The sale includes:
*50 per cent extra on instant access savings
*Half price fixed rate mortgage
*Half price online share trading
*£50 home insurance cashback
*Half price packaged account*
*50 per cent off initial investment charges
HSBC, which created the 'January sale' concept for UK banking, is giving 50 per cent more on savings and cutting 50 per cent off the cost of borrowing from Wednesday 28 December in its £11 million(1) January sale give-away.
This year's sale, bigger than the first, will also include free banking for new HSBC commercial customers(2) and discounts on selected products from the M&S range(3), as well as special offers from HSBC on savings, investments, mortgages, credit cards, insurance and current accounts.
Joe Garner, head of UK personal financial services at HSBC, said: "After inventing the sale concept last year, we built upon it to give our customers over £140 million(4) in great value deals and product innovation throughout 2005. This year our customers are telling us they want to grow savings and control their outgoings. We've planned this year's sale so that we don't just lead the market with our mortgage and credit cards deals but, more
importantly, also give more to savers through best buy savings and investment deals."
The HSBC personal banking products on sale include:
* 50 per cent on instant access savings(5) up to 4.22 per cent gross;
* 50 per cent off HSBC's fixed rate mortgage(6) - 2.69 per cent deal for six months;
* 50 per cent off HSBC's Plus packaged account(7) - 6.47 for six
months;
* 50 per cent off HSBC InvestDirect online trading(8) - cheapest deal 5.97 per trade;
* 35 day extension of 0 per cent, nine month balance transfers & purchases credit card(9) - Which? best-buy;
* 50 per cent off will writing services(10)
* 50 per cent off initial charges for equity ISAs(11) - 2 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively;
and
* £50 cashback on new home insurance policies(12).
"With initiatives such as an 8 per cent Regular Saver account, best-in-class mortgages and revamped current accounts, we've proved that contrary to common opinion, 'big bank' can mean great value," continued Garner. "In fact, last year's sale was amazingly popular with customers - our market-leading deposit bond sold out in just two weeks and sales across all products were sharply up. With even bigger offers available this year, we
are expecting to have an even bigger impact on consumers."
The sale builds on a series of UK firsts and market-leading offers from HSBC during 2005 including; the bank's 8 per cent Regular Saver account, the UK's first price promise insurance on current accounts, instant interest on e-payments for HSBC and first direct customers, and full positive data sharing for five
million HSBC customers - all of which firmly establish HSBC's credentials as the most innovative bank during 2005.
