12th 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.

Posted by: Mark Croston

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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.

By: WD on June 12th, 2008
at 11:12 am

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 :-).

By: Mark Croston on June 12th, 2008
at 12:12 pm

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