As some of you may be aware, HSBC offers one of the better interest rates available. A downside to the account is the couple of days it takes to move money from other accounts, typically two days where you are not earning any interest.

I’m going to try an experiment. Basically, I am buying some treasury bills using money from my main bank (Netbank) as the source of funds. Upon maturity the funds will be deposited at HSBC. When I tried this with Virtualbank in December my T-Bill matured on 12/15 and was credited to my Virtualbank account on 12/15. I want to see if HSBC works as well.

The interest on 91 day T-Bills is currently 4.397%, with my state tax rate of 3% that comes out to be approximately equivalent to a 4.5% taxable yield. I need the money prior to six months to pay off the current round of 0% offers so I can’t do more than 91 day bills. I’m going to let the money sit @ HSBC for the remainder of the time earning their not unrespectable 4.25%.

I’ll post an update after the transaction has completed. If it works it might be a good way to move money around without losing a day or two of interest. (albeit a somewhat slow way to do so)

Saw this notice when I logged into Virtualbank today:

---

Important Notice of Online Banking Upgrade

At VirtualBank, we are constantly striving to make banking the best we possibly can. We are upgrading the online banking section of our website. These upgrades will start at 6:00 PM EST on Friday December 9th and will conclude on Sunday December 11th at 9:00 PM EST. During this time, online account access will not be available. Please note that during this time you will be able to write checks and use your debit card.

Our client service department will be available for account inquiries during the following hours:

Friday December 9th from 7:30 AM to 9:00 PM EST
Saturday December 10th from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM EST
Sunday December 11th from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM EST

If you need to plan a transfer or bill payment, please do so prior to 6:00 PM EST on December 9th. Bill payment and transfer services will be available again upon completion of the upgrade.

The online banking section of the website will have a new look and feel, improved easy to read statements and OFX support.

Thank you for banking with VirtualBank and we appreciate your patience during this time.

---

Its nice to see banks and financial software finally standardizing. Although Money seems to work OK with the QIF (Quicken) format files that Virtualbank currently supports there are other accounts which do not seem to work so well. (I hate typing in transactions…)

I find myself using VirtualBank less and less. They haven’t kept up with the 4% rate I get at HSBC. I do have the account there set up with TrasuryDirect so I can buy bonds but have been parking the funds I have earmarked for bonds in 28-day and 90-day T-Bills laddered out to mature when I need them.

I have (had) a fair amount of cash sitting at Virtualbank. Part of it is earmarked for paying off my 0% credit card balance in January. The rest is savings. I’ve been using it to purchase I Bonds for a month now and plan to continue on that path at least until the new rates are announced in May of 2006. Virtualbank is paying 3.55% which by today’s standards kind of sucks…

Read the rest of this entry »

Finally received my $35 HSBC bonus. Took two months almost to the day from my opening the account…

I haven’t used the account much yet, still have the majority of my liquid savings at VirtualBank. I may start to move some cash here though in order to take advantage of the 4% interest rate they are offering.

The web site is ok, transfers take a little while longer than Virtualbank though. Also, I noticed that when VB removes the cash from my other accounts it generally shows up in the VB account the same day. Not so with HSBC. They hold onto the cash for 2 or 3 days…