When it comes to finding a place to store your savings, you have an amazing amount of options. You can put it in a mattress, take it down to the local bank or credit union, or if you’re technically savvy, you can open an online savings account. Many people have become attracted to these high-yield internet based savings accounts because they offer such a great rate of return and give you instant information about your account. Many of the major banks turned their heads after ING Direct found success by offering online savings accounts and soon followed suit. Today we are going to review HSBC’s offering in the online savings account world, the HSBC Direct Online Savings Account.
With a lot of online savings accounts, you are dealing with banks that haven’t been around that long and don’t have a track record of success. HSBC is definitely an exception to this trend. It has been opened since 1850 and has over 400 branches throughout New York. It’s headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and has nearly 43,000 employees. There’s no wonder why their slogan is “The World’s Largest Bank.” We all know that bigger does not necessarily mean better. HSBC has been around for quite some time, but is their online savings account a great place to put your money? Let’s find out.
Perhaps the most prominent reason people consider HSBC Direct is its very high interest rate. HSBC Direct is even offering a promotional rate of 6.00% APY on any new money until April 30th. Its rate for all other money is 5.05%, which is very competitive in the online savings world. The highest banks offer rates of about 5.30% APY, however they are usually new banks that have not established a strong reputation yet. In addition, the account has no monthly fees and no minimum balance, which is par for the course in the online savings world. Another big benefit of choosing the HSBC Direct online savings account is that you can deposit or withdraw money at any HSBC ATM. If you live in the north east, this might be a big benefit to you. All money deposited in HSBC’s accounts are FDIC insured up to $100,000.
HSBC has a number of security features to keep your money safe from any hacker or person that’s out to get you who wants access to your account. All of the data transferred between your computer and HSBC Direct is encrypted with 128-Bit SSL encryption. In addition, HSBC does an excellent job managing their servers with intrusion detection tools and a series of firewalls to keep your account information safe.
The signup process is pretty typical of online savings accounts. You apply online, give them standard personal information, and then they will ask you questions about your credit report to make sure that you are who you say you are. You don’t have to mail in anything. They’ll send two trial deposits to your checking account that you want to fund your savings account from. You go to a special page and type in those numbers to verify that it is your account.
After you verify your trial deposits, you have to play the waiting game. HSBC Direct will snail mail you two letters from New York. They’ll send you a customer ID and a password in two different letters to allow you to login. This can take nearly two weeks if you live on the west cost! After you get that information, you can login and setup an external transfer so that you can move money between your HSBC Direct account and your checking account. You should receive your HSBC ATM card a few days later. It does take a little bit of waiting to sign up for this account, but it’s not a deal breaker.
Overall the HSBC Direct team provides more than adequate customer service. They offer a toll free support number which is available 24/7. Other bloggers have shared that they have had overall positive experiences when dealing with the customer service team. This is definitely not the case for all online savings accounts.
At the end of the day HSBC Direct’s online savings account is a pretty decent place to put your savings at. Their interest rates have stayed competitive, they have excellent customer service, and you can use your HSBC debit card to deposit and withdraw money.