null&investment-amount=1000&investment-type=1&account-types=2048&interest-paid-frequencies=null&terms=null&account-opening-methods=null&account-management-methods=null&notice-periods=null&include-notice-period=true&include-term=true&age=21&has-withdrawal-restrictions=2&existing-customers-only=2&is-shariaa=2&joint-account-only=2