At first view, the HSBC Direct Online Savings site is both attractive and functional.  As you begin to look at what HSBC has to offer it becomes even more attractive on a savings front. 

HSBC offers one of the best rates for interest in any of the current online savings through September 15, 2008 of 3.5% as compared to ING at 3.0% and then it become variable. 

When opening account it allows three choices – savings, payment, or CD account.  The site is very open regarding personal information and the fact they will need many forms of identification to ensure a customer’s privacy and security.  They also inform first time customers this will apply to businesses as well as individuals.

When you open an account, it currently lists six steps needed in order to open an account.  Reading other reviews from people who have accounts say this is the longest application process out of all of the online banking systems taking approximately two weeks to take care of all the paperwork.  The application must be completed within thirty days or the process begins again.

On the plus side there is no minimum balance or monthly maintenance fees and interest is accrued monthly.  It also only takes one dollar to open the account.  However, a customer cannot close an account within six months or a fee will be incurred.  However, charges for NSF fees, chargebacks, and stop payments are significantly less than my current brick-and-mortar bank.

Once a customer has signed up at HSBC Direct, the account which is funding HSBC will receive two trial deposits under one dollar.  These will need to be confirmed on the HSBC Direct Account.   Please be careful when doing this.  A customer will only have three chances to correctly enter the deposit amounts and then if not done correctly, your HSBC Direct account will need to be funded by a snail mail check. 

With an HSBC account, a customer can set up a recurring transfer from the account funded from and the amount you want to transfer and how often – from every week to quarterly.  There is no fee to set this up. 

Help is easy to come by either via the Internet or by phone, both in the U.S. and outside the U.S.

Security issues are always suspect when someone is dealing with their money online.  However, HSBC does a good job of using Firewalls to block virus and worms from their sites and has SSL encryption to keep you safe.  Because they use 128-bit encryption, access to a browser which can do that is necessary or upgrade so this is possible. 

HSBC has a new Security Key which is required for their Personal Internet Banking Bill Pay Service.  This helps to keep the password from being hacked by keylogging software.  This type of software used by hackers actually monitors keystrokes to get password information. 

However, if it takes too many log-in attempts to log on, HSBC will immediate disable online access and the only way to re-establish it is to contact them.  They will then send a password via snail mail.  However, with an ATM card associated with this account, the password can be changed electronically.

This may seem excessive to some people but to me, I want more security to keep the money I make from winding up in someone else’s hands. 

Withdrawing money is simple.  It can be done via ATM (if the customer has opted for a card), transferred to any linked account, or by snail mail check.

An added plus to the ATM card is though there are no charges to use the ATM card through a HSBC ATM, there will be fees if money comes from a non-HSBC ATM.  However, HSBC will fully reimburse the customer for up to three U.S. non-HSBC ATM charges per month which will post on the first business day of the following calendar month.

All-in-all, HSBC has many good things to offer a customer who is looking for online savings – good rates, easy transfer capabilities to linked-in accounts, and security.  Good reasons to bank with anyone I believe.