More Talk About HSBC's OnlineSavings Bonus

There have been more discussions at several forums about the HSBC's signup bonus for its OnlineSavings account. Seems like some people are receiving HSBC mail with information about this signup bonus. This current bonus is for $25. The previous bonus which I had previously mentioned was for $35.

The only problem is that this bonus doesn't seem to be for the general public. I called HSBC today and confirmed this. I was told the same thing that I was told by an email earlier this month: "Qualifying customers were offered a promotion code to apply for the Online Savings account."

A link is provided at this Fatwallet thread that takes you to the HSBC page describing this promotion. However, this HSBC promo page is not linked anywhere else on HSBC's site so it doesn't seem to be publicly available. It's possible that signing up at this promo page will result in a bonus. But there's no guarantee.

Note, HSBC's $50 Smart Package signup bonus is still available and is open to all. It's advertised at HSBC's Personal Service page. Unfortunately, this has more requirements than the OnlineSavings promo. I described the details of this deal in this previous post.

Even if you don't get the signup bonus, it's still worthwhile to join just for the high 3.75% rate. But I have to admit, I haven't signed up yet. I'm still hoping that there will be a publicly available bonus.

To see how HSBC's rate has compared to the savings rates of ING Direct and EmigrantDirect, refer to my chart that I created earlier this month. I discussed this comparison in this previous post.