HSBC's New £120 Switch Offer

jhyt89

Herbalus wrote: »

Can you explain your cause for complaint? I presume you don't mean the switching bonus is "devious", so you must mean the rejection and offering of another account, right? But that's precisely what the Ombudsman/Martin Lewis/the government wants them to do. It's part of the campaign to stop people going from bank to bank with rejections and marks on their credit file and never getting anywhere.

And you can't blame them for having strict criteria for the advance account - as a commercial company they have every right to not offer anybody that type of account if they don't fit their target profile. There's no right to it just because a person thinks they meet the criteria. It may well be annoying, but it's not a cause for complaint.

Yes to your first question.

If you have a criteria outlined in public, then if someone fits the criteria 100%, then it's a waste of their time if they spend the 45 mins to 60 mins it takes to apply and get rejected. You also give away so much private info to the bank and don't get the product you are entitled to get. It's called being dishonest and the banks are extremely good at doing that. It's a ploy to get you to switch your money to their bank and get the most basic account. What they have done is ruined their own reputation even more. I was considering using their mortgage product but now I will close my account with them and go elsewhere.

Dird

Gers wrote: »

Have you bothered to read the posts properly? Their published criteria and T&Cs are misleading which is the basis of my FOS complaint, not that I wasn't offered the account.

Many places have slight differences between advertised & final decision requirements. Just look on this forum for all the people approved AIP but rejected for the final mortgage app. If all those complained about it (saying they viewed AIP as pretty similar) the obudsman would just create a spam rule.
Companies will weigh some experience as more important than others but just list all the areas in a job spec

Yorkshire_Pud

Anyone complaining to FOS about this is I would think going to get no where.

HSBC is being no more devious than anyone, not me of course, who's primary motivation is to get the £120/£240 incentive.

If HSBC waste 75 minutes of anyone's time in branch by not offering an Advance account then that person has also wasted 75 minutes of HSBC's time with a cost attached to the bank.

If £1,750 has to be from salary or pension mandate and not savings then what can you do? It doesn't say that in the T&C but as they DO allow savings to be used for SOME applicants it just shows they are profiling individuals and individually some can use savings alone, some salary alone, some a mix of the two. It doesn't mean HSBC is a shambles, it means they are sifting out the switch incentive chasers or those that don't present a long term attractive proposition to them given that they are a business.

I wouldn't blame anyone to make a complaint because it is an arduous process to get or not get the account.

But expecting redress or complaints to be upheld is IMO not going to happen. They know you just want the £240!:) Rather than a decent bank account, I mean who would fund such an account with £1,750 a month let alone using a mandated salary to achieve it when the rewards are virtually non existent.

dicky73

Herbalus wrote: »

If you're not the typical customer profile they want for the advance account, would you prefer if they didn't offer you an alternative?

Thats exactly it. If I wanted the alternative account, I would have applied for it.

mpelson

Does the online application for this HSBC Advance switch offer have a question asking about whether you want to switch or ask for details about the account to be switched?

Or does it just let you apply for the Advance account first and then, if you perform a switch separately (assuming you get the account ) within the 2 months timescale they give you the £120?

I don't particularly want the state of the account to be switched to be part of the application discussion as the account to be switched will be an old Lloyds Vantage account that has seen very little activity lately!

Thanks in advance

TheTracker

mpelson wrote: »

Does the online application for this HSBC Advance switch offer have a question asking about whether you want to switch or ask for details about the account to be switched?

Or does it just let you apply for the Advance account first and then, if you perform a switch separately (assuming you get the account ) within the 2 months timescale they give you the £120?

I don't particularly want the state of the account to be switched to be part of the application discussion as the account to be switched will be an old Lloyds Vantage account that has seen very little activity lately!

Thanks in advance

You get to say yes or no as part of the application. I said not now please for the same reason you did. The Ts & Cs for the bonus say the switch has to be within 2 months.

However!

My application seems to have gone haywire. I applied online at 11am last Monday on the first day of availability. It said to wait 5 days. I received a letter today saying "Thanks for your enquiry, here is the information you requested" and enclosed with the letter a single sheet leaflet explaining the bonus/switching offer. Nothing else.

FWIW 10 minutes after applying for the HSBC account last Monday I applied for a Natwest account as a donor. By the end of the week I had the natwest account, internet account, and debit card in my grubby hands. Quite different experiences.

waterwatereverywhere

MPelson, thank you for asking your question. I had a similar query raised back a few pages in this forum but still without reply.

Please does anyone know if you can definitely apply for the Advance account online. Wait for it to be offered (assuming it is) and then put the switch in place after that? It seems a better idea than having to waste hours in branch making the application in person - esp. if there's a high chance it will get turned down, based on others' experiences.

Have tried to read the website and Ts and Cs but they seem contradictory. If anyone can help I'd be very grateful. Many thx.

DragonQ

waterwatereverywhere wrote: »

MPelson, thank you for asking your question. I had a similar query raised back a few pages in this forum but still without reply.

Please does anyone know if you can definitely apply for the Advance account online. Wait for it to be offered (assuming it is) and then put the switch in place after that? It seems a better idea than having to waste hours in branch making the application in person - esp. if there's a high chance it will get turned down, based on others' experiences.

Have tried to read the website and Ts and Cs but they seem contradictory. If anyone can help I'd be very grateful. Many thx.

Yes, you aren't even offered the option to switch an account in when applying online. Just apply, wait for the account to open (if you're accepted), then switch.

YorkshireBoy

Add me to the list!

Applied last Tuesday, 30th June and got the "wait 5 days" response
Not heard anything so called them just now
Declined Advance, but Bank Account opened instead (2 days ago)
Being passed to underwriters for possible reversal of decision
Income well in excess of £1,750 a month, so likely reason is "credit scoring"
Told them to close the Bank Account if decision not overturned
Should hear back within 48 hours

I was asked by the chap in the Advance Team "why do you want the Advance Account?"...as if it wasn't obvious!

cydney65

Ok so I have applied for the account online-I shall ask for the switch IF I get accepted for the account.

I don't get enough salary as per the T&Cs but I do get some income from elsewhere (;)) so we'll see. I not getting my hopes up.

CydneyX