Barclays Premier account opening/switching for offers and HSBC Premier account

bluep

I've had a HSBC premier account for years (like 10+) and use it to receive my monthly salary and pay some direct debts from (insurance, savings standing orders, any credit card monthly payments, amex etc...).  I also have a Halifax current account (I think of this as the "House" account) which I transfer into at the start of month and my mortgage, utility bills and all house related DDs come from, plus a secondary Halifax account that I stick a monthly amount into for day to day train fare, lunches and general spending.

I'd like to take advantage of the new Barclays Premier account offer 25,000 avios plus an annual BA upgrade voucher every year you have the account open for.  I do not want to close/automatically switch from my HSBC Premier account as I use their travel insurance and other perks etc.

I easily meet the £75k per annum salary criteria.

So questions:

1) It says to be eligible for the sign up bonus, you have to go through the switch process from a current account - can I do the switch from my Halifax house current account without my main salary going into there?   I don't really want to ask my employer to pay my monthly salary to my Halifax house account and then auto switch to Barclays and then ask my employer to pay there instead.

2) Do they look at the actual monthly amount coming into the account during the switch, if so, how flexibly can I arrange this - at the moment only around £2-3k a month gets transferred into my Halifax house account but I can easily increase this to the whole of my salary from HSBC Premier and then redistribute it from the Halifax account i.e. employer pays say £10k into my HSBC account, I pay that into my Halifax acccount, then transfer cash to my spending account and cash back to my HSBC account/savings etc....  Or do I HAVE to have the payment from my employer going into the current account I am switching to Barclays?

3) If I do get my employer to change payments to Halifax and then switch to Barclays, will this cause an issue with HSBC Premier - bearing in mind I have other savings accounts with HSBC with balances in (but not enough to qualify on the investment criteria for either HSBC or Barclay Premier) and have been a premier customer for over a decade?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/suggestions!

WillPS

1 - Yes, you can switch any current account offering the current account switch guarantee. Barclays Premier give you a year to get yourself to the point where you meet the account's criteria - income or investable assets.

2 - No, they can't see any past transactional data.

3 - For existing customers, HSBC don't currently require that your eligible salary is paid in to your current account. I have just spotted that they've revised the eligibility requirements for new customers - but for now at least you should be fine.

PloughmansLunch

I'd just open up a 3rd Halifax account (no extra credit check) and switch that. That will keep existing payments and processes all neat and tidy.

As long as you have around £4300+ going monthly into Barclays (and straight back out again to HSBC if need be) you'll be left well alone and can effectively leave it as a almost-dormant account. I have a standing order on the 1st of each month for £12 to cover the Avios cost and I think that's pretty much it.

bluep

PloughmansLunch said:

I'd just open up a 3rd Halifax account (no extra credit check) and switch that. That will keep existing payments and processes all neat and tidy.

As long as you have around £4300+ going monthly into Barclays (and straight back out again to HSBC if need be) you'll be left well alone and can effectively leave it as a almost-dormant account. I have a standing order on the 1st of each month for £12 to cover the Avios cost and I think that's pretty much it.

Cool - that's very easy then as the 2nd Halifax account I have (the one for train fares and daily spending) is a current account - so I'll just switch that and at the start of every month, employer pays salary into HSBC, I bounce it into Barclays and then bounce most of it straigh out again and I'll use the Barclays Premier account as my train fares/daily spending account.

The 2nd Halifax Current doesn't need to have any DDs set up?

bluep

WillPS said:

1 - Yes, you can switch any current account offering the current account switch guarantee. Barclays Premier give you a year to get yourself to the point where you meet the account's criteria - income or investable assets.

2 - No, they can't see any past transactional data.

3 - For existing customers, HSBC don't currently require that your eligible salary is paid in to your current account. I have just spotted that they've revised the eligibility requirements for new customers - but for now at least you should be fine.

That's really helpful thanks.  I think I will still leave my employer paying into the HSBC account and bounce salary from HSBC to Barclays at the start of each month and split it out from there into other accounts or back to HSBC.

Rycck

Barclays Premier used to give free daily coffee at Patisserie Valerie but no replacement after PV went into receivership. Used to get free bottle fizzy from Majestic Wine for Valentines Day. No longer. Used to get free chocolate Easter egg from Thorntons. No longer. Used to get random free tickets to events. No longer. 

Basically I now pay a whopping £22.50 for a Travel Plus pack for worldwide travel insurance (that I have never in 30+ years claimed against) five free airport lounge passes and RAC cover, and little else apart from discounts on various restaurants/shows etc that you can get elsewhere and are not so popular… which is why they are trying to fill the seats.

Rycck

That’s £22.50 per month!!

WillPS

Rycck said:

Barclays Premier used to give free daily coffee at Patisserie Valerie but no replacement after PV went into receivership. Used to get free bottle fizzy from Majestic Wine for Valentines Day. No longer. Used to get free chocolate Easter egg from Thorntons. No longer. Used to get random free tickets to events. No longer. 

Basically I now pay a whopping £22.50 for a Travel Plus pack for worldwide travel insurance (that I have never in 30+ years claimed against) five free airport lounge passes and RAC cover, and little else apart from discounts on various restaurants/shows etc that you can get elsewhere and are not so popular… which is why they are trying to fill the seats.

You're conflating Premier with the (very expensive) insurance "packs". If you're not happy with the price of the latter you should ditch the pack and look at what's available elsewhere - it's likely one of Virgin Money, Co-op Bank or Nationwide will offer better value.

I hold Barclays Premier but I wouldn't pay them £22.50 for travel insurance when my needs are better covered by Virgin Money's £12.50 offering. Even if you want better coverage either the Co-op Bank's or Nationwide's £18/month offerings would save a considerable amount.

All 3 of the aforementioned accounts include mobile insurance, which is excluded from the Barclays cover. 

Even Barclays offer a cheaper version of the Travel Pack for £14.50! You've effectively chosen to pay £96/year for fast track security and 6 lounge passes...!

pecunianonolet

Barclays Premier currently has a £4 voucher on for Tesco to buy strawberries and cream to watch tennis. The voucher worked totally fine to buy toilet paper at the self checkout till.   

I have Barclays Premier and the free AppleTV subsscription. I never paid any salary into the account nor do I make huge transactions in and out. I use the normal Avios credit card here and there where Amex is not possible. I was offered Premier in the app, did the application fully aware that I will be rejected but it all went through fine and never had any issues since.