HSBC Advance Proposition Launches | HSBC | Discussion forum

HSBC Group is in the process of rolling out globally its HSBC Advance proposition and, in Canada, it launched on March 29th, 2010. Essentially, HSBC Advance is a bundle of products and expert advice targeted to what's termed the "emerging affluent" market. It's for people who are crunched for time and, as such, like to do most of their banking through ATMs, Internet and telephone banking and rarely visit branches (but aren't charged extra fees in the event they need to do an in-branch transaction). What it includes is:

HSBC Advance Chequing Account (with free personalized cheques, unlimited transactions, no HSBC ATM transaction fees [you may still pay a convenience fee charged by an ATM owner if they're not part of The Exchange Network), no charge for in-branch bill payments and free bank drafts)
HSBC Advance Savings Account and/or HSBC Advance TFSA
HSBC Advance MasterCard
HSBC Advance Personal Line of Credit

As well, you'll get a personalized HSBC Advance debit card once chip & PIN debit cards are rolled out (hopefully) by the end of the year. You get access to HSBC's unique "Global View" to link your HSBC accounts around the world within one website and conduct self-to-self "global transfers" (essentially wire transfers from one HSBC entity to another HSBC entity in the same name) for a small fee (probably $10, whereas Premier customers get global transfers for free).

Currently, it's possible for people to open an HSBC Advance Savings account through Personal Internet Banking but I would imagine this will be discontinued as the Statement of Disclosure has been updated to state that it's only available for HSBC Advance package customers.

HSBC Advance is available for free when you have combined deposit or investment balances of $25,000 CAD. However, that does not have to be in a chequing or savings account. You can hold that in an HSBC mutual fund account, HSBC InvestDirect or an HSBC RRSP. It'll all be calculated automatically so that you won't be charged a monthly package fee so long as you maintain that requirement. As well, I believe you are given three months (six months initially during the product launch) to attain the required qualifying balances. After that period, if you don't meet the requirement, you can continue to be an HSBC Advance customer if you pay a $25.00/month package fee.

Finally, concurrent with this, HSBC is eliminating HSBC Passport. Instead, new immigrants to Canada can enroll in HSBC Advance's Newcomers Program and enjoy all the benefits of HSBC Advance but are given a full year to attain the required qualifying balances before the package fee would kick in.

If you want more information, you can visit:
http://www.hsbc.ca/1/2/advance

Or, alternatively, you can visit the global HSBC Advance site:
http://www.hsbcadvance.com/ (similar to http://www.hsbcpremier.com/)

I think it's a good product offering and will really compete with other banks' all-in-one package accounts but with the added global accessibility element. As well, international HSBC account openings (normally $200.00) are available at 50% of the normal cost (so $100.00) which is a pretty good deal especially if you wanted to open an account with HSBC in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Hong Kong or any other country in which HSBC operates.

Cheers,
Doug