Review Time
There is one good thing about HSBC expat - the online banking platform. Even the competitors say it is good. As for the rest, just awful awful awful. My so called relationship manager doesn’t return calls and offers appointments with him in a week’s time, also needing 3 reminders to respond to enquiries over a period of weeks. They routinely lose applications. And if I ever speak to the expat team apart from the RM, they have a well worked avoidance of strategy of first claiming the person is not there, after a long hold, then that person saying they are not able or authorised to take action but they have marked the message for that person as urgent. Then nothing happens. As so the cycle continues, have been through multiple times. Even my attempt to talk to someone senior in the organisation was blocked. 3 times I asked the RM to be changed, 3 times it was ignored, 4th time lucky. For all the talk of being there when you need them, at a time of moving countries they were just unresponsive and unhelpful throughout. If your needs are simply for an online platform, they’ll do. Anything else, any human involvement, any kind of assistance…don’t be fooled by the PR.
The requirements to open this account…The requirements to open this account are absurd!! 100K min pay??? Or 50K min maintained at all times!! Unobtainable for most except top VPs or CEO's of international banks, who probably don't even need this kind of account with such a top salary.
I am premier customer. I only ring a few times a year to sort out a couple of issues and waiting is always very long. When I do get through I asked simple questions such about transfer costs to other banks, timing of money transfer and takes very long time for operator to respond and question now how trained the staff are if cannot quickly answer relatively un complicated questions. I also explored expat mortgage and apparently did not fit criteria even after 10 years banking them, I had no problem when asked next provider. I have free banking in UK with another bank and their service is much better. I will probably close account down in next 12 months as very disappointed in so called top tier account.
I have been trying to deal with the bereavement of an account holder with HSBC Expat. It has to be one of the most bizarre contact methods I have ever experienced. They send emails on an account which does not allow responses. So, if you reply to their questions, your email gets bounced back. This is not mentioned anywhere.I had to do some research and found an alternative email address. I'm still waiting for a reply to an email I sent over 5 months ago.When I telephone them, they appear concerned that I've had no reply but cannot put me through to the bereavement team. All they can do is tell the bereavement team that I will be sending an email!The process is already distressing and complex. HSBC just magnify the problem. At the moment, there is no prospect of completing probate. I have to contrast their performance with that of Lloyds International. They immediately provided me with a contact name and number. They also provided clear instructions to complete the process. Forms were emailed straight to me. It took about 2 days to achieve what HSBC have still failed to complete in 6 months. Years later, I still have no resolution to this issue. HSBC are truly the worst.
Yet another problem with HSBC, this time trying to increase my stock trading limit. I wrote to HSBC Invest Direct via their log on site, got a quick reply to ring a UK Telephone no. After 90 mins, 4 different persons including a manager, I was told my Relationship Manager in Jersey has to approve me using my money in my account. Do bank with with HSBC and they will be your mother/mother in law! Also ask you to spend loads of dosh on phone bills to do that. Sell HSBC buy BT. Mr Quinn is asking his team to get you to spend a long time on the phone. May be Sky News should check if Mr Quinn has any shares in BT :) :)
Having decided to leave the UK HSBC Expat seemed like a sensible solution as I move to Dubai and then Australia. Account opening was seamless, communication has been fantastic, my account manager is attentive and dynamic. Excellent investment advice, and competitive on currency conversion when the sum exchanged allows them to go to market. They have used the global link to efficiently open local accounts which link to my online banking.
Archaic systems all around. Customer service team is partially located in low-wage countries and is not competent to resolve rudimentary issues. Cards are routinely sent to wrong addresses. Closing and opening trading accounts (automatic with competitors like Swissquote or Interactive Brokers) takes weeks and much correspondence and can only be completed if your onshore trading account is closed. Internal referrals are a bureaucratic nightmare, even though this should be one of the advantages of a cross-national group. Removing blocks often goes wrong - e.g., for months after one block I had a visa card that completely non-sensically worked for all POS-payments, but not at any ATMs. FX rates are forbiddingly high.
I was utterly astounded at how easy it was to open the account, I expected masses of documents, Notarizations, apostle, Translations, etc.. but it was so easy and simple with very reasonable expectations with regards to the documents, the account was opened in a week.
Thinking to join HSBC EXPAT?? Think twice!I have my funds blocked with no reason given, after 8 days still chase them to understand why my account and funds are blocked....no answer customer service are there just to say hello to you but no power to help you, and is not because they don`t want to is just because they CAN`T as they have no power, somewhere behind there are persons that with one click they make your life so miserable. Complain with HSBC seems to take forever and nobody is willing to look into this matter nor to solve your problem. Saying all this HSBC EXPAT is the worse experience i have it in my hole life!
After being an HSBC UK customer for 8 years, they froze my account for being inactive/dormant after a few months (I hadn't used it in a while), and also froze my telephone banking for some reason. I don't currently live in the UK, so could not go into a branch in person to "verify my identity".After calling for 6 months and repeatedly asking for a letter/code to unfreeze my telephone banking (in order to then re-open my dormant account), no letter came. When I called, the customer service agents could not confirm the address they were sending the letter to for "my security", because my telephone banking was frozen. I would later find out that they were sending the letter (WITH SECURE INFORMATION) to the wrong address. But they could not tell me this. If this sounds Kafka-esque and ridiculous and illogical, trust me, it was.I went into an HSBC US branch and begged them to call the UK bank to get my account unfrozen. After an hour on the phone, we were able to get my telephone banking unfrozen, but not my dormant account reactivated, because they have bizarre address and ID confirmation policies (what they are trying to confirm, I don't understand, because all of the addresses are easily changeable either on their website or through my other banks).No policies are consistent. None of their staff seem to know or understand their policies for basic things like unfreezing an account. I would absolutely NEVER recommend this bank to anyone. I will likely be closing my account after I get it unfrozen (it still isn't).
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