MyCardBlog

HSBC Bank is having a great promotion for its Plus Checking Account. The promotion is very simple. Open a new Plus Checking Account with minimum required amount and you will receive a free gift from HSBC Bank. The gift is PowerCost Monitor which is an electricity meter monitor that helps you monitor your kWh power consumption.

Using the information provided by the PowerCost Monitor, you can start to manage your kWh usage to save money. According to the studies, you can save 10% of your power bill simply by monitoring and understanding use! So it’s possible that you can earn more bonus for using it. More information can be found at www.powercostmonitor.com.

The promotion page can be found at this. Here are some of the important points on how to get the bonus:

• Offer valid for opening a new Plus relationship and depositing a minimum of $8,000 in new money to any qualifying personal accounts between 1/12/09 and 2/28/09, and maintaining at least $8,000 in new money in total combined balances through 3/31/09.
• Existing HSBC checking customers can qualify by upgrading to Plus and meeting new money requirements. New money is defined as funds not previously held by any member of the HSBC Group over the past consecutive six months.
• Qualified customers will be notified via mail by 5/31/09; notification will include instructions for redeeming gift of choice. Gifts not redeemed by 9/30/09 will be forfeited.
• The cost of the gift will be reported on IRS Form 1099 ($150 value)

Plus relationship must remain open for 180 days or value of gift will be deducted from account proceeds at closing

Note 3 indicates that there is a $15 monthly fee for balance under $15,000. “To avoid a monthly $15 maintenance fee for a Plus account, you need to maintain $15,000 in total combined balances including personal deposit, investment and qualifying credit balances.”

It seems that all the balances in you accounts at HSBC Bank including savings account, checking account and credit card account can be counted to the $15,000 requirement.