3.5 stars across
8 reviews
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This review is for: Online Savings
If you want to open a bank account, whether you want to open a bank account online or in person. You'll have an open bank account in no time.The hsbc Bank Makes it easy and comfortable by providing the online personalized id and password with pin numbers. In order to open an account, you must provide some information to the bank. They do not open bank accounts without certain details about you. This is to protect them against risk and comply with a variety of regulations. You’ll need to provide simple details like your name and birthday, as well as identification numbers (in the U.S. this is most likely your Social Security Number). You may also need to provide a government ID or Driver’s License number. If you’re doing this online, you’ll just type the information into a textbox. If you open bank accounts in person you can hand your ID’s over to the banker who will probably make photocopies. As a personal customer, we are fully protected against third party fraud when banking online with HSBC. You will not suffer any loss if money is taken from your account without your permission provided you have not acted fraudulently or negligently. They have Secure Online Banking with debit card. If we want to transfer one account to another We have add the payee with his account numbers and we have transfer money in minutes we can get receivers money confirmation from the bank mail.
Posted by suriyasuriyaa -- Nov. 18, 2009
Good Enough
This review is for: Online Payment Account
Things I like about this account:
ATM refunds. These are butter. Three ATM transactions at other banks’ ATMs reimbursed per month.
No minimum or monthly fee.
Things I don’t:
No regular (paper) checks. Annoying.
At the end of the day, a pretty good account (interest rates are pretty good for a checking-type account). If you’re going to get HSBC’s savings account, then it makes sense to make this your checking account. If you aren’t interested in their savings stuff, there’s probably another standalone checking account out there that will be a little better (ING? EverBank?).
Posted by bob.jiggly -- Sept. 9, 2009
Huh?
This review is for: Online CD
Will someone please explain to me why banks have weird rate structures like this one? Why would the APYs for 12 month CDs be so much higher than APYs for 18 and 24 month CDs? Competitive pressure? Some kind of chicanery? I know not.
Not much to say here, except that this CD has (for now, at least) a solid rate for the 12 month CD and okay rates for longer CDs. I’d probably stick with the 12-monther here, but that’s just me (and that could change over time if their rate structure became less weird).
Posted by hotdogmalfunction -- Sept. 9, 2009
Average e-bank
This review is for: HSBC Advance
Like most, I joined for the online access and high interest rate on savings. The savings rate went down yet again today, and I came to this site to find a bank with a higher rate. I've had the account for three years and have generally been pleased with their customer service. You can call and get a person (in an off-shore call center) to answer your questions. On the downside, I've had to call several times because their secure login is so complex that I can never remember the 44 secret codes and hand signals needed to access my account. Definitely not an online site for the web novice.
Posted by atl_atty -- Aug. 14, 2009
Good Online Savings Account
This review is for: Online Savings
I opened this account because I wanted to put a little extra money away that would actually earn some interest. When I opened the account I was making about 5% and I was thrilled with my returns. It wasn’t a lot but it was cool to see my money grow. The interest rate has been steadily declining throughout the past 2 years. However this seems consistent with national trends. One feature of this account that I really like is the bank to bank transfer feature. While attending college I needed to access my money to pay tuition. The bank to bank transfer feature made it easy to keep the bulk of my money in savings where it made interest and then transfer sums to my checking to pay for my tuition every semester. I also find their e-mail system reliable and efficient. I receive timely emails from HSBC when I’m paid interest as well as when interest rates change. I felt that my money was secure which was important to me because this was the first time that I had opened an account online and done everything electronically. A quick story will illustrate. I was attempting to transfer money from my HSBC account to my fiancé’s account, but my name was not on her account. Shortly after submitting her account and routing numbers for verification I received an e-mail telling me that my account was frozen due to suspicious activity. I was slightly annoyed, but also grateful that my bank was looking after my money. My only complaint is that it was somewhat difficult to get my account unfrozen following this.
Posted by layton.hamblin -- Aug. 10, 2009
Generally good, wait for rate to increase before opening
This review is for: Online Savings
I have had this account for about a year now and I chose it because it had the highest interest rate at the time. My fiancé and I were saving for our wedding and wanted to get the most out of the money we had parked in the bank. For the most part, I like HSBC. The interest rate has dropped significantly over the year that I have had the account but that is due to the economic meltdown and not so much HSBC. It is still better than a lot of regular savings accounts though. Once you get up and running the account is pretty easy to use. It is a little annoying to get money out because it usually takes a few days to transfer to a non-HSBC account. Also, the sign up was less than user friendly, but that could have been because it was a joint account and not just an individual account. So far nothing negative to say about customer service. I have not needed anything from them. The only time I needed to make a call was when I was setting up the account and they helped me out. Right now I would say wait if you are thinking about opening an account. The hassles are not worth it for the interest rate. When that goes back up, say in the high 2s and up, then I would say do it. For now there are probably better services out there with higher interest rates.
Posted by josephdeanda -- July 29, 2009
Great way to save!
This review is for: Online Savings
I opened an account with HSBC Direct about two years ago. I don't keep a lot of money in it, however the interest rates were the best at the time which is why I chose this account. Since this is not brick and mortor banking there is low overhead and they can offer more return on your money. The website is slightly tedious using a virtual keyboard and two passwords, however this makes me feel more secure when accessing my money. You have the option to add an external account for transferring money to and from. The only thing I don't care for is how long the transfers take (3-5 days), however this is a common time frame when dealing with any bank and an external account. They have excellent email communication and keep you posted of all activity. I highly recommend HSBC online banking for a high yield, low maintainence account with a low minimum balance.
Posted by janismama1 -- June 18, 2009
Customer service only thing holding them back
This review is for: Online Savings
HSBC is a great, brand name bank with a solid online history. I think their Online Savings Account has been around since at least 2005, and from what I can tell, their rates are very competitive with the major, long-term players. Their ACH system is strong but has limits, although they're high enough not to matter in most cases - $100k/day in or out and $1MM/month out. The application and statements are both online, and there's only a soft credit check required.
My only problem with HSBC, and the reason I can't give them 5 stars, is their customer service. I know it's the 21st century, and outsourcing is here to stay. However, when I'm trying to have a conversation with someone about some very detailed financial information and we just can't cross the language divide, what good does that do for anyone? To be fair, the customer service rep that I spoke with was very knowledgeable about the account, but some days, I'm not gonna want to put in the extra effort to get what *should be* a relatively simple question answered.
Posted by SmallBizMan -- March 15, 2009
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