HSBC Bank Promo: 3% Cash Bonus on New Deposits, Up to $600 Total

Interest rates on liquid savings accounts keep dropping, making bank bonuses more attractive on a relative basis. Opening new accounts are more hassle, so I usually want at least double the interest rates I could get by doing nothing. This $240/$600 HSBC bank bonus satisfies that requirement at over 12% APY. This bonus is not as simple as I’d like, so let’s unpack the details a bit.

Premier Checking (up to $600) bonus details.

• Open by 9/30/2020. Customers who held an HSBC consumer deposit or investment account from June 29, 2017 through and including June 29, 2020 are not eligible for this offer.
• 3% cash bonus on qualifying direct deposits, up to $100 per calendar months for 6 months ($600 total). The 6 calendar months begin with the first full calendar month after account opening.
• Qualifying Direct Deposits are electronic deposits of regular periodic payments (such as salary, pension, Government Benefits or other monthly income) made into your HSBC Premier checking account from third parties at least once per calendar month.
• Bonus arrives 8 weeks after qualifying activity. To be eligible for the offer, your HSBC Premier checking account must be open without being changed to a product with lower balance requirements, and in good standing at the time of fulfillment.
• Limit one 3% Promotional Offer or New Consumer Deposit Offer per customer, including all individual and joint accounts — the first line name on the joint account is considered the customer for gift purposes.

HSBC Premier checking has a $50 monthly maintenance fee, unless you have one of the following:

• Balances of $75,000 in combined U.S. consumer and qualifying commercial U.S. Dollar deposit and investment* accounts; OR
• Monthly recurring direct deposits totaling at least $5,000 from a third party to an HSBC Premier checking account(s); OR
• HSBC U.S. residential mortgage loan with an original loan amount of at least $500,000, not an aggregate of multiple mortgages. Home Equity products are not included.

This is not official, but to me the wording suggests that a regularly scheduled monthly ACH transfer pushed from an external bank can count as a direct deposit. The comments under this Doctor of Credit post support this. Obviously, you may want to switch over a payroll if that is an option for you. HSBC doesn’t have any high-interest bank accounts where it would be beneficial to park $75,000 (even if you had this large amount available), so this leaves the best move as making an ACH transfer of $5,000 per month into the account during those 6 months (wait to start until the next new month after opening). This triggers the full bonus and you can then withdraw the funds as you wish, as you have already done the deposits and waived the monthly fee. Limit one per customer, so you and a spouse/partner can each get a bonus, but as usual I would make two individual accounts instead of joint accounts.

The fact that you don’t keep those $5,000 monthly deposits in the account is what I missed initially, and what makes this bonus worth a second look. You can just cycle it: deposit $5k, spend/transfer out $5k, and then deposit $5k again. Now you’re earning a $600 bonus on $5,000 instead of $30,000 or $75,000 in committed cash. Even if you were loose with the math and assumed you had to keep $5,000 in the account for 12 months, a $600 bonus would be 12% annualized. Don’t downgrade your account until get the bonus!

Advance Checking (up to $240) bonus details.

• Open by 9/30/2020. Customers who held an HSBC consumer deposit or investment account from June 29, 2017 through and including June 29, 2020 are not eligible for this offer.
• 3% cash bonus on qualifying direct deposits, up to $40 per calendar months for 6 months ($240 total). The 6 calendar months begin with the first full calendar month after account opening.
• Qualifying Direct Deposits are electronic deposits of regular periodic payments (such as salary, pension, Government Benefits or other monthly income) made into your HSBC Advance checking account from third parties at least once per calendar month.
• Bonus arrives 8 weeks after qualifying activity. To be eligible for the offer, your HSBC Advance checking account must be open without being changed to a product with lower balance requirements, and in good standing at the time of fulfillment.
• Limit one 3% Promotional Offer or New Consumer Deposit Offer per customer, including all individual and joint accounts — the first line name on the joint account is considered the customer for gift purposes.

HSBC Advance checking has a $25 monthly maintenance fee, unless you have one of the following:

• Balances of $5,000 in combined U.S. consumer and qualifying commercial U.S. Dollar deposit and investment* accounts; OR
• Monthly recurring direct deposits (of any amount) from a third party to an HSBC Advance checking account(s); OR
• HSBC U.S. residential mortgage loan (of any amount). Home Equity products are not included.

You can either park $5,000 there for about 8 months, or you can make a small direct deposit of any amount each month to waive the monthly fee. However, you will need to deposit at least $1,334 each month to max out the bonus at $40 per month. Even if you were loose with the math and assumed you had to keep $1,500 in the account for 12 months, a $240 bonus would be 16% annualized. Don’t downgrade your account until get the bonus!

Which one? If you have $5,000 that you can cycle, then the $600 Premier bonus is a better use of your time as this bonus will require you to set up multiple transfers and take 8-9 months to complete. If you only have $1,500 to cycle, getting a $240 bonus is still pretty good. Bank bonuses require attention to detail, a tracking/reminder system, and patience. It helps to have that quirk where getting the equivalent of guaranteed 12% annual return on your money is “fun”. 🙂

Thanks to reader Brian M for the tip.