12 Jun 2008
HSBC “Green” Rip-Off
HSBC are making a big thing about going green – offering cashback for selecting a green service. You get £2 for stopping your statements and £5 for going the whole hog-
- No Statements
- No Cheque Book
- No Paying In Book
- No Marketing Letters
- Emails / calls wherever possible to avoid letters
Sound good? Thats 12 statements, 2 books and a shed load of letters not posted, for a one off fiver! HSBC need to think this through – its a clever bit of marketing spin which will make them green points and also turn a tidy profit. Offering to stop unecessary markeing spam to help the enviroment – they shouldnt have been doing it in the first place!
A fairer offer would be a free Bank Account + service or inreased interest rates / yearly cash back. I’m pretty sure that more than £2 is saved each year by not sending a dozen statements – usually packed out with useless marketing.
Rant over.
Mark,
if the fees they charge for sending a letter when you go over drawn are to be believed, then these monthly statements must be costing in excess of £50 a time.
So the savings must be massive for them. I look forward to seeing even more obseen profits from them next year, as we all suffer.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:12 ampermalink
Yep, the overdrawn letters are a joke. I had a couple early this year when they let me go over my overdraft, then charged me to tell me about their error. Paying £15 for an overdraft arrange ment which let me go £20 over my overdraft isn’t much use to the customer. If the arrangement fee allowed an extra £250 then I could see the use, but I expect my bank to simply stop giving me money when I run out.
My local branch got the charges refunded though – after 15 years I dont expect or tolerate that kind of behaviour from my bank. Saved me the effort of moving elsewhere in protest
.
Mark Croston
June 12th, 2008 at 12:12 pmpermalink