HSBC is trying to entice existing customers into transferring to its Plus current account by offering an overnight break in a hotel. But the deal may not be as attractive as it sounds.

HSBC is offering a free night for two in a luxury hotel, worth £100, for any customer who upgrades to its Plus account before Tuesday morning. The Plus deal is a packaged current account that offers customers free worldwide family travel insurance including winter sports, commission-free foreign currency and holiday and hotel discounts.

However, these benefits do not come free: customers must pay £12.95 a month — £155.40 a year — although the fee is only £9.95 a month until January.

HSBC claims the package is worth £600, significantly more than the annual fee, but it is questionable whether this really is the true value. HSBC says that the travel insurance is worth £180 a year, but you do not have to pay that much for such a policy. MRL Insurance Direct charges just £89.25 for annual worldwide family cover, including winter sports.

Another perk is commission-free foreign currency, but the Post Office, Marks & Spencer and Travelex Online also offer this without charging a monthly fee.

Critics therefore do not believe that HSBC’s Plus account — or any other packaged accounts that charge a fee — represent value for money.

Stuart Glendinning at Moneysupermarket, a price comparison website, said: “It is still a mystery to me why anyone would want to pay nearly £13 a month for a current account.

“While there are additional benefits over a typical current account, I have yet to see a packaged deal that offers a range of benefits that really justify the fee.”

Research from Which?, the consumer lobbyist, found that four in ten of the consumers who pay for a packaged account use none or only one of the features.

With nearly 8m people paying for their current accounts, millions would therefore be better off opting for a fee-free deal and buying the benefits separately.

Customers are also often attracted to such accounts by the promise of preferential interest rates.

But the HSBC Plus deal pays just 0.1% on balances up to £2,000, rising to 1.98% if you have more than £50,000 in your account.

These are the same interest rates that its Premier customers receive and are only slightly better than those paid to its standard current- account customers.

Alliance & Leicester’s Premier Plus account, which does not charge a fee but also offers free travel insurance, pays 5% on balances up to £2,500.

HSBC Plus customers are charged 12.9% for going overdrawn. This is better than the rate its standard current account customers pay — 14.9% — but Premier customers are charged just 9.9%.

Again, Alliance & Leicester’s Premier Plus account comes out top.

A&L offers an interest-free overdraft for the first 12 months and the standard rate thereafter is 7.9%.

Nationwide building society also has a competitive overdraft rate.

Its Flexaccount charges just 7.75%. Its customers also receive 3% on balances in credit.