HSBC Refuse Debit card on Joint Account

HSBC_SUCK

If you're looking for a joint account - DO NOT USE HSBC.

My GF has been with HSBC for over 10 years, so when it came to getting a joint account, they were an obvious choice.

As I was a new customer for HSBC, they said I would have to wait 6 months before I was allowed a Maestro debit card. (They gave me a Solo card straight away, but this is very rarely accepted by shops in the UK, so almost completey useless.)

I was annoyed at having to wait 6 months - but we went with it anyway.

It's now been 18 MONTHS - and HSBC still refuse to give my a debit card! After a lengthy phone call today - they would only say that our account "fails to meet their criteria".

I am extremlelly annoyed with HSBC for the following reasons:

1. When we signed up for the joint account - they failed to mention any restrictions on getting a debit card each.

2. I'm not asking to borrow any money - I just want easy access to my own account! (What's the point in having a joint bank account if only one person can really use it?).

3. We maintain the account well, (pay in about £600/month) and have never been overdrawn.

4. HSBC hand out credit cards willy nilly - but they won't even give me a debit card for my account - !!!!!!!?

CONCLUSION: HSBC are useless and deceptive. AVOID.

We are terminating our joint account with HSBC, and my GF is also closing her account of 10 years.

We will NEVER do any form of business with HSBC ever again.

jonesMUFCforever

Have you had a look at your credit files?
Any adverse information there.

I do feel your posting is way over the top - if they are that bad (you did have a sole account with another bank before this?)why not try elsewhere?

MoaningMyrtle

Solo is accepted in loads of shops in the UK.

footballmanagerwidow

solo is accepted everywhere more or less.

firepoppy

I used to have a solo card and when I first got it it was hardly accepted anywhere but it did improve over time.

I have an account with HSBC and have done for the last 10 years but as soon as I'm debt free I'm changing to a different bank. They keep offering me a consolodation loan and then saying I'm not eligble for it and when I told them I was moving they changed my mailing address but not my residence address so I thought it wasn't them when they phoned as they had my post code wrong. Their debt management department aren't helpful. The different departments don't communicate with each other. They never phone when they say they will.

ManAtHome

Something missing here - £600 a month funding for two of you - is that £600pm each or do you both have other current accounts, or have you converted gf's account to joint and kept your own account? (and as EJ said, have you checked your credit files?).

I've been with HSBC "forever" (since the UK bit was Midland) - believe me, if I thought they were out and out twonks I'd have been away a long time ago.

ShelfStacker_3

What's the problem with Solo? As others have said, pretty much everywhere takes it, with the only real problem being if you want to book train tickets online... I just opened an HSBC account and got a Solo, was annoyed for a bit at first but realised that for my purposes it suits me just fine.

Or, as a workaround, if somewhere doesn't accept Solo then keep a credit card handy, use it and immediately pay off the transaction amount(s) from Internet Banking when you get home. I did this for a while when my debit card got lost and the bank were being a bit tardy with sending out a new one, it's not especially convenient but not especially inconvenient either.

PBA

Banks are smarter than they used to be, and you can't just be added on to someone else's account and get the same facilities as them any more. It used to be an easy loophole, if you couldn't get an account in your own name you could get someone more credit worthy to open an account in their name and add you on.

Also you probably heard their words the wrong way round, they probably said you could apply for a debit card after 6 months. This means that they wouldn't even consider an upgrade during the first 6 months, not that you'd be guaranteed an upgrade after that.

Ember999

When you join anyone's account as a joint account holder, you are credit checked. It's nothing to do with being a new account holder at HSBC - every time I have used opened a new current account I have been issued with a debit card immediately. It all depends on your credit rating. To get a debit card (HSBC use Maestro) you need a good credit rating. Also, banks look at what is being deposited monthly. In this day and age £600 is a tiny amount of money to be having credited. Most banks prefer at least £1,500 minimum unless it's a basic account with no credit facilities. HSBC are a good bank, I bank with First Direct, a division of HSBC and have done for 15 years. But I also hold current accounts with Smile and Lloyds TSB Scotland. If you are a good customer, they treat you well. I would check your credit rating and see what the problem is, as there will be one or they are just not happy with such a small deposit of £600 a month. Your girlfriend should think long and hard before closing an account that she has held a long time, just because they won't give you a debit card. You are living together, not married and thus an insecure relationship is not worth giving up a bank where she has the facilities she needs, just because they won't give you what you want. If she has a debit card, can't you manage just using that? I do all the spending in my house and although my hubby has debit cards on our joint accounts, he rarely uses it as I do the buying and paying etc.
Too many people on here slate the banks when they have responsible lending in place to try to avoid people getting into debt or partners of people with bad credit being affected unfairly - also they wish to protect their losses, which is fair enough. They are businesses at the end of the day.

efallai

Ember999 wrote: »

When you join anyone's account as a joint account holder, you are credit checked. It's nothing to do with being a new account holder at HSBC - every time I have used opened a new current account I have been issued with a debit card immediately. It all depends on your credit rating. To get a debit card (HSBC use Maestro) you need a good credit rating. Also, banks look at what is being deposited monthly. In this day and age £600 is a tiny amount of money to be having credited. Most banks prefer at least £1,500 minimum unless it's a basic account with no credit facilities. HSBC are a good bank, I bank with First Direct, a division of HSBC and have done for 15 years. But I also hold current accounts with Smile and Lloyds TSB Scotland. If you are a good customer, they treat you well. I would check your credit rating and see what the problem is, as there will be one or they are just not happy with such a small deposit of £600 a month. Your girlfriend should think long and hard before closing an account that she has held a long time, just because they won't give you a debit card. You are living together, not married and thus an insecure relationship is not worth giving up a bank where she has the facilities she needs, just because they won't give you what you want. If she has a debit card, can't you manage just using that? I do all the spending in my house and although my hubby has debit cards on our joint accounts, he rarely uses it as I do the buying and paying etc.
Too many people on here slate the banks when they have responsible lending in place to try to avoid people getting into debt or partners of people with bad credit being affected unfairly - also they wish to protect their losses, which is fair enough. They are businesses at the end of the day.

I have to agree with Ember here... If you're only crediting £600 a month between you and not each, that's hardly worthy of issuing you with a Maestro card... Solo cards get electronically authorised every single time you use them thereby ensuring you can never try and spend over the balance of your account.

Shops use 'floor limits' when authorising transactions i.e. if the shop's floor limit is £25 and you spend £24.99 the merchant doesn't usually check with the bank to see if you have enough money, because through your history you've been issued with a Maestro card and are likely to not be spending what you haven't got. I had to be earning about £17k a year crediting a takehome wage of about £1000 a month before HSBC would upgrade my card with them, and I'd been banking there 8 years...

Scousebird_2

aWell................

All I can say is I am 20 and I have banked with HSBC since I was 10-I have a £6000 loan with them and a cleared credit card with a £1500 limit, as well as an £800 overdraft out of an available £1500-dangerous isn't it!

But anyway, I did the same as you. I added my partner who has banked with Barclays for 10 yrs onto my joint account back in October. He was accepted and got a Maestro Debit Card-I have credited the accout with £1000 at least for the last 3 years and I have regular credit coming out. I then opened a sole account for my partner when we went the branch together and he was offered a £1500 overdraft and a credit card with £4000 limit! Plus a loan waiting with an APR typical A THIRD LESS than mine.

So to be quite honest hun-I think the sun shines out of HSBC's a*se!

Sorry you had a bad experience-may I suggest looking at your credit file perhaps!