HSBC Reviews

To whom it may concern: I moved to Abu Dhabi from the USA, and I needed a bank. So I selected HSBC, which a friend recommended. Since then, I have gone from one disappointment to another. It took them seven business days to send me some means to access my bank accounts, such as a credit card or checks. Now here is the exciting part: When I signed off, they said they would do it if I needed a loan for a car or anything else. And when I subscribed for a car loan after 30 days, I was denied. Their policy requires 12 month's history. I was asking for a fast car loan. Even though the car belonged to them, they did not process it. Even though the car is under warranty, they did not process it. Bottom line, do not trust HSBC: What they say is not what they do. They are not different from other banks (even worst). I do not recommend HSBC. The service is null and they are not transparent with their policy. Regards, Franck

Absolutely worst experience of opening a bank account I have ever had. It took 1 hr and 50 min to open 2 simple saving accounts! Even though filed an online application and got a reference code, it could not be found in the system, so had to start from scratch. Then bank cards did not work and new ones had to be reissued. The creation of a customer profile takes forever for no apparent reason: the bank associate just endlessly fills out something on the computer without really asking any questions, except the basics of name, IDs, address and employment. Inconceivable why it needs to take so long!

Living abroad it isn’t easy to open a bank account as an American citizen due to US taxing laws; this was the bank my university suggested/practically insisted we use to “facilitate” our transition to living in France as they told us horror stories about how we couldn’t do xyz without a French bank. I have later learned that this is not true and there are alternatives. Honestly, it has been the biggest regret of my life and I will never step foot in an HSBC branch again. The tellers at my particular branch on Saint Dominique are lovely but this bank has some very strange practices and has no issues locking, restricting, or cancelling your account for anything you do, all without telling you.

HSBC is truly the worst inefficient and crooked bank. HSBC should be sued. They will charge fees for everything and freeze your account if you do not use it within 9 months. The way to unfreeze your account is to make fund transfer transaction that will cost money. HSBC does everything to try to steal money from the customer. The online chat representatives cannot resolve anything and will drag the chat on for unnecessary time. Normally takes 1-2 hours on chat to get someone to try to help but in the end they do not help and they will tell you to call or visit the bank.

I WAS a client of HSBC for about eleven years. As an expat this was a great fit. HSBC being an international enterprise made life easy. (Wire transfers, cash machine, in-country branches, etc.) Smooth sailing with these guys, monthly wire transfers were flawless, customer service was professional....no complaints at all. Everything was rolling along fine until they decided to cut US operations and concentrate on higher-end clients. I qualified as one of these clients (75,000 min. balance) when I relocated, but real estate, vehicle, etc... purchases took care of that status. I don't blame them AT ALL. Much more profit to be had in Hong Kong and Mainland China than my minuscule deposits. Anyway.....my only regret is that my account got dumped to CITIZENS BANK. How did that go? Well I wrote a little piece about them last night, check it out if you will. Calling that bank a dumpster fire would be disrespectful to dumpster fires. (my opinion)

Don't Trust HSBC's Promotion! I've been their premier account customer for 20+ years and mostly in Asia. I moved back to BC Canada 8 years ago and the nightmare started. Most of their staff have an attitude that customers are there to serve them so they can have their salaries and job promotions. I thought things were improving last year when I was assigned a new account manager. She was very helpful and I started to move my cash to HSBC from another bank. After deposited a chunk of my saving there, they have a promotion to attract more deposit because people are moving money away due to some stupid act they did in Asia (freezing legit a/c because of political reason (sounds familiar?).

I opened an HSBC expat account due to relocating abroad, thinking that I was upgrading my bank and helping with my new international position. I can't tell you the time wasted and stress caused since we opened the account in July 2021 to now, Feb 2022. From start to finish, they have failed at even the most basic of banking services and my free, UK Co-operative bank was significantly better. I don't even want to waste more of my life detailing the issues, just take my advice, never open an HSBC account for anything. (I'm even on the chat function now as a $6k payment has gone missing and they don't know what's happened to it).

The Premier account is a scam. It charges 34.95 a month. The Waiver conditions are so high, it is only for rich guys. After 6 years being a Premier checking account, I wanted to remove and down grade to a normal checking account. It was a night mare to get through the right person. After several trials; online chat, phones, I can still not able to do this. waste lots of time, and frustrated. When you call the customer service, people either from India with heavy accent, and you will be asked to call another number which is not a right number either!

Made a CC enquiry 5 years ago, have emailed and called recently to have them remove the enquiry from my Credit Report. Every time I speak to someone they ask for my reference #, despite never being able to give me one. When I ask them to give me a reference # for my file or the enquiry they tell me the "other department" has that information and they do not have access to it. Every time I call to follow up, they tell me it is with another department, but cannot tell me which department and that I have to wait for this department to contact me. Will not give me contact details for the "other department" so I can follow up with them myself. I asked them who do I call and what reference # can I use the next time I call to follow up and they tell me to call (this) same number and I do not have a reference number, so every time I call to follow up the cycle is repeated.

After having a checking account with HSBC for over a year, I received an email informing me that they are closing my account. (Never had bad checks or overdrafts on my account). HSBC would never explain the reasoning. When they closed my account in Aug 2021, there was over $900 in the account. Still as of today 12/18/2021, they have yet to release my money back to me. Clearly unless you are just loaded with money and can spare $900, DON'T USE HSBC BANK.!!!

HSBC has a new Global Baking account that gives you market exchange rates less a 1.5% spread. However, for a transfer from a Pounds Sterling account in the UK into your own US$ account as a Premier customer, they take a huge spread of 3.25% which is more than many credit cards take on small amounts. I tried complaining but they won't discuss it due to "commercial sensitivity"!!!

HSBC advertises a $450 bonus with a $5000 direct deposit in 3 months. I walled to see if that was $5,000 total or each month because the ad was not clear. I was told that it was definitely cumulative, a total of $5,000 within 3 months. After 3 months I am told it was $5,000 EACH month.

Had to use phone funds transfer service because online banking was failing with errors. They got the name of payee totally wrong (but it is a well known brokerage firm!) Payment is now nowhere to be found.

I saw a promotion for opening a checking account. I applied, and it took 4 days for a response. I was approved for Basic Banking. I read the reviews online, so when I funded the account transferred a few dollars via CashApp. The deposit didn't post for 2 days. I thought it might've been due to the account being new.

If you are looking for good service THIS IS NOT THE BANK TO BE WITH. In my opinion HSBC is excellent in Europe & Asia BUT not in Canada. The staff here in Canada is highly unprofessional and lack even basic knowledge, customer service & English language skills. To make experience worse, the Vaughan Mills (Vaughan, ON, Canada) branch manager "Rose **" lacks management skills, is highly ignorant and delusional of her role. Would love to see HSBC senior management take note of it and focus on training staff in great customer service that they are known for in other parts of the world, else risk brand image.

I just wonder does Headquarters cares about its reputation? **. This is ridiculously low. Even scammers get better reviews. I will copy my comments.

Need to have a drive through window in the new HSBC branch in Westbury N.Y. Also, need to have a branch closer to my home in Mineola, Williston Park or Albertson N.Y. All banks should have a drive up window. I am disabled and it is difficult for me to get out of my car and walk into the bank just to make a simple deposit.

I called to HSBC with a request to check if I am eligible for a new checking account promotion since I already had CD some time ago. I spoke with four different HSBC representatives and no one could understand my question. It turned out that I was rerouted from Philippines to India, and From India to somewhere else but not USA branch. Each time I asked for a manager, I was rerouted to anyone else but NOT to the manager. All out of State reps kept asking me different questions not related to my main question. I am wondering how the business is done if reps don't understand what they are doing.

Worst bank to do business with. Staff is unfriendly and dismissive of any issues that arise with your account. The bank acts with impunity when it comes to its actions and they will not respond or provide you with explanations when confronted. If you have the opportunity to bank with someone else, do so, it will save you headache and frustration. The bank doesn’t work with Zelle or Plaid so it makes linking your account very difficult. Forrest Hill, the VP is especially unhelpful and never returns calls or offers any real help. The customer service is routed to India and the people you speak to have no real desire to help you out. Calls regular get disconnected and you will never receive a call back. The customer service representative Rachel ** should not even have a job. She was supposed to be my point of contact but never returned any of my calls or emails. Overall, worst experience I have ever had with a bank.

This lender marketed a number of third party services and I got stuck with a home warranty company that refused to honor the terms of the warranty. When I contacted the mortgage lender for their assistance, not only did they nor provide assistance, they would not even respond to my letters.

If you say something they do nothing at all.

Well, I am Manu from India, after looking on Wikipedia that HSBC is one of the finest bank in the world and checked if their services are available in India or not. And I found their services in India and after checking their website www.hsbc.co.in in India I finally found that they are offering a banking services in India. Even a zero balance bank account is available... I found a branch and visit the branch, I thought because it's one of the largest bank in the world, I thought I will go there and just open an account in a minutes. But after visiting the branch I was felt like they want to know everything about us and despite of opening bank account they were talking about everything else.

I am an existing FD customer. Trying now, for 6 weeks, on a daily basis to complete the process of opening a business account. Hours spent several times a day trying to get through (yesterday 2 hours!). Equally online application process - verification of ID, which shouldn't be required since I am an existing customer not working. Online support/chat more than useless. Now tried to use online complaint form and it tells me that my email is invalid. This is breathtakingly incompetent.

Worst bank I have ever dealt with - STAY AWAY FROM THEM! I have been a premier customer for 7 years and if I had a choice, I would give this bank a fat 0. They are a complete bunch of incompetent clowns and thieves. HSBC customer services is worse than useless, they obviously do not know what they are doing. I finally was going down to the branch in Nice to close my account. I was told it will be closed, but I can see that they finally refused. Moreover, they charge 15 euros each month for NOTHING and even charged me 8 euro, but for what? HSBC took money out of my account dishonestly. STAY AWAY!

I made a mistake twice and joined HSBC for the second time after 5 years, purely deceived by their offers on cashback on transactions etc. But please don't fall for this little incentive as the headache dealing with this bank does not worth the hassle and the offer, believe me:

After depositing a mobile check, without notice, without reason and without indication HSBC US blocked my account access. My Money and I cannot access it. Customer service keeps on repeating scripted texts. HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE Banking practices. I have never seen a worst bank like HSBC. I had to pay my rent and I couldn't, I had to pay my fees, but I couldn't. What if I was on road, what if I had to undergo surgery, what if I meet with an accident.

HSBC hold my wire transfer for more than one month. When I asked them any reasons they don't respond my question. Never see this on another bank. Not a professional services. Very disappoint. Never use this bank again.

It’s great when you can transact with the same bank in different countries however the international money transfer fees are just so high and the minimum balance requirements at times are a huge hindrance in Covid times when there’s more cash outflow than inflow.

I opened an HSBC Direct Savings account in early May. I transferred a substantial amount from another bank via a bank-to-bank wire transfer. The money was transferred from a joint account I shared with my husband into a sole ownership HSBC account. I looked at the account from the bank I transferred the funds and I saw it was debited. It was also credited to the HSBC account. Last week I got an email that froze my account because of irregularities in account holders. I tried to log into my HSBC internet banking account but it was frozen. That is where the nightmare started. I called and was transferred to a call center I think in India. Then I spent a long time for identity verification and then proceeded to resolve the problem. I was put on hold and I patiently waited for over 30 minutes listening to the music. Frustrated I hung up and called again.

Hsbc bank is the most unorganized bank I have ever dealt with. For weeks we have tried to access the account, then another 3 weeks to close the account. All we wanted to do was verify the account so we could use the online site. They weren't able to help us to that. Constantly forwarded to different customer service representatives for days and days because no one could help us and it felt like they couldn't even give us any information about our account. So many hours wasted on their part and of our time. I feel sorry for anyone that opens up an account with HSBC.