Closing an account

HSBC offers a wide variety of products and services. Before you consider closing an account, why not take a look at our Every day banking page? You may find an account or product more suited to your needs.

When closing an account, it's important to understand whether you'll be:

• Closing individual accounts - closing one or more accounts with HSBC, but keeping others open
  
• Closing all accounts - closing every account you hold with HSBC
  

Balance

• You can only close accounts with a nil balance. This means that if your account is overdrawn or in credit, you'll need to either deposit or withdraw funds to ensure a zero balance
• We can arrange to move funds from/to another HSBC account in your name
• If a credit balance is going to another source (a non-HSBC account) please have the account information to hand. Please note that payments over £10,000 or international payments will incur a charge. There is no charge for accounts being closed via the Current Account Switch Service

Charges and Interest

Interest and charges being applied to the account may not have been applied at the time of closure. You remain liable for any debit interest and charges, and we'll require you to repay any money owed to us. This includes the amount of any cheques you've issued, any card transactions you've made that are paid by us after closure and any charges incurred.

Direct Debits and Standing Orders

• If applicable, we can transfer all Direct Debits and standing orders to another HSBC account in your name. Please note that Direct Debits and standing   orders cannot be transferred to savings accounts
• All Direct Debits and standing orders will be cancelled if you don't transfer them to another HSBC Account
• If you're transferring your Direct Debits to another HSBC account in your name, we'll advise all parties of the changes. Otherwise you'll need to let the Direct Debit recipients know the new details

Early Closures

With certain accounts there are financial and other consequences to early closure. It's essential that you understand what these are and are aware of the terms before deciding to close the account.

Current Account Switch Service

If you're switching current accounts via the Current Account Switch Service, your account will automatically be closed and you don't need to take any further action. However, your other accounts will remain open unless you ask us to close them.

Statements

Once you've closed your account, the online statement history will no longer be available. You may wish to print or download any statements before closing your account to ensure your records are complete.

Secure E-Message (SEM)

You can close an account online via our secure messaging service as long as you are registered for online banking and have an HSBC secure key. 

To close, please complete the following steps:

1. Login into online banking and select 'Secure Message'. This can be found via the envelope icon at the top of the page

2. Select 'Send a message'

3. Select 'General Enquiries'

4. Select the relevant account

5. Please specify you wish to close the account so that one of our team can assist you with the request

6. Our team may contact you for more information concerning the request via our secure messaging service, or by a preferred number provided at the time of raising the secure message. Please check 'your mail' within two working days for an update

7. Once the account(s) is closed we'll send you a closing statement
 

If you need any assistance with your request, please contact us and we'll be happy to help.

Branch

You can also visit us in any branch and a member of our team will assist you with closing an account. Following your request most accounts can be closed overnight, however some account closures can take up to 7 working days before being completed. You can find your nearest HSBC branch by using our find a branch tool.
 

Because we don't want to keep you waiting, we recommend that, where possible, you contact us to book an appointment at your convenience.
 

Whilst we'll always aim to identify you from our existing records, we recommend you bring Identification with you to ensure that we can verify you as our customer. We suggest you bring any cards, credit books, chequebooks and secure keys with you (if applicable) so we can securely destroy them and help you to protect your information. All cards and cheque books will be cancelled on receipt of your closure request. 
 

If your account doesn't have a nil balance, you'll need to arrange to transfer any balances to an alternate account. This can be another account held with HSBC or an account with another bank. Our team can help you with this, subject to you having the sort code and account number available for us to successfully complete the transfer. Please remember that any transfers over £10,000 will incur a charge.

Telephone

You can request the closure of an account through Telephone Banking. Following your request most accounts can be closed overnight, however some account closures can take up to 7 working days before being completed.

If you're registered for Telephone Banking you can call us on 03456 00 61 61 (03457 707070 for Premier Customers) and we can assist you with closing your account, for Credit Card closures please call us on 0345 600 7010.

If your account doesn't have a nil balance, you'll need to arrange to transfer any balances to an alternate account. This can be another account held with HSBC or an account with another bank. Our team can help you with this, subject to you having the sort code and account number available for us to successfully complete the transfer. Please remember that any transfers over £10,000 will incur a charge.