Update 11/24/24: Deal is back and valid until January 2, 2025
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $2,500
- Availability: Nationwide
- Direct deposit required: Yes
- Additional requirements: None
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: $50, avoidable
- Early account termination fee: $25, 180 days
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date:November 22, 2024
Contents
The Offer
- HSBC is offering a $1,500 or $2,500 bonus when you open a new Premier checking account. Bonus you receive depends on the amount you deposit or invest the following for 3 full consecutive months following the new account opening month:
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Receive a cash bonus of $1,500 when you deposit or invest $100,000 to $249,999.99
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Receive a cash bonus of $2,500 when you deposit or invest $250,000+
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The Fine Print
- Offer valid from January 8, 2024, through and including March 27, 2024 (“Offer Period”). Only New Customers are eligible for this offer.
- Customers who have a current or past HSBC account in the U.S. on file are not eligible for this offer.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
This account has a $50 monthly fee, this fee is waived if you do any of the following:
- Maintain balances of $75,000 in combined U.S. Dollar personal deposit accounts and investment* balances OR
- Recurring direct deposits totaling at least $5,000 from a third party to an HSBC Premier checking account(s) per calendar month OR
- Any HSBC U.S. residential mortgage loan with an original loan amount of at least $500,000. Business owners may use their qualifying HSBC U.S. Dollar commercial balances to qualify for a personal Premier relationship
Early Account Termination Fee
$25, 180 days
Our Verdict
The lowest tier is the best rate of return at ~6%. It does say you can have the funds invested, but not sure how that works in practice. Premier checking itself earns a 0.01% interest rate so probably not worth considering for most people as the 6% rate is only marginal when compared to other high interest accounts. Better than the previous bonus offered.
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet) (very useful for sorting bonuses by different parameters)
- PSA: Don’t Call The Bank
- Introduction To ChexSystems
- Banks & Credit Unions That Are ChexSystems Inquiry Sensitive
- What Banks & Credit Unions Do/Don’t Pull ChexSystems?
- How To Use Our Direct Deposit Page For Bank Bonuses Page
- Common Bank Bonus Misconceptions + Why You Should Give Them A Go
- How Many Bank Accounts Can I Safely Open Within A Year For Bank Bonus Purposes?
- Affiliate Links & Bank Bonuses – We Won’t Be Using Them
- Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
- Banks That Allow/Don’t Allow Out Of State Checking Applications
- Bank Bonus Posting Times
If you have a 5% interest rate elsewhere…So, $248 bonus if you deposit 100k within 30 days and hold for 90 days. PASS!!
You can link a self directed brokerage that counts for the relationship balance.
And that’s the best case scenario… HSBC stiffed me last time.
What happened?
Retirement accounts not eligible.
Pretty tempting to do after Wells Fargo!
Are there any DPs of two bonuses paying out from the same household? T+C don’t mention any household limitation and I am considering doing this for P2 before it expires on 11/22.
No household limitations. Worked for us back in February 2024. But if you ever had any HSBC accounts in the past, even years ago, forget about it.
Thanks!
Tried to connect with Robinhood but its routing number is recognized as Gold Coast Bank in Robinhood and it never received the trial deposits…
dang, only $98,000 short…
My personal experience was failure. I had permanent residency at that time already for 4.5 years.
I did applied to the account about March 20th this year for previous promotion iteration, with intention to do ACAT.
They were so slow on everything, and requested the whole list of additional docs, like paystubs, green cards, etc, which I provided them the same day,they requested.
Still it took them 2 months to process it, I already thought they don’t want to open account for me. But surprisingly May 28th I am getting approval email, then I immediately applied for Brokerage, they requested docs again and… never responded, I called them to follow up, they said “we are processing”, I am still did not get an answer for brokerage…
Due to my naiveness I thought they would open brokerage soon, so I was not able to fulfill checking account “top up in 20 days” reqs, due to my intention to do it with equities, and 8 did not had 100k in just cash(so my bad on that)
After having conversation with their VP whom in result wasn’t anyhow helpful, I decided to give up on them.
Using that message info, I thought there is EATF here. To keep account free I put DD, having little hope to get at least DD bonus, did it for 3 full months – no bonus.
So that’s my DP – waisted time and no money, mostly my mistake to not having free cash, and only counting on equity…
BTW I analyzed their schedule fee, seems like they remove EATF, so I would close it next week… So if anyone from moderation team reads this, please remove that… Hm why that @Chuck thing is not working anymore…
P.S. they advertise Referral program to do “New account opening bonus +500$” to referrer. So good to “refer” P2, if P2 never been a ln HSBC client.
Some info I came across while doing a transfer out:
$95 charge for full account transfer
No change for partial account transfer but at least $300 must remain in account
If no premier status, inactive charge of $50/year applies
Is the $50/year inactivity fee for the brokerage account or the checking?
I am trying to figure out what to do with the HSBC accounts. Is there an option to downgrade the checking to some fee-free version? I didn’t see their website listed any checking other than the premier checking.
If not, is it possible to close the checking and keep a standalone brokerage account? But that way the ACH transfer out of the brokerage might be an issue as it seemed the fund need to be transferred from brokerage to checking or savings first in order to do an ACH out…
https://www.us.hsbc.com/content/dam/hsbc/us/en_us/investments/disclosures/hsbc-fee-schedule-investments.pdf
Brokerage has $50 inactivity fee “assessed annually if no trades are placed and settled within a calendar year.”
Brokerage inactivity fee is waived if you are an HSBC Premier client
HSBC Premier client have a $50/month fee unless:
There is no option to downgrade from Premier Checking, that is their basic checking product.
I’m not sure if you can keep just the brokerage open–but just curious, why would you want to? The checking has to be open for the $2,500 bonus to post.
Thanks
John R🔗 . I thought it was probably too quick to close all accounts with them right after getting the bonus so I was considering to downgrade or leave an account open a bit longer. But if there is no option to downgrade and they access an inactivity fee for the brokerage, and I’ve passed the six-month mark for ETF, I think I will go ahead close them.
Also since this bonus is once-per-lifetime there’s even less of a reason to keep anything open past the eatf date.
Good point. I am going to zero out the accounts next week and call to close them.
Hi did you already receive the bonus?
Asking because I was wondering the time between transferring funds and receiving the bonus. Wasn’t sure how they’re calculating 3 calendar months
Yes a few months ago. If I remember correctly, the first month was a partial, then three full calendar months
Ah okay thanks for the quick reply. Looks like if I transferred in mid September then I’m locked in until Jan 1. Mind if I ask if you did cash or stocks? Almost all of mine is in stock.
They dwindled down most of their US mass market operations several years ago. So, the “premier” is the only version of checking offered here still.
Has anyone had luck opening out of state without going into a branch?
Not interested in getting a chex hit for nothing.
Yes, I opened online from a state without a physical location. They only have 20 branches (“wealth centers”) in seven different states, they’re not a normal retail bank anymore.
Thank you. That is a helpful DP.
What were your Chex stats at the time you applied, if you don’t mind me asking?
HSBC didn’t show up on my Chex report but I was at about 20/3 56/12
I pulled my EWS report last week and there were two hits there, one each for the checking and brokerage.
AlBundysBigguns
I think this is a nationwide offer that can be opened online and they don’t pull chex.