Hello, I am new to this forum. I live in London and I wanted to share with you my *horrific* experience with HSB Expat. Let me start by saying that, I do not have a business, I wanted the Expat account because I have interests in Italy (where I am originally from) and having an account in EUR would help. In Italy accounts for non-residents are quite expensive. I needed one fairly urgently because of some payments I had to make (I still have a house there so I pay insurance etc). Let me share with you the timeline of events - sorry in advance for the long thread:
So, basically the account lasted 2 weeks and it was closed before it was even used. I feel rather disappointed because I am now back to Square ONE. I can’t use CitiBank because I don’t have £200,000 so the options are pretty much over. I have had my HSBC UK account since 2013 and I have always found their customer quite horrific but bow they have reached ROCK BOTTOM. Ever since this “Coronavirus” they have cut services, hired horrific customer service people, you name it. Sorry but it is quite a s*t service considering I was going to transfer over 131,000 EUR, being then a Premiere customer. Not too much but still enough to deserve a better service.
Sorry for venting but I feel really disappointed and not sure what other options I have
Stella
- Called them on 23rd of Sep to ask them questions about the account. The guy on the phone submitted an application for me over the phone. Got no confirmation email nothing.
- Called them twice afterwards in the next few days because I didn’t get any application number or anything of this sort. The first time I was told it was processing, the second time I was told they had NO RECORD of my application at all. Seriously?
- 1rs of Oct: submitted a new application online and verification docs. Didn’t hear back for weeks.
- Chased them several times and they never even bothered to look up the status of the application. Only one person did and said it was “in progress” and he said he bet I’d hear back by middle of next week. Keep in mind, all this time I have been calling Jersey so I pay for these calls.
- Finally they call me back mid-next week as the guy said saying that the Amex latest statement was not sufficient. They wanted – and I quote – a picture taken with my camera of the email notification that Amex sent to me saying my statement was ready. I sent everything out on the same day. They disappeared again.
- After a week or so I chased them and the guy said that my account had been approved. They disappeared again. I called them two days later asking for my account because, as I said, it was fairly urgent due to these payments I needed to make. They didn’t care less. Normally it takes a few days for them to open the account but now it takes them weeks because of the “Coronavirus”. Everything is blamed on this bloody Coronavirus. This has been ongoing for 8 BLOODY MONTHS and they still have not gotten their s*it together. STILL.
- The next day, on Oct 22nd, I got an alert form my credit report company saying HSBC had done a search on me.
- On Tuesday Oct 27th I got my shiny US Dollars debit card which saying was useless is an understatement since I had a EURO saving account. But OK. I didn’t need a card anyway, since most of my payments are done online. Discarded the card.
- A few days later I got the debit card PIN.
- Meanwhile I was contacted by someone last week saying they wanted to schedule a call to get me in contact with the financial adviser, sort of a welcome call. The call was cancelled 2 days later WITHOUT ANY EXPLANATION whatsoever – I only received a cancellation via email.
- I still had not received the code and the secure key I needed in order to finally set up the online banking and move my money from my HSBC currency account into the Expat account.
- This is when it actually gets ridiculous: the PIN and key were ordered on the 22nd of Oct, they never arrived. They re-ordered them a few days later, never arrived. To this day I have received nothing. HSBC are blaming Royal Mail saying they are the problem. And I said I don’t think so. I order stuff online through eBay all the time, even from abroad, and I never have any issues. I did have some issues back in March/April but now Royal Mail has been operating as normal. Even in the 2nd lockdown. They have processes in place. I have received everything I have ordered except the stuff from HSBC. If it was a problem with Royal Mail the debit card would have been delayed and instead it got here in 3 days’ time. If the key and Pin had also been sent, they would have been here already. I hardly had anything lost in the mail in 8 years of living in the UK. One letter ONLY was ever lost. Their department are not sending things and they blame Royal Mail.
- Today I called yet again and I told the guy on the phone, that’s it, close the account because it’s an unusable account. I need the online baking in order to use it. He probably wasn’t supposed to say anything, but he said that a lot of other people are having the same issue – they are not receiving the PIN and secure key. He said he was going to ask his colleague and the conversation got cut off as I as using Skype. He never even attempted to call me back.
- Called back and the lady on the phone blamed everything on Royal Mail again and said they would re-order. I told her this is clearly not Royal Mail since I am receiving all orders just fine and the issue is their department. They are probably not even going into the office as they are supposed to and don’t even get checked. If they don’t physically send them, they never arrive obviously. She said she would re-order them. What is the point? So we just keep re-ordering until the end of time?? The customer care doesn’t give a flying f*** do they? What they are supposed to do is check with this department to ensure things are being sent especially if others are having the same issue. But no, they just keep hitting the “re-send” button over and over and over. APPALLING bank. I said I was utterly fed up and to just close the account. She said she has sent the request and tomorrow the account will be closed. Very quick as I don’t have any dinero there anyway.
So, basically the account lasted 2 weeks and it was closed before it was even used. I feel rather disappointed because I am now back to Square ONE. I can’t use CitiBank because I don’t have £200,000 so the options are pretty much over. I have had my HSBC UK account since 2013 and I have always found their customer quite horrific but bow they have reached ROCK BOTTOM. Ever since this “Coronavirus” they have cut services, hired horrific customer service people, you name it. Sorry but it is quite a s*t service considering I was going to transfer over 131,000 EUR, being then a Premiere customer. Not too much but still enough to deserve a better service.
Sorry for venting but I feel really disappointed and not sure what other options I have
Stella
