I've closed my HSBC Business Account and got them to open me an HSBC personal account, which they have done. My personal bank account was with the Halifax. To try and make my life easier (that's a joke!) I have started doing a switch to the new HSBC account. My nearest HSBC account is a bit of a journey but as I normally do everything on-line, it shouldn't really matter. I haven't visited the branch in years - even though they had my business account. As one would expect, it has been a cock-up! The deal is that every time I go to set up banking on my phone, they insist on posting me an activation code. My phone expects one starting with 03 and they send me one starting 02. So, I ask again and they will send me one starting 03 but my phone expects one starting 04. And so we can go on for eternity... So, as this will probably never get sorted. I will just chop the account in a few days and start the whole switch thing again. But who to? Anyone with a bank who they think are any good? Not First Direct, as we hate each other Dunno what it is about Reading but it was poison to my FD Debit Card! What really spelt the end was that M&S would always refuse it, yet First Direct insisted it was fine! They seem to have perfected a bank card that would not work in Reading only! Even replacing the card several times would still result in a Reading-disabled card! Mind you, if I couldn't get anything in Reading and stopped at Swindon station, it would not work there - until the next day when it would be fine, everywhere, until I tried to use it in Reading! Although, bizarrely, it would work where I was working at Reading Uni - until it decided that I was not bright enough to be at Uni and threw me out!
HSBC were atrocious to me. I try to avoid anything they peddle or are linked to. When I moved to Australia they played an instrumental role in me being blacklisted (due to inability to pass on information). I opened an Australian HSBC account before all the trouble, the Australian HSBC were just as bad. I now bank with Halifax to which I have no complaints
Yeah, I had no problems with he Halifax but moved away as I thought it would simplify things. I may move back there when this switch has finished going through.
They are facing challenging conditions! What about the customers? Oh, sorry I forgot. It's HSBC and so you don't give a f**** about your customers!
Halifax are fine. Fingerprint recognition on my 'phone. I'ver never been to a branch. Perry you're supposed to wait until another bank offers you £200 to switch -or nearest offer... Thats why I'm with Halifax.
That rings a bell but like this one, my switches tend to a forced one due to the incompetence of them (normally, HSBC or Farce Direct) cocking up. I'll just go back to the Halifax as they never seem to f**k up! I would bet money confidently that the switch from HSBC to Halifax will be a cock-up. That's how HSBC work! It intrigues me that banks who have existed for years seem to make a science of cocking up.They get scammed and ask the nearest school leaver for advice. "I know! Make it really hard for genuine customers to use their accounts! We'll still get scammed but have no customers left to be scammed. And then we can write a sob-story article for The Times about how difficult we are finding the market!". "That's brilliant! Quick, make him chief exec and pay him millions!". "We'll beat the scammers by having no money and no customers!".
To be fair Halifax made the transition faultless away from HSBC. All Direct debits went across no worries.
We've a few accounts with Santander, but only because they gave the best rates. BUSINESS accounts are with them and Carter Allen. I've friends who use Metro bank and say good things about them. Coutts for private banking.
I had the prototype account for 4 years - besides, at your age you should be rounding up to the nearest 1/4 century too
I've never had any issues with Lloyds (apart from the rip-off rates when doing transfers overseas but that's every bank, do don't use them for that). The mobile app works very well.
I swapped from Abbey when they swapped to Sandater and went to Nationwide( i know it's a Building society ) but they have been great no issues with swapping over they did all that and i mainly do online banking and there app has some handy features.
