Online share dealing account

To apply by phone, give our team a call on:

03456 080848

If you apply by phone, it could take longer to open your account as we’ll need to send you documents to sign and return by post.

Lines are open from 07:30 to 19:00, Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays). 

Once you’ve opened your InvestDirect account, you can apply for a stocks and shares ISA.

Log on to your online banking, select your InvestDirect account, select ‘Product & services’ and then select ‘ISA’.

Trading within a stocks and shares ISA is a tax-efficient way to invest, as all income from your shares will be free of UK income and capital gains tax.

You can open a stocks & shares ISA if:

Keep in mind, tax rules can also change and any benefits will depend on your individual circumstances.

You'll need to transfer funds to your InvestDirect stocks and shares ISA before you can trade, which you can do via online banking.

Proceeds from a sale will remain inside your ISA. You can withdraw money from your ISA at any time – although if you do, you can only replace this within the current tax year by using an additional part of your ISA allowance.

Yes, you can transfer existing ISA and non-ISA investments held with other providers into your InvestDirect account.

You can also transfer paper share certificates to us. To do so, just download and complete the 'Transfer Request Form', which you can find within the sharedealing section of your online banking.

Transferring investments normally takes up to 2 weeks, but it can depend on your current provider. As soon as the process is complete, you’ll be able to sell your shares if you want to.

If you need to, you can sell your shares at any time. There's no fixed-term, so your money's not locked away.

Although, most investments should be considered as a medium-to-long-term commitment for 5 years.

When you sell your assets, the proceeds will be available on the settlement date, which is determined by the market and type of asset.

UK and US equity trades normally settle 2 business days after the date of the trade (T+2) and gilt trades after 1 business day (T+1).

If you have an InvestDirect account, the money from a sale will be transferred to your HSBC bank account in the evening of the settlement date.

Or, for an InvestDirect Plus account, the money will become available in your cash account in the evening of the settlement date. You can transfer money out of your InvestDirect Plus cash account within the 'Sharedealing' section of your online banking, to an HSBC Current Account.

A certification of interest - or tax certificate - confirms the total amount of credit interest paid into an account over the tax year.

If you need one to complete your tax self-assessment, send us a secure e-message through online banking or by using chat in the mobile banking app.

Once we receive your request, we’ll post this to you within 7 working days.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are investment funds that are traded on a stock exchange, much like equities. ETFs hold assets such as stocks, commodities, bonds or a mix of investments.

Most ETFs track an index, such as a stock index or bond index. ETFs experience price changes throughout the day as they’re bought and sold.

Cash ISA age limit

From 6 April 2024, there are changes to how old you need to be to open a cash ISA.

To open a new cash ISA, you need to be either:

ISA providers aren't obliged to offer the transitional arrangements. HSBC won't allow customers under 18 to open a new cash ISA from 6 April 2024, but will consider changing this in the future.

Subscribing to more than one of the same type of ISA

If you're aged 18 or over, you'll now be able to subscribe to more than one of the same type of ISA in the same tax year – subject to staying within the overall annual limit.

For example, you could subscribe to a cash or stocks & shares ISA with one ISA provider and also subscribe to one with a different provider.

This change doesn’t apply to Lifetime ISAs, where it's still only possible to subscribe to one Lifetime ISA in a tax year. HSBC doesn't offer Lifetime ISAs.

From April 6 2024, ISA providers are not obliged to allow subscriptions to more than one ISA of the same type in the same tax year with themselves, and HSBC will not be offering this.

Other optional changes that not all providers are implementing

If you've gone a whole tax year without making a subscription to an existing ISA, you can now restart subscriptions without needing to complete a new application.

Since 6 April, some providers allow you to make a partial transfer of subscriptions made in the current tax year, but HSBC is not currently allowing this.

We'll update our website if we make any changes to our ISAs in the future.