Is HSBC Premier the Best Bank Account in the UK?

In this episode of Banking Without Borders, Jonny and Jan break down HSBC Premier — the free bank account that requires £100,000 to get through the door. 

We cover the strict eligibility criteria, an honest audit of the bundled Aviva travel insurance and Square Health perks, how the credit card mileage engines work, and why this account is simultaneously the most impressive banking infrastructure in the UK and one of the worst places to park your savings.

If you hold HSBC Premier — or you're thinking about opening one — this is everything the marketing won't tell you.

In this episode:

• The three ways to qualify in 2026 — and the £500 switch bonus on the table right now
• What the £1,600 healthcare bundle actually covers (and where the shared allowances catch people out)
• The free credit card vs the £290 World Elite — which mileage engine is worth it
• The Global Money Account, Nova Credit, and why expats have almost no reason to bank anywhere else
• Why leaving your cash in the default savings account costs the average Premier customer nearly £3,000 a year

Check out our website DepositScout.com for the latest savings rates. 

Connect with us (via LinkedIn)

Jan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-watermann/

Jonny: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonny-pease

Got a question or topic you want us to cover? Drop us a message at jonny@technicallymoney.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, welcome back to another episode of Banking Without Borders. So HSBC Premiere might be one of the best bank accounts in the UK right now. And I know that's a big statement, but let's just look at what it has. You get private healthcare, worldwide family travel insurance, access to HSBC's global banking network, and arguably access to some of the best credit cards in the UK right now. And it's basically free, except there are a few red flags you need to be aware of, including a savings trap that could cost you thousands in interest and some fine print on the insurance, which could actually leave you uninsured. So we're gonna break it all down for you. Jan and I will cover all the benefits and drawbacks, look at how HSBC Premier compares to other Premier Bank accounts, and at the end we'll discuss who we think this account is ultimately for. But Jan, first of all, shall we just begin with how you get access to this account?

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Johnny, it takes a lot to get the HSBC Premiere account, 100,000 pounds to be exact. Uh you either can can earn that, get that paid directly into the account, or uh deposit 100,000 pounds of HSBC and then either hold that as cash or reinvest it. Um also if you're an HSBC Premier customer of another country or region, um you can also get that account. Okay. Um one thing to keep in mind if you're thinking of going the income round route and you want to open up a joint account, what many banks allow is uh let's say you earn 60,000 pounds and your partner earns 40,000 pounds, you would pool that income. That's not allowed here. Uh that's something to keep in mind.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

It's strict, right? But it's not unusual. If you look at other premium accounts, they have similar requirements. For example, NetWorth Reward Black, um, £100,000 income as well that's required there, and they charge a fee, 432 pounds per year, to be exact, which I find fascinating, right? You have such an exclusive account, which is kind of difficult to get. You're arguably one of the more wealthier customers of the bank, and they still charge you a fee. Um, I think that's fascinating to me. Barclays Premier is pretty similar. Um, 75,000 pounds in in income or 100,000 pounds in investment. Um, the base account is free, gives you Apple TV, um, which is you know quite nice, but it's just worth 10 10 pounds. So if you have £100,000 in income, you probably can pay for that, can afford it, but it's a nice, nice extra to have. Um then you can add bold-ons that expand the functionality of that account. Yeah, if you if you combine the cost, they can reach yeah, 456 pounds per year, um, which yeah, is it's quite fascinating. But you get a lot for that. Um, so that's not not meant as a hard negative point. Just want to mention that. Lloyd's Premier, they waive their their 5 pounds club fee. Um, if you're Premier customers, hey, um at least at least that's the case. But HSC Premiere is one of the accounts that's 100% free. And I think that's fascinating, especially considering how how good this account is, really. Starting with the switch bonus, even 500 pounds cash. That's what they offer right now. If you decide to open up an account with them and you're new to HSPC, that's paid right into your account. It's the best switch offer that we know of. Have a look at deposit scout.com slash switch offers. We're gonna paste that into the description as well. That's a website run by Johnny and me, and we have an overview of all the available switch offers on the market right now. So take a look there, and HSPC Premier is literally uh the best one we know of right now.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah, and the switch offer is just the beginning, honestly, because the bundled benefits of this account are compelling. They're fantastic, in fact. Let's just start with the family travel insurance that you get. This isn't a Viva policy and it's pretty heavy duty. HSBC claim that the annual value of this policy is 530 pounds. Then you've got digital GP consultations, which are available for not only you but your partner and any dependent children. These are fantastic, although there is a slight caveat. If you are going to use the GP consultations for, say, getting a referral or for getting a sick note, that does come at a cost of £15. But as a way of circumventing NHS waiting lists, I think we're all pretty aware of what they're like at the moment and how hard it can be to get to speak to a GP. Having this benefit is going to be fantastic for that. That's through something called Square Health. And this benefit through Square Health also includes remote physiotherapy and mental health support. And Yan, you get eight physiotherapy sessions with this per year and eight mental health support sessions. And with physiotherapy, this is something that I thought was really quite compelling. If you need equipment, they'll send it to you. So they'll not only take care of your plan, they're not only take you through the session digitally or remotely or or through a video call, whatever, they'll also send you equipment. So you can get some free equipment with this. Perhaps you need a foam roller, perhaps you need some resistance bands. I don't think it's going to include like an exercise map.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

You have to send it back afterwards, or you can compensate for uh for parts of the lost interest uh with with that account by by uh selling selling the equipment afterwards. That's just a German me talking. Might be hidden site business.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Those two um those two benefits so mental health support and physiotherapy have a combined value. I think HSBC say £600. Um, one thing to note though, the small sort of caveat is that if you have a partner using this with you, um you share those sessions. I I think that seems logical, but that's something that you should be aware of. There's also an annual health check available. Again, that's something you could share with your partner. So they could either use the annual health check or you could. That is a home grade blood test, probably a finger prick test, I imagine, that takes um 20 plus biomarkers. So you can get your cholesterol, your kidneys checked, your bone density, all the good stuff. And then that will be reported to you via the app. And something, Jan, that's really important to mention with this is HSBC are using a separate app. They have HSBC Health. So this is all through a separate app to the HSBC Banking app, which is important to know. And you can get your partner on this app. Um, you they you just register them in app with their email and then they can access it and log in themselves as well. One final thing worth mentioning, one other benefit is the second medical opinion. Now, this is really useful because if you get a diagnosis, um you can actually have a specialist uh match to that specific diagnosis review it. They'll then look at your full medical records as well and give you a written report that can be shared with your doctor on request. Something like that, according to HSBC, is valued at 350 pounds annually, and you can have two second medical opinions per year. A couple of caveats, for example, the worldwide family travel insurance has an age ceiling of 70. I know some people listening to this, watching this, are over that age. So you're not going to be covered if you turn 70 before you go or while you're away. You know, maybe you need to look at somewhere like nationwide that have a higher upper age ceiling. Pre-existing conditions as well, they're also a bit strict. Yeah, there's zero coverage. Um, unless I think you get in touch and you do a screening process and pay a premium. Dependent children are covered if they're traveling with you, but not if they're traveling alone, unless they're going to visit family members abroad. Then they are covered. But for example, a gap year like Amex Platinum covers your children if they're going on a gap year for up to 365 days. That is a really awesome benefit. You don't get that with this HSBC travel insurance. But it's it's good. It's a solid policy, Yan. Um, there is a bit of a lifestyle gap here, mate. For example, Monzo Max, Nat West, Barclays, those those accounts, they're offering gadget insurance, roadside breakdown cover. You're not getting that here. So that's something to also be aware of.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Johnny Dosa paid accounts, though. And I think it's extraordinary how comprehensive this insurance is, considering the fact that HSBC doesn't charge a monthly fee for this. Um, you know what I find what else I find quite extraordinary? They're credit cards. Yes, yes. No, they're probably some of the best credit cards in the market, to be 100% honest. You got a free credit card, HSBC Premier. Let's start with the welcome bonus. It's a free credit card that you get a welcome bonus for, which is uh quite yeah, quite surprising in itself. They give you 30,000 HSB C points if you spend at least 2,000 pounds within 90 days. So that's a that's a limit that can be can be achieved. Let's say you're planning a um a summer vacation or something. Now it's a good time to book it. Um if you haven't already, you can get that welcome bonus, most likely. And these 30,000 points they convert at a rate of 2 to 1 to various different airline programs. Good example is Avios. Uh so you'd be getting 15,000 Avios points just by signing up for that free credit card. And yeah, that's probably enough for for a short haul economy return flight, uh, within Europe at least. Um, so it's it's quite compelling considering it's a free credit card. You can also earn rewards points with your spend, um, 1.5 reward points for every pound that you spend, so uh 0.75 airline miles within the UK or two rewards points for every pound that you spend outside of the UK equals one airline mine for every pound. Keep in mind though, there's a 2.99% FX fee attached to every spending outside of uh your home currency, uh pound sterling. Um so that can be yeah, it's unattractive, no doubt. Just don't do it. Just don't do it at all.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Um besides that. Yeah, you're not gonna break even on that. No, not at all. You know what else you're not gonna break even on? The lounge pass. 24 pounds they charge for each visit, which is which is understandable, right? These are free credit cards, you've got to pay for lounge access. I understand.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

They shouldn't even call this a benefit.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Yeah, it's not a benefit. You can just most likely you can just go to the lounge and purchase a lounge pass at that that exact same price point. But hey, it's included here. HSBC's um Premier World Elite Credit Card that has free lounge access. Yes. Um you gotta pay for it. £290 for the primary card holder, 60 pounds for each additional uh uh supplementary card holder. One is allowed, um, and that person gets their own uh lounge access. Um so you can't bring any guests with the primary card. That's one one caveat to keep in mind. But if you give this this supplementary card to your partner, for example, they get their own priority pass, they can just join you in the lounge, or if they are travel traveling independently from you, um, they can still use the lounge. And that's quite interesting and quite quite attractive in my opinion. You also get three reward points for every pound that you spend within the UK, equals 1.5 airline miles for every pound, um, which is quite attractive, or four reward points uh for every every pound that you spent outside of the UK. Just don't do it. Uh, still want to mention that here. And what you also get is security fast track, which is quite interesting. Um, that's available at participating airports worldwide, it's powered via Dragon Pass. Um, so if you're not flying business class, for example, if you would not have access to security fast track, you can just use that card to um to still access that. And that can be quite nice as someone who has done that in the past. You know, I I love the security fast track. In many cases, you don't even have to take the liquids out of your luggage. Um, and it's quite nice. And um, there's also quite nice uh welcome offer um of 60,000 points um that you get, and you have to spend 3,000 pounds per month. Yeah, totally achievable, in my opinion. 1,000 pounds per month spent. Um, you know, let's say you have a few big purchases planned, you should be able to achieve that. And that equals 30,000 mice, which is you know, that we can almost start talking about getting a business class flight within Europe for that.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

I'm trying to think of like a comparison with American Express and the British Airways Amex Premium Plus card comes to mind that's 300 pounds a year, that earns 1.5 Avios per pound spent. Um, you get a 30,000 Avios point uh bonus for that, uh, I think with that card, and you have to spend six thousand pounds in your first three months. Get stub it. So interestingly, the the bonus is stricter. Yeah, the points reward system is pretty much the same. Um, you obviously you get lounge access, fast track with the World Elite card, the Amex card is offering a companion voucher. But I'm starting to think, I mean, this HSBC Premier World Elite card is pretty good and arguably, depending on the use case, better because it's going to enable not just AVIOS points but also other airline mile programs as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Exactly. For everyone who is thinking of signing up for this account, uh taking advantage of that welcome offer, it's only valid until the 28th of May 2026. Afterwards, that might be might be changed. It was raised in the past, you know, but might be lowered. So keep in mind, take a look at the website, don't blindly sign up.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

One thing I really want to talk about is the the global infrastructure, the cross-border infrastructure of HSBC. And I think this is somewhat niche. This premier account comes with the Global View dashboard where you can see all of these different accounts tied to one account. So if you have an account in Australia, Bahrain, Singapore, Hong Kong, the UAE, the USA, France, Canada, etc., wherever your accounts may be, you can see them all in one place. And then that also enables something known as global transfers, where you can move money from these accounts. Fee-free, by the way. So you're just moving money throughout the world. Um, that's all being enabled through HSBC's global infrastructure, which is obviously a fantastic benefit of this account, especially when you think about it being free. Of course, as well, you'll get access to the Global Money account, which is an account that we've talked about before. I have access to it. It's um a multi-currency wallet, essentially, where you can hold um and exchange and send currencies. I think it enables 18 currencies at the moment. HSBC's exchange rates aren't the mid-market. There is just a small spread, a small little margin fee on there, but they are very competitive. That is another benefit. But one benefit that Jan I love the most, and I know you really like this, is the Nova Credit Partnership, where you could be living abroad, you could be borrowing money, paying it back, building a credit report, and then through Nova Credit, if you were to move back to the UK and with this HSBC Premier account, you could leverage that credit score or that credit report that you've built for lending or borrowing in the UK. Now that's not something that was normal before. Like you couldn't build a credit report in the Philippines before and then be like, hey, look what I did in the Philippines, guys. Will you lend me money here? That would usually be that would usually be challenging. HSBC enabling that, and that's obviously going to be very attractive to people that are moving money back into the UK, that have funds that are large enough to qualify for this account. And look, the global infrastructure is fantastic, but there is some parts of this account, right, Jan, that are very very weak.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

John re Johnny, the the interest rates are absolutely, absolutely terrible, uh, to be 100% honest. As you can get uh on their instant access uh account, which they call the the premier savings account, you can get up to 1.65% if you deposit over 100,000 pounds and 1.1% if it's below 50. Um fascinatingly low. Um take a look at depositscout.com right now if you're interested in opening up an instant access account. I think the best option is 5% right now, and the best legacy option, Tembo, um, is 4.75%. So that's much more, much more. Um, and you're if you're you're thinking of parking money with HSBC, you're passively paying a fee just by you know um missing out on interest, essentially. It gets better though, um, 4.25% for the fixed red rate cash ISA, um, which goes up to 13 months. Um, that can be quite compelling. We also have that on the table. Um they also have a fixed rate uh two-year bond of 4.2%, which is which is also quite attractive. They are regular saver with 5% um fixed for 12 months, also worth mentioning, but has a max cap of 250 pounds per month. So do not deposit money with them and hold that as idle cash. Just don't. It's it's my recommendation here.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Do you do you think HSBC knows or believes that their customers will just deposit that £100,000 to qualify for the account into just like a low interest instant access account, just because you know, okay, great, I've parked it, I qualify, now I can benefit from the account.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Do you think that's what's going on here? Yeah, I really hope not. I hope not. I hope that um that people don't go that route and I hope that they're clever enough to just um you know reinvest their money elsewhere. Um they could just, you know, take advantage of one of HSBC's investment products, you know, then it's yeah, you're probably gonna be getting a better uh return on investment, or just uh get paid into the account and then use that money to uh pay for your cost of living.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Is that who this account is for, though, mate? I don't really think it is, right? It's not for someone to utilize as a means of paying bills, right? Paying your council tax. There's more to this account than that.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Yeah, there's a lot more to this account. I think this account is is probably one of the best premium bank accounts that's available in the UK, if not the best. In my opinion, it's the best to be honest. Wow. Um the comprehensive health insurance that just included, and considering that's a free account, it's absolutely amazing. Um and then the the access to these credit cards. I think that's really, really compelling. And I think almost everyone who can afford it should go ahead and open up this account. Uh, we're not paid by HSBC, not yet. Someone's HSBC is listening. Um yeah, feel free to reach out. Um but it's it's genuinely a great account. I think everyone should take advantage of that, especially people living an international lifestyle. But don't use that card um as a travel card. Please don't.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Yeah, and I mean if you're living in the UK and you've got a family and you're just looking for peace of mind or the reassurance that when you need a GP appointment, you can get it really easily, or if you're gonna need physiotherapy, mental health support. I think these things get taken for granted because they can cause anxiety, they can cause fear when you're not sure whether or not you're gonna be able to get health support, or you know, you're gonna get a diagnosis and you're gonna want a second opinion. These are little extra things that almost any everyone should be able to access, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Um HSBC are asking for a large sum of money or a large investment, yes, but they're also not asking for a fee or you know, like Nat West or Barclays. There's a lot to be said about this account, and there's I think a lot of people it can benefit, and I think that's really quite clear. What I'd love to know though is I'd love to hear from people that have this account, right? When you, I'd love to know about the inner workings of it. I'd love to know more about the global dashboard, I'd love to hear what you think about it and what are the benefits that you're using. Have you used the annual health screening, by the way? How did that work? Was it a fingerprint test? I'd be curious to know more about that. Um yeah, please get in the comments and share.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

And the most important question do you have to send that um that exercise equipment back or can you keep it? That's something I'm personally curious about. Please let us know. Um, it's been a pleasure as always. Really enjoyed making this episode. And if you have any topic suggestions, feel free to drop it into the comment, everyone. And um, yeah, see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Yeah, yeah. See you then. Thank you, everyone. Bye bye. Goodbye.