Today HSBC sent out an e-mail about changes to their terms and conditions, which included removing the £1750 a month income requirement for the Advance account.
Now I know I’m going to sound like my schnozzle is crafted from a lump of Thorntons finest by saying this, but I remember when First Direct did the same thing in 2013, presumably to re-focus on volume, that (in my eyes at least) was exactly when their once sublime customer service began changing into what makes so many people on the bank’s TrustPilot page so unhappy today.
Perhaps they intend to follow NatWest in Barclays in eventually having two types of current account, one for people with an income of at least £75,000 a year, and one for everybody else.
I think the Advance brand has had its time in the sun.
In Hong Kong, HSBC changed all their Advance accounts to become HSBC One back in late 2020. No doubt, their will be a successor product in due course here.
I don’t believe there is much difference, been an UK Advance account and a standard HSBC Bank Account anyway.
If HSBC were to launch a version of the One account here, I think it would gain quite a lot of interest, I think. They are already planning to launch a UK version of their Global Money Account…
“Beware not paying in at least the minimum. If you fail, you’ll be charged £10 each month, unless you’ve savings, insurance, a mortgage or credit card with First Direct”
“Unless you’ve savings” -all you had to do was open a savings account with £1 and you were exempt from the monthly fee, for ever.
I had a current account with First Direct for nearly 30 years, I never paid in anything like this so-called minimum amount, but I never paid them a single penny in charges.
The account fee is a different thing from the income required to open the account as shown on the application form. I’m talking about the second thing.
There never was a minimum income requirement to open a current account with First Direct, despite what MSE pretends to the contrary. It’s just a figure they made up themselves, calculated from the pay-in amount required to avoid the monthly fee.
However, as I’ve explained, avoiding the monthly fee was the easiest thing in the world and anybody who paid it must have been extraordinarily dumb. The fact that the fee even existed proves that they’d accept customers with less than this fictitious income requirement, otherwise there was no point to it.
To be fair First Direct were generally known to slightly picky in terms of customers.
They also don’t offer basic accounts that the main brand has to offer, so they simply decline.
I’ve always thought of First Direct’s 1st Account as equivalent to HSBC Advance, with HSBC offering a “standard” Bank Account and First Direct simply declining customers who don’t qualify.
M&S Bank’s current account seemed to also be roughly similar in terms of requirements, as it also had a reputation for being relatively picky.
HSBC Advance used to offer various benefits which the other HSBC accounts didn’t offer including Insurance Aspects which cost £9.95/month and consisted of:
Worldwide Family Travel Insurance (Aviva)
24-hour Motor Breakdown Assistance (RAC)
Mobile Phone Insurance (Aviva)
This was reduced to £4.95/month if over 70 as you would become ineligible for the travel insurance.
I managed to get accepted for a First Direct current account within the past year, but tried a couple of times for an M&S one (to get the incentive) and never was accepted.