Comments on: HSBC Direct is Trying to Attract New Money

By: John Green

John Green — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 17:18:19 +0000

I signed up for the HSBC promo after discovering that Citibank dropped its once-competitive 5.00% esavings rate to 4.75%. I know the extra quarter is miniscule, but I really don’t want to continue to bank my money with an institution that no longer wishes to be competitive. Anyway, I found the process to sign up relatively painless. The website needs a little work in regards to navigation, and I discovered a little “gotcha” when trying to set up external accounts in their “Bank to Bank Transfers. I opened my HSBC account by funding it from an EFT from my old bank. After setting up my HSBC account online, I tried to set up my old bank as an EFT account (in the Bank to Bank Transfers section), but the website states that this account was already registered. However, my old bank does not show up as a valid account anywhere in the Bank To Bank pulldown menus. I called technical support about this issue and they acknowledged the problem. Of course, the solution was to just set up the HSBC account from my old bank’s website. I did point out to the customer service rep that if folks couldn’t set up an EFT from their old banking institution this glitch is a major inconvenience and it isn’t helping the customer or HSBC make money if there is a delay in transferring more funds into the new HSBC account.

By: Blaine Moore

Blaine Moore — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 17:11:26 +0000

I believe that the “new money” definition is any balance over your closing balance as of last Friday (or whenever the promotion began).

By: Seth

Seth — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:38:53 +0000

That sounds great. I’ve been thinking of making the move from ING to HSBC as well. Can anyone familiar with both elaborate on the transfer time w/ HSBC? ING seems to be a day or two. Do you know anything about the difference between the two, Nickel?

By: Hypersion

Hypersion — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 07:38:47 +0000

Currently I have all my AOR money in Emigrant which is paying 5.05% If HSBC was paying 6% for 12 months or at least 6 months I might switch over but 90 days isn’t worth dealing with.

By: junger

junger — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 03:09:16 +0000

6% sounds great, but you have to wonder if it’s really worth the hassle (especially if you’re moving money from another 5.05% account or more, like eloan). HSBC always seems to have the longest transfer time of any of the online savings accounts.

By: nickel

nickel — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:58:23 +0000

NCN: HSBC has been well above ING ever since we opened an account with them, and I doubt that will change anytime soon. And if it does, you can always move our money back. We have accounts at HSBC, ING, and Emigrant such that we can rate chase with ease. That being said, we’ve been ‘all in’ at HSBC for quite some time.

By: NCN

NCN — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:53:06 +0000

Nickel,
I’m thinking about moving from ING to HSBC, especially if the rate stays strong… thanks for the post!
You rock,
NCN

By: not confucius

not confucius — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 08:12:49 +0000

got the same email… not sure though if money transferred from my hsbc checking account counts as new money… the email wasn’t explicit in defining “money outside of hsbc”… i have direct deposit set up for my checking account so if they count that as hsbc money, i probably won’t get to enjoy the promo rate…