6 things you don't need to go to your branch for

You can stay home and avoid the crowds by choosing to bank online instead. Here are 6 everyday banking needs you can handle online with your mobile phone, computer or tablet.

Remember how not too long ago, if you wanted to transfer money, you had to find an ATM, line up, punch in the account number to transfer to, and then print a receipt to verify the transaction actually went through? Now, whether it's splitting the lunch bill with your friends, transferring funds to an online shopping vendor or paying your bills, you can use online banking to make transfers almost instantly.

If you're paying another person, you can do it easily with Duitnow. All you'll need is your mobile phone and the receiver's mobile number or National Registration Identity Card (NRIC) number.

You can also make online money transfers between your accounts – even if they're not at the same bank. So if you've got accounts spread across different banks, you no longer have to go down to a physical branch to make the transaction.

If you use Instant Transfer (soon to be known as DuitNow Pay to Account), you can transfer ringgit almost instantaneously across participating banks. No more waiting at least 24 hours for an interbank transfer to go through, on top of having to find the specific bank and branch codes for the receiving account.

Still holding on to that bank book? You no longer have to go to a branch or ATM for an update just to find out how much you still have in your account. With online banking, you'll have all this information without having to leave your seat.

Another benefit of online banking? Whether you're using online banking or the HSBC Malaysia Mobile Banking app, you can view all of your account statements and transaction details virtually. So go paperless! It's great news for the environment and you'll also no longer need to think about how to securely store your paper statements to protect your personal information.

If you're an existing bank customer, you'll be able to instantly open Time Deposit accounts. They earn you higher interest rates than regular savings accounts if you keep your funds in the account for a fixed period of time.

There is a wide choice of deposit tenors and options, such as HSBC term deposit, HSBC term depost-i, foreign currencies deposit to help your money grow with competitive interest rates. Whether you are putting money aside for a few days, or several months, you will find a solution that caters to today’s wealth needs as you prepare for tomorrow.^*

^*Protected by PIDM up to RM250,000 for each depositor.

Before you head off on a long-awaited trip abroad, you want to make sure you've got enough of your destination's local currency. Now you can avoid withdrawing local currency from an ATM and then taking a whole wad of cash to a money changer or bank branch to make the conversion. With online banking, you can make foreign exchange transactions digitally and even compare online foreign exchange rates for the most competitive FX conversion levels.

If you're looking at online remittance to another country/region, online banking also offers you worldwide transfer options, without you having to make a trip to the bank or a remittance agent to sort things out.

If you make regular bill payments to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), ASTRO, Telco (Maxis, Digi, Celcom, UMobile) or more you can even use JomPAY to directly make bill payments. Just set up an instruction to make an automatic transfer on a specific day of each month, and you'll never have to worry about missing a deadline.

Since we're offering more and more of our banking services online, you'll save more than just a bunch of time – you'll be able to avoid crowds during this season of Covid-19. Stay safe and bank online.