Important Changes to our General, Current Accounts and Savings Account Terms and Conditions, Banking made easy brochure, HSBC Premier benefits and price lists
Contents: Page Important information about changes to our terms and conditions 2 Summary of the changes 3 Full details of the changes 3-7 Customers with disabilities If you d like this brochure in another format such as large print, Braille or audio, please contact us. If you have a speech or hearing impairment and would like more information about the products and services in these Terms, you can use our textphone service. Simply call 08457 125 563 (+44 207 088 2077 if you re calling from overseas). Important information about changes to our terms and conditions We re changing our General, Current Accounts and Savings Accounts Terms and Conditions (Terms), our Banking made easy brochure and some of our price lists on 10 November 2014. We re also removing two HSBC Premier benefits. Overdrafts We ve been working really hard to make our overdraft charging clearer and simpler. So, from 10 November, we re replacing the 25 informal overdraft set up fee with a 5 fee for each day your current account is in informal overdraft and reducing the maximum charge from 150 to 80 per charging month. In certain situations a fee won t apply for small informal overdrafts of 10 or less or after your current account has been in informal overdraft for more than 30 consecutive days. This fee doesn t apply to HSBC Premier Bank Account, Bank Account Pay Monthly, Amanah Bank Account and Student Bank Account. Interest will continue to be charged as usual. Overdraft text alerts We re also introducing text alerts to try and help you avoid overdraft charges. We ll automatically send these to all customers we have a mobile telephone number for. If you want to opt out please call us. Please make sure we have an up-to-date mobile telephone number for you and let us know as soon as possible if you change your number.
A summary of the main changes we re making Payments made into your account by mistake There has been an industry initiative to make recovering payments that have been paid into the wrong account easier and more consistent. We have signed up to this initiative and as a result have changed our procedures. When we can make changes to the Terms, interest rates and charges We ve simplified and shortened the sections that cover when we can make changes. Payments We ve included details of what will happen if there isn t enough money in your account to make all payments that are due; and also introduced the right for you to request international payments on a date in the future as well as immediately. Removal of the HSBC Premier Member Get Member scheme We re removing this scheme from 10 November 2014. Removal of Identity Theft Assistance from HSBC Premier Bank Account Identity Theft Assistance provided by Red24 will be removed from 10 November 2014. Full details of the changes 1. Overdrafts We ve changed the overdrafts charges section in our General Price List, and in the Graduate and Gap Year section of the Student and Graduate Price List to: Overdraft charges We ll charge you an Informal Overdraft Usage Fee on any day your account is in informal overdraft. An informal overdraft happens when we agree to lend you money to cover a payment from your account and either: the balance on your account exceeds your formal overdraft limit; or your account goes overdrawn and you don t have a formal overdraft limit in place. Our current Informal Overdraft Usage Fee is 5 a day We won t charge a daily Informal Overdraft Usage Fee: if covering funds are paid in before the end of the day; if your account is in informal overdraft by 10 or less; after your account has been in informal overdraft for more than 30 consecutive days. We won t charge: more than 80 in daily Informal Overdraft Usage Fees in a charging month; or more in daily Informal Overdraft Usage Fees than the maximum amount your account has been in informal overdraft during a charging month. daily Informal Overdraft Usage Fees if your account is in informal overdraft because an overdraft charge or interest has been deducted. A charging month normally starts on the day in the month you originally opened your account. We ve changed both price lists to refer to overdraft fees rather than overdraft set-up fees. The HSBC Fair Fees policy that referred to overdraft set-up fees has been removed. We ve also changed our Current Accounts terms and conditions. We have changed clause 3.6: 3.6. If we receive an informal request for an overdraft or an increase to an existing overdraft limit from you, we ll consider your request and if we agree to it, we ll provide you with an overdraft or an increase to your existing overdraft to cover the item concerned for 31 days. We ll charge you an Informal Overdraft Usage Fee on any day your account is in informal overdraft. If we don t agree to an informal request from you for an overdraft or an increase to an existing overdraft limit, then we won t make any payment authorised by you that would cause your account to go overdrawn or over any agreed overdraft limit. 3
4 If you do require an overdraft or an increase to an existing overdraft, it would be in your interests to contact us to discuss your borrowing requirements as it would probably be cheaper for you to have a formal overdraft than several informal overdrafts. 2. Overdraft text alerts We ve added a new clause 3.12 into our Current Accounts terms and conditions: Text alerts 3.12 To try to help you avoid charges, if we hold a mobile telephone number for you we may send you text messages: if we ve agreed an informal overdraft on your account; or if there is an insufficient available balance in your account to meet payments due to be made that day. You can opt out of receiving these text messages by calling us. It may not be possible for us to send you text messages on every occasion set out above (for example, if there are problems with our systems or if it is after 10.45pm) and you must continue to monitor your account carefully yourself. We ll send these text messages to the most recent mobile telephone number we hold for you. You must tell us as soon as possible if you change your mobile telephone number. 3. Payments made by mistake There has been an industry initiative to make recovering payments that have been paid into the wrong account easier and more consistent. We ve signed up to this initiative and as a result have changed our procedures. We ve added a new clause 22 into our Terms: Who has made the mistake? The bank that has made the payment to your account A customer of another bank has paid money into your account by mistake What we ll do When we ll do this When we ll tell you Deduct the payment from your account and return it. 1. We may deduct the payment from your account and return it if we reasonably believe that the payment has been made into your account by mistake; or 2. We may prevent you from using the amount of the disputed payment if we reasonably believe that the payment has been made into your account by mistake whilst we investigate further. In all other situations, we will contact you for your instructions. Up to 17 working days after the payment has been made into your account. Up to 10 working days after the payment has been made into your account. As soon as we can unless this would compromise our reasonable security measures or it is unlawful to do so. If a payment is made into your account as a result of fraud we can deduct it from your account at any time. If we deduct a payment from your account and this leads to your account either: going overdrawn and you don t have a covering formal overdraft facility on your account; or going over an existing formal overdraft limit then we ll treat this as an informal overdraft request from you. We have also deleted clause 26.7.4.
4. Making changes We have simplified some parts of the section which sets out when we can make changes to the Terms, rates and charges: We have changed clauses 28.1.2 and 28.1.3 (now 29.1.2 and 29.1.3): 29.1.2 We may agree with you that the Overdraft Interest you pay is based on an underlying reference rate such as the Bank of England base rate or the HSBC Base Rate. we will change the overdraft interest rate within one day of any change to the reference rate. The new rate will be on your statement; and we may change the amount by which your overdraft interest rate is set above or below the reference rate; or we can remove the linkage between your overdraft interest rate and the reference rate by telling you personally before the change happens, if the change is unfavourable to you we ll tell you at least 30 days in advance. 29.1.3. If the overdraft interest rate isn t based on a reference rate, if we re: reducing the overdraft interest rate we ll either tell you personally within 31 days or within three working days put a notice on our Rates and Charges Notices in our branches and in the national press; and increasing the overdraft interest rate we will tell you personally at least 30 days in advance. We have deleted clause 28.1.4 and changed clauses 29.3.3 and 29.3.4 (now 30.3.3 and 30.3.4); 30.3.3 for overdraft information (excluding overdraft interest rates) and to increase or introduce new overdraft charges we ll tell you personally at least 30 days in advance; 30.3.4 for reductions in overdraft charges we ll tell you personally within 30 days of the change being made. We ve changed clauses 30 and 31 (now 31 and 32); 31. Reasons for making changes We may make any change to the Terms under clauses 28 to 30 at any time if we reasonably believe that the change is to your advantage or is needed for any one or more of the following reasons (which may relate to circumstances existing at the time or those which are expected to apply in the near future): to respond proportionately to changes in general law or decisions of the Financial Ombudsman Service; to meet our regulatory requirements; to reflect new industry guidance and codes of practice; 5 to respond to the making of a relevant recommendation, requirement or decision of any court, ombudsman, regulator or similar body; to allow us to make reasonable changes to the way in which we manage your account as a result of changes to technology or the systems we use including introducing new services or facilities or replacing an existing service or facility with a new one. In addition, (i) we can change interest rates (both credit interest and overdraft interest) at any time; to respond proportionately to changes in the Bank of England base rate, other specified market rates or indices or tax rates; to proportionately reflect other legitimate costs in providing the account (including our funding costs). We can also change interest rates for any other valid reason; and (ii) we can change charges at any time to proportionately reflect legitimate increases or reductions in the costs of providing the account, services or facilities (including our funding costs). We can also change charges for any other valid reason. We can change the HSBC Exchange Rate and the HSBC Global Transfers Exchange Rate, which are reference rates, immediately and without giving you prior notice. 32. Other reasons for not making changes to the extent Terms don t apply for a fixed term To the extent the Terms don t apply for a fixed term, we can make any change so long as we give you advance notice and you are able to close your account or end a service that relates to an account, before the change takes effect without charge. We need this flexibility to change because we need to be able to manage how we provide your account over a long period of time and it is very difficult for us to anticipate all the circumstances when we might need to change the way your account works. If you don t like any change we make in this way, you have the right to close your account and move to a new account either with us or another financial institution. Payments 5. We ve added into clause 2.2.1 that we may require you to provide us with a reason why you want to make a particular payment. This is required for payments into some countries. 6. We ve added a new clause 10.6 to our Terms to describe what we ll do if there isn t enough money/ overdraft in your account to cover all payments due: 10.6 We ll decide which payments to make if it isn t possible to make them all. We ll usually pay Direct Debits first, starting with the lowest value payments and then standing orders, again making the lowest value payments first.
6 7. We ve added an example of when we won t be able to send a payment by one of the payment methods we use in clause 10.6 (now 10.7): 10.7 We won t make a payment (and we won t be responsible for any loss): if any of the conditions set out in this Section 1 have not been met (this includes if we don t agree to an informal request for an overdraft to cover the amount of the payment); or if the payment would exceed any limits we may set (please see clauses 15.3 and 18.2 for more details about limits); or if we re not reasonably satisfied the transaction or the instruction is lawful; or if we consider that your account has been or is likely to be misused; or for fraud prevention purposes; or if we re not able to send the payment by one of the payment methods we use (for example, if a recipient s bank doesn t accept the types of payment we can make). 8. We ve changed Banking made easy to reflect the fact that you ll no longer be able to request us to set up a standing order by post. You can still use Online Banking and Telephone Banking. International payments 9. We ve added details about how you can check our exchange rates into clause 11.2.1: 11.2.1: If you ve asked us to make a payment on a date in the future, we ll convert it using the HSBC Exchange Rate at the time we process your payment. You can check the HSBC Exchange Rate: by calling us before midnight the day before we make your payment; and for online payments using the currency calculator in the international payments section of Online Banking. 10. We ve added a new paragraph to the electronic payments from your account section of the General, HSBC Premier and Student and Graduate price lists: For international payments, the recipient s bank (and any other bank we use to send the payment) may also make a charge. You ll only have to pay these charges if you choose sender to pay all charges when you request your payment. 11. We ve changed Banking made easy to reflect the fact that you ll soon be able to ask us to make future dated international payments through Online Banking. You ll be able to cancel these payments: in branch or by post before 3pm; or through Online Banking before 11.59pm, the working day before the payment is due to be made. 12. Joint accounts We ve changed clause 22.1 (now 23.1) to reflect the fact that joint accounts can only be opened if all joint account holders provide their agreement. 13. Switching We ve changed clause 33.4 (now 34.4) to clarify what will happen if you switch your current account to another provider: 34.4 You must repay any money owed to us before we close your current account. If you close your current account, we ll deduct any outstanding interest and/or charges that haven t yet been applied to your account before providing the remaining money to you. You re responsible for cancelling payments into and out of your account. If someone tries to make a payment into your account after it has been closed, we ll take reasonable steps to return the payment to them. If, after account closure, we pay any cheques you have issued or card transactions you have made or incur any charges relating to these, you agree to repay us these amounts in full. If you switch your current account to another provider using the Current Account Switch Service/CASS, before your account closes, we ll deduct any outstanding interest and/or charges that haven t yet been applied to your account before sending any remaining money to your new account. If you ve switched your current account, payments will be forwarded and redirected for 13 months from the switch date. If someone tries to make a payment into your account after 13 months of the switch date, we ll take reasonable steps to return the payment to them. If you switch your account to another provider, you must repay any monies owed to us before we close your account. 14. Credit interest We ve added a new paragraph into clause 38.7 (now 39.7) to explain changes to how we ll deal with credit interest on accounts held at Jersey branches from 1 January 2015. There s no change for accounts held in the Isle of Man and Guernsey. From 1 January 2015: Accounts held at Jersey, Isle of Man and Guernsey branches We ll pay credit interest gross on the accounts detailed in the pre 1 January 2015 section above and will report certain details about you, your account and credit interest that has been paid to the relevant tax authorities. They in turn will pass this information to the tax authorities in the European Union country where you reside. If you have a joint account and only one of you resides in a European Union member state then we ll usually report half the credit interest unless we advise you otherwise.
Accounts held at Guernsey branches We won t report your details to the Guernsey tax authorities if you benefit from an exemption under Guernsey tax legislation and provide us with the necessary documentation. 7 General 15. We ve removed HSBC Advance Bank Account from the Terms as this product now has its own set of terms and conditions. We now refer to Internet Banking as Online Banking in the Terms. 16. From 10 November 2014, we won t accept any applications for new Money Market deposits or for existing deposits to be renewed. 17. We ve updated the address in the Terms for The Financial Ombudsman Service to Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR. 18. From 1 April 2014, the FCA became the regulator for consumer credit related matters and our Terms have been updated to reflect this.
Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. In the Channel Islands, HSBC Bank plc is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission for Banking, General Insurance Mediation and Investment Business and licensed by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission for Banking, Insurance, Collective Investment Schemes and Investment Business. Licensed by the Isle of Man Financial Supervision Commission. hsbc.co.uk Issued by HSBC Bank plc Registered Office: 8 Canada Square, London E14 5HQ Customer Information: PO Box 6201, Coventry CV3 9HW PO Box 14, St Helier, Jersey JE4 8NJ PO Box 31, St Peter Port, Guernsey GY1 3AT PO Box 20, Douglas, Isle of Man IM99 1AU 99139-7 MCP43855 08/14 HSBC Bank plc 2014. All Rights Reserved.