How to do accounts is very interesting indeed.
Have a range of student accounts, current accounts, savings accounts, Individual savings accounts, as well as off shore savings accounts.
My own experience of the HSBC started when I was 16 when I started saving a few pounds each month with very low rates of interest gained. Then when I became an undergraduate I received a student account with a generous level of overdraft credit. At the same time I had taken out one credit card that I had spent on restaurants as well as holiday trips. I later took out a small peronal loan with the company that had a reasonable 9.8% interest rate due to the fact that I was young aged 24 and in credit with the bank at the time. My recent dealings with this bank are now strictly online banking using a green service where the bank do not send me any statements unless I go over the overdraft limit. Thankfully I had a good run on the stock market recently as well as having rental income from overseas as well as disability payments means that I no longer require debt services from any financial institution. I also earn good secondary income each month from other websites and as such my pennies are saved better than they are spent.
==The Green Current Account==
I opened this account a few years ago, as in practise I use Internet banking quite regularly to check up my account status as well as to see where my money has gone regarding spending and saving. I was also offered a £5 incentive to use the Green Current account service, which gives the customer a chance to view there account online as opposed to using cheques. I must admit that I was pleasantly pleased that cheques whilst they are still used quite widely, are becoming a thing of the past, as more and more people use debit or credit card money as well as cash. I became happy with the service as the bank offered me a £1500 overdraft. I took this offer up in the first instance, though I became slightly annoyed with the service as in later years they charged me a £25 administration fee for a service that I rarely go overdrawn.
==The telephone banking service==
I find that using the telephone to talk to an advisor if I require quite helpful, as some times I am in a rush to find out my cash balance in my current account. I also am pleased with the security and the speed of the telephone banking, automated service. I was not happy to see the call centres being run overseas which really in my view has downgraded the quality of the service and the promptness in people including myself having the information available and getting the application processes of items such as overdrafts, as well as loan applications sorted out much quicker if all of the HSBC telephone were all U.K based.
==Student Accounts==
Whilst I enrolled at Brunel University over 10 years ago in 1999, I was offered a student account with a £750 overdraft, that rose to £1500 in my third and final year. I was pleased with the ease of opening account and the staff courtesy shown in this application process. I was sent statements of my spending each month through the post.
==Online Share dealing Services==
Well what can I say here, except that the bank starting rate charge for share purchases is £20 which I do not use as I use the services of www.share.com who by comparison only charge me a minimum fee of £7.50 to buy and sell shares.
==Credit Card==
This credit card provided me with a platform to make hundreds of small Internet purchases at a fairly reasonable rate. The way I saved money here, was to pay the full balance off in full each month. When at times, I could not afford to pay HSBC back for the credit card, I had to rely on parental support a few times. The credit card itself was a good design and I could use this at restaurants, on holidays abroad, though when getting cash abroad the charges are quite high. Those were the days when money in my younger years felt like no object. Two years ago, once I had discovered that I was in debt to the tune of around £1500, I had taken a decision in my life to cut up the card, and inform the Credit Card services department of HSBC, that I was not playing the game with them anymore, and that I would repay the card balance in full and would therefore no longer require the services of the credit card. My parents who have much more savings, investments and cash than I do, do hold credit cards with Lloyds.
I also must admit that I did not ever qualify or apply ever for an expensive gold card. Gold in my view is a physical asset that is pure and beautiful to own, though a credit card is merely a piece of plastic that is used to make shopping purchases. Another important thing that whilst I held a Credit Card account was that I did not ever withdraw cash using the credit card to make purchases for basic items. I did gamble at a young age which almost brought me to the brink of disaster, though I found that life was not all about money, it was about keeping control of the money I had and my health was and still is the paramount driving force in my life.