I'm really, really, really beginning to hate banks.
Discussion
Having been through a major fiasco moving from TSB to HSBC a year or so ago, I have just ventured into another banking adventure by having my salary sent to my Citibank account in the USA, then a sum transferred monthly to HSBC in England. I've been with Citibank for ten years and thought this transfer would be pretty friggin' straightforward to set up. Ha!!!! I should have KNOWN it would be a cluster-f
k.
Last month I had to go on-line, PLUS make three long international calls, just to get the transfer set up. First time round I got it sorted, seemed okay, but the money never arrived, so I called again. It turns out the prats had tried to phone me, but found themselves incapable of working out you need the '44' prefix to phone the UK from the USA, so they simply cancelled everything.
Another long transatlantic phone call, and they tell me they need to ask more security questions! What, on top of the six they asked on the phone the first time??? How the fk am I supposed to remember the location, date and exact amount of the last three transactions I made from my Citibank account??? Especially when I only use it about once a month.
Yesterday they sent me a message that this months wire transfer had FAILED. And I needed to call them again. Great, but when I called they answered the phone then told me they were closed for updating, at 1pm Monday afternoon!!! WTF???
When I did finally get through, I was on the phone for 25 minutes while they tried to work out why I had been sent that message. 'System error'!?!? They then promised all was well in the transaction.
Today I checked my accounts, and the money was SENT at 11pm US time last night, but it is NOT in my HSBC account today, 12 hours later!!!1 Fark fark fark. Now I guess I have to go through the whole farce where they swear it was sent, but my bank will swear it never arrived, and back and forth.
Oh how I love doing this st, from a ship in the middle of the fkin' ocean, where the phone line works whenever it fkin' feels like it, then cuts you off halfway through the ten minute stibank security drill!!!!!
Banks have all our money, but why the fk do they seem to find it so fkin' hard to simply run like they should?????????
Why do all US telephone operatives speak in such godawful indecipherable squeaky accents. Most Americans speak real slow, but the telephone clowns talk at 200mph!!!
I wonder if I told my HSBC bank that the money was 'on its way' and to just 'wait a couple of days, it should be okay' they just let my mortgage slide this month?????
k. Last month I had to go on-line, PLUS make three long international calls, just to get the transfer set up. First time round I got it sorted, seemed okay, but the money never arrived, so I called again. It turns out the prats had tried to phone me, but found themselves incapable of working out you need the '44' prefix to phone the UK from the USA, so they simply cancelled everything.
Another long transatlantic phone call, and they tell me they need to ask more security questions! What, on top of the six they asked on the phone the first time??? How the f
k am I supposed to remember the location, date and exact amount of the last three transactions I made from my Citibank account??? Especially when I only use it about once a month.Yesterday they sent me a message that this months wire transfer had FAILED. And I needed to call them again. Great, but when I called they answered the phone then told me they were closed for updating, at 1pm Monday afternoon!!! WTF???
When I did finally get through, I was on the phone for 25 minutes while they tried to work out why I had been sent that message. 'System error'!?!? They then promised all was well in the transaction.
Today I checked my accounts, and the money was SENT at 11pm US time last night, but it is NOT in my HSBC account today, 12 hours later!!!1 Fark fark fark. Now I guess I have to go through the whole farce where they swear it was sent, but my bank will swear it never arrived, and back and forth.
Oh how I love doing this s
t, from a ship in the middle of the fkin' ocean, where the phone line works whenever it fkin' feels like it, then cuts you off halfway through the ten minute stibank security drill!!!!!Banks have all our money, but why the f
k do they seem to find it so fkin' hard to simply run like they should?????????Why do all US telephone operatives speak in such godawful indecipherable squeaky accents. Most Americans speak real slow, but the telephone clowns talk at 200mph!!!
I wonder if I told my HSBC bank that the money was 'on its way' and to just 'wait a couple of days, it should be okay' they just let my mortgage slide this month?????
Scrumper said:
Why not set up a US HSBC account? You can ask the UK side to open the account in the US for you. Unlike some other banks with operations in both countries, their systems are actually linked together and you won't have this sort of problem.
Oh my god, set up another bank account? 
[terrified]Last time I did that it took two months for the incompetents to finally get all their information straight and squared away. All they had to do was copy from one piece of printed paper to a computer screen, yet they got a digit wrong in virtually every transaction or account reference, rendering everything totally worthless. They advertise a single day change-over, no inconvenience, automatic transferral of direct debits etc, but as I KNEW it would, it turned into a nightmare. They even acknowledged that the 'automatic' bit was a little 'artistic license' on their behalf....[/terrified]
I'll check out the US HSBC scene though, as it might be an idea.
sneijder said:
The joys of doing it the other way 'round from overseas to Blighty. Simples and done in a day or two at near enough the actual exchange rate, no fees and without having to remember my first rabbits name.
HSBC just charged me $1.73 for each quid, turning the $3K I wired over into pounds in my account, which I find pretty bloody crap. 
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