HSBC Switch - no bonus - wrong account opened

blueteacup

Hi, has anyone had problem getting HSBC switching bonus because wrong account was opened? At first they told me I'd applied for a current account by mistake but when I found the original emails that said I had applied for an advance account (the one you need to get the bonus) they changed their story and said they had turned me down for an advance account after a credit check and opened a current account in my name instead.
Two things:
1) I did my own credit check and it comes up as excellent 
2) they didn't tell me I'd been turned down, just sent me a "congratulations on your new current account email"

Has this happened to anybody else? Anybody had any success getting switching bonus in this situation?

Zanderman

beyondthejoke said:

Hi, has anyone had problem getting HSBC switching bonus because wrong account was opened? At first they told me I'd applied for a current account by mistake but when I found the original emails that said I had applied for an advance account (the one you need to get the bonus) they changed their story and said they had turned me down for an advance account after a credit check and opened a current account in my name instead.
Two things:
1) I did my own credit check and it comes up as excellent 
2) they didn't tell me I'd been turned down, just sent me a "congratulations on your new current account email"

Has this happened to anybody else? Anybody had any success getting switching bonus in this situation?

Sorry HSBC have disappointed you, you're not the first! And won't be the last!

Re your points:

1.  Your credit check is yours, not necessarily related to what HSBC carry out. They will have their own criteria for the Advance account which no-one, other than HSBC, know. 

2.  Loads of people have been turned down for the Advance account and been offered a different one, ineligible for the switch offer, instead. That's a very common theme of HSBC switching offers. You should have been advised of this in their comms, I doubt they omitted to say so but you might have misinterpreted their email?  You should have been given the opportunity to turn down the offer of the other account.

So I doubt, very much, you'll get the switching bonus, as you didn't get offered the advance account, you applied for it, but were offered a different one.

Hoenir

beyondthejoke said:

1) I did my own credit check and it comes up as excellent 

Means diddly squat if you don't meet HSBC's criteria for the particular account you've applied for. 

HSBC never the less have provided you with a bank current account which is what you applied for. 

Nasqueron

Zanderman said:

beyondthejoke said:

Hi, has anyone had problem getting HSBC switching bonus because wrong account was opened? At first they told me I'd applied for a current account by mistake but when I found the original emails that said I had applied for an advance account (the one you need to get the bonus) they changed their story and said they had turned me down for an advance account after a credit check and opened a current account in my name instead.
Two things:
1) I did my own credit check and it comes up as excellent 
2) they didn't tell me I'd been turned down, just sent me a "congratulations on your new current account email"

Has this happened to anybody else? Anybody had any success getting switching bonus in this situation?

Sorry HSBC have disappointed you, you're not the first! And won't be the last!

Re your points:

1.  Your credit check is yours, not necessarily related to what HSBC carry out. They will have their own criteria for the Advance account which no-one, other than HSBC, know. 

2.  Loads of people have been turned down for the Advance account and been offered a different one, ineligible for the switch offer, instead. That's a very common theme of HSBC switching offers. You should have been advised of this in their comms, I doubt they omitted to say so but you might have misinterpreted their email?  You should have been given the opportunity to turn down the offer of the other account.

So I doubt, very much, you'll get the switching bonus, as you didn't get offered the advance account, you applied for it, but were offered a different one.

Point 1 - it's not in any way related to what HSBC carry out, the credit rating you see is a complete gimmick, no lender ever sees it. At best, it's a guess from the CRA on how they think a lender would rate you. OP is rated excellent but HSBC think OP is not good enough - no correlation at all between the fake rating and what lenders score you internally

blueteacup

Thanks for your comments, I figured my own credit rating wouldn't mean much – even though it was with a credit rating company Martin Lewis recommended! As has been commented above, they say I didn't meet their criteria but obviously won't reveal what their criteria are.

Re the point about being told I was ineligible and was being given a different account I definitely wasn't told i was ineligible and given the option of turning down current account. the only correspondence I had from HSBC at the time was a text saying "we are working on opening your account so that you will receive your incentive" then the next text a few weeks later said : "congratulations you account is now open" - i only found out it was the wrong account when I contacted them after a month and asked when bonus would be paid. They didn't ever give me the option of not having bog standard current account. i guess i'm not alone in missing out on switch bonus.

MattMattMattUK

beyondthejoke said:

Thanks for your comments, I figured my own credit rating wouldn't mean much – even though it was with a credit rating company Martin Lewis recommended! As has been commented above, they say I didn't meet their criteria but obviously won't reveal what their criteria are.

Martin etc al recommend one keeps an eye on one's credit report/file, the rating/score is a gimmick made up for marketing purposes and means nothing, bankrupts can have max scores and billionares low scores, even worse the things they advise one does to improve the made up score would sometimes make the consumer less credit worthy in the eyes of a lender.

Section62

beyondthejoke said:

Thanks for your comments, I figured my own credit rating wouldn't mean much – even though it was with a credit rating company Martin Lewis recommended! As has been commented above, they say I didn't meet their criteria but obviously won't reveal what their criteria are.

The Advance account used to have a minimum pay-in requirement of £1750/month, or at least £10,500 every six months.

Although the T&C's didn't specify a minimum income level, anecdotally anyone applying for the account earning under about £21k/annum seemed to be rejected and offered the bog standard account instead.

The minimum pay-in requirement was removed in 2021, but again anecdotally it seems the £21k/annum minimum earnings may still be used as one of the criteria for acceptance.

If you earn less than £21k then you may have your answer. (or they may be using a higher figure now)

[Deleted User]

Their scoring will include an element of profitability i.e. what they can sell and lend to you. 
If they think this is too low then you may be rejected or given a different product (like what happened here).

I would personally chalk this one up to experience and use it for another switching offer as you don't seem enamoured with HSBC.

blueteacup

[Deleted User] said:

Their scoring will include an element of profitability i.e. what they can sell and lend to you. 
If they think this is too low then you may be rejected or given a different product (like what happened here).

I would personally chalk this one up to experience and use it for another switching offer as you don't seem enamoured with HSBC.

thanks - you are probably right - I've got a high credit score because I have very few debts/loans and always pay my credit card bill on time, which is probably not the kind of customer HSBC is going to make much out of!

blueteacup

One more thing that's annoying, i thought I'd try applying for an advance account now to see if I can get one and then complain about not getting one when bonus was available, but I just tried and existing customers with current accounts can't apply for one!

kaMelo

beyondthejoke said:

One more thing that's annoying, i thought I'd try applying for an advance account now to see if I can get one and then complain about not getting one when bonus was available, but I just tried and existing customers with current accounts can't apply for one!

Don't take it personally, HSBC have always been picky about who they give Advance or Premier accounts too, certainly judging from posts on this forum you are far from alone in having applied for an Advance account but only been offered a normal current account.