[Expired] HSBC $250/$500 Checking Promotion + up to $200 For Referring A Friend

The Fine Print

• Referral bonus is valid through July 28, 2017 (terms indicate that the Advanced and Premier referral bonus will work past that date as well while the Choice referral bonus will end then)
• To receive the referral credit:
  • The individual you refer must keep their account open for at least 15 days
  • The individual you refer must not currently hold, nor have held in the past 90 days, an HSBC personal account; and the individual you refer must provide your personalized referral code at account opening for you both to qualify to receive credit for the referral bonus
• Account must be opened in branch or over the phone
• Allow 8 weeks for referral bonuses to post; this includes the referral bonus and the new account bonus
• All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
• Referral bonus is limited to one per household
• New member must fund the account by December 29, 2017
• To receive your referral bonus, you must have an HSBC Premier, HSBC Advance, or HSBC Choice Checking relationship in the United States and not be an HSBC employee.
• The individual you refer must not currently hold, nor have held in the past 365 days, a consumer HSBC account

Avoiding Fees

Early Termination Fee

There is a $25 fee for closing the account within 180 days (Link).

Monthly Fees

• The Choice account has a $15 monthly fee which is waived with direct deposit or with a $1,500 balance.
• The Advance account has a $25 monthly fee which is waived with a $5k direct deposit or a $10k balance.
• The Premier account has a $50 monthly fee which is waived with $100k balance.

Our Verdict

The $50 Choice bonus is very little and only makes sense for someone who wanted that account anyway. The more interesting bonuses are the $250 and $500 offers. Let’s take a look at the numbers.

To get the $500 bonus, you’ll have to lock up $100k for eight weeks and then pay the $25 early termination fee. Assuming you have that kind of money earning around 1% APY in a savings account, you’ll end up ‘losing’ around $200 on the interest + ETF. Net gain would still be around $300 which sounds pretty good. Of course, most people don’t have $100k sitting around like that in a 1% account.

To get the $250 bonus, you’ll have to lock up $10k for eight weeks or get a $5k monthly direct deposit. If you can easily do the direct deposit option, this should be an easy $250 bonus. Otherwise, if you have $10k sitting in a 1% account, by doing this bonus you’ll lose a bit of interest + $25 EFT, but overall it can still be a net of around $200 or more.

Both bonuses sound interesting, especially if you’ll be helping a friend/family earn $100-$200 along the way. We’ll add this our list of Best Bank Bonuses.

There was a public $350 bonus on the Choice account which a lot of us did, though we learned the hard way that HSBC bonuses aren’t always painless. Hopefully, this one will work out more easily. If you closed out an account more than 90  365 days ago, you’re eligible for another bonus.

Do not leave referrals in the comments to this post. We created a dedicated page where you can leave a referral or find a referral.

Hat tip to reader Lexi

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