The application is very straightforward to complete. The deposit amount can be adjusted to suit, as can the duration of the loan. The total amount repayable is made clear throughout and there are no hidden charges or anything to leave the customer unsure of how much they'll be paying and when. I never had the need to contact their customer service department because I had no problems at all between applying for the loan and making the final payment 12 months later.
Reviewed on: 6th July 2019
I have so many problems with HSBC locking my debit card. It gets locked at least once a week and for a period of a few months they would lock it for security reasons every time I made a contactless payment. They might still do so but I've just stopped using contactless because I couldn't be bothered dealing with it anymore. I also spend a lot of time in Norway and they also lock my card when it's used there, even though I always notify them when I'll be in that country and using my debit card.
I appreciate why banks have these security procedures but it's so excessive and my card has never been used fraudulently and isn't used in any way that could be considered suspicious. What makes it worse is that they never tell me they've done it and I only find out when I come to pay for something and the payment isn't authorised, which is always embarrassing. The only way I can then use the card again is to call their customer service line and the wait is normally between twenty minutes and an hour. They're never able to give me an explanation as to why it happens at all, let alone so frequently and then they always try to sell me on other products of theirs that I've now declined countless times.
Reviewed on: 15th April 2019
They've closed so many branches and their call centre is often busy. For some reason they've lately taken to suspending my debit card for suspicious activity every few weeks, even though my use of the card is no different from normal. I confirm mundane transactions I've made for small amounts and they lift the suspension again and can't provide me with an explanation of why the activity is deemed suspicious. They've done this twice while I've been in Norway, despite me notifying them in advance the exact days I would be there and using my debit card. I get about seven or eight pieces of junk post from them each month even though I've expressly requested they stop sending it. They've somehow "lost" two standing orders that I'd had running for ages and had set up myself online. They lied about a boost in the ISA savings rate in order to upsell me to a paid current account and admitted two months later I wasn't eligible for the higher interest rate for some nonsense loophole reason that isn't in the terms and it took me a fight to get the money back when I switched back to a free current account. They're just generally shocking really and that's before you factor in the ethical questions of some of their practices both in the UK and worldwide. Terrible, terrible bank.
Reviewed on: 6th November 2018
The online banking is fine, but the call centre is abysmal and they've closed all my local branches. They're also one of the dodgiest companies going, whether it's money laundering, libor rigging, etc.
Reviewed on: 4th April 2018
