HSBC switch offer

Kirkmain

Looking into the HSBC £220 to switch offer. But reading the small print, its actually only £100 up front, and then £10 per month for 12 months but to get it you need to jump through numerous hoops.

It reminds me of the mid-noughties phone offers where every 6 months you have to remember to send off for a rebate.

Question is for someone who is not tech savie, are these a scam? How easy is it to achieve that £10 a month. Why can't they just give the extra £120 instead of making open the app every month, what difference is it to them?

figgyc

This isnt really the right subforum for this post, it should be in the bank account board. But the staff will move it eventually.

Kirkmain said:

Question is for someone who is not tech savie, are these a scam?

Well it's not a scam outright by any means, that it's absolutely possible and they aren't going to not give you the money if you fulfill the requirements, HSBC and any other big banks have good reputations to uphold. Of course like you suggest they are probably hoping people either forget or can't be bothered doing the monthly rigmarole so they don't have to pay you. But if you do the things you should get the cash. (And if you don't, complain!)

How easy is it to achieve that £10 a month.

How hard the hoops are really depends on how much you use your bank accounts as it is.

For instance if you spend everything on your debit card normally, the 20 payments requirement might not be so hard, if you'd prefer to use a credit card or a cashback card like Chase normally it's a bit of a faff. But not impossible by any means.

There are ways to game these debit card payment requirements though - the classic MSE example is to buy 20 super cheap things like bananas in 20 separate transactions, although these days its easier to do it online by topping up various accounts 20 times (eg Amazon, Chip, NS&I), buying 20 gift cards to spend later, etc.

The pay in requirement is either no faff if you make £1500+ post-tax in salary (and are ok with that being paid in to your HSBC account), otherwise a few minutes a month to move the money to another bank account then back again. Can be 0 minutes a month after the first month if you're comfortable automating that with a few standing orders. Of course if you don't already that does require the added faff of setting up a second bank account. (Unusually the T&Cs for this particular offer don't state if HSBC to HSBC transfers count or not, I'd err on the side of caution and use another bank. Really everyone should bank with at least 2 banks anyway, that way you won't be in a pickle if your main bank flags you for fraud or something.)

Similar with the Online Bonus Saver requirement. I'm not with HSBC myself but most banks these days opening a savings account takes a few minutes at best and a day at worst, then paying in only takes a minute. Or again use standing orders. Although not all savings accounts let you do standing orders if you want to automate taking the money back out again.

The app requirement is simple if you have a phone, obviously if you don't not so much. You do have to remember but I have a calendar notification every 1st of the month reminding me to deal with bank reward faffs and it does the job. And you may well be opening the app to do the bonus saver or another reason anyway. Always good to check your banking app every once in a while anyway, good to know there hasn't been fraud or anything unexpected, and also (if you're not going to use HSBC as your main) to move the £10 to wherever you actually want to keep it.

HSBC (and sister bank first direct) are unique among the bank switch deals in that you can use 2 standing orders instead of 2 direct debits to tick off that box, which is still more faff then not having that requirement, but less faff than any of the others as you can set them up basically instantly, and if you do them to yourself it's free. Or of course if you already have 2+ DDs that works too. Note per the T&Cs you have to have them set up on your old account, before you switch.

Overall, besides the debit card requirement if you a) don't make 20 transactions in a month anyway and b) aren't a super fast computer whiz, I can't see it being more than an half hour a month of most people's time. Is £20/hour worth it? Up to your circumstances really.

 Why can't they just give the extra £120 instead of making open the app every month, what difference is it to them?

These days a lot (maybe even the majority) of people are doing bank switches just to get the money, often with secondary accounts that they only use for this purpose, and then switch away the account to another bank afterwards. That costs HSBC money, not just the switching bonuses but also posting out cards and paperwork, customer support and so on. The ideal goal of the bank switches is to, well, get people to switch their main bank account to them, because that's the only way they're going to make back their £220 (among other things, overdraft charges, earning interest on your money, card interchange fees, and using their apps/websites to cross-sell you on other products that make them more money). It's business plain and simple. 

The requirements have gotten more laborious over time, clearly the people in charge think this is what is needed to prevent unprofitable customers from doing the switch. Although going by history it probably will not, and we'll see the requirements get even more ridiculous on the next offer. Free money is free money and some people want or need to go great lengths to get it. In my view the only truly effective term at preventing this is the "no free money if you already got free money from us since 2019" clause, although that does only work for the given time period technically, they can just extend that time period (which they already did - last offer it was 2020) or just say "no free money if you already got free money from us ever" like Santander are now, or first direct have for a long time (in fact with fd it's "no free money if you've ever banked with us", even if you didn't get any free money, which is very strict in my view). Although I do wonder how far back they can keep people on record to stop them getting multiple bonuses, I honestly can't imagine "forever" can be justified with today's data protection laws, but maybe it is, I'm no expert.

aludcov

Do you need to be a HSBC customer as well?

figgyc

aludcov said:

Do you need to be a HSBC customer as well?

No in fact per the website: "You can't have held an HSBC or a first direct current account since 1 January 2019". So you need to have not been a customer since a while before the start of the offer. Obviously by opening a current account you will become a new customer but thats fine.