HSBC Mortgage Reviews

Escrow Disaster – Their Mistakes, My Problem. When I took out my mortgage, they insisted that I escrow both my property taxes and insurance. Fine. But guess what? They can’t even do that properly. Instead of making payments on time, they randomly pay late, and sometimes they don’t even pay the full amount listed on the bill. Who had to fix it? Me. That’s right—I had to personally contact the city and spend hours resolving an issue that HSBC should have handled in the first place. And customer service? Don’t even get me started. Every single time I reach out, I get the same copy-paste response: “Please email custserve@yourmortgageonline.com”. So I email them. Two to three weeks later, I might get a reply. Sometimes? No reply at all. And when I call them? “Oh, we didn’t see your email, but we’ll escalate it now.” Seriously? Do you even check your inbox? Or do you just enjoy wasting people’s time?

They Changed My Escrow Without Telling Me. Oh, but it gets better. When I first got my mortgage, HSBC required me to escrow my condo insurance. Then, a full year later, they suddenly changed their mind and decided that my unit insurance should be escrowed instead. Did they bother informing me? No. Instead, they just went ahead and changed my escrow setup without a single email, letter, or notification. And what does that mean for me? Oh, just a little thing called DOUBLE PAYMENT. Because before I even knew they switched things, they sent me a mail telling me to pay my unit insurance myself. So I did—only to later find out they had escrowed it. Meaning I paid twice. And their brilliant solution? “Just call your insurance company and ask for a refund.” Excuse me? How about you do your job properly the first time so I don’t have to clean up your mess?

Customer Service is Beyond Useless. Let me be crystal clear: HSBC customer service is absolutely useless. Their entire strategy is just bouncing you from one rep to another until you give up out of exhaustion. No one takes responsibility for anything, and no one seems to have the authority to actually fix anything. Calling them is like talking to a bunch of toddlers who don’t know how to read. I’ve had to explain the same issue to multiple people over multiple calls, only to be met with “Let me transfer you to another department” over and over again. How is a bank this dysfunctional? How do you operate like this? Do you even train your employees, or do you just throw them into customer service with a script and tell them to stall people as much as possible?

I Am Done – The Second Interest Rates Drop, I Am Out. The moment interest rates go down, I am refinancing immediately and cutting HSBC out of my life forever. I would rather deal with literally any other bank than continue suffering through this mess. HSBC is disorganized, incompetent, and borderline fraudulent in the way they handle escrows, payments, and customer service. If you value your time, money, and sanity, stay far, far away from HSBC. This bank is a walking disaster, and I wouldn’t trust them to manage a piggy bank, let alone a mortgage.

Over the course of 2 months in an attempt to get PRE-APPROVAL I was constantly told it was almost done and just to wait one more week or one more day. At the end of the day my loan was denied because THEY didn’t get in touch with building management and didn’t have information they needed for a lawsuit against the building that was disclosed from the beginning. I’ve started over with Citizens Bank and they’ve been more helpful in the few days I’ve been working with them than HSBC was the entire time I worked with them. I almost lost my apartment as a result of their incompetence. Never never again. Cannot discourage you enough from using HSBC Mortgage.

Coming to the end of our first rate-lock extension, we had to hound them to send us contracts for our review. Their attorneys called them three times, and the next communication from HSBC was a request for us to send them duplicate documents (the ones they got from us two months ago were supposedly out of date) along with a request for a letter attesting that no, we did not in fact own an apartment that we had rented more than a decade ago. Soon, perhaps, we will get closing documents to review, but the rate lock extension lapses in twelve days. This organization does not function well, and I am starting to worry that their loan servicing will be as disorganized as their underwriting process. Will they record our payments, or will I come how one day to a surprise foreclosure? I am thinking of walking away from this deal.

Despite being a premier international customer the service has been absolutely awful. It took over 3 months to close. I received conflicting emails from HSBC to the extent their advisor told me to ignore system generated emails received from HSBC. The mortgage team were switching between various email addresses and text messages meaning it was impossible to control back up of what had been said when and by whom. Every request would suddenly be a last minute emergency which had to be resolved immediately.

I started checking in with them in advance if we were all set for the next step, and whether anything was required, so we could prepare, particularly as I was dealing with overseas assets and time zones. Repeatedly I was told nothing was required and then we would get another Friday afternoon emergency where critical documentation was suddenly required immediately from overseas when the European banks had already closed. Requests for paperwork were contradictory. Some requests made no sense. My requests for clarification on what they were asking for would just result in them continuing to repeat the same request with no explanation. I realized they often didn't know what they were asking for either, requiring me to do my own research to figure it out.

We had to extend closing twice as HSBC would suddenly realize another document was required, or an already submitted and approved document was no longer what they needed. The fees just kept racking up and I stil don't understand how I incurred such high fees in refinancing when I believed we had initially discussed a much lower figure, but between the various erratic forms of communication I have no proof and I just wanted to get the whole experience over with.

When I asked for clarification of the very vague final statement of costs the agent was unable to fully explain what the various sums were for. During the time it took to refinance an existing mortgage with HSBC I viewed another property, purchased it, and rented it out (not through HSBC) while HSBC were still trying to refinance this property. I highly recommend anyone to steer clear of this bank for mortgage purposes, it was an absolute nightmare and highly stressful. I should have gone with the other bank. Save yourself the stress and go elsewhere.

Poorly communicated the status of missing documents, which were almost always positioned as last-minute emergencies instead of simple requests. Their online submission process is so inefficient and impossible to track. Constantly sent spam e-mails and texts that have nothing to do with the status of our loan, many of which actually confuse loan process. They processed the $500 appraisal fee without approving the property HOA. Every document sent had to be revised 3 times over and apparently internal communication is a joke. There is no point person that can guide you through the process as Greg in the end proved to be a completely inept and incompetent. I'd read terrible reviews before using them, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt since I used HSBC many years back but apparently things have fallen apart there. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH HSBC and Gregory **.

Normally I assume you get complaints ‘after the fact’ so in actual fact little if anything can be done, however my issue is current. I have applied for a mortgage Ref No. ** and initially told two weeks for a decision but I had to produce some more documentation as the upload payslips we not 100%. I did so immediately. 2 weeks became 4 weeks. After some chasing up I was emailed back to say the underwriter found another property in my name. I immediately sent the sale completion statement as evidence that the property in question was sold in June.

Now coming into week 6 and poor communication, update, lack of acknowledgement of receipt of documents sent. I have tried is a series of emails to explain the vendor and estate agents may pull out because I keep promising ‘next week’. Too much to explain all here, you’d have to look into my case but if I would of known about this service I would have gone elsewhere. If after 6 weeks I get refused, I would be furious as I’d probably lose the property and have to start from scratch. As I said at the beginning, this is not after the fact. It’s happening now and could actually be resolved with some expedience. To be honest, I’m not holding out but the customer care has been so poor for such a big corporation. I’ve since google many similar reviews warning people away from HSBC mortgages. Anyway. If nothing else thanks for reading thus far.