HSBC closing retail business in Australia over next 18 months

[oz_mark]

Interesting….A Chinese bank pulling out of Australia when they are trying to woo and influence the Pacific region. Having said that, I will be disappointed to lose my Star Alliance Visa card

Don't know how Chinese they are. They are London based.

 

[luxury-lizard]

Very annoying - my main bank as well - such a hassle having to update all those direct debits - where to next. Have an ANZ chequing account but not inclined to use that as my main account.

 

[playbargain]

This is no surprise to anyone following the news that they were looking to get out of the AUS market since early last year. I moved to HSBC from Citi when it got sold to NAB, but got out of HSBC too earlier this year as the writing was on the wall. Such a shame as they did offer some good products, but it is what it is.

 

[kpc]

Not great as HSBC is my main bank

The most annoying thing is that I have all my direct credits and debits into my HSBC acct...will have to find a new bank in the next 2-3 months and start changing all the direct credits and debits over the next 12+ months...huge sigh!!

 

[seachange19]

My HSBC Qantas Rewards card has been a great card, but will be cancelling it before end of first year. With no annual fee for the first year and 1.5 QFF points per dollar spend with extra bonus points for QF spend, I have earned over 140K QFF points in 10 months just from what would have been normal spending. Of course with no annual fee there was also no sign-up bonus. But earning 140K point in 10 months for no fee was a pretty good deal.

So I suppose with HSBC exit from the local market, the option to "churn" to this card again in the future is unlikely to exit.

Some members may be interested in getting the HSBC Star Alliance card before it is withdrawn to take advantage of the Star Gold status.

It’s already withdrawn, you can’t apply for an HSBC cards as of today.

 

[MajuraAscent]

Interesting….A Chinese bank pulling out of Australia when they are trying to woo and influence the Pacific region. Having said that, I will be disappointed to lose my Star Alliance Visa card

They're actually British though with their headquarters in London.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

I realised I opened my first account with HSBC when I was 13, because I thought it seemed exotic and much more interesting than the local banks. That was nearly three decades ago and I’ve consistently been with them (plus other banks) since then. They’ve had some great products but also the local market will just be a bit more bland without them.

I feel the same way, they have given me accounts in 5 countries and at the turn of the millennium and in the naughties they had a really compelling offering in Australia, including:

- interest rates on the standard transaction account akin to what Macquarie now pays on its savings account
- a range of integrated products including stockbroking (initially a joint venture with Merrill Lynch) and margin loans
- fee free Premier credit card
- fee free transaction accounts when the Big 4 were still charging monthly "account keeping" fees
- non-HSBC ATM withdrawal fee rebates

Despite that, they could never really prise share away from the Big 4, and they have become increasingly uncompetitive in the last decade. I doubt anyone will ride in at the last minute to rescue even the HSBC credit card portfolio.

I have just gone through 3 months worth of statements and identified all the direct debits and transferred them out from HSBC... feels a little sad after over a quarter of a century...

 

[QF_Flyer]

Interesting….A Chinese bank pulling out of Australia when they are trying to woo and influence the Pacific region. Having said that, I will be disappointed to lose my Star Alliance Visa card

UK headquartered bank, established during the colonial era of HK. They're very much focusing on their "home" markets of UK/Asia.

 

[QF_Flyer]

This is a shame, but not unexpected. As others have noted, be interesting to see what happens to the Star Alliance card - that's a revolutionary product and, afaik, nothing similar exists elsewhere in the world (we were the "test market" for that product, if the UK blogs are to be believed, something they seem bitter about ).

I would assume that, like when exiting NZ and Canada, people using AU to qualify for Premier will get a grace period of 18m or something, during which time we'll need to make new arrangements to either qualify for Premier in any overseas markets we're using, or stop "being Premier".

I have offshore investments using HSBC, so will be watching closely; they're not my main AU bank, but they are my main Global bank, so I'll still be an HSBC customer, but whether Premier or not we'll see.

 

[QF_Flyer]

I feel the same way, they have given me accounts in 5 countries and at the turn of the millennium and in the naughties they had a really compelling offering in Australia, including:

- interest rates on the standard transaction account akin to what Macquarie now pays on its savings account
- a range of integrated products including stockbroking (initially a joint venture with Merrill Lynch) and margin loans
- fee free Premier credit card
- fee free transaction accounts when the Big 4 were still charging monthly "account keeping" fees
- non-HSBC ATM withdrawal fee rebates

Despite that, they could never really prise share away from the Big 4, and they have become increasingly uncompetitive in the last decade. I doubt anyone will ride in at the last minute to rescue even the HSBC credit card portfolio.

I have just gone through 3 months worth of statements and identified all the direct debits and transferred them out from HSBC... feels a little sad after over a quarter of a century...

The CC portfolio may well go to CitiNAB, perhaps? They seem to be sweeping up all the scraps recently.

Even as recently as ~2018/~2019 they were incentivising people to join with $125 or something for opening the Everyday Global account.

Global view has been my most valuable feature, they're very handy for transferring money overseas very quickly, something the big 4 suck at, but I wouldn't exchange currency with HSBC, the spread is a terrible deal.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

The CC portfolio may well go to CitiNAB, perhaps? They seem to be sweeping up all the scraps recently.

"Nabbing Your Money" had a look at the whole HSBC AU business last year, as did Macquarie, and both walked away, which is why Blackstone have now bought the loan book which seemed to be the main item of value.

With the changes to interchange rates coming in October, I don't think credit card portfolios are that valuable to buy anymore. Look at the gutting of the portfolio NAB bought from Citi four years ago (now MyCard).

 

[QF_Flyer]

"Nabbing Your Money" had a look at the whole HSBC AU business last year, as did Macquarie, and both walked away, which is why Blackstone have now bought the loan book which seemed to be the main item of value.

With the changes to interchange rates coming in October, I don't think credit card portfolios are that valuable to buy anymore. Look at the gutting of the portfolio NAB bought from Citi four years ago (now MyCard).

Ah fair enough, that makes sense. Tbh only the Star card really has anything unique to offer, HSBC Rewards in Australia isn't particularly inspiring, other than that it's QF, both of which (groups of customers) NAB has a bucketload of already and will probably inherit more indirectly when they're pushed off the HSBC cliff.

 

[levelnine]

Less and less competition in the Australian market. A considerable long-term loss for customers.

 

[LondonAussie]

This is really sad news to me!

HSBC is my main bank account in the UK, partly because they were one of the only banks that made it easy for migrants to open an account.

I’ve stayed with them over the years, despite the generous account switching offers from rival banks, and even upgraded to HSBC Advance and then to Premier. They’ve always had great service, good products, no fees, foreign currency rates that rival Revolut and Wise, and I’ve used the complimentary travel insurance on a few occasions with no fuss.

Certainly been easier to deal with than any Australian bank.

A loss for the AU market, but sadly most Aussies refuse to look beyond ANZ, CBA, NAB or Westpac. And blindly pay the Big4’s outrageous fees for poor service. Makes it hard for any competition to break through.

 

[kpc]

The most annoying thing is that I have all my direct credits and debits into my HSBC acct...will have to find a new bank in the next 2-3 months and start changing all the direct credits and debits over the next 12+ months...huge sigh!!

I don't want to go back to the big 4...have banked with all of them previously and left as they all pi$$ed me off in some way.

I think i will get a Macquarie Transaction account and link a Savings account.

Disadvantages seem to be that you can't deposit cash or cheques...do they even have a bricks and mortar store? Bank statement are 6 monthly but I prefer monthly due to high volume of tranasctions that will be going through. Anyone have experience with this?