HSBC Question

terafarma

PROLIANT wrote: »

I am planning on moving my bank account over to HSBC next year for several reasons, they are migrating their debit card system over to Visa...yay and they have quite a good rep from reading peoples comments on here, I currently bank with Alliance and Leicester but I have read too many horror stories about them and I am now starting to feel uncomfortable, besides they have limited amount of branches and I was told politely where to go from their Newcastle branch when I told them I was a premier direct account holder, so when my credit rating is better and I have 3 years of traceable address history I will go into branch and apply, so any HSBC customers out there with any feed back, the floor is open!

Pro, cannot believe you are now trying to jump ship away from A&L after all the good comments and recommendations from yourself!!! One horror story or experience is all it will take for the A&L nightmare to start unfolding before your very own eyes. It took a whole ten months of pain for me to come to my senses before moving away from them.

By the way, HSBC is a mild mannered bank, if you play your cards right with their T&Cs. I'll surely say go for it when the coast is clear. Goodluck

ShelfStacker_3

HSBC have been excellent for me; they generally stay out of the way unless needed, but when needed come into their own. Their lending policies are reasonable - not at a generous level, but not stingy - their internet banking site is quick and easy to use and the service, even from overseas call centres, has been top notch. Far better than A&L or (shudder) Barclays, Visa Debit or no Visa Debit.

timnicebutdim_2

The only problem i've ever had with HSBC is when they booked me an appointment at the branch on a bank holiday.

Cloudane

And in my epic bank-switching struggle... GUESS who's still being awkward. Good old HSBC!

Here's the story of my HSBC Personal Loan over the past 2 months:
1) I ask them (via A&L) to move the Direct Debit across to my A&L account
2) They cancel the DD with my HSBC current account, but don't bother establishing the A&L one, and can't be bothered to tell me (better to just quietly try to miss payments and impose fees I suppose)
3) I phone them 3 times and get conflicting advice: Yes we can move the Direct Debit and we have no idea what went wrong; no you can't move the Direct Debit because we don't allow you to; yes you can move it if you fill in this form we'll send you in the post.
4) I give up and ask them to simply re-establish the DD with the HSBC current account, and they do so.
5) They attempt to take payment, and it bounces, as it happened whilst 4) was still in the overnight transition process.
6) They take payment manually after I phone them, and assure me it should work next time...
7) Next time comes and.... no payment, no bounce, no nothing! !!!!!!?

I can already see them rubbing their hands together poised to impose late payment fees, failed direct debit fees, letter fees etc. So it's time to get back on the phone YET AGAIN to battle with clueless Indians for half an hour and then get passed through to the branch to deal with someone who pretends she knows what she's doing etc etc. /sigh

I'm never moving back to those clowns. Even though A&L seem to be about to do a Northern Rock, whatever, I wouldn't trust HSBC to boil an egg let alone bank with them.

Edit: Just got off the phone, they say the DD was "delayed" and whilst it should've gone out on the 1st, it'll go out today. Yeah right... I have no choice but to leave them alone for today, but I don't believe them for a second. The annoying thing is it's me who'd be fined if they fail to take the money, it really should be *their* responsibility to ensure they take the payment in time... if it wasn't for the fees they could bloomin whistle for it.

SiuLoong

Not a fan of HSBC, but then there are not many banks I've dealt with in the last couple of years who haven't c***ked things up one way or another, however HSBC have been by far the worst.

Heres the list!!

Applied in branch for a credit card, original application cancelled by CSA, then put through another application which was declined (1st one was accepted) and therefore 2 credit searches. V helpful manager however who managed to remove the second credit search and paid for me to check Experian to make sure and overrode the second rejection. Impressed with manager but CSA was not new, just useless and shouldn't have taken nearly two hours to apply for a credit card! (and she tried to get me to transfer to their current account whilst we waited for the manager.. as if!!)

My fiancee had a student account and the issues with those and graduate account have been well discussed here, long and short is when she graduated they changed her correspondance address only but kept her student address as residential and had her still as a student and unemployed.. all incorrect and details had been given. Then charged £25 to drop o/d as terms from 2k to 1.5k (had charge reversed) and now we don't even know if interest free o/d will be there beyond Nov, so she is switching to a grad account at a different bank.

They have sorted problems when they occured but its still a pain and their call centre has been the worst I've ever dealt with.. (I'm a signatory on her account so I can discuss it with them as she doesn't like complaining!!)

I'm happy with Nationwide for free use of visa debit abroad, also have A&L Prem Direct and had no problems.

Scousebird_2

babyharry5 wrote: »

MEN AND THEIR TOTTIE!!
WHRE ARE ALL THE HOT MALE STAFF??!!:rotfl:

In my branch-lol!!

Scousebird_2

Idiophreak wrote: »

I bank with HSBC and have to say I've never dealt with such a bunch of idiots in my life. Their online banking is good, but as soon as you go into a branch they're disorganised, poorly trained, rude and utterly unhelpful...I've never actually come across anyone in real life who says "computer says no" before...but that seems to be all they know...I've given up trying to speak to them on the phone too, can never understand what "george" from mumbai is saying...


Needless to say I'm currently looking at which bank to switch to...

Which area would that be out of interest?

Scousebird_2

JPizzle wrote: »

I was in HSBC the other day, and while I was in the queue for the cashier, I read a sign which says: If you're not a HSBC customer, you need to pay £5 to use counter service between 11am and 2pm.

A rip off I'd say, but that doesn't affect me, as I am a HSBC customer. A bit unfair on those who use it to pay bills etc. during their luch hour

It's a £5 charge at most high street banks, £2 at the post office and some banks don't even have a giro credit system to send the payments for you AT ALL! (No building society name mentioned)-lol.

The charge applies at anytime you pay a bill at the counter. The cheapest way is to go to your own bank. If it's unavoidable, just become a customer.

Scousebird_2

timnicebutdim wrote: »

The only problem i've ever had with HSBC is when they booked me an appointment at the branch on a bank holiday.

LOL-good old systems-I didn't realise until a couple of days ago that the 25th was a bank holiday! I am actually on holiday starting that day so almost did myself out of a day off-will be sorting that tomorrow!! Bank Holidays mean nothing now-some HSBC branches are open on Bank Holidays now because believe it or not-that's when HSBC customers want to use the branches because of work committments. Next opening time....SUNDAY.

This is when I will start going BACK to Church!! LOL!!

Cloudane

(Continuation of my commentary from earlier)

The payment that went out of my account was definitely not a Direct Debit, so I don't know if they did something manually when I phoned them or if the system automatically did an internal transfer or what.

Time to wait another month before I can be assured whether or not it's set up properly...