HSBC Online Saving New Fees - Email Fiasco

Today in my inbox I received the following

Thank you for saving your money with HSBC Bank USA, N.A. We want to let you know that as of September 23, 2012, your Online Savings Account will be renamed to HSBC Advance Online Savings.


Your account number will remain the same and you will be able to use the account without any disruption in service.

The following account fees will change as of September 23, 2012:

•Funds Transfer-In, per incoming transfer - $12 each (the transfer of funds from another person's account, or another financial institution to your HSBC account)
Foreign Currency Draft (DD Commission) - $25 each* (official bank check purchased in another currency)


* US Dollar Draft- DFT (Commission USD) - $10 each* (official bank check)

I read the part in bold and my heart dropped. Fees AGAIN! I had just closed my wells fargo because they started charging monthly fees if you didn't have direct deposit. I already have direct deposit with 2 other banks so No, thank you.

HSBC has been my "e-fund touch under penalty of death" savings. I lost the atm card, I don't get statements and I don't take money out. I even recently automated my savings so that I wouldn't log in so much! Even though the interest rate is no longer the amazing 6% it was when i joined (i still have hope it'll come back), I had no plans on leaving. I was even thinking one day I would have enough money to be a premier member.

Anyway, common sense kicked in and I was like, how is an ONLINE bank going to charge you for transferring money in? How else would you get money deposited? They can't FORCE everyone to have an HSBC checking account (don't even think that would be legal).

So I googled. Found a thread that what the folks at HSBC had meant to say was wire transfers (why didn't they just say that?). Being a skeptic, I had to call myself and the rep basically said it was poor word choice. Sigh of relief.

I'm still wondering how a global bank could make such an error on such a large scale. I mean, can you imagine the number of accounts that were closed? I almost closed mine as well. I just didn't want to find a completely new bank which was why I thought to double check.

So breath easy if you were having a panic attack. You won't get charged $12 for transferring in $25 from your BOA or anything else. Man, I really hope capital one does not play any such games with ING.

Expect a clarification email in 3...2...1..


PS: Still need to update my sidebars.

Housecleaning

Like I said, I'm back.

Just have to get this blog back in order. I've cleaned up my blogroll quite a bit as some people seem to have stopped blogging years ago :( (anyone remember dog ate my finances? :p). Anyway, I need some new links because I don't have very many and I'm sure the debt blog scene has changed.

I still have to update my debt bars. I don't know if I should change the original numbers or what. Things have changed sooo much! I can't believe I used to have over 70k in debt!! What was I thinking? Not that 50k is any better but still! 70 grand?? That's almost pushing 6 figures! and not in a good way.

So yep, this is another promise to update. I'll have new numbers soon

I'mmmmmm baaaaack

still have debt. But have a better plan (and higher income).

Will update you all shortly