HSBC Direct is offering a promotional 6.00% APY on new money only between January 29, 2007 and April 30, 2007. This for both new and existing accounts. They are pretty restrictive on the meaning of “new” money, so you can’t just take money out and put it back in and have it earn the promo rate.
Starting Balance means the available balance in your account as of the close of business on January 26, 2007. New Money means funds not previously held by any member of the HSBC Group deposited during the New Money Period less any withdrawals, and it excludes your Starting Balance as calculated below.
If you don’t use HSBC, check out my Ultimate Interest Rate Chaser Calculator to help decide if it’s worth the hassle to move money over. Currently most other similar online banks are earning about 5.00-5.25% APY. You’re really looking at a maximum of 3 months of an extra 1% APY, after which most likely the rate will drop back down. This equates to roughly $20-$25 extra for each $10,000 you move in (the lower estimate takes into account the likely lost interest during transfer).
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WOW! I didn’t know about this. Glad I have HSBC. I just got paid on Friday. Time to do a transfer. Woo Hoo!
Strange. My fiance got an email about it from HSBC, but I didn’t. I hope that doesn’t mean that they’re doing it for him and not for me 🙂
So any sort of bonuses yet for HSBC like ING does? I’d like to get as much as I can out of this ;).
Great! It’s time to sign up for HSBC for me. I’m always at Emigrant.
And back my money goes to HSBC. Bai bai, E-LOAN. 🙂
Cool. I just opend a HSBC. I do have to admit I do not like the lag between withdrawl and deposit.
Last week my Credit Union was debited on Tuesday, but it didn’t show up in HSBC till Thursday.
I also opened an E*trade savings account where I could do do a recurring debit till I saved enough to open a traditional IRA ($3k). I opened it on 1/19 and the debit was done on 1/22 and I still do not have access to the account (they claim an email when the funding has happened…nothing yet).
Not impressed with E*trade, one of Kiplingers top 3.
While there might not be a huge financial advantage to moving the money, if ING (for instance) saw large outflows of money, they might be tempted to raise their rates, no?
I don’t know of any bonus for HSBC Direct savings, but there is a $25 bonus for opening a Free Checking account for those interested in linking the two together.
link
Can you set up direct deposit for paychecks to go into any of these online savings? I know about the 2-3 business day lag and all, but it would help me to contribute on a regular basis. I have an HSBC account and my wife and I are just saving all of my income anyway. Anyone have any experience with this?
And Amanda, it looks like it’s for any HSBC Online Savings account. It’s on their website so I would think you would be included as well.
has anyone successfully linked Fidelity brokerage account to HSBC for transfer? do you have to have check writing capability established at Fidelity in order to do this?
Sam – Most can, I’d ask your HR dept. Many just need a routing number and account number to start direct deposit.
david – Yes, you can link Fidelity via HSBC. No checkwriting needed, you just need the account number and verify some trial deposits or your online login/password.
Thanks for the info Jonathon! Just moved some money into HSBC! That’s why reading this blog pays!!!
I hope Citibank’s E-saving’s will follow soon. I have it setup to link with my citi’s e-checking account and the transfer is instantaneous!!
I’m staying put with WaMu at 5%, maybe if this wasn’t a teaser rate I would go.
Just opened my account (and attempted to transfer money directly in from EmigrantDirect, we’ll see if that works in a few days). Thanks for the heads up about the promo interest rate.
I’m with Mike–my money’s staying at WaMu as well. I closed my HSBC account because the online interface wasn’t worth the small extra APY. Unless they’ve simplified the interface, I won’t be going back.
I closed HSBC account because I felt cheated every time that I did an ACH transfer in or out of the account. If you figure all new deposits loose 2 days of interest on the way in then your APY is not even 5.05% a year but really 5.02% if you happend to withdraw your money before 1 year then your really getting an APY of 4.99% because of the loss on way out. So in my option if HSBC does not way to pay 5.05% that is ok with me but atleast do what all other banks do and post my money same day you withdraw it from my other account. Like Citibank who pays 5% does not loose your money going in or out for 2 days each way. Even if you pick slow 2 day transfer from Citibank what they do is wait 2 days before debting your funds but the day they pull my funds from my local credit union it is credited to Citibank E-savings accounts. If you pick next day ACH then it debted next day from CU and posted to E-savings account.
They dont play games like HSBC
I woud like to point out that it is 6% APY and not APR. And since it is for a maximum of 3 months, you will not actually earn 6% on an annual basis.
Same as you Nick, I opened my E-Loan Savings from HSBC (and moved my 0% credit card money), now the money is moving back to HSBC for the next few months 🙂
I also opened a free checking account at HSBC with free online bill pay and now I’ve arranged for my direct deposit to go into my HSBC Savings.
Emigrant Direct has been more steady with their interest rate, so I still have an account there for when HSBC or E-Loan stop being the best….
ING Direct has become a joke…
I had opened a new HSBC Derect account to enjoy the 6% APY.
Here are some cons:
1/ It took about 7 business days, after your 2 initial deposits, to get you log into your account and start funding, an temporary ID received in your email box and the temporary passord received via a postal mail. (not like Emigrant Direct, as soon as you verified your 2 initial deposits, yourr acct. is readyto be funded and earn interest)
2/ Customer Service is poor.
Anyhow, I gave it a try then feed back on here later.
Emigrant lets me transfer 6K back to my checking account within 1 day, w/o any trouble. It’s great.
Regarding HSBC’s lag time in money transfer, it can be more than 3 days if you incidentally make the transfer on Wednesday-Friday of the week. It will get dragged through the weekend because weekend days don’t count. The last time I did a transfer on a Thursday, the money was deducted immediatly yet it took until Tuesday of the next week for the money to be posted on the other account. I lost 5 days of interest! Cheats! I’m taking my money out from HSBC. I don’t care for their high teaser rate.
I totally agree with Thuy’s statements.
On the top of that, I have to wait 7 business days to get my temporary password and my temporary ID so I can log into my account to fund it, as they came in separately (via email and another one via airmail)
Then when you signed up, the web site asked you secuirity key and it ONLy allowed you to chose your Security Key by your mouse (not by typing on your keyboard) which was not convenient. 🙁
Customer Service seems can’t handle the job well.
I pulled my $ out and put back into my Emigrant Direct.
Not worth it for a short period of time with many unconvenience.
Use http://www.igobanking.com (currently 5.30%) to do a “Premium Transfer” push into HSBC. One day transfers are wonderful.
Anyone else ever use IGOBanking? Hadn’t heard of them before. Is there a fee for the “Premium Transfers”?
I haven’t tried them myself, but they do offer premium 1-days transfers (as well as standard ones with the same 2-4 day hold), but they have are lower limits, something like $2,000 per day ($5,000 max per month).
Seeing that the 6% rate is only promotional, does anyone know when this rate will cease to apply and what the new regular rate would be?
It will end on April 30th, 2007. Most likely the rate will go back down to 5.05%.
so glad i found your blog. 🙂
No fees for Premium transfers. Must have $750 on deposit with them to do Premium transfers however. Also, I just transfered 2K to them and the whole amount is available to me for withdrawal with no holds. It may have something to do with where you transfer the money from. Online banks versus brick & mortar, but I’m not sure. I have had holds in the past, but I don’t know what the deciding factor is as I transfer between three to four banks both online and offline and never really thought much of holds. I move my money, but not hardly enough to be affected by holds. That 2K daily limit and 5K monthly limit on Premium transfers is not my cup of tea, but until something better comes along, I’ll try not to complain too loudly.
On a side note, organizing a mass withdraw from ING (or any other bank) in hopes to get them to raise their rate would take a lot of planning. It seems there are at least two kinds of people, those who have already left ING and those too loyal to the simplistic functionality of the website to leave. Me, I follow the rates. HSBC at 6% was nice while it lasted, but it’s back to IGB for me.