HSBC Premier Banking and Wealth.

jim1999

zagfles said:

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!

It's not useful for me either, but it definitely has plenty of value for some people - as you say, frequent hotel / flight users.

The main thing is that it instantly converts points to a whole variety of loyalty programmes, which can help people who use different programmes.  Normally that's the preserve of Amex.

saajan_12

[Deleted User] said:

Archerychick said:

Did you spot the expandable sections, e.g. under travel - 

I thought it does detail the benefits, unsure what else you’d be looking for? 

Yes I'd seen that thanks, maybe I'm expecting too much detail haha. Don't worry about replying but I don't see anything in terms of cost (I assume there will be a monthly fee) or in terms of rates (I assume you're not going to leave 100 grand in a stagnant non earning account, ordinarily I'd be looking to earn 4 or 5k in yearly interest which would far outweigh any travel related benefits, particularly as those wouldn't even appeal to everybody).

I

I've definitely noticed this, compared to normal current and savings accounts with no / low minimums actually advertise the cashbacks and interests.

TBH I think its intentional.. competing on the real benefits ie interest, fees etc is more expensive and makes a bigger difference for larger balances. So by advertising those, it'll become a race to the top for interest / bottom for fees, in order to compete with other wealth management services. Instead they'd rather distract you with the relatively cheap lifestyle benefits eg travel, daily coffees, gym subscriptions, etc. The hope is you just assume the fees etc are comparable and go with a particular bank cos you feel taken care of on holiday. a

zagfles said:

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!

Do you know who / where the £60 lounge access is (assuming that's annual not per visit)? The only passes or cards with passes I've found with a broad enough coverage are getting quite expensive.. 

zagfles

saajan_12 said:

[Deleted User] said:

Archerychick said:

Did you spot the expandable sections, e.g. under travel - 

I thought it does detail the benefits, unsure what else you’d be looking for? 

Yes I'd seen that thanks, maybe I'm expecting too much detail haha. Don't worry about replying but I don't see anything in terms of cost (I assume there will be a monthly fee) or in terms of rates (I assume you're not going to leave 100 grand in a stagnant non earning account, ordinarily I'd be looking to earn 4 or 5k in yearly interest which would far outweigh any travel related benefits, particularly as those wouldn't even appeal to everybody).

I

I've definitely noticed this, compared to normal current and savings accounts with no / low minimums actually advertise the cashbacks and interests.

TBH I think its intentional.. competing on the real benefits ie interest, fees etc is more expensive and makes a bigger difference for larger balances. So by advertising those, it'll become a race to the top for interest / bottom for fees, in order to compete with other wealth management services. Instead they'd rather distract you with the relatively cheap lifestyle benefits eg travel, daily coffees, gym subscriptions, etc. The hope is you just assume the fees etc are comparable and go with a particular bank cos you feel taken care of on holiday. 

Yup - they even have foreign spending fees on the CC, pretty rubbish for a card that pretends to "take care of you on holiday"! So if you spend £5k abroad it'd cost you £137. On top of the £290 annual fee. But they give you fast track security which usually costs £5 or so and a few other seemingly trivial perks like discounts on high margin hotels etc which you could probably get with other cards or using other methods, as it's easy to get discounts on high margin products. 

Do you know who / where the £60 lounge access is (assuming that's annual not per visit)? The only passes or cards with passes I've found with a broad enough coverage are getting quite expensive.. 

Not sure. £60 per visit would be silly so pretty sure it wasn't that!

[Deleted User]

Emmia said:

[Deleted User] said:

Emmia said:

[Deleted User] said:

incus432 said:

[Deleted User] 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.

I've had terrible service from several other banks that people around here often praise (Monzo in particular stands out). Horses for courses.

I wasn't with Monzo for long as I couldn't resist the temptation of a switch but I always found them really good.

Barclays (another bank I do a lot of shops with, many more than with HSBC) can be inconsistent.

Its natural that different people will get differing experiences with banks I guess.

[Deleted User]

zagfles said:

saajan_12 said:

[Deleted User] said:

Archerychick said:

Did you spot the expandable sections, e.g. under travel - 

I thought it does detail the benefits, unsure what else you’d be looking for? 

Yes I'd seen that thanks, maybe I'm expecting too much detail haha. Don't worry about replying but I don't see anything in terms of cost (I assume there will be a monthly fee) or in terms of rates (I assume you're not going to leave 100 grand in a stagnant non earning account, ordinarily I'd be looking to earn 4 or 5k in yearly interest which would far outweigh any travel related benefits, particularly as those wouldn't even appeal to everybody).

I

I've definitely noticed this, compared to normal current and savings accounts with no / low minimums actually advertise the cashbacks and interests.

TBH I think its intentional.. competing on the real benefits ie interest, fees etc is more expensive and makes a bigger difference for larger balances. So by advertising those, it'll become a race to the top for interest / bottom for fees, in order to compete with other wealth management services. Instead they'd rather distract you with the relatively cheap lifestyle benefits eg travel, daily coffees, gym subscriptions, etc. The hope is you just assume the fees etc are comparable and go with a particular bank cos you feel taken care of on holiday. 

Yup - they even have foreign spending fees on the CC, pretty rubbish for a card that pretends to "take care of you on holiday"! So if you spend £5k abroad it'd cost you £137. On top of the £290 annual fee. But they give you fast track security which usually costs £5 or so and a few other seemingly trivial perks like discounts on high margin hotels etc which you could probably get with other cards or using other methods, as it's easy to get discounts on high margin products. 

Do you know who / where the £60 lounge access is (assuming that's annual not per visit)? The only passes or cards with passes I've found with a broad enough coverage are getting quite expensive.. 

Not sure. £60 per visit would be silly so pretty sure it wasn't that!

The other elephant in the room is the poor interest rates, again pardon me if I'm missing something but the account pays around 2% (I'm doing this from memory as I delved into it last night) with the ISA paying 3%?

With 100k that would mean you are down by a good 2k to start with when compared with the best EA accounts let alone other savers.

So the benefits would need to be outrageous to entice me.

subjecttocontract

zagfles said:

saajan_12 said:

[Deleted User] said:

Archerychick said:

Did you spot the expandable sections, e.g. under travel - 

I thought it does detail the benefits, unsure what else you’d be looking for? 

Yes I'd seen that thanks, maybe I'm expecting too much detail haha. Don't worry about replying but I don't see anything in terms of cost (I assume there will be a monthly fee) or in terms of rates (I assume you're not going to leave 100 grand in a stagnant non earning account, ordinarily I'd be looking to earn 4 or 5k in yearly interest which would far outweigh any travel related benefits, particularly as those wouldn't even appeal to everybody).

I

I've definitely noticed this, compared to normal current and savings accounts with no / low minimums actually advertise the cashbacks and interests.

TBH I think its intentional.. competing on the real benefits ie interest, fees etc is more expensive and makes a bigger difference for larger balances. So by advertising those, it'll become a race to the top for interest / bottom for fees, in order to compete with other wealth management services. Instead they'd rather distract you with the relatively cheap lifestyle benefits eg travel, daily coffees, gym subscriptions, etc. The hope is you just assume the fees etc are comparable and go with a particular bank cos you feel taken care of on holiday. 

Yup - they even have foreign spending fees on the CC, pretty rubbish for a card that pretends to "take care of you on holiday"! So if you spend £5k abroad it'd cost you £137. On top of the £290 annual fee. But they give you fast track security which usually costs £5 or so and a few other seemingly trivial perks like discounts on high margin hotels etc which you could probably get with other cards or using other methods, as it's easy to get discounts on high margin products. 

Do you know who / where the £60 lounge access is (assuming that's annual not per visit)? The only passes or cards with passes I've found with a broad enough coverage are getting quite expensive.. 

Not sure. £60 per visit would be silly so pretty sure it wasn't that!

Fast track security & everything else would cost one of these account holders far made than £5 if they didn't have an HSBC Prem' a/c cos they'd have to pay someone to organise it for them. Staff costs, especially with the new increases are now very high. Have any of you tried employing even a gardener or housekeeper at reasonable costs lately ?