HSBC Premier Banking and Wealth.

gt94sss2

subjecttocontract said:

When I looked at their Premier Banking Account I didn't see anything that I could describe as being competitive or market leading.

It is easier to open and manage accounts with HSBC overseas and you also get decent free family travel insurance with the account.

Hoenir said:

The offices are in Mayfair, London.  Book an appointment. They'll no doubt tailor the advice to your personal circumstances. 

According to https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/nov/20/hsbc-to-open-london-wealth-centre-in-effort-to-draw-in-premier-clients that facility opens later this year.

However, the larger HSBC branches usually have dedicated HSBC Premier areas

zagfles

Hinchandrossi said:

zagfles said:

Have you done any mystery shopping for other top end or elite products and services? The world of top end products is a strange one, the the usual rules of economics and commerce don't apply. Try buying a top end watch for £10k+, you may have difficulty finding a jeweller to sell you one even if you have the money. Try booking a table at a top end restaurant, you'll likely have to book months ahead unless you have "connections", and you'll get rude and surley waiters. Try buying a top 
car brand and you'll probably need to go on a waiting list and be approved to buy. 

These products aren't advertised, supply is artificially restricted, obstacles are deliberately put in the way of buying them, they expect the buyer to chase the seller and beg them to sell the product rather than the usual way it works of the seller trying to persuade the buyer to buy. The products aren't desired because of the features of the product, but because of the status owning the product implies. They appeal to snobbery. It might be the same with "premier" bank accounts. 

Sorry, only just seen this.

I have with jewellers funnily enough, never experienced any problems with those, in fact they tended to push the boat out somewhat.

Most of my enquiries have been around the 5-6k mark but no issues at all.

Restaurants too but not at the very top of the range, not Michelin starred ones anyway. But because of the impression it gives to be 'select' I can understand why restaurants (or the really expensive car dealers) act like that.

I've done potential car dealership purchases which includes test drives (scary as I like driving my car and thats it, not exactly overly confident in others!) and they were really good to deal with, even if it was only superficial.

No hard sell but no playing hard to get either.

Again they weren't Porsches or Ferraris but still vehicles costing around 30k.

But what you say makes perfect sense in the HSBC case, it really does.

In the last hour or two I've dug around a bit more and found out what (I think!) they should be telling customers as a very minimum. 

The irony of the whole thing is that the applicable rates are dreadful, yes there are the other benefits such as the travel insurance but the bottom line for me would be cold hard cash.

It is a funny way of going about things for a bank though isn't it, making it difficult to glean all the info.

And bearing in mind its HSBC who originate this mystery shop, its them who ask and pay the company who in turn pay me to do the task, then they must have some sort of misgivings about how it is or isn't being promoted.

These days £30k will get you a pretty bog standard car! Really talking about the top end, like Ferraris, see The Strict Rules of Ferrari Ownership: You Don’t Choose, Ferrari Chooses You - autoevolution 

Or for a Rolex: Why you can’t buy a Rolex – and it’s not because of the price 

And I guess it's similar with premier bank accounts. People don't want them because of the features of the product, so they don't bother advertising or promoting them. Or even making them competitive, I mean, a credit card with 100% APR, really?

It's the sort of thing that appeals to snobs and insecure people, so they can flash their "premier" card whenever they buy anything as it make them feel like they are something special set apart from plebs with normal bank accounts. Probably annoys them that these days no-one ever looks at cards as it's all tap tap tap 

Hinchandrossi

zagfles said:

Hinchandrossi said:

zagfles said:

Have you done any mystery shopping for other top end or elite products and services? The world of top end products is a strange one, the the usual rules of economics and commerce don't apply. Try buying a top end watch for £10k+, you may have difficulty finding a jeweller to sell you one even if you have the money. Try booking a table at a top end restaurant, you'll likely have to book months ahead unless you have "connections", and you'll get rude and surley waiters. Try buying a top 
car brand and you'll probably need to go on a waiting list and be approved to buy. 

These products aren't advertised, supply is artificially restricted, obstacles are deliberately put in the way of buying them, they expect the buyer to chase the seller and beg them to sell the product rather than the usual way it works of the seller trying to persuade the buyer to buy. The products aren't desired because of the features of the product, but because of the status owning the product implies. They appeal to snobbery. It might be the same with "premier" bank accounts. 

Sorry, only just seen this.

I have with jewellers funnily enough, never experienced any problems with those, in fact they tended to push the boat out somewhat.

Most of my enquiries have been around the 5-6k mark but no issues at all.

Restaurants too but not at the very top of the range, not Michelin starred ones anyway. But because of the impression it gives to be 'select' I can understand why restaurants (or the really expensive car dealers) act like that.

I've done potential car dealership purchases which includes test drives (scary as I like driving my car and thats it, not exactly overly confident in others!) and they were really good to deal with, even if it was only superficial.

No hard sell but no playing hard to get either.

Again they weren't Porsches or Ferraris but still vehicles costing around 30k.

But what you say makes perfect sense in the HSBC case, it really does.

In the last hour or two I've dug around a bit more and found out what (I think!) they should be telling customers as a very minimum. 

The irony of the whole thing is that the applicable rates are dreadful, yes there are the other benefits such as the travel insurance but the bottom line for me would be cold hard cash.

It is a funny way of going about things for a bank though isn't it, making it difficult to glean all the info.

And bearing in mind its HSBC who originate this mystery shop, its them who ask and pay the company who in turn pay me to do the task, then they must have some sort of misgivings about how it is or isn't being promoted.

These days £30k will get you a pretty bog standard car! Really talking about the top end, like Ferraris, see The Strict Rules of Ferrari Ownership: You Don’t Choose, Ferrari Chooses You - autoevolution 

Or for a Rolex: Why you can’t buy a Rolex – and it’s not because of the price 

And I guess it's similar with premier bank accounts. People don't want them because of the features of the product, so they don't bother advertising or promoting them. Or even making them competitive, I mean, a credit card with 100% APR, really?

It's the sort of thing that appeals to snobs and insecure people, so they can flash their "premier" card whenever they buy anything as it make them feel like they are something special set apart from plebs with normal bank accounts. Probably annoys them that these days no-one ever looks at cards as it's all tap tap tap 

I've never spent more than 3k on a car 🤣

(Edit - just checked, I know one test was a Volvo XC90 so that might be a bit more than the 30k I quoted).

No I see what you mean, maybe they overly linger when tapping the contactless payments! Bit like ohhhh American Express sir that will do nicely catchphrase from yesteryear.

HSBC obviously want to know how these enquiries are dealt with though so I'll tell them.

jim1999

The card isn't 100% APR, it just has a large annual fee.

The way providers are required to report APRs means that cards with big annual fees - similar to the Amex Platinum card (the one that's ~£600 per year) show up with huge APRs.

The credit card is probably the best perk that comes with HSBC Premier.

IanManc

wmb194 said:

Hinchandrossi said:

zagfles said:

Have you done any mystery shopping for other top end or elite products and services? The world of top end products is a strange one, the the usual rules of economics and commerce don't apply. Try buying a top end watch for £10k+, you may have difficulty finding a jeweller to sell you one even if you have the money. Try booking a table at a top end restaurant, you'll likely have to book months ahead unless you have "connections", and you'll get rude and surley waiters. Try buying a top 
car brand and you'll probably need to go on a waiting list and be approved to buy. 

These products aren't advertised, supply is artificially restricted, obstacles are deliberately put in the way of buying them, they expect the buyer to chase the seller and beg them to sell the product rather than the usual way it works of the seller trying to persuade the buyer to buy. The products aren't desired because of the features of the product, but because of the status owning the product implies. They appeal to snobbery. It might be the same with "premier" bank accounts. 

Sorry, only just seen this.

I have with jewellers funnily enough, never experienced any problems with those, in fact they tended to push the boat out somewhat.

Most of my enquiries have been around the 5-6k mark but no issues at all.

Restaurants too but not at the very top of the range, not Michelin starred ones anyway. But because of the impression it gives to be 'select' I can understand why restaurants (or the really expensive car dealers) act like that.

I've done potential car dealership purchases which includes test drives (scary as I like driving my car and thats it, not exactly overly confident in others!) and they were really good to deal with, even if it was only superficial.

No hard sell but no playing hard to get either.

Again they weren't Porsches or Ferraris but still vehicles costing around 30k.

But what you say makes perfect sense in the HSBC case, it really does.

In the last hour or two I've dug around a bit more and found out what (I think!) they should be telling customers as a very minimum. 

The irony of the whole thing is that the applicable rates are dreadful, yes there are the other benefits such as the travel insurance but the bottom line for me would be cold hard cash.

It is a funny way of going about things for a bank though isn't it, making it difficult to glean all the info.

And bearing in mind its HSBC who originate this mystery shop, its them who ask and pay the company who in turn pay me to do the task, then they must have some sort of misgivings about how it is or isn't being promoted.

Same with Barclays and its 'Premier' offering. Another one that used to offer more - including a daily free coffee with that chain that had an accounting scandal and went bust, I forget the name - but has been cut to next to nothing, though since a couple of months ago it does give me Appletv+ for free so that's something.

It was Patisserie Valerie. The brand is now owned by another company since the collapse. You could also get free coffee from coffee shops which used the Druckers brand. They weren't up themselves like Patisserie Valerie. The staff in the Druckers in Manchester Arndale were lovely. They all lost their jobs overnight and had to get their pay and redundancy money from the Government's redundancy payment service.

incus432

Hinchandrossi said:

It is a funny way of going about things for a bank though isn't it, making it difficult to glean all the info.

When looking at financial websites (bank accounts, SIPPs, ISAs etc) I always check how easy it is to find the Costs and Charges information. The best ones have it upfront, the worst require lots of searching on multiple pages and clicks on tiny links, often ending up on a pdf with small print - these are always the expensive and poor value ones of course.

Hinchandrossi

incus432 said:

Hinchandrossi said:

It is a funny way of going about things for a bank though isn't it, making it difficult to glean all the info.

When looking at financial websites (bank accounts, SIPPs, ISAs etc) I always check how easy it is to find the Costs and Charges information. The best ones have it upfront, the worst require lots of searching on multiple pages and clicks on tiny links, often ending up on a pdf with small print - these are always the expensive and poor value ones of course.

Very sensible too. Its only an exercise in ascertaining their customer service so its not like I actually want the account but its been somewhat of an eye opener though HSBC always perform poorly whenever I've had to do things like this.

And as has been rightly said its no doubt a 'prestige' account more for show and one upmanship than genuine value.

Emmia

Hinchandrossi said:

incus432 said:

Hinchandrossi said:

It is a funny way of going about things for a bank though isn't it, making it difficult to glean all the info.

When looking at financial websites (bank accounts, SIPPs, ISAs etc) I always check how easy it is to find the Costs and Charges information. The best ones have it upfront, the worst require lots of searching on multiple pages and clicks on tiny links, often ending up on a pdf with small print - these are always the expensive and poor value ones of course.

Very sensible too. Its only an exercise in ascertaining their customer service so its not like I actually want the account but its been somewhat of an eye opener though HSBC always perform poorly whenever I've had to do things like this.

And as has been rightly said its no doubt a 'prestige' account more for show and one upmanship than genuine value.

I have the account, but it's not a prestige thing, frankly it's irrelevant what bank accounts others have.

I could draw the example of Child & Co where obtaining the branded account by registering with a particular NatWest branch was seen as a "badge of honour" around here.

zagfles

jim1999 said:

The card isn't 100% APR, it just has a large annual fee.

The way providers are required to report APRs means that cards with big annual fees - similar to the Amex Platinum card (the one that's ~£600 per year) show up with huge APRs.

The credit card is probably the best perk that comes with HSBC Premier.

Not really sure it's a "perk" to pay £290 for a rewards card mainly focused on flying, perhaps unless you are a very frequent flyer. You could probably buy the perks for less than £290, for instance a friend has an annual pass that gets him stuff like lounge access and it was only something like £60. Stuff like fast track security airports sell for a few £ and you often don't need it. 

I guess like with all rewards cards there are some patterns of usage that may make them good value. I do a lot of travel and it certainly wouldn't be good value for me. The card even charges for foreign transactions which would immediately eliminate it for me, even if it didn't have a huge annual fee!

Hinchandrossi

Emmia said:

Hinchandrossi said:

incus432 said:

Hinchandrossi said:

It is a funny way of going about things for a bank though isn't it, making it difficult to glean all the info.

When looking at financial websites (bank accounts, SIPPs, ISAs etc) I always check how easy it is to find the Costs and Charges information. The best ones have it upfront, the worst require lots of searching on multiple pages and clicks on tiny links, often ending up on a pdf with small print - these are always the expensive and poor value ones of course.

Very sensible too. Its only an exercise in ascertaining their customer service so its not like I actually want the account but its been somewhat of an eye opener though HSBC always perform poorly whenever I've had to do things like this.

And as has been rightly said its no doubt a 'prestige' account more for show and one upmanship than genuine value.

I have the account, but it's not a prestige thing, frankly it's irrelevant what bank accounts others have.

I could draw the example of Child & Co where obtaining the branded account by registering with a particular NatWest branch was seen as a "badge of honour" around here.

Fair enough if you are happy with the account, I agree in that I don't care what accounts people have.

I can only speak as I find in that the customer service over 4 branches leaves a lot to be desired and the benefits of the account aren't even that good either imo.