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HSBC Amanah or Lloyds Islamic banking?

People who have chosen Islamic banking, which one have you gone for? At the moment, I bank with Lloyds TSB (Islamic banking), and am eligible for a student account next year. I still bank at Barclays, but thats left with about £1, so I can get free Kaspersky every year lol.

I will also sign up to Natwest to get hold of the 1/3 rail card offer, but never use them otherwise.

My main bank will become either Lloyds TSB or HSBC. Which bank would you put your money in? Also, note that Islamic banking is not exclusive to Muslims only.

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Reply 1
Has no one got any advice?
Reply 2
Just out of curiosity, what's the difference between normal banking and islamic banking?

Also - I don't think you can just sign up to natwest and expect to get all the fruits of the labour without depositing your Student loan into it. You also need to sign up to online banking to be eligible, so I am told.
Reply 3
Well I can make an online banking account with them lol. Islamic banking doesn't deal with interest(and its not deemed right to invest money in interest bearing banks). Instead, what the bank does is something like this:
You deposit £1000 in to the bank
The bank uses your money to buy metals
They predict that they can sell them at a 10% profit(just making figures easy) on the international market ie: a £100 increase
They keep 50% of the profits, you keep 50% of the profits (so £50 both ways)

They always have predicted profits, depending on how much profit they think they can get by selling commodities. In the current climate, they can't sell as much as they could do so they obviously have to cut back on how much they sell the metal off for. Now, they make something like a 0.1% profit. It has it's good points and bad points ie: you can't be overdrawn, and you are only charged about a £6(or so) management fee, but it also makes things such as mortgages more expensive(slightly different ruling)

Anyone can open an account-not just restricted to Muslims lol.
Reply 4
I thought all student accounts were interest free?
My dad's friend has a HSBC Amanah account, in fact the majority of peeps I know with Islamic bank accounts go for HSBC Amanah.

I don't like Lloyds much after they shut down Interpal's account last year :dry:

I, on the other hand haven't a clue on either one of them.
Reply 6
First of all, lol at your sig. Secondly, its the bank account Im talking about. The Islamic principle is that banks should not receive interest, nor should the customer receive interest from the bank. It is still possible to profit though

Edit: Too slow!
Thanks, happyfeet. Also if you want to be pedantic, then Islamic banking would also be Christian banking really, as Christianity also prohibits the use of interest.
(edited 13 years ago)
Reply 7
Original post by de_monies
First of all, lol at your sig. Secondly, its the bank account Im talking about. The Islamic principle is that banks should not receive interest, nor should the customer receive interest from the bank. It is still possible to profit though

Edit: Too slow!


Oh ok I didn't know that.
Reply 8
Fair enough. Lots of people don't know how it works, but most know that anyone can use the product. You do get the odd EDL supporter saying "Its one rule for them etc.., forcing it down our throats, Islamic banking is not British etc.., the Islamic banks are somehow causing global warming and cancer, the banks support Al Qaeda etc.." ie: the usual DM dribble
Reply 9
Original post by de_monies
Well I can make an online banking account with them lol. Islamic banking doesn't deal with interest(and its not deemed right to invest money in interest bearing banks). Instead, what the bank does is something like this:
You deposit £1000 in to the bank
The bank uses your money to buy metals
They predict that they can sell them at a 10% profit(just making figures easy) on the international market ie: a £100 increase
They keep 50% of the profits, you keep 50% of the profits (so £50 both ways)

They always have predicted profits, depending on how much profit they think they can get by selling commodities. In the current climate, they can't sell as much as they could do so they obviously have to cut back on how much they sell the metal off for. Now, they make something like a 0.1% profit. It has it's good points and bad points ie: you can't be overdrawn, and you are only charged about a £6(or so) management fee, but it also makes things such as mortgages more expensive(slightly different ruling)

Anyone can open an account-not just restricted to Muslims lol.


Isn't that virtually the same concept as interest? Seems a bit naive to me.
Original post by de_monies
First of all, lol at your sig. Secondly, its the bank account Im talking about. The Islamic principle is that banks should not receive interest, nor should the customer receive interest from the bank. It is still possible to profit though

Edit: Too slow!
Thanks, happyfeet. Also if you want to be pedantic, then Islamic banking would also be Christian banking really, as Christianity also prohibits the use of interest.


Really? I thought it was just an Islamic thing.

So I guess I can include that in my ethical Socialism essay now :smile:
Thats as far as my understanding goes. The scholars can go in depth etc.. and show how it works. Ultimately, you are selling metals ie: profiting from real life products, and not profiting by selling/buying money
Original post by happyfeet*
Really? I thought it was just an Islamic thing.

So I guess I can include that in my ethical Socialism essay now :smile:


Traditionally it did, but lots of Christians dont abide by the rule. Its somewhere in the Bible
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=interest+Christianity&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&client=firefox-a&rlz=1R1MOZA_en-GB___GB400
Original post by de_monies
Traditionally it did, but lots of Christians dont abide by the rule. Its somewhere in the Bible
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=interest+Christianity&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&client=firefox-a&rlz=1R1MOZA_en-GB___GB400


Ah, you learn something new everyday. Graciaass :smile:
Original post by happyfeet*
Ah, you learn something new everyday. Graciaass :smile:


Its cool. You told me about the HSBC Amanah thing, so we're even :wink:
Reply 15
My mom made me switch to Amanah. I wanted to stick with Natwest and their interest rates (EMA money; saving it ALL for uni) :colondollar:
I was supposed to go to HSBC Amanah in the first place, but it meant taking a passport to Bradford(they didn't have an Amanah branch in Leeds :frown: ). Lloyds TSB was across the road, and I was able to use my provisional driving license lol.

I think I may sign up because of its popularity
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by de_monies
Traditionally it did, but lots of Christians dont abide by the rule. Its somewhere in the Bible
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=interest+Christianity&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&client=firefox-a&rlz=1R1MOZA_en-GB___GB400

Nah, what the bibles says is Jews weren't allowed to charge interest to other Jews - they were allowed to charge interest to Gentiles.

Also you have to bear in mind these laws were set in place during a time when inflation was non-existant. So there is good merit for Christians charging interest.
Not being allowed to get interest and make a profit just because you believe in a God seems utterly bizarre to me. I refuse to believe that God (if he exists, that's another debate) will get angry with me cos I'm making a few pounds on some savings. This is why I hate religion.
Original post by de_monies
People who have chosen Islamic banking, which one have you gone for? At the moment, I bank with Lloyds TSB (Islamic banking), and am eligible for a student account next year. I still bank at Barclays, but thats left with about £1, so I can get free Kaspersky every year lol.

I will also sign up to Natwest to get hold of the 1/3 rail card offer, but never use them otherwise.

My main bank will become either Lloyds TSB or HSBC. Which bank would you put your money in? Also, note that Islamic banking is not exclusive to Muslims only.


You have to use your Natwest account as your main one to get the railcard- i.e. you need to put in a certain ammount of money each month.

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