On May 31, 2007, HSBC Direct, which offers the popular Online Savings Account with 5.05% APY, will unveil its latest product aimed to compete in the interest-bearing check account market. The HSBC Direct Online Payment Account is essentially a checking account that pays a moderate interest rate. According to the email I received yesterday, the Online Payment Account has the following features:
- Earn 2.50% APY with no minimum balance or fees
- Reimburse up to three ATM transaction fees charged by third party banks in a calendar month
- Can be linked to HSBC Direct Online Savings Account for fund transfer
- Online pay bills and send payments to whomever you want
When I compare this account with the ING Electric Orange Checking Account, I found these two have a lot of similarities such as link to savings account, free bill pay, and pay-whomever-you-want service, with the main difference being ING’s much higher interest rate of 4.00% APY. In addition, ING offers free ATM access within the AllPoint Network, while HSBC has its own ATM machines and also reimburses fees charged by other banks for using their ATMs.
If I’d get both the checking and savings accounts, this is what I will earn:
- HSBC Direct: 5.05% APY savings plus 2.50% APY checking
- ING Direct: 4.50% APY savings plus 4.00% APY checking
Which one makes a better deal?
BTW, check out the latest online savings and checking account interest rates to find the best deals available.
Author Info
EverBank Money Market Account 1.25%: Open an EverBank Money Market Account with a minimum balance of $1,500 and earn 1.25% bonus rate for the first six months. The first year APY is 1.01% for account balance up to $50,000. Find out more about this offer.
Do you PF bloggers get paid to put this stuff up? A lot of you have this up this morning.
Teddy: To answer your question, no, I don’t get paid to publish the post, though I can’t speak for other bloggers who have the similar post. The reason I think you may see the same topic on multiple blogs is that we all use HSBC and got the notice at the same time yesterday. And also it is quite related to what we are discussing on the sites.
Thanks for putting this up! I have HSBC’s online savings, but for some reason I never get their e-mails as quickly as all of their other customers.
Hopefully there will be more information on the HSBC web site tomorrow!
Thanks for the response Sun. I enjoy you blog. I especially liked the Tbill ladder post you put up.
So is it better to have a higher Annual Percentage Yield savings plus or a higher checking. Don’t understand the difference between the two? Which is better and why?
You could get the orange checking and the HSBC savings and link them together. But, I don’t know how easy it would be and if there would be any fees for transferring money between them though.
Jonathan: Actually, setting external links is quite easy. However, when I opened my account two years ago, they still used voided check to verify external accounts. Maybe they have changed since using trial deposits are quite common now. On the other hand, you can always link HSBC to other accounts that have simple verification process. I only linked my BoA checking account to HSBC, but linked HSBC to IGoBanking and FNBO.