HSBC Direct Name Change?

[CorSter]

Just logged in to HSBC and found this in my inbox:

Effective December 7 2009, the Direct Savings Account / Direct Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) will be changed to Advance Savings Account / Advance Tax-Free Savings Account.

The account name change will not affect banking activities in any way. The features and benefits with the Direct Savings Account /Direct Tax-Free Savings Account will remain unchanged. Future enhancements are in development and will be communicated at a later date.

Please refer to the Personal Service Charges brochure available online for details of the current account charges. After the name change, these details can be found under the heading “HSBC Advance Savings Account/ HSBC Advance Tax-Free Savings Account.

Anybody (i'm looking at you Premier clients here with your fancy connections) know what the future holds for those of us with DSAs? I've been using this account as my primary account ever since Citizen's announced they were closing.. don't wanna have to change banks again. :P

[java]

Just logged in to HSBC and found this in my inbox:



Anybody (i'm looking at you Premier clients here with your fancy connections) know what the future holds for those of us with DSAs? I've been using this account as my primary account ever since Citizen's announced they were closing.. don't wanna have to change banks again. :P

noticed this change as well... hopefully nothing other then the name changes.

[CorSter]

"future enhancements are in development" doesn't sound too good

[angel_wing0]

"future enhancements are in development" doesn't sound too good

yeah..probably future downgrades :D

[sunvv]

maybe we'll have another pcf :D

[angel_wing0]

maybe we'll have another pcf :D

u mean free chequing or super low rates? :lol: both are not possible because they already have fee chequing and super low rates :D

[sunvv]

u mean free chequing or super low rates? :lol:

i wish we could get free chequing, i guess it's just a wishful thinking. or hsbc may give us options, we either go with free chequing with zero rate or go with "higher" rate but limited transaction allowance.

edit: angel u r right, it might only be getting worse.

[tng11]

I wish I had good news to tell you guys.

Word around has been they're going to introduce a transaction limit as the DSA accounts have been losing money from what I've heard as the customers aren't taking up other HSBC products.

Free chequing ain't gonna happen as HSBC has a lineup of Chequing accounts already. Introducing a no-fee Chequing account would effectively cannibalize the current offerings. (Apart from the Premier Chequing, all the other packages are pretty crappy IMO)

[angel_wing0]

I wish I had good news to tell you guys.

Word around has been they're going to introduce a transaction limit as the DSA accounts have been losing money from what I've heard as the customers aren't taking up other HSBC products.

downgrading indeed :lol:

[yyzvoyageur]

As long as I can transfer funds between my DSAs and my HSBC chequing account without limitation, I don't care.

[CorSter]

If they're abandoning the direct model, any chance in-branch services will be introduced on the account (even with a per-teller assisted transaction fee)?

[-=phelan=-]

hmm i hope there's no changes in services as i use this as my pipeline to people's trust.

[Ramy]

The message clearly says that all features and benefits will stay the same. So I interpret this to be a name change only.

Having said that common sense dictates that if this was a wildly successful venture for HSBC then they would leave it the same and hence I would refer to what tng11 said as being possibly true.

If I had to guess there is some cost savings measure in the works for this account. Of note, I also got a message last month indicating that the administrative aspect of my HSBC InvestDirect account will now be handled through National Bank and that other than the administrative change there is absolutely no change in benefits features and all will stay the same (other than I will get a new account number). Apparently this will be done to streamline efficiency and therefore reduce costs.

This may be the same sort of thing for the HSBC Direct account although only time will tell.

I know for a fact that HSBC is working hard to gain market share and therefore watering this account down into something less attractive from a feature standpoint does not make any sense.

I guess time will tell...

[angel_wing0]

if they want market share, they just need a no fee chequing account. Done. Though of cuz i know it's not just that, but that will be a step in the right direction.

[Ramy]

angel_wing0,

I'm ALL FOR a free chequing account for the masses.:lol:

The only thing is, they would have to come up with something equal to or better than PCF for people to take notice of it, and even if they do, it may undermine their existing chequing accounts, again as was previously mentioned so it does not make a sound business decision to do that.

I'm also very curious to get a look at the 3rd quarter earnings report which may shed some background light on some changes. The report should be out hopefully sometime soon.

Not that it matters, It won't be long before we get the full picture regarding what is going on.

[jchanq]

If they are no longer using the name "Direct", may be they are gonna limit the number of transactions for the DSA as indicated by TNG11.

If they really downgrade the service, I will definitely switch back to PCF.

[angel_wing0]

well at least they are reducing "some" fees:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v309/angel_wing0/change.png

[java]

Maybe they're going to get rid of the DSA branch and give this new account teller service just at a high charge, $5 or something for in branch service. I should call and get some more void cheques while I still can.

[max88]

Another thread on the forum talked about the closing of its call centre in Vancouver/Richmond. DSA branch is obviously on the chopping block as well.

For consumers, $1 for in branch debit is acceptable compromise.

[tng11]

Another thread on the forum talked about the closing of its call centre in Vancouver/Richmond. DSA branch is obviously on the chopping block as well.

Most calls are handled by offshore call centers except for Premier, international banking, brokerage divisions and commercial banking divisions. There's still a huge central office in Burnaby BC which contains the Canadian call centre and other offices mentioned above. The DSA branch is also technically located at that address. That facility is not shutting down but if I had to guess the DSA branch might be done with (and Advance accounts can be opened by regular branches).

And the new fee structure above just changes the fees on all High Rate Savings to the same fees as Regular Savings, on the foreign currency accounts they have been paying the same interest for a while. Just to note, the High Rate Savings has always had branch access, but if you made a direct withdrawal from the account there was a $5 fee. If you held any other account with HSBC that was branch accessible the staff just did a transfer over and withdrew from the other account as transfers between accounts was/are still free.

[angel_wing0]

Maybe they're going to get rid of the DSA branch and give this new account teller service just at a high charge, $5 or something for in branch service. I should call and get some more void cheques while I still can.

afaik they havent been letting ppl get that for the dsa for a long time, i m lucky that i got 4 :D

[java]

afaik they havent been letting ppl get that for the dsa for a long time, i m lucky that i got 4 :D

They still let people get the cheques, I phoned for some in Sept. but only have 1 left.

[angel_wing0]

They still let people get the cheques, I phoned for some in Sept. but only have 1 left.
i see, because i remember ppl saying they wouldnt hand out anymore in the thread that dijno made a long time ago.

I still have 3 left, not planning to use them unless i get out of PCF or the big 5 allow bank to bank transfers...

[-=phelan=-]

i have all 4 cheques still just in case but they are clearly written void on all of'em

[tng11]

Alright guys, so far what I've heard from inside is that there will be no changes to the DSA (except the name) until the year-end at least.

As of tomorrow, the "Performance Chequing Standard" option will be eliminated (it gave you 40 transactions for a minimum balance of $2,000) and now there will be 2 chequing accounts left, the "Performance Unlimited" with a minimum of $4,000 and the "Limited" option with 10 transactions for $3.95 left. The senior banking (60+) package is gone now which is odd considering it was just revised in October. Doesn't seem like a free chequing account is in the works, sorry guys. :(

The High Rate Savings fees have been reduced to $1 per in-branch/self-service debit with free transfers between HSBC accounts (as posted above).

The biggest changes recently came in business banking with the introduction of Business Direct. Business Direct offers a free business account for businesses with sales under $1 million and only in-branch transactions will be charged.

HSBC is basically repositioning itself to focus on commerical/business banking as well as HSBC Premier given by the reduction in personal account choices. I'm still wondering why they are opening so many retail branches despite starting to narrow the account options. In many countries, the only retail banking option is Premier and accounts with balances under that are not handled. The direct banking division should be here to stay, as they haven't folded up any of the direct banking divisions around the world and are continuing to expand it (USA, Taiwan, Korea have it and more Eastern European countries will be getting it).

[The Ivory Actuary]

Great post and interesting information!



As of tomorrow, the "Performance Chequing Standard" option will be eliminated (it gave you 40 transactions for a minimum balance of $2,000) and now there will be 2 chequing accounts left, the "Performance Unlimited" with a minimum of $4,000 and the "Limited" option with 10 transactions for $3.95 left. The senior banking (60+) package is gone now which is odd considering it was just revised in October. Doesn't seem like a free chequing account is in the works, sorry guys. :(



Yabbut, the monthly administration fee on the "Performance Unlimited" is waived for customers 60+ years old.

[tng11]

Yabbut, the monthly administration fee on the "Performance Unlimited" is waived for customers 60+ years old.

Oops! I missed out on that one, otherwise they would have a lot of cheesed off customers. I only thought it was students who got a new benefit out of the Unlimited package ($4 for unlimited now as opposed to 40 transactions).

One more change was they eliminated the Regular Savings line and with it they also got rid of the HKD, JPY and CHF savings accounts. I'm wondering why they got rid of the HK Dollar accounts because there certainly was demand for it from the Chinese community.

[ItemFinder]

This account is the best. Much better than the defunct Citizen's global crap. I knew they were going under. Better to stick to a big name bank like HSBC.