Hsbc Reviews 410

Flee this bank at all cost...When I started as a freelance, I was looking for a professional account: I chose HSBC because it was the bank of my previous company. First they turned me down when I asked for a professional account and offered to open a personal account and use it as a pro one. They exactly said "come back for a pro account when your CA will be above 80keuros". My start-up is générating 250keuros/year and still I have not been able to open a proper account for professional they are simply not responding...
I also had the (false) impression that transnational transfer and use of the account would be easier: indeed, I was moving for a couple of year to the US and was hoping that I would be able to use my french HSBC account. It was of course not possible and the are not better than my old LCL bank despite the fact that they are way more expensive.

The cherry on the cake is their connection system: I could write a book on every time I have been stocked not being able to access my account or to process an operation because of this system. There are at least 5 codes to know if you want to perform simple tasks. This is simply ubuesque. The irony is also that the only account (I have 5 accounts in 5 different banks) that has been the subject of fraudulent operations is the HSBC one...

Simply pathetic. And I don't speak about the online assitance....

DO NOT OPEN AN ACCOUNT AT HSBC !

HSBC are constantly poor with their customer services. When I have to phone them I am required to book a day off work because the average phone call to them takes 2-3 hours. I have spent 4 hours on the phone to them this morning asking to close my Account and they refused.

This bank is awful! Its impossible to cancel a direct debit, I tried to cancel one online and after at lest 5 emails to them they told me I have to fill out a form that they didn’t attach and then ring them for security reasons, even know I’m not even in the country!! Thanks to not being able to do this I went overdrawn, and they charge €20 at least 3x a week! They blocked my account immediately and said the only way to unblock it is to put a at least €200 in the current account, you can’t even transfer money from your savings! I told them that when I get to ZERO that they should stop taking money out and putting me overdrawn! I know it’s their way of making money by charging fees to their customers! Actually creating the account was the hardest part! It took 1 week and they asked for a ridiculous amount of paperwork, pictures, etc and said I need to transfer at least €200!!! I opened another bank account with a different online bank and it took my just 10 minutes!! Also they claim to be an international company but the customer service is never open and NOBODY claims to speak english!!! Avoid it at all costs !

Not a bank to advise for an application for a bank account. I live outside France, but in Europe. Application for a french bank account was turned down at HSBC as i am a non resident. When I applied at BNP Parisbas, it was no problem for them..

Poor customer service. They have sent the pin number of my new credit card to a country where i lived 3 years ago despite the fact that i have updated my address. I am finding myself moneyless since i cannot use that credit card without a pin code and have no other payment facilities. They offered me to withdraw some cash to another bank agency since their system was not working. I am working and have to time to waste driving to the other side of the city for withdrawing money. I booked an appointment with the director to make a complaint but the guy never showed up!!! These people are so disrespectful of their customers and don't try to understand the mess that this bank is creating. Doing eveything i can to transfer my money elsewhere. Just run away from hsbc!

HSBC globally works pretty well when transactions are purely computer-based. Anything that involves human interaction can be disastrous - staff are ill-informed and often give contradictory information; they frequently fail entirely to respond. Like other commentators on this site, the bank has cost me money by making mistakes.

One advisor asked me for investment saying the "bank hadn't made enough money out of me." Then, he failed to call me on the agreed date when I had agreed to consider investing.

My recent experience with HSBC France has been a joke and I will be making a formal complaint - with little hope of any recognition or compensation.

If you have any alternative - use it. Avoid HSBC if you possibly can.

This bank is simply awful. They have charged me huge fees by mistake and refused to reimburse me.
I’ve sent many messages enquiring on how to proceed to close the account and they just keep telling me to go to the “space client”, except that there’s nothing there!
Utter rubbish! Stay well away!

@Hacen
HSBC seems to be doing terrible in France financially. They search reasons not to give a loan after making you wait couple of months and take your Premier account money, sell a credit card etc. They rejected my loan request on the basis of a recent change in French legislation against US people. I asked them to send me the new law, I speak French. They did not reply back. They are waiting to be acquired by another bank. I believe that with managers and employees I have met in France, it is better to let them fail and close this bank. Those managers and employees can destroy any functioning institution. Total disaster, respectless, incompetent people trying to sell “Assurance vie” all the time. I read at the bottom that they also create difficulties when it is time to pay that insurance money to the descendants. I wonder how the French authorities allow a bank to work like this. According to me HSBC France is turning into a dishonest and maybe illegal institution.

I have never seen a bank like that in my all life!
It is as if you were facing mutliple banks in one, each one is not at all aware of the activity of the other division and... they simply dont care!
I suffered 9 months delay on my home loan negociation which was first accepted rapidly to be finally rejected 9 months later.
Of course, meanwhile, they took care to open all credit cards subscriptions and paying services!!
Do not waste your time and money (services are hugely paid).

I am customer since 2011. I have never met such awful customer service coupled with arrogance and incompetence in my entire life. Avoid at all costs would be my suggestion

Expensive bank with very poor customer service. You supposedly have your own "conseiller" however they change all the time and they do not return calls or emails in a timely manner and more often than not they do not answer you at all. They will not do anything to serve you, the customer. I had disputed charge on my account and they refused to do anything. It would have been unheard of in another country. Requests are usually answered with you having to fill out a form but their forms usually do not open (unless of course, you are wanting to open an account when suddenly all their systems work perfectly well). Anyway, there is not a way to give this bank a good review.

Avoid, non stop problems yet very expensive. Simple tasks take weeks to process

I have been a premier customer for 7 years and I only can say that HSBS is the worst bank I've ever experienced. If I had a choice I would not give them one star.
I don’t recommend to anyone.

EXPATS, PLEASE AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!
Not sure where to start...until now, I cannot believe their customer service could get worst and worst. From lying to my face and telling me the account I was being offered had no fees and suddenly after months unilaterally imposing fees, losing transferred money for months and not even replying to calls/emails/"secured messages" and not even offering some sort of compensation or even just an apology, to blatantly going against my explicit and 12 times reiterated instructions to cancel an automatic monthly charge to my account (CAUSING ME FINANCIAL DAMAGES) hiding behind bureaucratic nonsense and even telling me that the head of customer service was "aware of the situation" and allowing it. Please, I have lived all over the world and dealt with many banks, but HSBC France LITERALLY COMES OUT OF A HORROR MOVIE!!!! NOT ALL BIG BANKS ARE THE SAME, THIS IS JUST THE WORST THERE HAS EVER BEEN.

Criminals - I can not believe that HSBC are allowing this bank to practice. They are rude and offensive and never reply to emails, calls or secure messages. I have tried to resolve a problem with them for weeks now and they still try and hide behind an archaic bureaucratic process only designed to stop you from communicating with them. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE AVOID AT ALL COSTS - not worth the stress nor are they worth your hard earned cash.

Worst customer service ever with HSBC France - Tourcoing, France. They never replied to my emails nor requests.
They charged me 60 EUR to close the account, the account was closed after 5 months from the initial request.

This bank is closing my account without providing any reason or discussion about what I can do to keep the account open.

Please avoid this bank even as correspondent.

I am working with international transactions as FINANCIAL DIRECTOR or now as the COO of my own company for more than 16 years. Last month my best client from Dubai tried to send to me the payment for an invoice. HSBC FRANCE acting as correspondent bank was holding the funds for more than 11 days.

It is the first time I see something like this. In my whole carrier I have never faced something like this before. Please note that all legal and commercial documents, proving the transaction where delivered but still the did not release the funds.

Please avoid this bank.

This bank is very bad. Because of a mistake from another bank, which transferred 500€ by mistake, the freezed my whole banking account and do not let me buy or sell funds on it. It has been 10 days and still no news. Customer care is worst than all, they promise to call you back but it never happens.

Worst customer service I have ever experienced!

I opened a premier account with HSBC when I relocated to France. The account costs almost 15 euros per month for a premier service. The service is non-existent. I have contacted HSBC multiple times by email, online, telephone and messages to my 'Personal Banker'. It doesn't matter how you contact HSBC all messages are ignored. I have registered several complaints with HSBC. All have been ignored. Learn from my experience and avoid at all costs.