Money Saving Girl Money Saving Tips and Ideas
As you already know I am a master of juggling a few bank accounts at the same time quite seamlessly, as switching bank accounts helps me getting ‘free money’ quickly, therefore there is no surprise to anyone when they learn where I spend some of my lunch breaks…Yes you have got it right I sometimes replace consumption of a sandwich in front of my laptop for a quick meeting with some of the bank staff. In most cases you can open/switch a bank account online however that was not the case with my last move…
That is why last week I had a meeting with a friendly Jo from HSBC scheduled in their Bromley branch.
Due to getting married last year and having half of the documents (documents -proving my identity and place of living- required when opening a bank account) with my old and another half of them with my new surname I had to come to HSBC twice but I believe it was worth it.
There was another interesting question ‘Can I switch my First Direct account to HSBC as these two banks are owned by the HSBC group?’ – Jo checked that for me and there was absolutely no harm in doing so and still qualifying for £100 leaving benefit from First Direct. Subsequently I will also receive a £150 for my account switch from HSBC and they will deal with the account switch in the 7 working days, when moving my balance and my direct debit. Easy, no?
In order to qualify for that HSBC bonus I need to transfer £1750* once a month to my newly opened bank account** and have at least 2 direct debits up and running (I had them already in First Direct, so they will be transferred over at the time of account switch).
*Now you do not have to earn thousands to qualify for the bonuses and perks coming from a few bank accounts. All you need to do is simply to transfer ‘the same’ money between accounts using standing orders set up between various accounts. That way you will have all the necessary transfers set up automatically and won’t need to do anything manually. You just need to ensure it all doesn’t clash with the time when you pay bills/have other financial commitments.
** HSBC requires quite a lot of money to be transferred to their account on a monthly basis, before setting up the account ensure you either earn that exact or even higher amount of money so that you can meet their account switch benefit criteria and pay your financial commitments as well, otherwise opening the account is counter- productive. If you have some savings you can always try to switch for HSBC for 3 months only and move away from them having received the account-switching bonus.
So having spent almost an hour – I must say Jo was very quick with setting me up on the system- I got my HSBC account up and running and ‘soon’ will receive £250.
I have already informed First Direct that I am just about to leave them and expect to get the leaving bonus. They received this message positively and having checked if I meet leaving bonus criteria ( I was transferring £1000 to that account for first 6 months since opening it and was with them under a 1 year) confirmed I should receive the money within a month from the day I left them.
HSBC promises to transfer the switching accounts bonus within first 3 months of banking with them. So now I need to amend one of my standing orders, to ensure there is money reaching this account 🙂 I may even bank with them for longer – if I stay with them for 12 months I will get another £50 for being their loyal customer. Time will tell if that will be yet another perk I catch 🙂
*This post was originally published on 21/02/2017 but HSBC have the switch bonus again offer – hurry up as it is expiring on 23/07/2017