HSBC's New £120 Switch Offer

FIRSTTIMER

getting really frustrated now....applied on 7th...signature form returned on 8th July.....not heard anything since......

neilsedaka

FIRSTTIMER wrote: »

getting really frustrated now....applied on 7th...signature form returned on 8th July.....not heard anything since......

You are way ahead of me. Applied on 5th July but have only received a product out of stock letter so far.

DragonQ

Got an apology for them messing up my initial application. They struck the credit check from the record and did a fresh one with the correct details...still denied.

Oh well.

Biggles

This month's 'Save Together' tenner arrived, dated 26 July.

jiggy2

status update:


applied 29 or 30 June
received letter asking for specimen signature - 7th July - returned following day
debit card and PIN number received last week
letter to set up telephone security - received 23 July (needed to register for online banking) - I think this could be set up by calling HSBC instead
Letter (dated 17 July) - confirming account details - received today

mpelson

I think I'm a week behind jiggy2 in the process!

Applied online 9th July, received signature forms and sent them back on 16th July and got the "here's the information you requested" letter about the switch offer today.

At the moment I don't even know if I've actually been accepted for the Advance account. There has been no mention of receiving debit card, PIN, Welcome Pack!

This is probably the slowest application I've been through

TheTracker

Four visits to an HSBC branch today, as I was advised over the phone to bring in proof of ID and Address.

First visit I had the temerity to bring the ID and correspondence but not the return envelope. "How are we supposed to know where to send it?" said the droid. Back home for the envelope, which bears an address for the head office service centre. Second time the ID isn't good enough, my mistake as you aren't supposed to use a First Direct statement at HSBC for proof as "it would be like us checking our own homework". Not sure why they need proof then if they consider themselves that close. Third time lucky I thought I'd satisfy the requirement for "HMRC Tax Notification" by bringing in an "HMRC Notification of Tax Return" but this was sufficiently different for the droid to disallow it. At least the fourth time worked. I guess most of these are mostly my error, but its been an entertaining journey opening an account in this way vs modern banks that do the ID check online in about 0.4 seconds.

af889

It’s my first post but I just wanted to add my experience with all this, might be helpful…

I applied on Friday 24th July online; at the end of the application process I was shown a screen telling me that all had gone well and that HSBC would now spend 7 days considering my application (whichseems a crazy length of time given other applications I’ve done)… No reference number given or e-mail confirmation received.

I rung them up straight afterwards, they said they hadn’t received the application as yet, but given that I’d just applied I was told to try again the next day. Called on Saturday, was told that the New Accounts team weren’t in until Monday; great.

So, finally I called up today, apparently my application didn’t go through at all; which is strange because the online application told me otherwise. Apparently it was due to the fact that relatively recently I’d opened a First Direct account and their automated system had assigned my HSBC application against my old First Direct ‘profile’ and subsequently the application wasn’t processed, no credit check or anything (so I’m told, I will double check this!). Nice of them to tell me, if I hadn’t called up I’m assuming I would have received zero correspondence and nothing more would have been done…

Begrudgingly I agreed to do the application over the phone; 1 hour later I’d gone through their questions and T&Cs… and then the phonecall dropped out L. Luckily they phoned me back and we picked up where we left off. Apparently I should get something to sign in the post shortly (fingers crossed); they also offered me a credit card (with the £25.00 CB incentive) and overdraft, and duet o the fact they’d just done a credit search, they could offer me both withoutany additional searches; which was good.

In summary, if you’ve applied online and applied for a First Direct product relatively recently, it might be worth double checking that they’ve received your application without issue. I was also told that they would have been able to tell me the application decision over the phone as well; rather than wait 7 days for some post to arrive.

The general enquires team are a bit hit and miss (5-10 minutes to pick up), I’ve spoken to some who are great, others were appalling. The New Accounts team (who actually do the applications) were really great. Overall, it’s massive pain to apply; other applications like First Direct & TSB have been a walk in the park compared to this…

Mosler

If you apply online, does the credit check result determine whether you will need to take any documentation into a branch, such as a payslip?

Does it make any difference if you are already a HSBC customer?

Thanks

Dird

My ISA switch just became more painful :F Lloyds have said they won't pay any interest up to now as it's paid annually. As it stands that's £74~ down the drain